Need some advice

[tbouts603]

Need help with Algae.

Here’s the layout, if no one has seen my first post or two.
Free set up I got locally, everything from tank, sump, rock, and fish. few things between like heater and power heads.
When I received this system it looked like you see it now. Little hair algae afros.
I scrubbed all the rocks clean before setting back up. Slowly over the last month they have all been growing out there hair like crazy.
This weekend I’ll be doing a 25 gallon water change as I missed out last weekend due to waiting for a new water pump to pump water from basement to upstairs.
I did however check my nitrates and phosphate levels. A big fat 0 for nitrates, and from what I could see on the phosphates slim to nothing.
I do have a nice refugium set up after my skimmer chamber. Has a really nice mass of chaeto that I actually just harvested more than half of it last night as it was so big. Started with a mass that size over a month ago and knocked it down to a baseball size. It grows so quickly. But not out competing the hair algae.
now my TDS is around 118-120, and I do not have a RODI unit yet as I don’t have the funds yet. So I’ve been using my well water.
Anything I can do to help with this algae issue on the rocks other than scrubbing them clean every week or two?
I did read someone that old used neglected live rock and leach out poor water quality for quite some time which can contribute to this algae issue. Anyone here of this before ?
corals that I got with the system seem to be doing great.
I have a marine current USA led light I was given too, which has a controller with it. I’m using the M1 setting which I included a snap shot of the manual I found for this light.
thank you

 

[Cell]

That's some interesting looking algae. I'm not sure I've seen seen hair algae grow in such thick spherical colonies like that. They almost look manicured. It's advanced enough, I'd suggest a rip clean. @brandon429

 

[Pkunk35]

so old rocks can leach old organics or phosphate, but generally that’s for dried used or older but now dead live rock. Did yours come from an already running system, yes? Although the algae was already there I’m willing to bet the source water is fueling the giant tufts (which they are giant!)

need to get RO eventually, IMO maybe pull out those rocks one by one and cover them in peroxide to kill the tufts. Vacuum out the dead algal bodies, use RO to top off and change water and see if that make a difference.

 

[Cell]

I agree, you will have to live with a greater degree of algae growth as long as you continue using tap water. You could do things like cut light, cut feedings etc..., but it will all likely be a drop in the bucket until you make the switch to RODI. Your best bet is to perform a rip clean, get everything back to square one, then stay on top of it so it doesn't get to this point.

 

[brandon429]

hey nice reference, look at that clean sandbed. not fueling the issue seemingly


some bright white intensity lights sure might be

but in no way is that a param issue see how localized the growths are vs glass, sandbed, ceiling etc

direct treatment of the rocks outside the tank is my reco

rocks removed, scraped off algae used saltwater to rinse down the sink. rocks are now clean

second step
pour peroxide across the cleaned zones as invisible anchor burn. let sit in air two mins rinse put bac

 

[Pkunk35]

hey nice reference, look at that clean sandbed. not fueling the issue seemingly


some bright white intensity lights sure might be

but in no way is that a param issue see how localized the growths are vs glass, sandbed, ceiling etc

direct treatment of the rocks outside the tank is my reco

that is a really interesting observation on localized growth. It may have been cleaned tho as It’s SO clean.

 

[Cell]

Yeah I didn't even notice how clean the sandbed was.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Wow, some very established hair algae
My recommendation:
Pull as much as you can by hand, reduce white light intensity and add either liquid vibrant or fluconasal (flux) with flux being best and you will get rid of it.
Test your phosphate and nitrate levels to assure they’re not high or this issue will persist.
After it’s gone, add chemipure elite for continued control and add some snails:
Astrea
Turbo
Nassarius
Trochus
Cerith
And about 6-8 blue leg hermit crabs

 

[brandon429]

agreed

algae is going to take over as long as coralline loss and no flesh from a lobo coral is there to block it

(playing on the detail that in any gha tank, the actual flesh of corals is 100% immune always for algae but not smothering dinos. no holdfast attachment allowed, no algae)

hand cleaning and spot burning with peroxide is ideal where accessible bc it shortcuts months of reduced feeding, we dont care about feeding rates, and it shortcuts months of coral wasting away, and gets fast results, and stops GHA's innate ability to trap and wick detritus for on-site feeding by bacterial breakdown

actually causing a reef to look like it does now above is part of the actual cure, and handling of causatives

plus we have 500 examples that above was only pic 1 he he

 

[KrisReef]

You should test your well water to determine what dissolved minerals are being imported with top of water and water changes. If your water is "bad" you may be better off doing fewer water changes that could be adding phosphate, nitrate, copper, or whatever is present in your water supply.

And on the flip side, if your water is pristine (for a reef) you may not need a RODI system to process the water. Testing the water gives you information for decisions.

 

[tbouts603]

Wow thanks for all the love everyone.

I’m going to take out all the rock tonight and clean every thing off, and so the peroxide method.
When I got this system from a local guy it had the same algae and worse than it is now. He said he used his RO drinking water. However while breaking down the tank he did not have anyway to test his salinity, or any other water parameters except calcium. Which I got his calcium test kit and calcium dosing which I don’t use as I have not got the in depth yet with saltwater. Still learning.
I bought the sand brand new, only had diatom algae for maybe a week in a small area.
I’ll post photos tonight once all done. Can’t wait.
do you think I have too much sand ?

 

[brandon429]

sand is fine.

the right way to approach it, is you are about to have clean rocks lol

but, it circles back over time. as you can see, it circled from his care onto yours.

in two seconds flat I can find this exact same rock growth in 100 reefs here recently its that common. the treatment methods are as common, some do involve dosing things to the water, waiting, trying to reduce nutrients, ensuring pristine topoff water

and all we do is run all that, after making the rocks clean.

there is trying all that from the invaded condition, what the masses do

and then there's trying all that from the uninvaded condition, using those means only as preventatives but never as removers, bc they might fail you.

peroxide doesnt harm your filter bacteria, and has thousands of pictures like that above

and you happen to have an easy out of tank access reef stack, you are able to be uninvaded now-- dont have to wait or starve thinsg to get there, new options of control open up.

as soon as you find the right balance of grazers, light balance, nutrient control, you'll be manually gardening less.

the key is never allow the dandelions in the first place until something else stops em.

here are the other 200 pics

Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

What you are really in for: Hand cleaning, hard work siphon and rasp-removing of accumulations and invasions outside the tank and doing massive water changes is 90% of this thread, peroxide is 10%. We almost never dose peroxide into the tank water, this is a you-work-physically-hard as catch-up...

www.reef2reef.com

this method of cheating a tank clean has probably been used half a million times that is no joke. every forum, including reefcentral who were such early positive purveyors of peroxide method lol not, has multiple peroxide use threads for tracking.


the reason people keep using it, is for those after pics above. and due to work threads that pool results all in one place for pattern inspection

in large tanks we might have to wait 3 mos to legitimately attain what you can have by dinner time tonite.

 

[Ippyroy]

Remove the GHA by hand and a large diverse CUC. I'd not worry too much about it until you get an RODI unit. Your NO3 and PO4 will read low because the GHA is consuming it. I'd also quit doing water changes until you get the RODI. Most likely you are adding NO3 and/or PO4 every time.
They are on sale at BRS right now.

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www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[KrisReef]

Wow thanks for all the love everyone.

I’m going to take out all the rock tonight and clean every thing off, and so the peroxide method.
When I got this system from a local guy it had the same algae and worse than it is now. He said he used his RO drinking water. However while breaking down the tank he did not have anyway to test his salinity, or any other water parameters except calcium. Which I got his calcium test kit and calcium dosing which I don’t use as I have not got the in depth yet with saltwater. Still learning.
I bought the sand brand new, only had diatom algae for maybe a week in a small area.
I’ll post photos tonight once all done. Can’t wait.
do you think I have too much sand ?

This may be "the line in the sand" where @brandon429 & I may part ways?

I'm more fond of a bare bottom tank-No sand to capture or harbor detritus.

Seriously, your tank & sand mix is fine. This issue is more of a cosmetic preference in your case. Brandon noted that your sand isn't causing problems so if you like it, keep it!

I might consider adding more live rock if you can find some that is certified pest-free.

Do you have a local fish store that can test your well water? Or has it been tested recently? This is your biggest unknown imo.

Oh Yeah, one more things:
Nice score on the tank and very nice rehabilitation project! YOu are ( family site inappropriate slang term for doing well deleted) moving forward fantastically thus far.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Random Gif welcome!