Tango2
Active Member
Ok, I started a thread several weeks ago and it hasn't gotten much traction. I'm starting a new one in hopes there will be a little more traction. Quick back story:
Tank was originally setup in 2013. It stayed algae free for several years, but bubble algae found it's way into the tank. Manual removal resulted in bowls full of BA, but it always came back. Nothing would touch it at the rate it returned. Just before nuking the tank, Vibrant was catching on and several people recommended trying it. It did, and it COMPLETELY got rid of my BA that I had fought with for years. Soon after, other algae started popping up, but nothing too crazy.
Fast forward to now and I have an overwhelming amount of really quick growing algae covering my rocks and some covering my sand bed. I've recently replenished my CUC and occasionally notice clean patches of rock, but not nearly at the rate that it comes back. It seems to be mostly hermits that do the cleanup.
For a while, I was cutting WAY back on feeding, thinking I had excess nutrients. I may have caused more problems with this.
Now I'm feeding frozen food at least once a day (sometimes more), more religious with water testing and I'm not seeing much of a change. I've also tried peroxide dosing (10ml/day) for a week. I've also tried increasing temps to about 82/83 for about a week, but my finger leather didn't like it and I slowly returned back to my normal temps. I did a 3-day blackout, and that seemed to slow things down, but overall no major difference. I also did a 25 gallon water change in the past few weeks. I'm running activated carbon in my filter sock and changing every week. Manual scrubbing appears to get rid of it, but it's all back by the next day or two max.
Parameters are:
Alk 8
NH3/NH4 0
Nitrate 16
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0.03
pH 8.2
I'd love to figure this out, but have no idea what else to try.
Tank was originally setup in 2013. It stayed algae free for several years, but bubble algae found it's way into the tank. Manual removal resulted in bowls full of BA, but it always came back. Nothing would touch it at the rate it returned. Just before nuking the tank, Vibrant was catching on and several people recommended trying it. It did, and it COMPLETELY got rid of my BA that I had fought with for years. Soon after, other algae started popping up, but nothing too crazy.
Fast forward to now and I have an overwhelming amount of really quick growing algae covering my rocks and some covering my sand bed. I've recently replenished my CUC and occasionally notice clean patches of rock, but not nearly at the rate that it comes back. It seems to be mostly hermits that do the cleanup.
For a while, I was cutting WAY back on feeding, thinking I had excess nutrients. I may have caused more problems with this.
Now I'm feeding frozen food at least once a day (sometimes more), more religious with water testing and I'm not seeing much of a change. I've also tried peroxide dosing (10ml/day) for a week. I've also tried increasing temps to about 82/83 for about a week, but my finger leather didn't like it and I slowly returned back to my normal temps. I did a 3-day blackout, and that seemed to slow things down, but overall no major difference. I also did a 25 gallon water change in the past few weeks. I'm running activated carbon in my filter sock and changing every week. Manual scrubbing appears to get rid of it, but it's all back by the next day or two max.
Parameters are:
Alk 8
NH3/NH4 0
Nitrate 16
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0.03
pH 8.2
I'd love to figure this out, but have no idea what else to try.
