Hey - Did I actually solve my tank's algae problem?

[s_tempest]

Hey folks:

Like many other new(ish) reefers, I'm pretty quick to think my tank problems are due to something I'm overlooking, and if I could just measure/adjust/tweak that one magic thing, then everything would be perfect. Hah!
So I've been battling an algae issue since mid-November. Not super bad, but not great to look at either. The tank is new (since Aug) so I chalked it up to 'new tank uglies' coupled with 'too high nutrients' and/or 'inadequate CUC or algae eaters'. That's what folks at my two favorite LFSs said, and that's answer #1 here on R2R too.

It's a short (0.5-1 cm), dark green dense algae. It's absent from directly under the lights, but shows up around the edges/sides of the rock work. Not present in the shadows, but it seemed to like dimmer spots. And it was spreading.
It's tough stuff too. I can't scrape it off with a toothbrush. Even with forceps or a hemostat I have to really tug, and it held on enough that even fist-size rocks would get lifted up by it rather than break free.

I added more algae eaters - urchins, rabbitfish, algae blenny. They didn't touch the stuff.
I tried NOPOx & Vibrant, upped my skimmer, cut back feedings, measured N & P almost daily, even added a GFO reactor. No real effect. NO3 sits around 10 ppm & PO4 sits around 0.1 ppm (some days higher, some days lower). Seems about right, and as I'm learning - you gotta feed the corals for them to grow.
I looked into lighting, borrowed a PAR meter, read up on intensity and duration, and tweaked things, but I don't think that was my problem either.

I just figured I didn't have the magic sauce recipe to be algae free, probably because my tank is new and I'm still gaining knowledge and experience.

I learned here about bryopsis and looked at a bunch of my algae under as much magnification as I could - no feathery edges. Bummer.

But somewhere on here I read that someone had success against what they called turf algae using fluconazole. Turf algae, Derbesia, hair algae - I'm not an expert at identification, and I sometimes wonder if the same common name gets applied to different kinds of organisms. But I thought - why not try it? Nothing else I'm doing was having an impact.

Long story short - after one month, my algae issue is gone! No effect on tank inhabitants (fish, hermits, snails, corals) that I can tell, no effect on tank chemistry that I can measure.

Photos to follow.

- Steve

 

[s_tempest]

Here's a photo of my tank mid-November. Not overrun, but not algae free either.

 

[tripdad]

Like your rock scape, nicely done!

 

[s_tempest]

On Dec. 6 I added 2500 mg of fluconazole. With the sump I have a 130 gallon tank, so at 20 mg/gallon and accounting for some volume occupied by rocks & sand, I went with that dose. I opened the capsules into a glass of tank water, stirred to mixed up (there were some bits not dissolved right away that I crushed into smaller particles), and poured it into my return pump chamber. Skimmer was off, and stayed off for the next four days.

 

[s_tempest]

I took pictures at a few key spots close up for the next month every few days. Here is the progression from one of those spots:

 

[s_tempest]

and another two spots:

 

[s_tempest]

And a wider shot showing the change in algae on a bigger piece of rock:

 

[s_tempest]

It took about a week until I noticed any change. The algae then started to become a bit gray in places, especially in the more well-lit spots. After a few more days, it was noticeably less abundant and much more of it had lost its dark green color and faded to gray-green.
Things got hectic right around Christmas and I didn't take photos from 12/26 until today. But what a difference those two weeks made!

 

[robbyg]

The problem with almost all these chemical methods is that they do not remove the underlying problem which is typically high Phosphates and Nitrates. Killing the existing Algae in most cases just leads to something other type of Algae breaking out later. Also the dead algae's physical makeup did not vanish into thin air. As it died it's carcass released back into your water everything it consumed, which is a lot more Phos and Nitrate.

I hope what you tried is a real long term solution but if past tests of chemical irradication are any indication, it might just have given you some temporary relief from the issue.

 

[LadyMac]

I just wanna point out, your rock work is gorgeous. And congrats on the algae fix!

 

[s_tempest]

And here is a full-tank picture from this morning. What a difference in two months!

 

[s_tempest]

I just wanna point out, your rock work is gorgeous. And congrats on the algae fix!

Thank you! I looked at a lot of photos on-line to get a sense of the look I was going for, and then read a lot here about how to do it. I documented it on my build thread (Marco rock, E-Marco cement and fiberglass rods) but I haven't update that build thread in months, because ... algae.

 

[eraserhead187]

Here's a photo of my tank mid-November. Not overrun, but not algae free either.

Your aquscaping is beautiful. Wish I had the vision to make mine look like that. Mine looks like some kid just hurled a bunch of big rocks into a puddle.

 

[s_tempest]

The problem with almost all these chemical methods is that they do not remove the underlying problem which is typically high Phosphates and Nitrates. Killing the existing Algae in most cases just leads to something other type of Algae breaking out later. Also the dead algae's physical makeup did not vanish into thin air. As it died it's carcass released back into your water everything it consumed, which is a lot more Phos and Nitrate.

I hope what you tried is a real long term solution but if past tests of chemical irradication are any indication, it might just have given you some temporary relief from the issue.

Yup, I hope so too! Something else now growing is a concern. I'm hoping that now that this tough & undesirable algae is gone, if something like hair algae grows in its place my algae eaters will tackle it.
It's such a hard thing to get a sense of - what is high versus low? I can read hours worth of threads and still end up feeling that one person's good N & P concentrations are someone else's too-high and yet another person's too-low.
I plan to keep up with my export (skimmer, gfo, maybe nopox dosing if I see numbers creeping up), watching my input (feeding fish and corals), and seeing how much tank evolves over the next month or so.

 

[s_tempest]

Your aquscaping is beautiful. Wish I had the vision to make mine look like that. Mine looks like some kid just hurled a bunch of big rocks into a puddle.

Well, I spent a lot of time as a kid hurling rocks into puddles - and ended up a professor in a geology department!
One thing I really like about this 'scape is the suspended, cantilever effect it achieved. I took a better photo from lower down so you can see what I mean. That whole surface with the coral looks suspended in air when you look at the tank straight on.

 

[Reef Stallion]

Looks like you need more coralline algae to compete for space on the rock. The sand and rock have enough nutrients to support algae growth even if the water column is low on these nutrients.
Your pictures also remind me of the BRSTV UV light testing.
The fact that an anti-fungal agent can help algae supports the idea of spores being released. This is obviously not something hobbyists test for but would be something a UV filter would help control.
Just my thoughts.

 

[s_tempest]

Looks like you need more coralline algae to compete for space on the rock. The sand and rock have enough nutrients to support algae growth even if the water column is low on these nutrients.
Your pictures also remind me of the BRSTV UV light testing.
The fact that an anti-fungal agent can help algae supports the idea of spores being released. This is obviously not something hobbyists test for but would be something a UV filter would help control.
Just my thoughts.

It's still a young tank, so getting that coralline to grow and outcompete for space is a waiting game. Interestingly, I'm just starting to notice coralline growth on the rocks in the past few weeks. Just a few patches, but it is spreading. I even had my first 'scrape some off the front glass' moment yesterday - so proud!
If it is coralline algae that becomes the successor to whatever this prior algae was, I will be thrilled.
Coopersburg, huh? Any good LFS in the area? My wife's parents and my SiL live near there, and I'd love to find something to go do when we visit.

 

[Reef Stallion]

Reef2Rift is a good store (20 minutes away) since they quarantine all fish for 2 weeks before sale. The downside is they hardly ever have fish and they have very little variety. I tend to buy all fish online because of this.

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

I know this is an old thread, but when you went through the 2 months of the dose, what did your water changes look like? also, did you do just a one time dose of the fluconazole?

thanks,

Barnabie

 

[s_tempest]

I know this is an old thread, but when you went through the 2 months of the dose, what did your water changes look like? also, did you do just a one time dose of the fluconazole?

thanks,

Barnabie

I just did the one dose. By one month it was obvious that the algae was gone. And it is still gone!
i did one 15% water change on day 19 and then another 15% ten days later.