Emergence of Brown Algae

[BlueWorldJeff]

I have recently had the emergence of brown algae on my sandbed that has coincided with some other inconsistencies in my 180. All within the past month, I have had:

1. Emergence of Diatoms, mostly on sandbed. darker in some areas, non existent where there is no light (under rock/coral overhangs, near rock, etc)
2. Demise of Mandarin Goby. Had him for 2 years, never saw him eat, but he got big. Then past month started getting skinny and then disappeared. Haven't been able to find
3. Retraction of LPS coral polyps (hammer, torch).

Tank background: Moved from a 120 in sept 2016. New sand (seaflor special grade) 1-2", live rock migrated from 120, extra pillar added from dry rock 2 months ago (fully cured). Lights are 3 x Rapid LED Onyx, outside with 60 degree optics, middle with 100 degree. Apex ramps blues and mixed channels to 100% mid day for 4 hrs, whites to 60% max for 3 hrs mid day. Two Tunze 6105s provide flow, Skimmer is AquaMaxx Am250

Tank Maintenance: bi weekly 20-30g water changes with Instant Ocean salt. Vacuum of sandbed, clean skimmer, replace filter socks, clean glass

When I first started seeing issues, my parameters were:
SG - 1.025
NO3 - 2
PO4 - .17
Alk - 8.18
Ca - 380

I put 1/2 cup GFO in a TLF150 reactor at that point to lower phosphates.
Week later:
SG - 1.025
NO3 - 2
PO4 - .09
Alk - 8.56
Ca - 380

Lowered Alk drip.
Week later:
SG - 1.025
NO3 - 2
PO4 - .02
Alk - 8.29
Ca - 380

I did a water change on sunday and sandbed was perfectly white. I can already start to see the diatoms come back.

Some things I can think of:

• The DI resin in my RODI is almost expired, just the top 1/5 is blue still. TDS was 5 for past water change. Refreshing DI resin this weekend
• When I vacuum the sand, I still get clouds when digging into the sandbed. is this silicate being released? I am going to try to just get the surface of the sand bed vacuumed this next WC.
• With NO3 at 2 and PO4 now at .02, this should not be contributing to any algae outbreak. I will continue to feed on normal schedule (full cube mysis and full cube brine shrimp spirulina in morning, full cube mysis or spirulina and cube of cyclopods at night)

Anything I am missing? I also heard making lights more blue will kill diatoms.

 

[Roy 9121]

I've heard that about mardrin gobys before. They start out great, eat up all the critters in your sand, then slowly starve to death. That's why I've never had one.
I was also scolded here a few days ago for vacuuming my sand bed. And with the mandrin its probably a bad idea.

 

[BlueWorldJeff]

I've heard that about mardrin gobys before. They start out great, eat up all the critters in your sand, then slowly starve to death. That's why I've never had one.
I was also scolded here a few days ago for vacuuming my sand bed. And with the mandrin its probably a bad idea.

I was surprised he lasted that long, I have heard they are finicky. he had a bulging eye that he recovered for a couple months ago. I thought he was thriving. How would vacuuming a sandbed lead to his death? Taking away his food?

 

[Roy 9121]

I was surprised he lasted that long, I have heard they are finicky. he had a bulging eye that he recovered for a couple months ago. I thought he was thriving. How would vacuuming a sandbed lead to his death? Taking away his food?

Yes, it takes away the little critters in the sand that they eat.

 

[BlueWorldJeff]

Any idea why the Euphyllia polyps retracted?

 

[Roy 9121]

Any idea why the Euphyllia polyps retracted?

Have you dosed anything? Sometimes when i dose a PH buffer my frogspawn will close up for a few days. Especially if the powder doesn't completely desolve and gets in their polyps.

 

[Fishgeek88]

I would change out the DI resin. I use the color changing and will forget to change it out the TDS will read 0. It will come back to me to swap it out when I start getting some brown stuff growing in the displays

 

[BlueWorldJeff]

Have you dosed anything? Sometimes when i dose a PH buffer my frogspawn will close up for a few days. Especially if the powder doesn't completely desolve and gets in their polyps.

I just put GFO online, but that was a reaction to high PO4, LPS issues and diatom blooms

 

[BlueWorldJeff]

I would change out the DI resin. I use the color changing and will forget to change it out the TDS will read 0. It will come back to me to swap it out when I start getting some brown stuff growing in the displays

Definitely on my list.

 

[Roy 9121]

I just put GFO online, but that was a reaction to high PO4, LPS issues and diatom blooms

Are you running the discharge of the GFO through your skimmer? I think you need to do that. That could definitely be why your Ephyilia is not opening.

 

[BlueWorldJeff]

Are you running the discharge of the GFO through your skimmer? I think you need to do that. That could definitely be why your Ephyilia is not opening.

Very interesting. I could run the discharge tube into the skimmer chamber of the sump, right by the pump input. Not sure I could get it directly into the input of the skimmer anyhow

 

[Roy 9121]

Very interesting. I could run the discharge tube into the skimmer chamber of the sump, right by the pump input. Not sure I could get it directly into the input of the skimmer anyhow

I know i tried a GFO once, and all my corals closed up. The guy at my LFS told me i needed tho run the discharge into my skimmer. I just took it off line and everything opened back up in a day or so.

 

[Fishgeek88]

Should not matter where your gfo is exiting

 

[chinw76]

Did you find out how to solve your diatom issue? I am currently experiencing the same problem.
I have called BRS and they have no clue.
SG - 1.025
NO3 - 5.0
PO4 - .058
Alk - 9.4
Ca - 479

I did a 3 day black out and it went away. I run an algae scrubber 24hrs a day, making alot of GHA. I am also running GFO to try to bring down phosphates. My tank is fallow right now. I had this before when I was using bio pellets. I have removed the bio pellets in November and went to an ATS at the end of November. When this happened this time, I was dosing phyto, and changed salts from Red Sea blue bucket to HW Marine Reefer. I cleaned the sand bed around Christmas and a week ago before the 3 day black out. Sand was white after the black out but now is turning brown again. I also have brown algae on my Maxspect gyre pumps. My RO water is also run threw 6 di resin beds. Goes through 2 Cation beds, then 2 Anion beds, then 2 mix beds. I started dosing Microbacter 7, doing 2 cap fulls daily for 2 weeks like I have a new tank. My tank is a little over a year old.

 

[chinw76]

Did you find out how to solve your diatom issue? I am currently experiencing the same problem.
I have called BRS and they have no clue.
SG - 1.025
NO3 - 5.0
PO4 - .058
Alk - 9.4
Ca - 479

I did a 3 day black out and it went away. I run an algae scrubber 24hrs a day, making alot of GHA. I am also running GFO to try to bring down phosphates. My tank is fallow right now. I had this before when I was using bio pellets. I have removed the bio pellets in November and went to an ATS at the end of November. When this happened this time, I was dosing phyto, and changed salts from Red Sea blue bucket to HW Marine Reefer. I cleaned the sand bed around Christmas and a week ago before the 3 day black out. Sand was white after the black out but now is turning brown again. I also have brown algae on my Maxspect gyre pumps. My RO water is also run threw 6 di resin beds. Goes through 2 Cation beds, then 2 Anion beds, then 2 mix beds. I started dosing Microbacter 7, doing 2 cap fulls daily for 2 weeks like I have a new tank. My tank is a little over a year old.