NEED HELP - Algae

[Zack857]

Hey guys, I'm new to keeping saltwater and am experiencing a algae outbreak of an algae I'm not familiar with, I've kept a lot of freshwater and successfully keeping saltwater at the moment.

My tank: Fluval Evo 13.5, stock filter media and mechanical filtration, no anti-phosphate remover (phos-guard etc.).

The problem here is I'm out of town and have my father watching over my fish tank and doing water changes while I'm gone, but I go back and forth between his house for the summer. So I'm back here and the algae (in 2 weeks) has gone completely out of control, I cleaned it like crazy before I left (Took the rock out and cleaned it brushing off as much algae as I could (kept it wet), scraped the algae off the walls with a razor, and siphoned out 80% of the water and added back RO water from my personal RO system) and it was spotless and he did a water change about 2 weeks after I left only removing 25% and brushing the walls because in two weeks I was going to return, now in the two weeks after that water change the algae is insane!

Any help would be awesome, I've had algae in the past and it was just a carpet of little strands but now this has turned my rock into a slimy blob with red/green algae everywhere (see pics)

I also dose my tank with 1.5ml of Reef Fusion 1/2, don't know if that changes anything but... yeah.

Thanks in advanced!

If y'all need better pictures I can get them, these were just quick!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Labridaedicted]

Looks like a cyano outbreak. What's your photo period length? Also, have you checked nutrient levels recently? I find excessive light or excessive feeding is the usual culprits.

 

[killingseed2000]

i would do a water change , but i would use the siphon to suck out all the unwanted algea's.
reducing lighting , and maybe ever tun the lights off for a couple days right after the water change. light is not your friend in this case.
i would repeat this for a could weeks and you see it go away.

i dont see any type of water movement in the tank. do you have a powerhead? maybe add one? those return lines are not enough flow.

check your phosphate levels as well.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yup. And I'd say you need a lot more snails.

 

[jsker]

As stated above, how long are you light running, and if the light have a spectrum. Whites, greens, and red are the culprit
More clean up crew
and my thought is where are your Phosphates and nitrates? you are looking for phosphates to be from a trace to .02 and nitrates around 3 to 5 ppm

 

[Zack857]

I was also considering cyano

I'm feeding locally frozen food, there's only 2 clowns, 5 red legged hermits, and I think the fish store called it a zebra turbo LOL I'm sorry I've never kept snails, they're the bigger ping pong balled sized ones.

My photo period is 8-8

My food:

It has scallop, shrimp, perch, whitefish, mysis, krill, squid, clam, oyster, rotifers, seaweed, broccoli, with some other fats, vitamins, etc.

Thank you guys so much for the quick responses!

 

[Zack857]

I see, I will most likely go to my LFS and grab phos-guard for my filter and do a water change. Is it okay to scrub the rock with a brush? (A brush only used for aquariums) and I'll try to stir up the sand and see if I can kick up the algae to siphon out.

 

[Zack857]

Maybe also some more snails, anyone recommend some clean up crew? I got a peppermint shrimp for an apista problem, forgot to mention him as well.

Thanks again

 

[hbetanzo]

I'm using this.. and works for me

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Here's a good guide to snails.
Your feeding meaty food so you'll wan carnivores. You have some slime algae build up so you need slime eaters. Turbos and Mexican turbos are good all in ones but get the Mexican turbos small. They get big.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/choosing-cleanup-crew-critters.107/

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

And yes. Scrubbing is good. You have freshwater so if you have a draper canister filter load it with floss only and hook it up for a couple days and scup to your hearts content. Then just dump the canister and floss.

 

[hbetanzo]

This is my fluval Evo...

 

[Zack857]

I took down my freshwater so I sold my canister now all I have is a Fluval HOB 110, doubt I could hook that up LOL. I will remove the rock and scrub it crazy today to see what I can get off and razor the glass. Thanks!

 

[Zack857]

Wow! Nice Evo! Hopefully I can do something like that.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

All you are looking for is a way to pull out particulates with the filter so it doesn't stay in the tank. So yea the 110 would work floss only.

 

[Zack857]

A question I have is in my aquarium I have a giant piece of live rock, this thing is absolutely covered in algae but for this tank size it seems a bit much (based on hbtanzo) it takes up 30% ish of my sand bed basically. Is there anyway I could remove it and ad smaller pieces? I have 2 5-10lb ish pieces of DRY ROCK. I don't wanna kill any bacteria but this rock I underestimated my "guessed weight" and it's probably in the range of 20lbs alone possibly, I don't have a scale hahaha

Off topic and not too important in my current standing, but just a quick question I've wondered

 

[Zack857]

Don't know how to delete so I'll just leave this here, you already mentioned the time frame

 

[Zack857]

All you are looking for is a way to pull out particulates with the filter so it doesn't stay in the tank. So yea the 110 would work floss only.

^

 

[Zack857]

Ok I'll try all this, loads of awesome info guys and I really appreciate it, I will let y'all know how it goes!

My plan if anyone wants to correct me:
1. Water change, razor the glass, scrub the rock
2. Put phosguard in Evo's stock filter and then hook up my Fluval 110 (Nervous about the amount of flow that will come out of this filter... this is rated for close to 60gal minimum, it moved sand in my 40g breeder, can only imagine in this little nano???)
3. Add some snails also leave the light off as suggested (any damage to my Zoa Coral?)
4. Sit back and hope for the best!

 

[Zack857]

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