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
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
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