Help!

[robwcormack]

I have been battling some sort of hair algae. I have bought a microscope and here is the 400x view. Looks like GHA to me. BUT, I have tried everything to get rid of it. Nothing will eat it. Had a lawnmower blenny and sea hare starve with this stuff plentiful. My foxface and whitetail bristle tooth won’t touch it, all different types of snails, hermits, pitho, conch. None of them. I remove it time after time. Tried fluxRx twice that didn’t work. Tried blackouts multiple times. Algaefix marine no help. Then I thought maybe the reefmat removed the fluxRx before it had a chance to work so I took the reefmat out and took the cup off the skimmer 9 days ago and am trying running it again with algaefix at the same time. Ran with no skimmer or filters for a week and a couple days ago put in filter socks and cleaned sump completely and started skimmer back. Ran GFO in reactor for a few days but Parameters show 0.0 phosphate and 1.0 nitrate with Hanna checkers so I turned reactor off. Even bought Hanna calibration kit for each. Only running lights 6 hours a day. Have left UV off for a month or so. 20-30% water changes weekly. I’m at my wits end. Replaced all RODI filters, then bought a whole new RODI system. I’ve got Cyano starting, especially in sand next to glass below top layer. Got what looks like maybe Dinos starting on top of sand as well which disappears at night.

 

[Lasse]

In the aquarium - does it form a mat and/or looks slimy??

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can we see a full tank picture? That will help us.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Wow, you have certainly tried a lot of things. Hopefully these fine reefers can help.

 

[robwcormack]

In the aquarium - does it form a mat and/or looks slimy??

Sincerely Lasse

No. The only thing close to that is that it does tend to grow all around my zoas ad gets kind of thick and matted around the bases. Zoas are all stretched up a bit presumably due to the lights being cut back so much for so long. I’ve only been running lights for 6 hours a day for months now and have the intensity dialed down too

 

[robwcormack]

Can we see a full tank picture? That will help us.

I’ll get some this evening. Lights don’t come up till 2:30P and go down at 8:30

 

[Lasse]

Not like this?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[robwcormack]

Not like this?

Sincerely Lasse

No not at all

 

[EnterName]

You have already tried excessive filtering so I want to suggest a different approach:

Randy often mentions that there are plenty of great looking tanks without algae issues that have what most people would consider "high" nutrient levels. Algae needs more than nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to grow. Carbon (C), as well as Iron (Fe) and other elements can become a limiting factor, as well. (See Randy's Thoughts on Nutrient Target Ranges)

Algae growth could be more of an indicator for something being wrong with the water chemistry/biology than an indicator for too high nutrient levels. I would try to bring nutrient levels up to desired levels using for example ammonia and phosphate dosing. This gives you a lot of control over nutrient levels and doesn't require overfeeding which might cause other problems in the long run and has a very delayed effect that is hard to control and estimate properly.



I very recently had a similar algae issue (anecdotal evidence incoming):
I upgraded to another tank and didn't want to transfer the sand. I also used activated carbon to remove chemicals that might have been introduced through the new piping, silicone/glue, plastic, etc.

This led to nutrients bottoming out, bacteria to die (bio-film on the water surface), and dinos starting to appear.
The previous tank always had low nutrient levels so removing the sand and filtering excessively was simply too much. As soon as I had made sense of what was happening, I started dosing ammonia and phosphate and got an ICP test done. The test showed that everything was fine besides Strontium (Sr) being low and the obvious nutrient issues. I simply prepared nutrient solutions and added the missing Sr over a few days and corals were opening fully again, gaining color, and dinos, as well as green algae (see image below) stopped growing all together.

(DIC Microscopy Focus-Stack Image of the nuisance algae)​

 

[Kooma]

You have already tried excessive filtering so I want to suggest a different approach:

Randy often mentions that there are plenty of great looking tanks without algae issues that have what most people would consider "high" nutrient levels. Algae needs more than nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to grow. Carbon (C), as well as Iron (Fe) and other elements can become a limiting factor, as well. (See Randy's Thoughts on Nutrient Target Ranges)

Algae growth could be more of an indicator for something being wrong with the water chemistry/biology than an indicator for too high nutrient levels. I would try to bring nutrient levels up to desired levels using for example ammonia and phosphate dosing. This gives you a lot of control over nutrient levels and doesn't require overfeeding which might cause other problems in the long run and has a very delayed effect that is hard to control and estimate properly.



I very recently had a similar algae issue (anecdotal evidence incoming):
I upgraded to another tank and didn't want to transfer the sand. I also used activated carbon to remove chemicals that might have been introduced through the new piping, silicone/glue, plastic, etc.

This led to nutrients bottoming out, bacteria to die (bio-film on the water surface), and dinos starting to appear.
The previous tank always had low nutrient levels so removing the sand and filtering excessively was simply too much. As soon as I had made sense of what was happening, I started dosing ammonia and phosphate and got an ICP test done. The test showed that everything was fine besides Strontium (Sr) being low and the obvious nutrient issues. I simply prepared nutrient solutions and added the missing Sr over a few days and corals were opening fully again, gaining color, and dinos, as well as green algae (see image below) stopped growing all together.

(DIC Microscopy Focus-Stack Image of the nuisance algae)​

Love this.

There is definitely more to algae outbreaks than phos and nitrates. I run a system that is over 1.5 phos and 90 nitrate, and have absolutely zero hair algae or other types. All I’m dealing with lately is some cyano as I work to bring those levels down with vinegar dosing, which is working really well.

Maybe we should put a thread together focused on cup results and algae, I’d love to find out more info about it.

 

[Michael Hughes]

All I’m dealing with lately is some cyano as I work to bring those levels down with vinegar dosing, which is working really well.

I know this a different topic than the OP asked about, but Stomatellas will absolutely destroy cyano. They love the stuff.

 

[Lasse]

No not at all

I look forward to seeing your current photos. Please take them under white light.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[robwcormack]

No not at all

I look forward to seeing your current photos. Please take them under white light.

Sincerely Lasse

So I have XR30 Blues and I cand figure out how to get Möbius to turn white. Obviously when it’s not white it’s a little harder to tell but this was what I got.

Have to give an iCloud link because I can’t resize pics to fit on here.

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