Over Night Algae Outbreak

[cbrack83]

So I went to bed Friday night and had to leave early Saturday morning. By the time I came home my tank had gone from what I thought was a minor case of diatoms (tank is almost 2 months old) to a large algae outbreak (for my standards) of what looks like hair algae on the sand and rocks...

I have a 220 gallon tank. Like I said its almost 2 months old... I have 2 cardinals in the tank as well as some snails, crabs (including 3 emperor grabs). I also found 1 dead Emperor crab while I was looking over the tank and I checked my levels. (Ammonia 0.2, Nitrate 5, Nitrite 0, PH 8.4 and salinity is 1.025.)

The ammonia is new as I checked my levels the week before and I was showing 0 ammonia.

I have turn my lights off so minimize it. I am planning on adding to my cleanup crew. But I also need to figure out what caused it so I can address the route of the issue.

I also started a refug about 2 weeks about in my sump. I am going to use Cheato but my local store was out. They gave me another type until the get some more in but I cant remember the name. They just told me that I need to keep my light on in the refug 24 / 7 with this type where if i was using the cheato I could only have the light on when my aquarium light are off.

I have 3 Radion CR30W G3 LED Lights running at 50% strength. They are at completely on (as the fade in and out from blue) from about 3pm to about 9pm.

Here is a link to a video and I have uploaded some images as well...



I know there are much worse cases then this but I want it to get out of hand...

Thoughts??

 

[mcarroll]

Running lights – which is optional – will fuel blooms like this.

"In my day" we cycled tanks in the dark unless there was something we wanted to encourage. :) ;)

 

[reeferfoxx]

Up your clean up crew :)

 

[cbrack83]

I kept my lights off through most of the cycle. I didn't start keeping them on until about 2 weeks ago...

 

[cbrack83]

I know the cleanup crew will help eliminate what is there now but how to I prevent this from continually happening?

 

[reeferfoxx]

I know the cleanup crew will help eliminate what is there now but how to I prevent this from continually happening?

Nutrient control and export. By not letting po4 and no3 get out of control will eliminate future outbreaks. But this is a phase and will pass. Just make sure you keep things stable, consistent, and fed without over feeding :)

 

[cbrack83]

I know what you mean my Nutrient control but what do you mean by export?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I know the cleanup crew will help eliminate what is there now but how to I prevent this from continually happening?

It wont. the system will balance.
Btw take out dead snails. theres a lot more than food in a snail thats bad..

 

[cbrack83]

I havent found any dead snails yet... just that one emperor crab...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I havent found any dead snails yet... just that one emperor crab...

k, i saw empty shells.

 

[cbrack83]

Some of the larger ones were from my son wanting them in there the others were empty ones I put in for the crabs as the grow they have bigger options for shells so they don't go after my snail... I did have that happen once already...

 

[john.m.cole3]

Looks like someone's having a case of the Mondays...

2 months is fairly young and an algae outbreak like this is pretty normal. You can scrub away with a toothbrush, but it'll likely come back. Until... one day... it will be gone. Then you'll have another phase of the establishing period occur. My current tank is 7 months old and just when ?I thought I was out of the uglies phase, I got another round of the same stuff you have. It's on everything but the rocks, so that's not so bad. I have let my nitrate and phosphate run rampant for over 3 months. Maybe this is a result from it, who knows??? It'll go away though. 4 months ago my corals didn't look right. 3 months ago I had cyano. 2 months ago I removed my sandbed. This past weekend I re-arranged my sump. I'm sure my constant tank fidgeting isn't helping anything. Hope it all works out for ya!

 

[Flyingbulldog]

I am in the same boat too. The tank is 4 months old now and its having algae blooms just like the one you have on your sand. If only have a few snails, it might be a good idea to increase that since you have a bigger tank. However, do not get a package deal of those clean up crews just yet because you only have 2 cardinals and you bioload is pretty small. Vacuum your sand when you do water change, clean your skimmer, clean your filter socks if you are using one, feed your fish without overfeeding ;)

 

[cbrack83]

Just an update I have kept the lights off except for feeding time and it's helping alot. I also noticed that my crabs and snails are much more active when the lights are off...