It's back!!!
- Thread starter Pvtgloss
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GSPClown94
Active Member
It is where the spores are on some algae.
crabgrass
Well-Known Member
I had something similar in a smaller 20g. First year was spotless, but next 12 months were Algae city.
Tried everything - multiple rip cleans, peroxide dips, reducing light schedule (and white/green/red spectrums), chemicals (razor, etc). Always had really good short term gains, but GHA or something else always came back even harder.
I ended up throwing in the towel, and moved the livestock to a new tank.
My nutrients were always on the “good end” but I think it was masked by the GHA sucking them all out.
This may or may not be helpful, but what I think was contributed to the issues (and how I am correcting in new tank):
1) I used vibrant a periodically the first 12 months. And what triggered the first big outbreak was a heavy dose to treat some emerging bubble algae. Threw out the vibrant and choosing to use chemicals as last resort in new tank
2) Dry rocks to cycle system. I used the cheapest Marco Rocks I could get on Amazon. I don’t have much evidence, but they never formed much correline and I **believe** were leaching and collecting phosphates in the system. My new system has a mixture of more reputable dry rock and some Real live rock (TBS)
3) limited coral coverage - like others said if I had better coverage, it could have helped shade out more areas and also soak up nutrients
4) CUC was lacking - some died off and I didn’t replace fast enough. I did add an urchin the last 3 months and they are very effective at cleaning small algae off rocks and glass. They don’t do much once it gets big
5) limited flow + tank layout (too much rock, and smaller power heads). This doesn’t seem to be your issue
6) No algae eating fish. Like you - sort of tough in a 20g. I did add a Lawnmower blenny towards the end, but he didn’t do to much. It was a bit small for a 20g
7) lack of general bio-diversity. Pods/live rock other. I did add microbac7 in the last 6 months. It didn’t seem to do much, but idk.
Personally, I blame the Vibrant and choice of Rock. Then adding unending chemicals and quick reactions to try and clean the system.
Tried everything - multiple rip cleans, peroxide dips, reducing light schedule (and white/green/red spectrums), chemicals (razor, etc). Always had really good short term gains, but GHA or something else always came back even harder.
I ended up throwing in the towel, and moved the livestock to a new tank.
My nutrients were always on the “good end” but I think it was masked by the GHA sucking them all out.
This may or may not be helpful, but what I think was contributed to the issues (and how I am correcting in new tank):
1) I used vibrant a periodically the first 12 months. And what triggered the first big outbreak was a heavy dose to treat some emerging bubble algae. Threw out the vibrant and choosing to use chemicals as last resort in new tank
2) Dry rocks to cycle system. I used the cheapest Marco Rocks I could get on Amazon. I don’t have much evidence, but they never formed much correline and I **believe** were leaching and collecting phosphates in the system. My new system has a mixture of more reputable dry rock and some Real live rock (TBS)
3) limited coral coverage - like others said if I had better coverage, it could have helped shade out more areas and also soak up nutrients
4) CUC was lacking - some died off and I didn’t replace fast enough. I did add an urchin the last 3 months and they are very effective at cleaning small algae off rocks and glass. They don’t do much once it gets big
5) limited flow + tank layout (too much rock, and smaller power heads). This doesn’t seem to be your issue
6) No algae eating fish. Like you - sort of tough in a 20g. I did add a Lawnmower blenny towards the end, but he didn’t do to much. It was a bit small for a 20g
7) lack of general bio-diversity. Pods/live rock other. I did add microbac7 in the last 6 months. It didn’t seem to do much, but idk.
Personally, I blame the Vibrant and choice of Rock. Then adding unending chemicals and quick reactions to try and clean the system.
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Pvtgloss
Valuable Member
Dang. Sounds like you went through it pretty hard. How the new tank.?
I hate putting my hands in the tank but it think I'll try to do as much manual removal as possible to keep it at bay, and keep up with the cuc. I think I'll stay away from chemicals too.
GSPClown94
Active Member
Doesn’t look like it, looks like chloroplast within the cell but I’m not 100% sure. For clarification when I mentioned looking for sporangia, I was referring to this object attached to the algae filaments. Some algaes have them and others do not which can help in determining what type you're dealing with.Are these spores? 1200x
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Pvtgloss
Valuable Member
I just realized that I was reading the magnification wrong, lol.Doesn’t look like it, looks like chloroplast within the cell but I’m not 100% sure. For clarification when I mentioned looking for sporangia, I was referring to this object attached to the algae filaments. Some algaes have them and others do not which can help in determining what type your dealing with.
I'm not seeing anything like those.
slingfox
Well-Known Member
From the full tank picture your algae outbreak does not look too bad. I would just continue manual removal and let the CUC do their work. If you want to add more cleanup crew you could consider a tuxedo urchin for that tank size. I have 2 in my 110g and they are workhorses.
I'm sorry you're having this issue but GSPClown94 has been very educational. I'm enjoying his more scientific approach and hoping he can identify the exact type of algae. Knowing exactly what you're dealing with makes developing a solution much easier. I don't have a microscope but might have to look into one for identifying pests.
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Pvtgloss
Valuable Member
@GSPClown94
I took a few more pictures. I really don't know what I'm looking at. I feel like I've seen some stuff that looks like "rain drops", but it's after 30 minutes of looking. The "rain drops"over seen ate very sparse.
crabgrass
Well-Known Member
New tank is good (up and running 2 months). Correline is coming in on the dry rocks (I precycled them before adding them to the tank in Dec, so everything would be livestock ready day 1). Seeded everything with a couple rounds of pods and stuff from ipsf.
I have about a 100 snails working in CuC capacity, plus 2 tangs and a Foxface.
Still very early to declare success, but I took my learnings from the 20g and hopefully will run into less issues.
GSPClown94
Active Member
Sorry, it's kind of hard to make out what it is from these magnified images but that last picture kind of looks like some sporangia attached to the filaments so maybe Derbesia but I'm not sure. Anyone else able to confirm id? In any case, from the full tank pictures the algae looks like it has roots anchored into the rockwork so when you do manually remove it try to scrape them out with a dental pick or something similar.@GSPClown94
I took a few more pictures. I really don't know what I'm looking at. I feel like I've seen some stuff that looks like "rain drops", but it's after 30 minutes of looking. The "rain drops"over seen ate very sparse.
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