I can’t stop this algae

[CKap]

I have been battling against this algae for months now and i have had no success. I have been told that this is red cyano, then i was told i have dinos, and now my lfs told me its red hair algae. I am desperately trying to find any solution to what this could be. If anyone can please help identify this or tell me how to combat it, it will be greatly appreciated. I sent photos to id it along with my current light schedule and its daytime high.

Nitrates-6.6
Phosphates-0.08

 

[jabberwock]

How old is the tank? How many gallons?

 

[Pistondog]

I have been battling against this algae for months now and i have had no success. I have been told that this is red cyano, then i was told i have dinos, and now my lfs told me its red hair algae. I am desperately trying to find any solution to what this could be. If anyone can please help identify this or tell me how to combat it, it will be greatly appreciated. I sent photos to id it along with my current light schedule and its daytime high.

Nitrates-6.6
Phosphates-0.08

Increase flow to the sandbed.
Get a couple of tiger conches to work on it, theyll also climb the rocks.

 

[Red_Beard]

Give us a rundown on the whole system, what is your normal maintenance routine? What are you using for topoff water? What are your general parameters, and how have they been trending? How much do you feed, what/how often? What are you dosing? What are you doing for export, skimmer, macros, ats etc? What does flow look like, powerheads placement intensity?

I would say this is likely an issue with either topup water quality, nutrient turnover, or flow. Or a combination of them, but answers to above questions should help flesh out our assumptions.

 

[Borat]

Nice pets!

 

[CKap]

Give us a rundown on the whole system, what is your normal maintenance routine? What are you using for topoff water? What are your general parameters, and how have they been trending? How much do you feed, what/how often? What are you dosing? What are you doing for export, skimmer, macros, ats etc? What does flow look like, powerheads placement intensity?

I would say this is likely an issue with either topup water quality, nutrient turnover, or flow. Or a combination of them, but answers to above questions should help flesh out our assumptions.

Alright here we go.

I run carbon, gfo, a skimmer, and filter socks on my system. I have an rodi filter system installed which i use for my topoff and my tds reads 0 on the water exiting the filtration. I haven’t dealt with a nutrient spike in a very long time, well before this algae started breaking out. My nitrates are always stable and have ranged from 5-8 for the past 6 months and I have never allowed my phosphates to go above 0.1. Regarding dosing, i dose everything (alk, cal, mag, and trace elements.). I would say that i have alot of flow in my system since i have a good amount of sps in my tank. Adding up all of my flow i would say i have about 13,000gph. I have attempted to use macroalgae before but i have never been able to grow chaeto in my system. My assumption is that my nutrients are too low. To be honest i feed my fish alot, but i have always done that. And even so, my nutrient levels never rise.

 

[Red_Beard]

Alright here we go.

I run carbon, gfo, a skimmer, and filter socks on my system. I have an rodi filter system installed which i use for my topoff and my tds reads 0 on the water exiting the filtration. I haven’t dealt with a nutrient spike in a very long time, well before this algae started breaking out. My nitrates are always stable and have ranged from 5-8 for the past 6 months and I have never allowed my phosphates to go above 0.1. Regarding dosing, i dose everything (alk, cal, mag, and trace elements.). I would say that i have alot of flow in my system since i have a good amount of sps in my tank. Adding up all of my flow i would say i have about 13,000gph. I have attempted to use macroalgae before but i have never been able to grow chaeto in my system. My assumption is that my nutrients are too low. To be honest i feed my fish alot, but i have always done that. And even so, my nutrient levels never rise.

If you are running sps heavy, they are going to be a large part of your nutrient uptake. With enough coral mass you wouldnt need much else. You say you have a good amount of flow in the tank, but how about in that spot? Is it in a dead spot?
That stuff doesnt look like red hair algae to me, but hard to say using just a picture. When you pull it out, is it stringy and comes out in chunks? Or does it kind of disintegrate? It might help to get an id a little more nailed down, and a microscope could help there, if it gets that far.

One more question, beyond figuring out specifically what it is you are fighting. What do you have for clean up crew, specifically sand stirrers?

 

[CKap]

If you are running sps heavy, they are going to be a large part of your nutrient uptake. With enough coral mass you wouldnt need much else. You say you have a good amount of flow in the tank, but how about in that spot? Is it in a dead spot?
That stuff doesnt look like red hair algae to me, but hard to say using just a picture. When you pull it out, is it stringy and comes out in chunks? Or does it kind of disintegrate? It might help to get an id a little more nailed down, and a microscope could help there, if it gets that far.

One more question, beyond figuring out specifically what it is you are fighting. What do you have for clean up crew, specifically sand stirrers?

I have a few nassarius snails and a tiger conch. I have noticed that it grows alot in lower flow areas and it completely disintegrates. It always comes back a few hours later though

 

[Red_Beard]

That sounds more like a type of cyano or dino. Like a lyngbya or calothrix maybe.

 

[Pistondog]

Alright here we go.

I run carbon, gfo, a skimmer, and filter socks on my system. I have an rodi filter system installed which i use for my topoff and my tds reads 0 on the water exiting the filtration. I haven’t dealt with a nutrient spike in a very long time, well before this algae started breaking out. My nitrates are always stable and have ranged from 5-8 for the past 6 months and I have never allowed my phosphates to go above 0.1. Regarding dosing, i dose everything (alk, cal, mag, and trace elements.). I would say that i have alot of flow in my system since i have a good amount of sps in my tank. Adding up all of my flow i would say i have about 13,000gph. I have attempted to use macroalgae before but i have never been able to grow chaeto in my system. My assumption is that my nutrients are too low. To be honest i feed my fish alot, but i have always done that. And even so, my nutrient levels never rise.

Nutrients are good at po4 = 0.1 ppm, nitrates 5 to 10ppm. Did you say how big the tank is?
Nice to see a tiger conch, we have 4 in the 75g dt.
Id stop the gfo and see where the po4 goes.

 

[CKap]

Nutrients are good at po4 = 0.1 ppm, nitrates 5 to 10ppm. Did you say how big the tank is?
Nice to see a tiger conch, we have 4 in the 75g dt.
Id stop the gfo and see where the po4 goes.

The system is a 150 gallon tank. I’m definitely going to get more cuc for my sandbed. Maybe a diamond goby too

 

[CKap]

That sounds more like a type of cyano or dino. Like a lyngbya

That sounds more like a type of cyano or dino. Like a lyngbya or calothrix maybe.

I used to have cyano in my system and after using chemiclean, it was all gone. A month after, this appeared. I tried chemiclean a few times and it had zero affect on whatever this is.

 

[CKap]

If i lowered my red and green lights do you guys think it would have any effect on this outbreak?

 

[Red_Beard]

If you want to go the light route, i think a blackout would be more effective. I doubt just red or green would affect it. If you do try that let me know though as i would be curious.

 

[CKap]

If you want to go the light route, i think a blackout would be more effective. I doubt just red or green would affect it. If you do try that let me know though as i would be curious.

Honestly I’m very nervous to try a full blackout, especially with my corals. I have so many sps in my tank and i’m worried about it effecting them.

 

[Red_Beard]

I don't blame you. I would be too. Short of figuring out specifically what it is you are fighting and targeting it with clean up crew/manual removal etc, not sure what else to do.