Beep'ing Green Hair Algae

spiritwalker · Feb 3, 2019

Bucked head vac working great for cleaning sump.

spiritwalker · Feb 17, 2019

Final update:

Water test today.
Spec grav 1.025
Temp 78
NO3 1ppm
PO4 0ppm
Alk 9.8
Cal 435
Mag 1520

Based on the nitrate and phosphate values I will reduce nopox dosing down to 5ml and monitor.

Big day yesterday for the tank. I want happy with the rock pile. It was too big, inhibiting flow, and collecting detritus whatnot under it. So, I took all the rock out and sliced it into 2" cross sections using my tile saw. Did a few rocks at a time and rinsed in saltwater to earn the slurry off before putting back in the DT.

Here is a picture with the new rockscape. I think I'll get much more flow around it. There is also more room for the fish to swim. Just need to relocate all my frags now.

This will be my last update unless there is a turn for the worst. I think I have shown that aggressive action and persistent focus can produce the desired results.

brandon429 · Feb 18, 2019

you are able to consistently get in and rework the system as needed, that's a clean system in terms of waste loading but its still the same quality live rock one would have in a totally hands off system so there is no harm in accessing reefs as we were once told. Your thread continually shows access in really neat ways and its 100% reef surgery in demo. You are accessing the marrow portions of your system, I don't recall rock slicing in our tank surgery threads so thanks for stepping it up a notch, and still no doom. looks like a great reef tank having been manhandled 3x excess compared to most reefs :)

Fish_Sticks · Feb 19, 2019

The algae control outbreak reaction strategy
as prescribed by fish_sticks.

The rules of algae management:

1. Do not make sudden changes, do not use hydrogen peroxide, do not turn off your lights and perform a tank blackout (this is not only bad for your corals, but your fish), or do anything that would be described as a fast fix. These strategies do not work long term. As soon as you stop dosing, as soon as you turn back on the lights, the algae will come back. These are foolish strategies.

2. Patience. Understand that it will take a few weeks or even a month to fix the problem. This hobby is based on the slowest changing thing in the world, the ocean. Patience is required to achieve success in the hobby.

3. Algae is not a bad thing. Sure it's ugly, but it's not going to crash your tank in a few weeks. Every single tank on the planet has algae, there is no way to get rid of it. The secret that nobody talks about is that you never get rid of algae, you control algae.

4. During this process, you should be manually removing algae from the tank when it reaches high levels or when it threatens the well being of your corals and fish.

5. Do not do too much too fast. Take things slow and focus on changing your habits. The algae will dissipate with time if you perform a responsible maintenance routine. Plus, fish love a little snack of fresh grown algae, they are probably having a ball while they watch you run around like a crazy person changing a hundred things on the tank and ruining the balance of the ecosystem.

6. This outbreak reaction strategy
assumes that you aren't running your lights for longer than 14/16 hours. Although algae likes light, it cannot survive on just light. If you have a dirty tank, you can grow algae with lights on for only a few hours a day. Fix the real problem.

7. Do not add more snails, shrimp, fish or other animals to the system to FIX your algae, initially. You should already be running a tank with these inhabitants, otherwise nicknamed the Clean Up Crew (CUC). These animals will bring your ecosystem full circle, and play an important role in turning algae back into food for bacteria.

AFTER you've addressed the detritus build up issue, consider readdressing your stock list to include more CUC members, such as snails, shrimps, gobies, and everybody's favorite fish, the lawnmower blenny.

8. Do not go overboard with detritus removal. Your existing bacteria and corals need decaying detritus to remain healthy. The focus is not to starve your algae into oblivion, but to control the algae so bacteria have a chance to repopulate and take the algae's place. Bacteria repopulation is our main objective, not total detritus removal, not 0-5 nitrates, not 0 phosphates, not low ammonia production, as those are inherently unhealthy and now finally dated practices.

Why do you have algae? It's plain and simple, don't let anyone fool you.

Your tank is dirty; maybe not chemically, but physically.

Nitrate levels around 10-20 are perfectly fine. Phosphates don't even really matter that much. Algae doesn't even really like nitrogen, what they do love, is ammonia!

For algae to use nitrogen, they must convert it into ammonia.

Algae love ammonia because it is less work for algae to consume ammonia than nitrogen.

When detritus (fish crap & uneaten food) breaks down into ammonia, the ammonia is usually taken up by the bacteria in your rock; however, because algae use ammonia very efficiently, algae can use ammonia before the bacteria have a chance. This causes some bacteria to die off and for the algae to get worse over time.

Can you see how this would create a snowball effect?

Your algae is essentially taking over your bacteria.

This gets even worse because the algae also contributes to clogging up your rock and taking up valuable surface area that bacteria need to live. Algae can overtake your bacteria when it comes to using ammonia. Think you can keep reducing your nitrates into oblivion and starving your corals in hopes your algae will magically disappear? Think again. Your tank is dirty.

So, if you remove the detritus, you solve your algae problems. Don't let anyone fool you otherwise!

Where is the detritus?

It can be in the holes and pores of your rock.

Fix: use a turkey baster to blast out only a few rocks per day, overtime your equipment (skimmer or filter socks) will collect the detritus. You also create more surface area for bacteria to live inside the rocks.

It can be in your sand bed.

Fix: Vacuum out your sand bed with a gravel vacuum. This can and should be done on a regular basis during your routine water changes, and you kill two birds with one stone; changing the water, and cleaning detritus! I like to vacuum out with my right hand, hold the end of the hose with my left, and control the flow of water in the siphon hose with my left hand fingers.

It can be in your equipment.

Fix: Clean your equipment on a regular basis, check any sponges, filter floss, pumps, wavemaker suction cups. Detritus can get lodged anywhere.

It can be in your sump.

Fix: I like to suck it up with a turkey baster. The best part about the baster is you can use it to blow water out, or suck things up.

It can be in your macroalgae (if you're growing macroalgae).

Fix: After a small 1G water change, just shake out your chaeto macroalgae in your water-change water.

Great so now I can go crazy cleaning my tank right?

Not so fast. Doing too much at one time can cause your tank to crash. Only do a fair amount of maintenance a day. Doing much more than your equipment can handle will cause your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate production to rise too much too fast. This is not so much about getting rid of the algae as much as it is improving your maintenance habits. If you fix your habits, the algae will be under control; and stay under control.

How do I avoid detritus buildup?

Well if you look around your tank, I'm sure you can find dead spots where water isn't flowing very well. See if you can find some dead spots and fix them.

If you have a powerhead pointed directly at a rock, it's gonna lodge a bunch of crud into there.

But I have friends coming over and I want my tank to look nice fast.

That's just too bad. The algae has be slowly gaining power overtime and getting stronger and stronger though weeks of work because you have detritus build up. If you think you can fix all that in one or two weeks, then you're out of luck.

But I have super duper deadly bryopsis, cotton candy algae, (insert buzzword terrible evil algae here, AHHHH NITRATES ARE AT 11 PPM IM GONNA DIE, I NEED TO USE PHOSBAN ASAP. IM NEVER GONNA FEED MY FISH AGAIN!!!! MAYBE I NEED TO RIP OUT ALL MY ROCK AND TOSS IN IN BLEACH !!!! OR JUST CHANGE MY T5 BULBS AND IT WILL GO AWAY AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!)

Calm dowwwwwn. So what. All algae does the same thing. They feed off the ammonia produced by the detritus in your aquarium. You can carefully physically remove the algae just like normal, remain calm, don't do anything too fast, don't result to stupid quick fixes, and follow the algae outbreak reaction strategy
.

Lots and lots of people are gonna tell you otherwise, but that's not their fault. They don't know any better.

This is your tank.

You've been given the algae outbreak reaction strategy
. Follow the rules. If you don't use it, your tank will only have you to blame, not random people on the forums who suggested you try a couple of foolish quick fixes in a hobby based entirely on patience; based around the slowest changing thing in the entire world, the ocean.