Algae is driving me crazy

Kenneth456 · Feb 5, 2018

I’m kinda new to this hobby. I have a 55 gallon tank that I’ve had for about 2 years maybe 2 and a half now. For the first year everything in the tank looked beautiful and never had any problems. I moved out of my parents house and took the tank with me. While the tank was at my moms house I would do 20 gallon water changes once a month which was about 40% of the water. I had a old style wet/dry system with no skimmer or anything. Once I moved it and set it up about a month later algae began to take over. My phosphate levels were high which have never been a problem in the past. I did water changes every week of about 10 gallons to try to lower them but it would still some how end up high. I feed the fish the same amount of food and didn’t change anything. I talked to my local aquarium store and talked about getting a skimmer to help with the phosphate levels. I found one on Craigslist along with a sump and set it up thinking it would help. I also added a chemi-blue carbon media bag into the sump to help as well. As well with all that I completely emptied my tank and moved it away from a window which I thought the sunlight could be another factor in the algae growth. I brushed off almost all of the algae from the rocks in my bath tub with just water. Cleaned out all the sand with a hose and set the tank back up away from any sunlight. The skimmer I got is a aqua C which still says patent pending on the side. I got it running and all new water into the tank. Some how the algae came right back. I was so ticked at this point, spent so much money to end up in the same exact spot I’ve been at.. so I did some more research and found Fluconazole online and everybody has such great results from it. Luckily my local fish store had some new stuff called reef flux which contained 10 pills and each pill was 200mg Fluconazole. It said to dose 1 pill per 10 gallons of water. So being a 55 gallon tank I ended up putting 4 and a half pills into the tank. I took out the chemi-blue carbon and turned off my skimmer. Ive seen post on here of people showing pictures from only after like 3 days that the Fluconazole has had a big impact.. so after about 7 days of have putting the Fluconazole into my tank and I haven’t seen any results. The algae grew more in the past week instead of dying off. So I thought maybe I didn’t dose enough so I added two more pills that night. After another week I still haven’t see any results. It’s driving me crazy how it worked for so many people and it’s not working for me. Yesterday I got a brush and manually removed some of the algae from the rocks but on the sand it looks like a grassy feild that’s perfect for a game of football. I also added more of the pills into the system still thinking I haven’t put enough in. In the end I’ve put in 8 pills of the Fluconazole at 200 mg each pill. I originally started the treatment on the 22nd of January and today is the two weeks mark. Not sure if I should give it more time or what. Someone help please I’m ready to give up.

Kenneth456 · Feb 5, 2018

This is a picture from before I moved the tank

Kenneth456 · Feb 5, 2018

This is the algae and what it looks like now. I can’t tell if some of the tips are turning white from the Fluconazole but let me know what y’all think. I need help

Kenneth456 · Feb 5, 2018

There’s also this weird clear slimy coat that forms around the over flow box which also forms on the top layer of the water in my sump which I have never seen before. Not sure what it is either

landlubber · Feb 5, 2018

I would be a little more patient rather than adding medication until you really cause a problem.
it is repetitively mentioned that flucanozole takes up to 3 weeks to really start taking effect on gha. just stick to the directions and give the stuff time to sort it out.

Kenneth456 · Feb 5, 2018

Ok thanks for the advice. Wasn’t sure with people having results so quick that it could take 3 weeks. Any other advice someone can give me that they think I should make ? Like adding a carbon reactor or anything like that. Is it that big of a difference with one or not. Let me know what y’all think. New to the hobby and idk about any of that stuff

landlubber · Feb 6, 2018

Kenneth456 said:
Ok thanks for the advice. Wasn’t sure with people having results so quick that it could take 3 weeks. Any other advice someone can give me that they think I should make ? Like adding a carbon reactor or anything like that. Is it that big of a difference with one or not. Let me know what y’all think. New to the hobby and idk about any of that stuff

the one week results you're referring to are when dealing with bryopsis, green hair algae is more resilient against the medication.
follow these instructions to the letter and you'll give yourself a better chance at success:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/
otherwise, green hair algae is a result of an excess of nutrients in your system which could come from overfeeding, too many fish (bioload) or often in the case of a new reefers, rock with organics trapped in uncured rock.
flucanozole will absolutely take care of the green hair algae but the fact remains, if the root problem that caused the algae to begin with is not resolved and the environment is still accommodating after the treatment new algae is going to grow. it pays to keep a watch on your phosphates and nitrates to help you make well judged decisions with feeding and husbandry practices.

dutch27 · Feb 6, 2018

When you moved, did you use the same sand? That's usually a recipe for stirring up nutrients into the system and causing issues.

Otherwise, I can attest to fluconazole for GHA. It was almost 21 days exactly for the GHA to go away for me. My SPS have been unhappy since the GHA went away though, I think the water quality got screwed up.

Kenneth456 · Feb 6, 2018

I threw out half of the old sand and kept half. I bought some new sand to replace the half I got rid of. The other half I saved I rinsed with a hose and water. Before the move I’ve never had any problems with phosphates nitrates or any type of algae growth. I’m hoping it was just the move of the tank that stirred everything up. Once I get the algae gone I’m gonna start a new routine and do 10 gallon water changes every two weeks to control the phosphate levels and such. I also add “fuel” about twice a week too ignite coral growth so I’ll start to add that again as well. Y’all have been in this hobby longer than I have so any other advice you think I can change let me know please. Give me y’all a input on getting a carbon reactor or not or any other type of equipment like that. Idk much about it and idk if it’ll be worth the money or if I’ll be fine without it. Thanks.

dutch27 · Feb 6, 2018

Carbon doesn't pull out phosphates, you'd want some GFO for that. It can be pretty effective, but you need to go slow so you don't strip the tank of nutrients too fast. It's a slow process of getting the GFO quantity high enough that it pulls the PO4 out faster than the algae, so the algae will starve. It's not a quick solution, but then again most solutions to problems in reefing aren't. You can also consider siphoning up the lawn in your next WC to physically remove it.

I'd also suggest not using tap water to rinse things anymore, always do it in RO, or old tank water while doing a water change, to avoid contaminating the tank with any TDS/chemicals from the tap. My experience is any more than 4-5ppm of TDS in my top off water has given me algae blooms, it doesn't take much. Only solution to that is water changes.

Have you tested your parameters to see what your nutrient levels are?

Bdrake · Feb 6, 2018

Does carbon pull Fluconazole? If it does shouldn't he discontinue use while treating with Fluconazole? No experience with it at all, but I've discontinued use of carbon for any kind of medication or treatment. Maybe that's diminishing it's effects.

landlubber · Feb 6, 2018

Bdrake said:
Does carbon pull Fluconazole? If it does shouldn't he discontinue use while treating with Fluconazole? No experience with it at all, but I've discontinued use of carbon for any kind of medication or treatment. Maybe that's diminishing it's effects.

yes carbon should be removed. it is only used at the very end of the treatment along with a water change to pull the extra medication from the water. I posted the link to the exact process that should be used while dosing fluconazole and hopefully he's paying attention to it.

Kenneth456 · Feb 6, 2018

Haven’t had any water tested since I put in the Fluconazole 15 days ago. Haven’t ran my skimmer since. I also don’t have test kits I usually just take water to my local aquarium store and they test it for me

Kenneth456 · Feb 6, 2018

Yes i did pull out the carbon I had in the system the day I first started.

Kenneth456 · Feb 6, 2018

I also saw people online mixing gfo and carbon together in the reactor. Is that a good combination and does it work good or should I just stick to the gfo ?

videosilva · Feb 6, 2018

Get a couple of Mexican Turbo Snails problem solved in 3 days.

Kenneth456 · Feb 7, 2018

I’ve tried with the Mexican turbo snails. I still have two in there right now. When the problem got bad I litterally bought like 6 of them to try to get rid of it and they didn’t eat fast enough and just ended up dying for some reason. A lot of my hermit crabs die fast too idk why. I bought 50 of them like a month ago because all my old ones died. Now I can’t find many in it and they keep dying.