algae thread........update and suggestions needed

[reef tank 2.0]

I have other threads talking about my ongoing algae issue.
I have made a number of changes and am not sure what I need to do at this point.
let's get nitrate and phosphate parameters and what I've done out of the way first.

16 days since last water change (decimals are in the correct spot):
nitrate - 6.5
phosphates - .02

I have been fighting cyano and diatoms for many many many weeks, non stop. a day after my last water change, cyano came back QUICKLY after a few days of being minimal.

I increased my CUC (snails) but most have been eaten or died off. my bumble bees and nassarius snails all seem to be alive and kicking. I do have a few other snails still alive.
I did buy an emerald crab back in May but I haven't seen him for a few weeks now. I can't find him anywhere. I added a pitho crab to help with bubble algae, last week. I saw him for the first couple days, but haven't seen him since. no clue where he's at either. I placed him on a bed of bubbles....so much for that. the snails did clean my overflow off, I do notice that. but sand and rocks are horrible.

I have increased my flow. my gyres are running at 70% in random mode. gyres are 30" from each other but both gyres are covered with algae as if there is not enough flow. how on earth is that possible? they are pointing at each other!!

I constantly blow my corals off every night, 30 minutes later, they have stringy cyano on them. I don't know how my green goblin across is still alive, but he keeps growing. I am constantly brushing him off trying to keep his branches clear. thankfully, I haven't lost any corals.

around the 2 week mark, after the water change, my corals always plump up and look happy. minus the cyano. I try to hold off on water changes for this reason. its been 16 days since the last one.

really want to do a water change to suck some of the cyano out, BUT, I also don't want to disrupt the corals.

I don't know what else to do to get rid of all this algae.

oh ya, I did dose the tank about a month and a half ago with Flucon. to get rid of a lot of my long hair algae, but the tank laughed at that. I even dosed full amount of tank volume. let it run its course for a good 3-4 weeks before doing a water change.

I was running HCGFO prior to the Flucon dosing, but haven't rebooted that yet. I'm gonna let the tank go without it to see what happens. nothing seems to be upset by the phosphate levels.

after all that.........what's my question?
how do I get rid of this algae? it is constant. CUC and flow didn't do anything. I brush, blow, and net out algae every night. I do see my Tomini tank peck the rocks but I don't see him eat any of the hair algae. so not sure what he's pecking at.

here are some photos with my whites on. horrible looking but at least you can see what Im dealing with

don't know what else to do.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

photos:

 

[Shirak]

constantly blow my corals off every night, 30 minutes later, they have stringy cyano on them

Dinos not Cyano

 

[Shirak]

I would tackle the Dino problem first. They can be toxic so maybe what's killing off your CUC. Sounds like the type that go into the water at night. UV treatable fairly easily. If you don't have UV on the system you can get a drop in the tank type https://www.aa-aquarium.com/gkm
.02ppm phosphates is likely 0 so uhh.. no GFO! You need phosphates for your corals and to get the balance back into your tank, which is probably why you are fighting Dinos. You may need to dose phosphate for a while. The algae is going to suck nitrate and phosphate up. So you need to keep them available at reasonable levels. IE nitrate 15-30ppm or so and phosphate .05-.1ppm. Army of snails, maybe some hermits etc once you get the Dino's cleared up.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

here's a few more photos of the green algae on the rocks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Generally, treating pests such as algae by lowering nutrients is not the best plan since to kill algae will also cause many corals to have problems. I’d up the phosphate.

Too low of nutrients can also cause di is to win the local competition with other organisms.

Diatoms can be beaten by removing silicate sources, which most often is from the water you use. If you actually have diatoms, using 0 ppm tds will help and an additional di will help more.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Thanks for the feedback. I assumed since I see all rhe bubbles in the algae, that it was diatoms.

Ya, im using 0 tds water.

When I went to the LFS store, I was explaining all this to them. They also told me the same thing you guys are. He also mentioned that I could try feeding a little more. Not saying he was wrong with that statement, but that made me a little nervous. I already feed a good amount. Would adding more food cause a whole new set of problems? Would it help any?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the feedback. I assumed since I see all rhe bubbles in the algae, that it was diatoms.

Ya, im using 0 tds water.

When I went to the LFS store, I was explaining all this to them. They also told me the same thing you guys are. He also mentioned that I could try feeding a little more. Not saying he was wrong with that statement, but that made me a little nervous. I already feed a good amount. Would adding more food cause a whole new set of problems? Would it help any?

No, that is not diagnostic of diatoms. Diatoms are golden brown and often encrust (look like a dusting) on glass and sand. Bubbles often attach to some types of dinos and cyano.

More food means more organic matter which may spur cyano more, and reducing organics can help with cyano.

More phosphate (say, dosed) may help limit dinos and spur competitors (such as green algae, bacteria, etc.). Often that is a desirable trade off, since dinos are among the worst possible pests.

 

[Shirak]

Thanks for the feedback. I assumed since I see all rhe bubbles in the algae, that it was diatoms.

Ya, im using 0 tds water.

When I went to the LFS store, I was explaining all this to them. They also told me the same thing you guys are. He also mentioned that I could try feeding a little more. Not saying he was wrong with that statement, but that made me a little nervous. I already feed a good amount. Would adding more food cause a whole new set of problems? Would it help any?

I would look to dose phosphate and nitrate directly as needed vs feeding more. Excess food will settle and needs to be broken down which will drive bacteria and cyano more.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I understand what's been suggested, but I have a couple more questions.

all the tables I see show that phosphates should be anywhere between .01-.03ppm. mine register in at .02ppm.
if i'm within range of the ideal amount, why are my current levels considered too low?

no matter what I do, cannot get rid of this algae that I have going on either.

between that algae, and the dinos, does all this stem from the imbalance of the phosphates?
Minus the constant blowing, sucking, and water changes.......is my tank headed towards disaster where I will start losing all my livestock due to the path I am currently on? right now, the corals are the only thing that seem to be annoyed. so I have to keep blowing them off. you mentioned the CUC issue, but I blow them off as well when I can.

 

[CHSUB]

Blowing the crap around doesn’t remove the crap! Tank needs a good old fashion cleaning. I suggest getting a canister filter from Amazon and spend a hour or so vacuuming all the algae, cleaning the glass, flow pumps etc. and doing it weekly with a WC

65$ on Amazon:

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I understand what's been suggested, but I have a couple more questions.

all the tables I see show that phosphates should be anywhere between .01-.03ppm. mine register in at .02ppm.
if i'm within range of the ideal amount, why are my current levels considered too low?

no matter what I do, cannot get rid of this algae that I have going on either.

between that algae, and the dinos, does all this stem from the imbalance of the phosphates?
Minus the constant blowing, sucking, and water changes.......is my tank headed towards disaster where I will start losing all my livestock due to the path I am currently on? right now, the corals are the only thing that seem to be annoyed. so I have to keep blowing them off. you mentioned the CUC issue, but I blow them off as well when I can.

Not ALL tables give that range. I recommend 0.06 to 0.3 ppm phosphate.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

i'd like to come back to this. about 3-4 days ago, I noticed that those dynos that I had, are almost gone. little bit remain, but nothing like before. once those disappeared, I woke up the next day to find a ton of green hairy algae over everything, everything. my crabs are covered with it, the sand, rock, and glass. where the heck did it all come from???

I've changed flow directions of both gyres, trying to get more flow throughout.there are no dead spots. well, there might be on the back glass. where I have the most algae growth, has tons of flow. I don't understand it.

what's the reason for the latest explosion of algae?

here are some photos:
(picture 180237 - this area has tons of flow, but algae everywhere)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What did you do to defeat the dinos?

Regardless of the cause, a good cleanup crew can defeat green algae, unlike dinos.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Honestly, nothing. I didnt up rhe phosphates, yet. I have the stuff to do so, but hadn't done it. They just left. . I know they'll come back.

As for cuc, what eats long hair algae?

Im gonna do one last dose of flux rx and hope it works. It didnt do anything during the first dose.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

And MAYBE, this long hair algae has always been there but it was covered by the dynos. I doubt it, but it probably did hide some of it.

Either way, this stuff is thick and fluffy. And its all over the place.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Can anyone help me?

increasing this phosphate makes me nervous, ain't gonna lie. which is why I put t off. I need to just DO IT.
According to the bottle of NeoPhos, this is the only thing I need to add to my tank, as long as things don't remain unchanged.

Right now my phosphates are holding steady at .04. you gave me a range above (.06-.3). is there a specific level I should shoot for? How long does it take for the tank to respond to the increase of phosphates?

is there a chance that I would have to continue dosing this once I get the levels up to where I want them? (like daily) is that common?

should I turn off my skimmer or carbon reactor when doing this?
should this be done during lights out?

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Any help?

 

[Mebbid]

is there a chance that I would have to continue dosing this once I get the levels up to where I want them? (like daily) is that common?

Yes, there's a chance. You might have to dose nitrates eventually too. But that's getting way ahead of where you are.

How long has this tank been set up?
What are you running in your sump?
Have you made any large changes before this explosion of algaes?



So, to get everything straight:

1: You have both dinos and a hairy green algae (Looks kind of brown in the pictures)
2: Manual removal didn't help
3: Clean up crew doesn't do anything
4: The normal dinos you've been fighting disappeared
5: you stopped using GFO
6: Fluconazole wasn't a big help

Is there anything that I missed?

 

[reef tank 2.0]

1. tank has been up and running for 2 years (come March 1st)
2. I still do manual removal. I brush, blow, and net out as much as I can each night. once I do that, it's all back within 1-2 days. I don't scrub every inch every night, but it's a constant task.
3. a lot of my snails died. The only ones that have made it through all this, are my bumble bee snails, and Nassarius snails
4. Dynos came back 2 days after they disappeared. they are back now.
5. yes, GFO is no longer being used. My current phosphate levels are holding at .04 ppm.
6. 2 doses of Flucon did NOTHING. 4-6 week runs with no skimmer or carbon. each dose.

my algae looks red under the blue lights. once I turn them off, its all green (for the most part). I know these arn't dynos, but my algae is long, soft, and almost like a carpet. it covers everything.

have two gyres 30" apart both set at 70%. I have adjusted my return pump flow nozzles to aim at the back of the tank. I can't imagine flow is an option.

I want to start dosing NeoPhos but need some guidance in doing so. (see my last post)