Ongoing Algae Problem

madducks42 · Dec 12, 2017

Algae woes continue. I ended up doing a three day blackout because the algae was getting really bad on the live rock and causing some of the zoas to not open. So I did a three blackout and kept the fuge light on for the chaeto 24/7. The algae disappeared for about a week afterward but now it's back almost to the same strength. I knew that short of a blackout probably wouldn't help much but I was trying to give the chaeto a headstart. The good news is that so far the brown algae is sticking to the sand so it hasn't been negatively impacting the corals which was my major concern. Still driving me crazy though. Nitrates still test at 0.

So now I'm debating dosing for nitrates and phosphates but I'm not really sure how...my research so far in forums hasn't been that helpful. It seems like some people use this - http://www.spectracide.com/Solution...-Brush-Killers/Spectracide-Stump-Remover.aspx - but honestly putting things into the tank that aren't specifically for reef tanks terrifies me. I also found a few people referencing this product - http://www.seachem.com/flourish-nitrogen.php - which I'm still doing research on. Any other suggestions?

brandon429 · Dec 13, 2017

Everyone who is instructing you to leave dinos in the system, and work around them, and undo filtration systems your corals have adapted to, with no direct contact with invader which is risking a full invasion, needs to stay active and accountable in your thread. I’m watching how they roll this thread, and will link it to our pure action threads in time for comparisons.

UV oversized filtration and manual removal should have been first go, not nutrient changes, when it was tiny invasion. If this was a nano reef, you wouldn’t be invaded at all (check whole board at nano reef.com find one single Dino invasion we didn’t beat)

You have a large tank, and running what we do in the sand rinse thread will be hard, UV could have easily fixed you and it still can but only if done right, oversized, and paired with manual removal.

Everyone wants to help that’s for sure, so no harm done. I hope nutrient alterations where corals didn’t command the new action works.

If it doesn’t, then doing what nano reefers do such that a whole board has no Dino invasions is fair to consider.

Better not let the tank get all gooey. We’d never do that. We stay until clean after pics are had, then we add those to the pages of clean after pics.

UV can be sourced, borrowed, or bought from amazon and given back if you don’t like etc. Must be oversized, rated for double or triple your size.

I hate to recommend $ but that’s the game big tankers sign up for. Inaccessible substrates is the bane of the large tank, and accessible substrates + actions we take to force an invader out is why it’s easy to keep small tanks uninvaded. If I had first go here it would have been uv + a light blackout not too long, manual removal, then uv offline for a while to test growback. Once verified clean, then add pods and competitors. All I would have done is make a new order of operations which includes a brazen manual removal scheme first, then the preventatives realigned. I simply wouldn’t own a large tank without a thousand gallon pond sterilizer installed. Others choose a different way

brandon429 · Dec 13, 2017

Dinos (invasive strains) are requisite hitchhikers and cannot get in any way other than direct physical input by a reefer. stuck to fish, in a drop of water, or on substrates that ride over

It’s impossible for them to invade my 12 yr old system, the place I source from gets me bryopsis, not dinos.

Invasive dinos wasn’t even a scourge in the 90s/early 2000s that means something about sourcing.

Brew12 · Dec 13, 2017

brandon429 said:
Invasive dinos wasn’t even a scourge in the 90s/early 2000s that means something about sourcing.

I think it has more to do with how people keep their tanks. Back then, how many people ran GFO? And I bet everyone vacuumed their sand beds regularly. I'm still not sure why people are so stuck on not touching their sand beds unless it is a deep sand bed system for nitrate removal.

Brew12 · Dec 13, 2017

madducks42 said:
Algae woes continue. I ended up doing a three day blackout because the algae was getting really bad on the live rock and causing some of the zoas to not open. So I did a three blackout and kept the fuge light on for the chaeto 24/7. The algae disappeared for about a week afterward but now it's back almost to the same strength. I knew that short of a blackout probably wouldn't help much but I was trying to give the chaeto a headstart. The good news is that so far the brown algae is sticking to the sand so it hasn't been negatively impacting the corals which was my major concern. Still driving me crazy though. Nitrates still test at 0.

So now I'm debating dosing for nitrates and phosphates but I'm not really sure how...my research so far in forums hasn't been that helpful. It seems like some people use this - http://www.spectracide.com/Solution...-Brush-Killers/Spectracide-Stump-Remover.aspx - but honestly putting things into the tank that aren't specifically for reef tanks terrifies me. I also found a few people referencing this product - http://www.seachem.com/flourish-nitrogen.php - which I'm still doing research on. Any other suggestions?

I've used the spectracide in the past with good results.

How well is the chaeto growing?

Are you stirring the sand bed daily?

madducks42 · Dec 13, 2017

Brew12 said:
I've used the spectracide in the past with good results.

How well is the chaeto growing?

Are you stirring the sand bed daily?

I’m not sure how well the chaeto is doing. I think it’s healthy but if it’s growing it’s slow enough that I haven’t really noticed. At first I only had the lights on for 12 hours a day because the chaeto was starting to get covered in brown algae but I increased the flow in that chamber and that solved that issue. Fuge light has been on 24/7 the last few days. Hoping that helps the chaeto grow faster.

We stir the sandbed twice a day, it’s pretty much covered again within a few hours. I don’t think manual removal would be possible since it basically disintegrates as soon you touch it.

When you used spectracide in the past how long did you dose for?

Brew12 · Dec 13, 2017

madducks42 said:
I’m not sure how well the chaeto is doing. I think it’s healthy but if it’s growing it’s slow enough that I haven’t really noticed. At first I only had the lights on for 12 hours a day because the chaeto was starting to get covered in brown algae but I increased the flow in that chamber and that solved that issue. Fuge light has been on 24/7 the last few days. Hoping that helps the chaeto grow faster.

We stir the sandbed twice a day, it’s pretty much covered again within a few hours. I don’t think manual removal would be possible since it basically disintegrates as soon you touch it.

When you used spectracide in the past how long did you dose for?

I dosed every other day for a week and haven't used it since even though I still normally show very low to no nitrates.

In your case, I'm not sure I would dose nitrates but it may help. Studies I have seen show that dino's love high nitrate, low phosphate conditions. Cyano tends to thrive in low nitrate, high phosphate conditions. The good stuff, phytoplankton, tends to do best between those two extremes. Keep in mind these are generalizations and that there are many strains of dino's and cyano that don't fall into these patterns.

I had a minor case of dino's that started when the macro algae in my fuge stopped growing. Turns out my system had become iron limited. Added some iron and my dino's were gone in 3 days.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/red-sea-coral-colors-c-iron-trace-500ml.html

Brew12 · Dec 13, 2017

brandon429 said:
UV can be sourced, borrowed, or bought from amazon and given back if you don’t like etc. Must be oversized, rated for double or triple your size.

I would also say that in your case, this may be the best option with the highest likelyhood of success.

Without knowing the exact chemical composition of your water, the specific strain of dino's you have, and the make up of your phytoplankton all we can do is make semi-educated guesses in how to deal with your dino's. UV is indiscriminate when it comes to nutrients/trace elements!

madducks42 · Dec 13, 2017

I still have some serious concerns about UV sterilization. Mostly that I want to establish a copepod population in the tank which requires phytoplankton which from my understanding would get mostly wiped out from using a UV sterilizer. I’ve spent a lot of time reading about them and people seem to have varying and loud opinions about them, lol. Some people swear by them, others say they are detrimental to your tank, others say they have little if no impact. I’ve tried to find actual evidence to support anyone of those claims but most of it seems to be anecdotal and while credit or blame was placed on the UV sterilizer it’s entirely possible that it was other actions or biological factors in the tank that made the difference not the UV sterilizer.

Also we simply don’t have the space to get one that is big enough for our tank so it’s a moot point. [emoji57]