I have the equivalent of Nuisance Algae Disease in my reef tank

WhoIsCandice

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Issues that I'm currently seeing:
Originally when I started my reef tank I started with dry rock, no real sources of "good" corraline algae. But I ended up getting nuisance algae over time. I had my phosphate at one point increase to > 1.0 (likely 3.0, as Hanna was going out of bounds after 30% water changes until a second or third water change at about 2 months or 3 months of me being in the hobby). This was when my nuisance algae started, but LaCl dosing + GFO + big water changes corrected the water param problem, and later cleaners (described below) I was able to actually remove nuisance algaes / cyano.
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So I've been battling nuisance algae in my reef tank for months now. I've been dosing Algae Fix, Chemiclean, and Fluconazole to keep that Algae at bay. With manual removal, I was actually able to clean up my tank to a pretty "clean" setup.

However I ended up doing a big water change before then dosing corraline algae in a bottle (purple helix and pink fusion) and the water was clean for ~ 3 days (bacteria is in the bottle). I did not redose the above cleaners. Things were looking pretty good. However I then dosed a small amount of what I thought was my Nanocloropsis culture, but I then saw a bunch of my nuisance algae come back.

At this time of dosing, Phosphate measured at about 0.14 after 2 days of dosing "phyto". I saw all my algae problems come back (Bryopsis, GHA) and black and green cyano which I think is Spirulina. This leads me to two conclusions:
1. My phytoculture has a significant amount of unconsumed fertilizer but is no longer uptaking it.
2. While I do have this green water culture going on, I no longer think I have nanocloropsis here -- I see extreme amounts of settlement on the walls of my jar
So when restarting my culture, it will start looking like a typical green water culture here: https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/spirulina-culture-plastic-bottle-79015527.jpg
But there is still some stringy stuff growing, and the color of my culture doesn't go from dark green -> yellow, it goes from dark green -> light green -> clear-slightly whitish, as in there is bacteria in a bottle white, eg a "culture crash" from what I've seen other people document this as.

However, my culture doesn't just crash here -- it goes into a battle for infinity between bacteria and some other green culture, which I think is how spiruliuna got into here in the first place.

Water Parameters at 4/16/2022
Phosphate: 0.07 Hanna LR Checker
Nitrates: 0.1 ~ 0.0 Salifert
KH: ~11
CA: 460
MG: 640 <- I think this might be test-kit error, this seems to test low even after doing a 40% water change, this is the rikka test kit which reviews mentioned that MG testing was usually low. I don't have much SPS in this tank, just a couple montis but mostly soft corals.

Given that I'm having the equivalent of nuisance algae here, what should my next steps here? Currently my plan is to redose the above cleaners as mentioned above, do a water change, then redose for a second dosage, and then go from there -- but is there anything else I can / should do to speed up the growth of corraline in my tank (which all this nuisance algae is extremely outcompeting?)
 
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Bnichols124

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Your doing way to much for a new tank. Seems with dry rock it takes quite a while to fully mature.

I'd take a step back and get back to basics before doing a ton of chems. Clean up crew, tangs and limit nutrients. Then I'd slowly introduce phytoplankton but not daily. Took me over 1 year to beat algea and every kind possible. And I used chems sparingly
 

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Issues that I'm currently seeing:
Originally when I started my reef tank I started with dry rock, no real sources of "good" corraline algae. But I ended up getting nuisance algae over time. I had my phosphate at one point increase to > 1.0 (likely 3.0, as Hanna was going out of bounds after 30% water changes until a second or third water change at about 2 months or 3 months of me being in the hobby). This was when my nuisance algae started, but LaCl dosing + GFO + big water changes corrected the water param problem, and later cleaners (described below) I was able to actually remove nuisance algaes / cyano.
------------------

So I've been battling nuisance algae in my reef tank for months now. I've been dosing Algae Fix, Chemiclean, and Fluconazole to keep that Algae at bay. With manual removal, I was actually able to clean up my tank to a pretty "clean" setup.

However I ended up doing a big water change before then dosing corraline algae in a bottle (purple helix and pink fusion) and the water was clean for ~ 3 days (bacteria is in the bottle). I did not redose the above cleaners. Things were looking pretty good. However I then dosed a small amount of what I thought was my Nanocloropsis culture, but I then saw a bunch of my nuisance algae come back.

At this time of dosing, Phosphate measured at about 0.14 after 2 days of dosing "phyto". I saw all my algae problems come back (Bryopsis, GHA) and black and green cyano which I think is Spirulina. This leads me to two conclusions:
1. My phytoculture has a significant amount of unconsumed fertilizer but is no longer uptaking it.
2. While I do have this green water culture going on, I no longer think I have nanocloropsis here -- I see extreme amounts of settlement on the walls of my jar
So when restarting my culture, it will start looking like a typical green water culture here: https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/spirulina-culture-plastic-bottle-79015527.jpg
But there is still some stringy stuff growing, and the color of my culture doesn't go from dark green -> yellow, it goes from dark green -> light green -> clear-slightly whitish, as in there is bacteria in a bottle white, eg a "culture crash" from what I've seen other people document this as.

However, my culture doesn't just crash here -- it goes into a battle for infinity between bacteria and some other green culture, which I think is how spiruliuna got into here in the first place.

Water Parameters at 4/16/2022
Phosphate: 0.07 Hanna LR Checker
Nitrates: 0.1 ~ 0.0 Salifert
KH: ~11
CA: 460
MG: 640 <- I think this might be test-kit error, this seems to test low even after doing a 40% water change, this is the rikka test kit which reviews mentioned that MG testing was usually low. I don't have much SPS in this tank, just a couple montis but mostly soft corals.

Given that I'm having the equivalent of nuisance algae here, what should my next steps here? Currently my plan is to redose the above cleaners as mentioned above, do a water change, then redose for a second dosage, and then go from there -- but is there anything else I can / should do to speed up the growth of corraline in my tank (which all this nuisance algae is extremely outcompeting?)
You're using way too any chemical treatments, especially in a new tank.

Algae problems in tanks under 1 year old are common, and most can be resolved simply with a decent cleanup crew (example, I have 4 conches, and about 40 assorted snails in my 75g, as well as vegetarian fish. Algae has no chance.

Just update the CUC, weekly water changes of around 10% and quit the chems to give the tank a chance to stabilise.

Some bacterial additive such as MB7 wouldn't hurt.

Phyto is quite high in nutrients so I'd back off on that.
 
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WhoIsCandice

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List of current and past cleaners:

3 turbo snails, about 5 or so hermit crabs, 9 nerite snails, a peppermint shrimp that (ATM is eating some of the dead algae that has turned orange). I used to have a brittle star that has disappeared (likely starved), more hermit crabs (these guys seem to fight sometimes even though there are extra shells in my tank). I also have 3-5 bumble bee snails, 2 stomatella snails.

(Used :-( ) to have a tang but it took no interest in algae, similarly I had a different blenny that didn't care for it and similar CUCs (the ones above) aren't interested as well. Seems to be something in between bryopsis / turf derbesia algae, cuc doesn't touch it. Hence why I've resorted to treatments that are chemical in nature :)

I'm not too excited about getting a fish here to deal with this algae as my fish have not taken a liking to it, and a tang in a 40G Breeder may be... problematic if intended forever:) .

Keep in mind I'm currently running pretty aggressive nutrient removal: Skimmer, 2 parallel reactors with GFO and Carbon (currently turned off with chemiclean dosing), refugium with chaeto (does have sand though). This algae doesn't seem to be able to be starved out, likely because it's consuming before export (eg same cause as "false 0" when nuisance algae has taken foot).

This isn't my post but is how the algae looks in my reef:
 

Miami Reef

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I think the title of this thread is in bad taste, it explains why you are adding so many chemicals to the tank, thinking of algae as AIDS.
Exactly. Algae isn’t even bad IMO. Most of our oxygen comes from algae in the sea. lol

When you love and embrace your algae, it goes away much quicker. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s certainly true in my experience.
 
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WhoIsCandice

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Hey everyone! Yall were right that the title was distasteful, and if a mod is inclined to change the title I'd love that.

It was extremely frustrating seeing Bryopsis + GHA overtake some corals and irritate them, hence the title.

Regardless, I've been able to mostly solve my problem! I did the following:
- My tank was extremely nitrate limited, and I had to start dosing KNO3. I saw soft-corals grow so fast quickly. (Maybe 2 polyps added on a 4-polyp frag of zoas within a week and a half). Similarly, I've raised Magnesium + Calcium Levels, at which I saw SPS + LPS growth shoot through the moon while also adding KNO3.
-I'm starting to see light-pink and dark-red coralline on my rockwork, it's starting to "chickenpox". I have some small purple blobs as well on a couple other rocks.
- I've left the fluconazole as is, in my tank, I used to see bryopsis growth all the time before, and now it turns into detritus pretty quickly, (though it still seems to grow, but dies instantly and becomes brown, compressed, string-like detritus) and my flow is able to take this to my overflow -> filter sock -> and detritus is gone. Coralline then gets a lot more space to grow and my tank seems to be recovering!

It was really good to go back to the basics, stop dosing Phyto, only use chemicals that are proven to work in the reefing community, and work on parameters. Microscopy verified that my phyto solutions did indeed have blue-green cyano but also green phyto, so obviously this culture was junk at this point.
I still have a leeching phosphate problem I believe (I'm running GFO but phosphates seem to increase by ~0.07 every 2 months) but overall my tank is doing a lot better than where I started. Leeching phosphates are likely because I never cured my rocks before putting them in my tank, and I bought them from Amazon. It's quite possible that I need to increase the amount of GFO I'm using to combat this.

Anyways, that's where I'm at! The next few months should be fun. I bought some more reliable test-kits (Salifert) for Mg + Calcium as I was getting some results (recently) from my current test-kits that were way off from what I would consider reality.
 

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using RODI water might help for your top off (it is VERY clean water). I would also caution about chemicals. Remember, small doses = big water shifts. Less food will kill off algae slowly. Also, watch your light in the tank. Keep up the CUC. I have a 125, much lower CUC, but I feed sparingly. Do you feed every day? ever go a 'fast' day for the CUC to catch up? Also a sump with algae (good type) might help eat the nitrates that the algae in your tank is consuming.
 

ZombieEngineer

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How large is your tank? The CUC you listed looks like what I would put in about a 30-40 gallon tank

If your tank is at least 50 gallons, I would get CUC up to

1 trochus per 10 gallons
1 emerald crab per 50 gallons
1 tuxedo urchin per 50 gallons
1 cerith per 3 gallons
1 small hermit per 3 gallons or 1 large hermit per 10 gallons
1 mexican turbo per 20 gallons or more trochus.


I would back off on the AlgaeFix and chemiclean. Fluconazole is still okay to treat for active bryopsis, but don't use it for other kinds, you want the biodiversity. If treating bryopsis, use 150% of what the label says and hold 2 full weeks after it has all melted. Sometimes it takes a few tries. If you miss a root it will come right back.

Otherwise, don't worry too much about the algae, as your corraline and corals grow in, the will better compete and most strains will go away on their own. Exceptions to this are things like bryopsis, bubble algae, large cyano outbreaks, or dinoflagellates. Those you need to kick in the pants early.
 

Lavey29

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Glad you are on a good path now but if you keep dumping chemicals into the tank everytime a problem arises I fear your success may be short lived.
 
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WhoIsCandice

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I am not continuously dumping chemicals into my tank, fluconazole directions actually specify not to do this.
Rather I used chemicals once, skimmed extremely wet, and that was it.

" Do you feed every day? ever go a 'fast' day for the CUC to catch up? Also a sump with algae (good type) might help eat the nitrates that the algae in your tank is consuming."
My tank was nitrate limited so I actually have tried multiple macro-algaes in my sump, but as a result of nitrate limitation, there was little nutrient uptake that it could do. Thus I'd get other algaes + cyanobacteria in my display to grow faster than sump. It was an environment where Phos >> Nitrate and as a result I got nuisance algae galore.

For the food comment, I actually feed very little I would say, but I do feed primarily flake which I believe does lean towards phosphate-rich. I have two clownfish, an engineer goby, and a peppermint shrimp so the bioload is pretty low.

I have done fast-days but actually because it was bryopsis and other nuisance algaes, very little CuC was interested in eating it. I do get some brown-detritus that I've mentioned before that my nerites eat now.

"using RODI water might help for your top off (it is VERY clean water)."
Yes, I have an auto top off system and use RODI for top offs, TDS measures at 0.00-0.01 as long as I run the RODI filter for 15 minutes before filling my brutecan. Before 15 minutes it can measure at 0.05 - 0.03 but this is expected due to sediment.

"How large is your tank? The CUC you listed looks like what I would put in about a 30-40 gallon tank"
It's a 40-gallon breeder.

" Exceptions to this are things like bryopsis, bubble algae, large cyano outbreaks, or dinoflagellates."
Yes, which is why I used chemicals here haha. I won't continue using continued dosings as it's been months, but the outbreak had to be controlled once it started killing a branching gsp colony that I had that was beautiful and growing : - (
 
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WhoIsCandice

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Anyways I'm just glad my tank is back on track now. It's started to become less hellish from a maintenance perspective of controlling the outbreak.
 

ZombieEngineer

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"How large is your tank? The CUC you listed looks like what I would put in about a 30-40 gallon tank"
It's a 40-gallon breeder.
I would still add some more CUC that have strong claws or sharp teeth.

Probably 5 more blue legs, a few trochus (these are my favorite snail after stomatella, they can right themselves and breed in your tank) and an emerald.
 

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