Might quit because of Algae

[Sick_man]

So i have a 33 gallon long tank that is about 2.5 years old and I have never been able to defeat algae. The tank is overrun with bubble algae and GHA. I'm even dosing Vibrant (algaecide) but nothing seems to be working. Almost every week I have to clean pumps because they get clogged up with algae. Its a shame because the bubble algae takes up real estate for my zoas. Lots of my gorgonians died due to GHA and strong direct flow doesn't seem to prevent algae buildup on them. I've dropped nitrate to undetectable levels but that did not seem to work either. Constantly removing algae for it to grow back almost immediately is getting tiresome and I might just throw in the towel. Any suggestions?

 

[twelvefive]

@brandon429 is your man

 

[Cell]

How long have you been dosing Vibrant? It takes a little while for it to take out bubble algae, but it should definitely work.

 

[Cell]

Full tank shot would be great.

 

[Spare time]

Fluconazole would be my go to. Run carbon for a bit to remove vibrant, then go for fluconazole.

 

[Sick_man]

How long have you been dosing Vibrant? It takes a little while for it to take out bubble algae, but it should definitely work.

I've been dosing 4ml of Vibrant every 3-4 days for about 1.5 months. I saw that it started to work since some of the bubbles became white but I forgot to dose, so there was a week between doses and the algae looked stronger than ever

 

[twelvefive]

Can you post tank pics?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So i have a 33 gallon long tank that is about 2.5 years old and I have never been able to defeat algae. The tank is overrun with bubble algae and GHA. I'm even dosing Vibrant (algaecide) but nothing seems to be working. Almost every week I have to clean pumps because they get clogged up with algae. Its a shame because the bubble algae takes up real estate for my zoas. Lots of my gorgonians died due to GHA and strong direct flow doesn't seem to prevent algae buildup on them. I've dropped nitrate to undetectable levels but that did not seem to work either. Constantly removing algae for it to grow back almost immediately is getting tiresome and I might just throw in the towel. Any suggestions?

Be cautious of vibrant. Its also an alternative and often not a solution.
What is your phosphate level and are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet?
Is this tank by chance at or near a window?
What do you have for clean up crew?

Can you provide a couple of pics under white lighting ?

Flux sometimes works and sometimes not. Its best for bryopsis algae but I again have seen it not work long term.

 

[14 foot reef]

Flucanozol is your best best. I was in your shoes, here are the results, 3 back to back to back treatments
Month 1 - 2 weeks with Fluco, 1 week skimmer on, last week water change.
Month 2 - 2 weeks with Fluco, 1 week skimmer on, last week water change.
Month 3 - 2 weeks with Fluco, 1 week skimmer on, last week water change.

Completely cleaned up my tank - Zero manual removal.

 

[Cell]

I've been dosing 4ml of Vibrant every 3-4 days for about 1.5 months. I saw that it started to work since some of the bubbles became white but I forgot to dose, so there was a week between doses and the algae looked stronger than ever

You just have to keep up with the dosing and pull out shriveled up clumps when you see them until it's gone. But the algae is feeding off of something.

 

[brandon429]

try any med, doser, fluconazole you like

they tend to kill gha if lucky, then you get six months of equal dinos or cyano

Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

The Poll In This Thread is For Bryopsis Only not GHA,Turf,Bubble Algae or any other Algae The 2 week treatment is for Bryopsis algae. For GHA,turf algae and bubble algae it may take as long as 4-6 weeks to kill. GHA,turf algae,bubble algae are different than Bryopsis algae. Bryopsis algae will...

www.reef2reef.com

that's six hundred pages of gha turning into cyano and dinos for 80% of fluconazole users, see the results, flip through them. the rare outcome is the fluc kill with no tradeoff, or we'd see that happening in most of those posts.

I have a way to fix your tank based on surgical cleaning, but try everything else first so that when we try my way nothing else sways your direction and we get total commitment. then it will work, I'll post a thread showing it working in other's tanks.

the way to use fluconazole: rip clean your tank first, have no algae, then apply it as preventative

don't use it as a remover, that's what they're all doing and its moving dead mass into the sand and rocks to feed cyano. be opposite of the masses for the win

 

[exnisstech]

If parameters are good rip clean. I would never do it in a large tank but a smaller tank that rock can be pulled from I would not hesitate to do it again if needed. @brandon429 can assist with that but you can find threads explaining it.
I have one tank, a reefer 170 about 40g total that was overrun with GHA and lot of bubble alage. I dosed Flux rx aka fluconazole and sure enough it got rid of the gha and bubble algae then the tank became over run with cyano. I vaccumed as much as I could, pulled the rocks and scrubbed them and scraped the bottom. This was only two weeks ago but so far the tank is looking good. Before and after pics can be seen Here.

 

[Dburr1014]

Flucanozol is your best best. I was in your shoes, here are the results, 3 back to back to back treatments
Month 1 - 2 weeks with Fluco, 1 week skimmer on, last week water change.
Month 2 - 2 weeks with Fluco, 1 week skimmer on, last week water change.
Month 3 - 2 weeks with Fluco, 1 week skimmer on, last week water change.

Completely cleaned up my tank - Zero manual removal.

How long have you been hair free?
I've been here free for about 20 years now.



No seriously I Dosed fluconazole last Friday so I'm about a week in and I see my hair breaking up. I didn't think I had to go three doses. The first night I dosed only 1/3 dose I waited 3 days and dosed another 1/3 dose. I don't know if I'm going to do the last third dose for full treatment if this stuff is breaking up now.

 

[Sick_man]

Be cautious of vibrant. Its also an alternative and often not a solution.
What is your phosphate level and are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet?
Is this tank by chance at or near a window?
What do you have for clean up crew?

Can you provide a couple of pics under white lighting ?

Flux sometimes works and sometimes not. Its best for bryopsis algae but I again have seen it not work long term.

The skimmer is going crazy and making lots of bubbles since I just removed a lot algae. I can't get a clear picture as of right now but I am using RODI water and ESV salt mix. My phosphate is .09 (hanna phosphorous checker) and I do happen to have lanthanum chloride and GFO on hand. I have tried lowering the phosphate to .03 but my corals hated it. My tank seems most happy at around .1 phosphate.

 

[Derrick0580]

Cut back on feedings and use reef flux rx, takes about 6-8 weeks but will get rid of the gha

 

[vetteguy53081]

The skimmer is going crazy and making lots of bubbles since I just removed a lot algae. I can't get a clear picture as of right now but I am using RODI water and ESV salt mix. My phosphate is .09 (hanna phosphorous checker) and I do happen to have lanthanum chloride and GFO on hand. I have tried lowering the phosphate to .03 but my corals hated it. My tank seems most happy at around .1 phosphate.

Dont get Phos too low.06-.08 is good

Is tank at or near window?
Pics will help identify when you get the opportunity

 

[steveschuerger]

I started to use some Vibrant I had on hand from when I was starting out a couple years ago. Didn’t really do much for me one way or the other. My real success was to stop using treated tap water and changed over to RODI and distilled for an occasional use between times if I don’t have rodi water ready. And a good cuc package from ReefCleaners and some extra Astrea snails from another source. Hardly any algae left

 

[TokenReefer]

Add more corals! Once the majority of the algae is removed. Something else needs to be competing and sucking up those nutrients. Good luck. Don't give up!

 

[Kbnano]

I have a Fluval Nano Tank for 2 yrs now and recently had some dinos and then brown hair algae then green algae. My corals never look great now and everything looks dead. I'm not a scientist and don't want to have to clean it everyday. My parameters always are fine but I do and did have by a window (no choice) but the blind is always closed. My weekend water change and manually removing algae is getting old. Now my hammer coral closed and head fell off. I have only 1 goby left now also. Phosphates were non existant this last weekend change. I had dosed with Vibrant starting off. I had tried Chem clean etc. Now I'm obviously frustrated and maybe need to throw in the towel.

 

[Garf]

I have a Fluval Nano Tank for 2 yrs now and recently had some dinos and then brown hair algae then green algae. My corals never look great now and everything looks dead. I'm not a scientist and don't want to have to clean it everyday. My parameters always are fine but I do and did have by a window (no choice) but the blind is always closed. My weekend water change and manually removing algae is getting old. Now my hammer coral closed and head fell off. I have only 1 goby left now also. Phosphates were non existant this last weekend change. I had dosed with Vibrant starting off. I had tried Chem clean etc. Now I'm obviously frustrated and maybe need to throw in the towel.

Put a photo up. Sometimes things are not as bad as they may feel. That said, this hobby isn’t for everyone.