Frustrating algae issue. Should I just leave it?

[buzzeorw1]

Thank you in advance for taking a look at this.

55 gal, 20 gal sump, 8 month old reef tank. About 8 fish and 10 corals (mostly frags). I’ve had a little success with the corals starting to creep onto the rocks :cool: . I think the tank is cycled as my nitrites are stable at zero, and I haven’t had Dino’s in a long time now :-) Lights run for 6 hours, no higher than 60% and most of it on the blue end of the spectrum. I do 30% water changes every two weeks. No refugium, and I would prefer to avoid having one. I think I have good flow between the two heads and the return pump.Lots of lava rock in sump and I change carbon every two weeks. Good, tuned protein skimmer. The tank is out of direct sunlight. I feed them enough food that they gobbled it all up within a minute. I purchase distilled water from crystal bottled water company for water changes. I live in Florida, but I use an r/o filter for the tap (for my top off water only for the carbon in my ATO. My boss has always been pretty stable. My nitrate spiked up a month ago. I did a 50% water change and its way down dealing with this algae for months.

Please see the pics of this algae problem I can’t get a handle on. It only grows on the rocks.

I can take the rock out and scrub it. That works for about a month and then the algae is back but I hate doing it cause it seems such a risk with breaking the glass (I live it an apartment, second floor so I need to avoid that at all costs!). All the rock manipulation also ends up causing so much damage to my corals, and if I’m trying to grow these corals on rock scrubbing the rock seems counter intuitive.

Is this hair algae? They look like long brown hairy strands.

Should I try chemicals?

Is this just a cycling issue?

Refugium? They seem like an awful amount of maintenance and I don’t know where I would fit it in my sump.

If I just leave it alone & do water changes. Will the algae problem eventually take care of itself? I don’t mind being patient just unsure on what to do. I’m a new hobbyist. It seems like it’s getting so much worse the last couple weeks and I just did a 50% water change 3 weeks ago to bring down my nitrates, it brought down my nitrates, but the algae remains.

Any instruction here would be extremely appreciated. Thank you so much!

 

[littlefoxx]

to me it Looks like the “ugly phase” to me when the tank starts to mature and get its ego system running. I actually have an algae issue right now after my restart. I added some algae eating fish to eat it for me :) maybe someone else can chime in, I dont know much about algae I just know that every time Ive set up a saltwater tank I hit a point where the algae is nuts then it seems to even out

 

[buzzeorw1]

This gives me some relief, I don’t mind being patient I just abhor pulling out that rock. Also you reminded me I haven’t replenished my critter crew in awhile. I might do. Thanks for the response Little fox greatly appreciate it, man.

 

[littlefoxx]

This gives me some relief, I don’t mind being patient I just abhor pulling out that rock. Also you reminded me I haven’t replenished my critter crew in awhile. I might do. Thanks for the response Little fox greatly appreciate it, man.

Youre welcome! A lawnmower blenny is a great fish too for algae, assuming you dont have other blennies. The few Ive had flip out when another blenny is in the tank!

 

[slingfox]

Get 10 Astrea, 5 trochus, and a few cerith snails and that algae should be gone within a few days.

My display tank is double the size of yours. Two weeks ago I had a huge hair algae outbreak (tank is in month 2 of reset and I had just eliminated Dino’s). I purchased 25 Astrea, 5 Trochus, 5 cerith, and 10 bumblebee snails. They teamed up with my existing 2 tangs, 2 urchins, 5 crabs, and 17 snails (mostly small ones) to clean off the rocks within 3-4 days.

Note also that some of that algae looks really long. You should scrub those down manually and then let the CUC finish the job.

 

[Rhetoric]

Everything looks normal to me. I don't use chemicals.

Slingfox has great advice more clean up crew.

I'm a big fan of urchins.

 

[buzzeorw1]

Thank you for this! Will get a Blemy and some urchins.

 

[buzzeorw1]

Get 10 Astrea, 5 trochus, and a few cerith snails and that algae should be gone within a few days.

My display tank is double the size of yours. Two weeks ago I had a huge hair algae outbreak (tank is in month 2 of reset and I had just eliminated Dino’s). I purchased 25 Astrea, 5 Trochus, 5 cerith, and 10 bumblebee snails. They teamed up with my existing 2 tangs, 2 urchins, 5 crabs, and 17 snails (mostly small ones) to clean off the rocks within 3-4 days.

Note also that some of that algae looks really long. You should scrub those down manually and then let the CUC finish the job.

This is great stuff, this forum has excellent members! Thank you!

 

[slingfox]

This is great stuff, this forum has excellent members! Thank you!

If your local LFS does not have Astrea specifically, you can get them off saltwaterfish.com. They have good pricing and they package and ship their invests better than most places. I prefer to get inverts locally but sometimes don’t have much of a choice.

Astrea snails are my favorite snails. They don’t spawn in tank like Trochus but are smaller and therefor get into crevices better.

 

[Lindaanne60]

Thank you in advance for taking a look at this.

55 gal, 20 gal sump, 8 month old reef tank. About 8 fish and 10 corals (mostly frags). I’ve had a little success with the corals starting to creep onto the rocks :cool: . I think the tank is cycled as my nitrites are stable at zero, and I haven’t had Dino’s in a long time now :) Lights run for 6 hours, no higher than 60% and most of it on the blue end of the spectrum. I do 30% water changes every two weeks. No refugium, and I would prefer to avoid having one. I think I have good flow between the two heads and the return pump.Lots of lava rock in sump and I change carbon every two weeks. Good, tuned protein skimmer. The tank is out of direct sunlight. I feed them enough food that they gobbled it all up within a minute. I purchase distilled water from crystal bottled water company for water changes. I live in Florida, but I use an r/o filter for the tap (for my top off water only for the carbon in my ATO. My boss has always been pretty stable. My nitrate spiked up a month ago. I did a 50% water change and its way down dealing with this algae for months.

Please see the pics of this algae problem I can’t get a handle on. It only grows on the rocks.

I can take the rock out and scrub it. That works for about a month and then the algae is back but I hate doing it cause it seems such a risk with breaking the glass (I live it an apartment, second floor so I need to avoid that at all costs!). All the rock manipulation also ends up causing so much damage to my corals, and if I’m trying to grow these corals on rock scrubbing the rock seems counter intuitive.

Is this hair algae? They look like long brown hairy strands.

Should I try chemicals?

Is this just a cycling issue?

Refugium? They seem like an awful amount of maintenance and I don’t know where I would fit it in my sump.

If I just leave it alone & do water changes. Will the algae problem eventually take care of itself? I don’t mind being patient just unsure on what to do. I’m a new hobbyist. It seems like it’s getting so much worse the last couple weeks and I just did a 50% water change 3 weeks ago to bring down my nitrates, it brought down my nitrates, but the algae remains.

Any instruction here would be extremely appreciated. Thank you so much!

You need to get

 

[Lindaanne60]

Your best bet is going the snail route. Trochus,astraea,and. Mexican turbo snails. They will have a feast!