Algea problems can anyone help?(pics inside)

[john90009]

iv had this 75 gallon with 40 sump with macro in the sump and a overrated octopus skimmer running for a few months actually like 5 months. i transferred everything other then the sand and water from my old tank, this sand is the special grade all dry sand and i made all new salt water. my problem is not im getting these diatoms that seem to be turning into brown strings every day. my cheato doesn't seem to grow neither does my red macro algea but this algea and also green scum coms back every day. Tested my nitrates there zero i dont have a phosphate meter so im not sure i use rodi which pumps out 000. my reeflux bulbs were used for 3 months probably but have been sitting in storage for about a year + . so here are the pics any help please it seems like it could possibly be stunting the coral growth or even hurting the corals im not sure. i run carbon and gfo. weekly waterchanges 6 gallon

pink lemonade is growing threw it all tho.

 

[gparr]

Appear to be dinoflagellates. Likely your organics are too high and your flow in the bottom third of the tank is insufficient, allowing organics to accumulate. Those three Korallias should be moving enough water, but it may not be moving effectively. One way to move water up into the column is to place on of those Korallias, preferably the back one on the right side, lower in the tank and aim it toward the surface. This will help draw water from the bottom of the column and force it to the top where it can go to the sump. One thing that is often overlooked is poor flow behind the rocks, allowing organics/detritus to accumulate. Finding a way to move water in that area will help.

Dinoflagellates are a pain. Siphon them out each day while changing your carbon weekly (assuming you're running carbon in a reactor). Only replace the water you remove when siphoning. Stop doing water changes. I believe it's Boron that helps feed these things and every water change adds more fuel. You can also try turning your lights off for three days. That helps slow growth. The combination of things should slow growth/stop it. Long-term prevention is effective flow throughout the water column. Once they are gone, resume regular water changes.

Gary

 

[john90009]

can i siphon it out by blowing on the rocks? may not be able to siphon out water every day and make saltwater to replace it with would turkey basting the roks and filter socking it work : / its like im dammed if i do and danged i i dont do a water change because wouldn't the water in the tank just get dirtier if i dont change the water?

 

[john90009]

would this be the reason why the zoas that would be so happy and opend and nothing changed other then more algea and now they wont open, theres no pox in there just there getting green or brown stalks doesnt seem to rub off.

 

[swannyson7]

I'm running into the same problem lately. Any other pointers?

 

[gparr]

You can blow it off of the rocks/sand but, unless it's getting removed by some means, along with the food sources, you're just spreading it around. You shouldn't have to siphon that much water out with each effort as it doesn't appear to be widespread. You might be able to mix up a 5-gal. bucket of saltwater and use it over three or four days. I don't know any other tips for dealing with this. Good water management and persistence will beat the problem.
Gary

 

[nixer]

i have this also and i have the exact same sand!
flow does not matter i have 2 koralia 1400s and a mp40 on my tank. its not a flow issue!
mine is much worse than yours, but im starting to put a dent in it i think.
id change 5 gallons of water and right after you change the water scrub all your frags in the change water and also scrub all your rocks that have it in there also.
light does affect it. i dunno about the boron thats a new one to me, but anyway i was told gfo and carbon help.

 

[nixer]

update i just saw some of my cerinth snails eating it. this is the cerinth im talking about Reefs2go.com Extra Large Cerith Snail
do you have any of them perhaps they can knock that little bit out.
i know i need more snails as it is.

 

[mysterybox]

it could also be cyno, in which case you could try chemi-clean. You'll need to follow directs exactly so it doesn't cause your tank to crash. I've used it with no ill effects.

 

[nixer]

it could also be cyno, in which case you could try chemi-clean. You'll need to follow directs exactly so it doesn't cause your tank to crash. I've used it with no ill effects.

that first pic does not look like cyano

 

[sprinklerdudes]

I think I have grown just about every kind of algea in the tank at one point or another, it is a balance thing, cut way back on feeding, espacially the frozen type foods, and reduce you lighting times, even cut them off for a day or two will help, they more you mess with it and the more you add to the tank the worse these problems seem to get, trying to keep a balance by keeping it simple and not adding too much to the tank in the long run will yeild better results, just my 2 cents, having a refugium with some different macro algeas, ceramic rings, carbon what ever will help and grow some nice pods for the coral and fish as well, rember something has to either eat / use the organic waste or remove it, the more you add to the tank, the more has to be removed/ algea will flourish no matter what type of test kit you have, or what the reading is, most types need light and some type of disolved organics, different algeas eat different types of organics thats why I think so many people get discourged, when they think they won the battle with one type, another one appears, in the first 6 months to a year most people proably have 6-7 different kinds of out breaks, usally from over feeding, or over stocking. just my opion, just keeping it real

 

[john90009]

it weird that my cheato isnt growing? it used to grow alot .

 

[nixer]

that alge could stunt that cheato. there is tons of different types like that and none of them have actually been studied much. some toxic some not

 

[florida reef]

I agree with cutting back on feeding and photoperiod. Have you considered buy a phosphate reactor and/or carbon reactor?

 

[nixer]

not to stray you away from this forum but there is some good threads on rc about it.
here is a current one http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1908618

 

[swannyson7]

I agree with cutting back on feeding and photoperiod. Have you considered buy a phosphate reactor and/or carbon reactor?

I'm running three phosban reactors with GFO, Carbon, and EcoBak. Today I cut the lights down to just the actinics for a 4 hr period. I'm going to try running the tank like this for 2 days and then I'll bring the LEDs and 10k T5s back online. I also switched my vortechs from reefcrest to constant full power to see if that helps. I'm running two MP40s on the sides of my 180 and two MP10s on the back. Should I increase flow even more? I have a bunch of Koralias sitting around that I could throw in the tank for the time being.

 

[nixer]

I'm running three phosban reactors with GFO, Carbon, and EcoBak. Today I cut the lights down to just the actinics for a 4 hr period. I'm going to try running the tank like this for 2 days and then I'll bring the LEDs and 10k T5s back online. I also switched my vortechs from reefcrest to constant full power to see if that helps. I'm running two MP40s on the sides of my 180 and two MP10s on the back. Should I increase flow even more? I have a bunch of Koralias sitting around that I could throw in the tank for the time being.

i dont see flow as removing it unless you have filters to catch and remove the slime.
also i have seen ppl say vodka dosing makes it worse.
i think im going to try adding mb7 and see if the extra bacteria starves it out

 

[swannyson7]

i dont see flow as removing it unless you have filters to catch and remove the slime.
also i have seen ppl say vodka dosing makes it worse.
i think im going to try adding mb7 and see if the extra bacteria starves it out

I added some MB7 the other day and it seemed to help a little bit, but it was short lived. As for filtration, I'm skimming wet and using 200 micron filter socks and changeing them out every couple days. It's not too bad in my tank, basically hitting the frag racks worse than anything else, but I want to keep it from getting any worse. Let me know if the MB7 seems to help in your tank.

 

[nixer]

I added some MB7 the other day and it seemed to help a little bit, but it was short lived. As for filtration, I'm skimming wet and using 200 micron filter socks and changeing them out every couple days. It's not too bad in my tank, basically hitting the frag racks worse than anything else, but I want to keep it from getting any worse. Let me know if the MB7 seems to help in your tank.

i sure will. right now im not dosing carbon of any type so i would say that if dosing carbon makes it worse then not dosing carbon and dosing bacteria would make the opposite reaction

 

[nixer]

ive heard over on the other place that someone has used mb7 and it made a difference im waiting for a link to that thread