Algae Outbreak!!!

[midtnmike41]

Here is my second test rock. I did not scrub this one. I am just curious to know what the peroxide will do to the algae in the next few days. A lot of it fell off when I rinsed it, whats left is really green and healthy algae. If these rocks still look good by next weekend I plan in doing several of the rocks!!!

 

[brandon429]

The chance of success is 100% that is why the fluid is so fun to work with on this particular wispy type of algae you have, results are likely above overnite...bleaching, fall off by day 3

We reversed this condition for your tank
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/373813-reef-eutrophication-nutrient-rich-harmful-bacteriacoral-study/

 

[trickyrich]

I would up your clean up crew to more than just sanils and crabs a good size lawnmower blenny would help a lot and a nice tang. These are to remove the alge not fix the problem to do that you need your phospates down I would look in to feeding less and starting a form of carbon dosing if you dont have a skimmer get one. I hope you get this under control and have your tank the way you want it good luck

 

[midtnmike41]

Update on my second test rock. Look like all the algae died. Its a little hard to tell because of all the stray algae that's floating around in my tank. All I did with this rock was pull it out of the tank, spray it with peroxide, let it sit 5 min, rinse it in tap water in the sink, and returned to the tank. No Scrubbing. I plan on doing half the tank this Saturday. I will scrub those rocks and rinse in ro/di. Update coming soon. Looking forward to getting my tank back in shape!

Day 1:


Day 2"


Day 3:

 

[brandon429]

thanks for these updates this tank has complied well

as much as there was of it this actual strain isn't very tough, nor anchored, its workable!

 

[midtnmike41]

Here is my first rock a week later. I do not see any new algae growth on it. I believe the dead brown algae has just stuck to the rock from floating around in the tank, I could be wrong though. I plan on treating about half the tank tomorrow morning. Pics to come!

 

[brandon429]

It's important to literally watch the tank come into compliance by your action because we can see what leaving no other option for a tank produces as results. there can be no more important take away than that.

We willed a leafy tank then we willed a clean tank, all problem algae tanks have the first part in common the second part is the rarity.


The time will come with balance/tank maturation where none of this scrub is needed...I work zero to prevent or treat algae problems in my tank for most of a decade now. There was a busy phase though...in the early mos.
that's the exact time every cycling book in the world tells us to farm algae as part of the cycle, this isn't working very well for the masses. Algae control 2.0 says quit farming it, ever, unless it's in a controlled location such as scrubbers or refugia

 

[midtnmike41]

Here is my tank today, ignore all the stuff still floating around. I removed, scrubbed and treated about half of the live rock this morning. My firefish tried to commit suicide, he jumped half way across the living room but happy to report he is doing well. Most fish just hid in the other half of the rock but my foxface was very curious to what was going on. He was the one I was hoping would hide, I didnt want to get stung, and luckily I did not. Everything went pretty good, well until my wife came home and seen what I was doing in the kitchen. She should be used to this by now, but guess not. I am happy with the results so far.

 

[midtnmike41]

I did some water testing this morning. I was worried about creating a "mini cycle" but none of the fish or corals seem to be affected at all. I only have about 6 coral frags in the tank but I dipped 2 of them in peroxide and both seem happy and healthy still. Below are water testing results. This is 3 days after removing half the rock in my tank and treating with peroxide. So far everything is going great!!! You will see some dead algae on the rocks I treated but I believe that is just from dead algae floating in the tank getting stuck on the rock as it floats by. I plan on treating the rest of the tank this weekend. The only adjustments I plan on making today are changing out GFO, not really high but just being safe, and dosing a little less calcium. You can also see the firefish that took a leap of faith is doing great :)

Ammonia: 0
Alk: 8.85
Ca: 450
Mg: 1380
NO3: 0
PO4: .02

 

[midtnmike41]

Time for an update. I cleaned the rest of the rocks Saturday night. I waited a week between the two sessions. Everything is looking good. I did not create a mini cycle at all. Below are the picture of the tank now and my water parameters as of this morning, two days after cleaning. There seems to be a lot of dead algae collecting on the rocks, I need to get in there with a toothbrush and brush it off soon. I still have my lights turned down. Hopefully the algae stays under control. I really do not want to do that again anytime soon.

Alk 8.7 (Hanna)
Po4 .02 (Hanna Phosphorus ULR)
Nitrate 0 (Red Sea)
Ca 450 (Salifert)
Mg 1335 (Salifert)

 

[brandon429]

So happy :)

Two other tank fixes we are running slowed down a bit from the forced cleaning, it is hard work, they reverted back to water dosing and we are waiting for whatever the results might be. Contrasted here, why wait. Reef enjoyment raised last week for you, peaks this week heh and you didn't spend a grand to own a non compliant reef you simply forced it to behave. Excellent documentation my fav tank rebuild for May/june


Some guiding is required the next few mos, minor regrowth as that's what reefs do best, but the tables are being shifted where follow up work won't be this hardcore.

In the big peroxide thread at r2r I updated yesterday that for 2016 we need to all be testing this rasping technique as it is poised to lessen growback vs non rasped surfaces

I'd insert one last mini test here since you did all this effort

Take one focus rock and hand scrape it clean, using metal tool or knife, dislodging every bit of algae you see and leaving some damage behind after the cleaning, like a parrotfish does in the wild. After rock is detailed and harshly scraped clean of all algae, hit it outside of tank with mad wet peroxide dump over all scraped areas. Wait four mins cleaning your cleaned area and put back

Over next two mos we watch it and compare to non rasped rocks. That distinction alone finalizes the strategy for your invasion and not once did we distress about nutrients for your tank, that's all tuning for prevention. This scraping test tells us how your stuff complies should it's growback get strong, just staying prepared

 

[brandon429]

Your thread is my most currently used turnaround example. I'm linking it to like twenty running threads, if you reverted back to water dosing I'd go into hiding


heh

I bet looks sharp right about nau

 

[midtnmike41]

It's looking much better than before. I still have some work to do. There is still some dead algae stuck to the rocks but it comes off easy. Every time i stir it up with a tooth brush it just seems to stick somewhere else. some does go into the filter sock so its just time before its gone. Still a little dead algae in the sand bed as well but its getting better. Here are a few pics of almost a week later. I really need to do something with my aquascaping but been a little busy lately.

 

[brandon429]

it would be a hard work weekend but to buzzsaw that whole tank clean at once, pay a LFS to truck over 100% wc would just rock n roll

easy for a pico reefer to recommend agreed but it sure does work well, the all at once mode for any small tankers reading.

 

[midtnmike41]

Looks like I have bad news to report. My algae is starting to come back. I really have no idea what to do about it. I cant scrub my rocks every weekend. Maybe my rocks are leaching phosphates. Below are my water parameters as of this morning and pictures.

Alk: 7.62
Ca: 430
Mg: 1290
No3: 1
Po4: .01

I added some mag mix to get it back up and i raised my 2 part just 1ml a day to raise alk and ca just a little.

I am thinking about getting some Walt Smith rock and start curing it, or do you think this rock will eventually be ok?

 

[brandon429]

The standard cure-alls for algae online should prevent having to start over plus that invasion is not the same as orig pics, these alternation of generations is exactly reefing. that substrate is open for the taking, you've guided out the eutrophic detritus retainers.


That looks like cyano anyway (mixed with some original invader, we never expected one off fix of a mos long set in) cyano is diff set of issues... opportunistic due to changes recently in the tank... nutrient related although I think from temp nutrient spikes in tank cleans-- not as an enduring nutrient issue or we'd have more greens. that's a red invader. you could benefit from less whites and more blues for sure during this phase.

also we can consider the clean up crews haven't been adjusted, that can be reserved for new actions.

that's how nature prevents... There are ATS systems avail, dosers for algae, GFO etc it's not about peroxide being both the remover and the preventative. It removes excess biomass so they can work. you create a gap in the tank biota where new changes prevent growback, things missing from round 1.



The only reason the rocks are so hard to guide back is #of lbs and wait times that allowed algae to seat. I wouldn't start over since the reverse of everything listed above w fix

You can test rock for po4 so we don't have to guess. Chunk off a section, pulverize it for surface area exposure and test some water from its shaken sample for spiked po4 using a hq kit or mail the water to someone with a hq kit.

To me this was just the clearing phase not the final sweep. It's worked fully, the algae is cleared and now the unique adjustments for your tanks prevention awaits.


This is excellent to show how restorations are pure hard work proportional to the delay in start time.

Your rocks want to grow algae and various depositors (way of the reef) as long as they aren't filled with coralline, and corals, to reject invaders. what your rocks are doing now is normal, its not a full running reef yet, space is open for the taking unless we reject.

 

[midtnmike41]

I cleaned some of my rocks again today. I have been searching eveything I add to the tank for phosphates. I finally determined I am feeding too much. It the only thing left. I usually feed frozen foods, either mysis or brine shrimp,and dried seaweed every few days for the foxface and tang. So we will see how it goes with reduced feedings. I did notice my freshly mixed water tested for 0.06 phosphate. I'm using red Sea coral pro with Rodi 0 tds water. My tank water currently reads 0.02. Maybe I need to change salts or is this common? I don't think it's high enough to create the problem I had but at this point I don't want any extra in my tank.

 

[midtnmike41]

For anyone following this thread. Here is my tank now.

 

[killingseed2000]

under skimming can be a result as well. my 200 was almost wall to wall green hair. treated with h2o2 by removing most the rock cleaning and putting back. got a new larger skimmer per my tank and it looks great now.

 

[killingseed2000]

oh and yes i was following due to my issues as well. took me a 3 or 4 h2o2 cleanings, and large water changes 40 g each. clear out most the algea in one months for the most part is has not grown back.

my phosphates were over 10 from the start.
now they are like .5 with a Hanna test kit.

my over feeding and under skimmer was most likely the cause as i did a lot of po4 testing on my water the rock tank some of the rocks came from my ro di water. trying to give blame to something. nothing tested out. the skimmer has made the biggest impacted on the tank for the best. had a coral value 5 inch skimmers to a coral value 202 s.