Patience?

[The Clown(fish)]

Tank started October 2024
Aquatop 40
Stock Skimmer
3Hygger powerheads 1BLowing across top; other 2 in front and back pointing toward other at intervals
AI 16HD On for 6 hrs per day at 60% power Utilizing Moonlight function also
Using stock foam filter
Carbon bag in top basket
Nitrate/phosphate sponge in next basket
Stock ceramic rings in the bottom 2 baskets
Extra ceramic rings, heater and air stone in return section
Fiji Pink Sand
Approx 35lbs of live rock
Snails
Crabs
Peppermint Shrimp (did a fantastic job on the aiptasia!)
Mushrooms
Button Polyps
Green Star Polyps
Watchman Goby
2 Ocellaris clowns
Orchid Dottyback
Blue Line Wrasse
2 Banggai Cardinals
Feed fish every other day (started that about 2 months ago) Mostly mysis alternating with Feeding Frenzy Nano
Feed corals 2 times per week with Reef Roids
Water tests normal with my test kits and at the LFS - no recommendations to add anything
Water is always crystal clear
Inhabitants are thriving - fish and corals look great!
5 gallon water changes weekly
Using Reef Crystals Salt
Problem? Hair Algae! Have to remove rock and scrub once per month
Any easier options? or Just keep at it and someday, it will settle down?

 

[exnisstech]

My bad I do see herbivores. How many and what type of crabs and snails

EDIT: folks will ask for your parameters and a tank photo. I haven't found high nutrients to be the cause of GHA though many people say they are. When I had an infestation the tank ran N and P at or near zero. My high nutrient tanks have no GHA
I wish I had more to offer but I've only battled it once and after over a year the tank had a seam fail so I broke it down. I did a couple of rip cleans and nothing helped. I think it had something to do with the rock I used but that's speculation. I added a piece of old live rock and algae didn't grow on it.

 

[TankYouVeryMuch]

Suggestions from a newbie who has read a lot:
- Switch to feeding something other than frozen food, which is often high in phosphate. Consider using Vitalis specifically for over-nutrient issues: https://fritzaquatics.com/resources/articles/fritz-launches-vitalis-in-the-us
- Stop feedings the corals. They get most of their nutrients from photosynthesis and fish waste. It might slow their growth for a bit but it’s better than feeding the algae.
- If that doesn’t work, less light and less flow (flow and light go hand in hand, so if you lower one you should lower the other).

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can we see a picture of the algae?
I mean, you have low bio load, feed very little (too little IMO), and the lights are set very low.
To me this is not the formula for an algae problem. Is the algae everywhere? Only in certain spot? Pictures will help. Parameters help too.

 

[The Clown(fish)]

7 astrea (that are covered in hair algae)
3 nassarius
Hard to see the crabs. All hermits

 

[The Clown(fish)]

 

[vetteguy53081]

An urchin will be of help but is this tank by chance at or near a window?
Are you using tap water from faucet for topping off evaporation or mixing new water?

 

[The Clown(fish)]

Not near a window but will get a little (1-2 hrs of sunlight for a few days at certain times of the year)
Using ro buddie 50 gpd 4 stage. Tds is always at zero or at least under 5 or so. Had to add the module for chloramines too. And yes. Im coming up on it being time to replace the cartridges.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

How often do you clean out the filtration system? Just asking cause I see foam and sponge and ceramics, all will trap food particles and increase doc level.

 

[The Clown(fish)]

I will swap out the foam every week or two and vacuum out the section of the "sump" that holds that. I change the carbon/nitrate sponge monthly. I have never cleaned the rings. I take the skimmer out and clean it completely 1-2 times per week.

And i do use RO for top off as well as making new saltwater.

LOL! Am I being too meticulous?

I kept saltwater years ago and got frustrated with it after several years and switched that tank to freshwater, which it still is. Fast forward 15 years and I decided to try saltwater again. Decided a good part of the problem was that I needed my own RO unit. I have that now and am STILL frustrated!

Suggestions from a newbie who has read a lot:
- Switch to feeding something other than frozen food, which is often high in phosphate. Consider using Vitalis specifically for over-nutrient issues: https://fritzaquatics.com/resources/articles/fritz-launches-vitalis-in-the-us
- Stop feedings the corals. They get most of their nutrients from photosynthesis and fish waste. It might slow their growth for a bit but it’s better than feeding the algae.
- If that doesn’t work, less light and less flow (flow and light go hand in hand, so if you lower one you should lower the other).

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will take your advice and switch to flake food and stop feeding the corals. I always thought the corals ate the juices from the food and such but they were surviving but not thriving. Theyre thriving now, but, so is the algae!

This sounds like a reasonable switch out.

thanks again!

 

[TankYouVeryMuch]

Out of curiosity, when you switched the tank from freshwater to saltwater did you reuse things like substrate and rocks?

 

[CHSUB]

Mushrooms
Button Polyps
Green Star Polyps

As mentioned, stop feed corals…at least until algae is gone. Imo, these corals can thrive without direct feeding.

Problem? Hair Algae! Have to remove rock and scrub once per month

Do this more often and vigorously with weekly small WC that removes all visible detritus. Clean sponge more often than weekly and get rid of the other detritus collecting stuff:
-Nitrate/phosphate sponge in next basket
-Stock ceramic rings in the bottom 2 baskets
-Extra ceramic rings
All that is needed is a sponge and maybe GAC, rock in tank does everything else.

Powerheads and glass is covered with algae, should be spotless at all times so CUC eats algae on the rocks, not where it is easy for you to clean.

imo, you need to manually remove the algae with vigor. I would also get more corals to cover the rock like some leathers. Your rock is mostly bare which GHA grows on, some nice leathers flowing in the current would be nice, imo.

 

[The Clown(fish)]

Out of curiosity, when you switched the tank from freshwater to saltwater did you reuse things like substrate and rocks?

That tank went from saltwater to freshwater not the other way around. I apologize if I sounded like it was the reverse

 

[exnisstech]

I will swap out the foam every week or two and vacuum out the section of the "sump" that holds that. I change the carbon/nitrate sponge monthly. I have never cleaned the rings. I take the skimmer out and clean it completely 1-2 times per week.

And i do use RO for top off as well as making new saltwater.

LOL! Am I being too meticulous?

I kept saltwater years ago and got frustrated with it after several years and switched that tank to freshwater, which it still is. Fast forward 15 years and I decided to try saltwater again. Decided a good part of the problem was that I needed my own RO unit. I have that now and am STILL frustrated!

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will take your advice and switch to flake food and stop feeding the corals. I always thought the corals ate the juices from the food and such but they were surviving but not thriving. Theyre thriving now, but, so is the algae!

This sounds like a reasonable switch out.

thanks again!

I apologize for only being able to tell you what I don't think the issue is but I'm doubtful frozen food is the cause, or at least it doesn't cause problems in my tanks. I feed 95% frozen and have for years and do not have a nuisance algae issues in any of my tanks.

This tank is fed frozen multiple times a day. I do add live rock whenever I start a tank these days even if it's in the sump so maybe that is part of the key? Dry rock only start ups have been brutal for me as far as the uglies.

EDIT: the problem tank I mentioned above in post #2 was rescaped using all dry rock.

 

[The Clown(fish)]

I apologize for only being able to tell you what I don't think the issue is but I'm doubtful frozen food is the cause, or at least it doesn't cause problems in my tanks. I feed 95% frozen and have for years and do not have a nuisance algae issues in any of my tanks.

This tank is fed frozen multiple times a day. I do add live rock whenever I start a tank these days even if it's in the sump so maybe that is part of the key? Dry rock only start ups have been brutal for me as far as the uglies.

EDIT: the problem tank I mentioned above in post #2 was rescaped using all dry rock.

Thank you for your input. Im about ready to try anything. Not ready to give up on it tho. LFS says be patient and stay on top of it

 

[The Clown(fish)]

As mentioned, stop feed corals…at least until algae is gone. Imo, these corals can thrive without direct feeding.

Do this more often and vigorously with weekly small WC that removes all visible detritus. Clean sponge more often than weekly and get rid of the other detritus collecting stuff:
-Nitrate/phosphate sponge in next basket
-Stock ceramic rings in the bottom 2 baskets
-Extra ceramic rings
All that is needed is a sponge and maybe GAC, rock in tank does everything else.

Powerheads and glass is covered with algae, should be spotless at all times so CUC eats algae on the rocks, not where it is easy for you to clean.

imo, you need to manually remove the algae with vigor. I would also get more corals to cover the rock like some leathers. Your rock is mostly bare which GHA grows on, some nice leathers flowing in the current would be nice, imo.

Thanks for your input! I understand what youve said. Im only unsure of what GAC is. Im sure “buying more corals to cover the rock” will make my LFS happy.
Also, you are saying to get rid of basically all of the extraneous filtration except sponge and rock? Should I add live rock to the sump areas?

 

[TankYouVeryMuch]

I apologize for only being able to tell you what I don't think the issue is but I'm doubtful frozen food is the cause, or at least it doesn't cause problems in my tanks. I feed 95% frozen and have for years and do not have a nuisance algae issues in any of my tanks.

This tank is fed frozen multiple times a day. I do add live rock whenever I start a tank these days even if it's in the sump so maybe that is part of the key? Dry rock only start ups have been brutal for me as far as the uglies.

EDIT: the problem tank I mentioned above in post #2 was rescaped using all dry rock.

To clarify, I’m not saying that feeding frozen food will give people algae, I’m just saying if you’re already battling algae than switching foods might help. Every tank is different!

 

[KrisReef]

This one was for dino's but hair algae was the original target for the rip clean method

How I beat dinos: an ode to Brandon 429 work thread

@brandon429 asked for people to start dino elimination work threads, so here is my submission. Let me start off with a confession…I am so old, I remember when there was no such thing as a dino bloom in a reef tank. A lot of newer reefers probably can’t even imagine what it was like to set up a...

www.reef2reef.com

(And because I googled RipClean and found a competitor?) :p :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes: :cool:

(The latter is not for reefs except maybe for cleaning out sand from sumps?)

 

[CHSUB]

Thanks for your input! I understand what youve said. Im only unsure of what GAC is. Im sure “buying more corals to cover the rock” will make my LFS happy.
Also, you are saying to get rid of basically all of the extraneous filtration except sponge and rock? Should I add live rock to the sump areas?

granular activated carbon (GAC). And yes remove extraneous filtration imo it’s not helping and possibly adding to nutrient levels. I don’t think you need more rock, anything in sump has the potential to collect detritus. With detritus the only goal is to collect and remove or have it consumed.