Nuisance Algae

[Saffer1]

Seasons greetings to everyone.

I am at wits end with nuisance algae. After both PO4 and NO3 bottomed out, I ended up with dinoflagellates. I literally threw the kitchen sink at it: daily removal, increased nutrients, reduced lights, added activated carbon, added bacteria and pods, installed a UV light (which probably killed off the pods and hence my mandarin). If I up the water flow any more, I will probably blow all corals off the rocks.

This has been going on since August, yet now it seems to have evolved in what I suspect is green cyano covered with air bubbles (see pic attached).

PO4 rose to 0.5, so I am running GFO again, NO3 currently sits at 5, PH 8.1. All other water parameters are normal.

I am loathe to add chemicals of any kind, but am seriously considering using Chemiclean as a last resort. Please help.

 

[twentyleagues]

UV will not kill pods or sterilize them unless they are living in the uv tube and then it would only be those living there. How big is the tank? Po4 could/should come down but your nitrate is on the low side so dont do anything to lower that. What do you have for cuc? Have you tried coral snow? I would also blow off the areas of cyano with a turkey baster or directed flow from a pump daily until its gone. Cyano usually starts in areas that collect organic matter uneaten food, fish waste, dead algaes clear out that matter and it usually subsides.

 

[Saffer1]

Thanks, tank is 400 litres.
Also thought nitrates a bit low.
CUC consists of nassa, cerith and trochus snails, no hermits as they tend to knock smaller frags off the rocks.
I have Seachem Clarity which is a flocculant, will dose that.

 

[CHSUB]

Also thought nitrates a bit low

Pictured are three of my tanks going back to 1998, all had algae none had algae problems. All had undetectable no3, if you believe elevated no3 does anything positive beyond improving algae growth rate, my experience proves differently.

Algae is simple: CUC, manual removal including detritus, and a low nutrient clean aquarium.

 

[twentyleagues]

Thanks, tank is 400 litres.
Also thought nitrates a bit low.
CUC consists of nassa, cerith and trochus snails, no hermits as they tend to knock smaller frags off the rocks.
I have Seachem Clarity which is a flocculant, will dose that.

That should provide a decent amount of pods for a mandarin. I doubt they are all gone but maybe add some more pods. I was hoping you'd say you have cerith and trochus they have been shown to eat or at least displace cyano by eating what helps cause it. Hermits do very little in the system they are good at getting to any leftover food but other than that I find them mainly a nuisance. Dont know if Clarity will help maybe if you are blowing the rocks off and then using it to help transport it to your filtration. Coral snow will help coat the rock in calcium carbonate and if you add some bacteria to the snow that will possibly help to outcompete the cyano.
@SunnyX has a website about using it https://reefsite.com/extreme-water-clarity-made-easy/
It works well.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Pictured are three of my tanks going back to 1998, all had algae none had algae problems. All had undetectable no3, if you believe elevated no3 does anything positive beyond improving algae growth rate, my experience proves differently.

Algae is simple: CUC, manual removal including detritus, and a low nutrient clean aquarium.

Pics are fuzzy and im trying to fix on which substances you are looking at for clear I'd. UV will not erase what is existing bit address hair algae and what passes through the unit which is suspended.

 

[Saffer1]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

One question, as I blast the rockwork on a daily basis for now, can I use flocculant every day?

 

[Pistondog]

As others said, cuc is paramount.
Turbo snails, tux urchins, tiger conch, herbivore fish like tang.
Keep up the manual removal until the cuc can handle it.
Nutrient level is not relavent.

 

[twentyleagues]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

One question, as I blast the rockwork on a daily basis for now, can I use flocculant every day?

I dont see why not. There is the possibility that the use of flocculant or "snow" could also bind organics in the water column and while they can be grabbed by corals may also get removed via filtration which could be good or bad depending. I would keep a close eye on nutrients while doing this just to make sure to not tank levels.

I did a white bucket test not that long ago. I removed water from my tank before and the next morning after using coral snow into a white container to see if there was an actual observable difference. There was a huge difference in the coloration of the water or more so the lack of color the next day. I know not super scientific or ground breaking because thats what it supposed to do. Coral snow binds and possibly removes "stuff" in the water column, some gets filtered out via mechanical filtration (which for me is just a skimmer) and some gets taken by corals or bound to rock/sand. I have not seen any real drop in nutrients while using it but I have seen talks that it may. I also only do it periodically, used to be weekly in the infancy of the tank now more like monthly.