How much food is to much food?

[DJMCB35]

I realize you have a problem with algae growing in the tank but, with all those tangs and a foxface, you’re not feeding nori or something else in addition to what you’ve listed? And coral feeding? I’m guessing this is “fish only”, or are you supplementing something else too… Reef Roids, etc? Are your nitrates being taken up by the algae and then not being exported out of the tank?

 

[Rtaylor]

Since it looks like a FOWLR you could significantly reduce light which would help with the algae. I’ve also had good luck with Reef Flux.
Update- ok, I do see coral. You could do a temporary black out, like 3 days.

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

0.25 nitrate is not a nutrient problem however you need to control where your algae grows by using algae reactors/scrubber.

how does one control where algae grows?

 

[Rtaylor]

how does one control where algae grows?

Refugium or algae scrubber

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

I’m not convinced that one can control where in the main display tank algae decides to grow. I will though agree that there are several means to which we can attempt to mitigate the propagation of algae.

 

[dkfrosty1]

Urchins are the best algae eaters! I am wondering if a few long spines would be good in op tank. I am not sure what trigger op has thoigh

What about chitons? They clean the Rock bare and don’t touch my coralline. They are really funky too. And based on their description of their armor maybe not as Vulnerable to fish? Reef cleaners has them.

 

[mermaid_life]

vibrant? esp since you dont have to wrry about corals and inverts? that stuff is dangerous magic

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Hi btackerman, So you’ve had a lot of good advice in this post. My personal experience and also helping others with gha is to do them all. I call it “messing with it”! Man is really good at killing, polluting, bleaching, destroying etc. when it comes to nature. Likewise when we mess with nature or gha it’s going to suffer and ultimately die. Here is a doable list of things that you can constantly do to mess with your gha. GFO, get a nylon bag and place it in you filter/sump area. A phos pad as well in your sump. Let these things work below while your attending to the dt. Someone mentioned pull it out by hand. Gha hates it! Do some every day. Mess with it, tick it off. Small or large turbo snails. 20/30 of them even if some of your fish kill them it’s possibly cheaper than 1 or 2 of your corals. Do some consistent water changes. Gravel vac often. You want pristine. Gha hates pristine. All of these things need to be done. There’s nothing in a bottle that will take the place of these things. In a month or two you’ll notice the rich dark green color of this plague start to lighten and begin to look like dreadlocks mon. It will get long and stringy. Keep pulling till its gone and start enjoying your corals. Mess with it! A lot and constantly. Good luck.

 

[btackerman]

Thanks everyone for the advice I have never had an outbreak this bad. Yes I do have some softies and BTAs and no I do not add reef food but I do add vitamins and garlic to the fish food and Nori 1 time a week. I did have a friend call and say mess with it as well and have my gyres on the ltc maxed out. Also suggested short spinner urchins and a lot of snails as well and to also get a school of sailfins tangs and more blennys. My purple tang will get to be super aggressive but if I added 2-3 sailfins at a time I should still have success. The other thing he said is do a 100 gallon water change but super slow and scrub every surface I can reach with out disturbing my corals with a scrub brush on a broom stick.

 

[Avp]

I would definitely try an urchin before adding any algae killing additive to the water. In my experience, urchins will mow down anything. I've had tuxedo and black long spined ones and both have been fantastic.

 

[kingjoe]

Urchins are the best algae eaters! I am wondering if a few long spines would be good in op tank. I am not sure what trigger op has thoigh

Hard to say what would happen there. I've seen triggers pull spine after spine from an urchin until they have room to get in and bite through the shell. Sometimes, I think predation on urchins may simply depend on the disposition and habits of the individual triggerfish. I think it would be worth a try, though.

 

[DrEggroll]

What’s the utility in an algae scrubber if I have a refugium growing chaeto. My algae just got out of control. Nitrates have been 2-4 and phos has been undetectable. I just bought 12 turbo snails and an urchin and have been manually removing the gha. My just took to the sand which is a pain

 

[btackerman]

What’s the utility in an algae scrubber if I have a refugium growing chaeto. My algae just got out of control. Nitrates have been 2-4 and phos has been undetectable. I just bought 12 turbo snails and an urchin and have been manually removing the gha. My just took to the sand which is a pain

I will say my nitrates were at 4 before I added the algea scrubber and my sand was brown, it has now dropped to .5 on average and my sand is pretty much clean

 

[Spare time]

Hard to say what would happen there. I've seen triggers pull spine after spine from an urchin until they have room to get in and bite through the shell. Sometimes, I think predation on urchins may simply depend on the disposition and habits of the individual triggerfish. I think it would be worth a try, though.

Yeah it depends on the trigger species since a lot of triggers are VERY good at eating urchins

 

[Spare time]

I really think fluconazole would be the best choice since its so extreme.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Looking at this, go natural, 2 urchins would mow that grass in no time. Take the risk. Watch carefully....