I Give Up!

[Dastins]

I've tried every possible solution other than breaking the tank completely down. This algea is a pain. Please help.

120g tank
Reef octopus 150int skimmer
Salinity 1.026
Water temp 74 degrees (recently brought down from 78)
Nitrites are a little high but nothing to keep causing this.

 

[Saltine]

I've tried every possible solution other than breaking the tank completely down. This algea is a pain. Please help.

Are you carbon dosing? What are your parameters?

 

[Dastins]

Carbon dosing changed every the weeks, 20% water changes once a week for Six weeks. Cut back on feeding. Begged up cuc. Two sea hares.

 

[riche]

Adjust/add flow and check your Ro/di water for TDS and maybe cut down on the lights

 

[r.bergonia19]

Get phosban reactor and put GFO in it and let it run u till all the algae are gone. Make sure u get the appropriate size for ur tank but the bigger the better.

 

[FishOfHex]

 

[djd3mon]

I am currently fighting an algae outbreak and some of the things I am going to try are:

cut back feeding by half or more
add phosphate reactor
us a chemical called Vibrant
use a chemical called Phosphate rx
add a chemical called chemi-clean
use blue leds only for 8 hours
a blackout for 3 days.
change out 100-200% water change.


So far I have added
1. a phosphate reactor
2. turned on only blue leds for 8 hours
3. used a chemical called vibrant.

It is slowly working.
I can see my Cyano starting to disappear, my diatoms gone, my hair algae weakening and my bryopsis weakening.

I know it is frustration as hell. keep with it, its worth it in the end whenever you figure it out.

 

[Saltine]

Carbon dosing changed every the weeks, 20% water changes once a week for Six weeks. Cut back on feeding. Begged up cuc. Two sea hares.

by carbon dosing I'm referring to adding NoPx, Vodka, Vinegar, something to feed the bacteria that eats nitrates.

 

[themcnertney]

Do you use RO/DI?

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

Carbon dosing changed every the weeks

I'm guessing you meant activated carbon vs carbon dosing (which @Saltine already mentioned)

A few questions that might help diagnose:

How old is the system overall (i.e. how long have you had this setup up and running)?
Have you taken any of the rocks out and scrubbed them off to try and solve this? (I'm not suggesting you do that - quite the opposite)
Where did the rocks come from?
How high are your nitrates and phosphates and what are you using to test them?
How many hours/day do you run the DT lights?
I see a Fusion pump in the background behind the tank, are you running an upflow scrubber?
What is your general husbandry schedule (PWCs, media changes, etc)?
What is your livestock?
How much do you feed?

Need more information in order to help pinpoint the root cause of the issue. Otherwise, we're throwing darts blindfolded....

 

[saltyhog]

Like Turbo said. Need a lot more information to be of help. GAC (activated carbon) is not what we mean by carbon dosing. As already noted above, it is adding a source of carbon for feeding the bacteria that turn ammonia into nitrates and ultimately nitrogen gas.

I have found that my tank will be relatively free of bothersome algae even with nitrates up to 10 if my phosphates are between 0.02 and 0.05. GFO is what I use to control phsophates...even when I did carbon dose for nitrate control