Please help with this algae buffet

[reef_ninja]

Tank is 6 months old, 40 breeder with 20 gallon sump, skimmer, and fuge with chaeto and LR.

Lights = Viparspectra 300W (40% blues, 5% whites, 8 hours per day)

This algae is really starting to get to me. At first, I thought it was just GHA, but Im thinking it may be GHA and diatoms (and some other macro from the Keys). I turned off the wavemakers for a couple hours to let things settle before getting pics, and to see if bubbles would form in the algae. Please take a look and let me know what you think, if I can get a decent ID, I can probably look into a solution. Pulling my hair out here.

I've drastically reduce my feeding to about 1/6 of a cube of frozen food once a day for 4 fish, and cut the lights back from 10 hours to 8 hours per day. Skimmer is doing its job well.

Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 78
Ca- 430
Alk - 9.0
NO3 - zero
PO4 - zero
Mg - 1410
pH - 8.2

My thoughts so far: Tank is still somewhat new, but I feel I should be over this by now. Chaeto is not growing at all, Im considering removing it altogether to get to NO3 and PO4 up (These values add to why I think I have diatoms too). Also seriously considering Vibrant as well.

Different algaes, with weird Macro

This is a decent picture of the problem, I think.

In the sand. Didnt think GHA grew in the sand?

One of the bigger problem areas.

 

[George81]

I dealt with something similar after using vibrant and blackouts when I was starting my tank last year, the only way I got rid of the algae was to Take the problem rocks out wire wheel attached to a drill to clean it off then hydrogen peroxide bathed the rock. The algae hasn’t returned since....there is a thread somewhere on here that brandon429 has describing what to do. It worked for me

 

[TriggersAmuck]

I dealt with something similar after using vibrant and blackouts when I was starting my tank last year, the only way I got rid of the algae was to Take the problem rocks out wire wheel attached to a drill to clean it off then hydrogen peroxide bathed the rock. The algae hasn’t returned since....there is a thread somewhere on here that brandon429 has describing what to do. It worked for me

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

 

[George81]

That’s the one!

 

[TriggersAmuck]

@George81 - Did you have the case where there wasn't much Coraline or other blockers/consumers in the tank when the algae took hold? Were you able to address that as a potential cause after eradicating the nuisance algae?

 

[George81]

I don’t quite remember... I definitely know there was almost no coralline growth my tank was still new from what I remember. I had a bad gha outbreak and used vibrant which worked for a bit then some nasty stuff came after the gha. I tried blackouts to get rid of it, and brandon429 told me to peroxide them and rasp Them, I figured I would order a wire wheel and go to town.
I actually don’t even remember if I had fish in there or if I was quarantining at the time.
whatever it was or the cause I don’t know or remember , but after peroxiding and Wire wheeling them I haven’t had to deal with any algae growth on my rocks, which are now covered in coralline and frags

i don’t have much for a clean up crew I have 5 turbos and probably 5 astraea snails and 2 tangs in my 120

 

[vetteguy53081]

Reduce white light intensity. Then pull as much as you can off by hand. Is tank at or near a window?
Next > check your phosphate and nitrate and reveal what it is.
Are you using RODI water or Tap water from the faucet?

Add clean up crew. Snails:
Astrea
turbo
Trochus
cerith
nassarius
Nerite

6-8 blue leg hermits

Other thing you could do is Add fluconasal (flux) which will starve and destroy this stuff.

 

[reef_ninja]

Reduce white light intensity. Then pull as much as you can off by hand. Is tank at or near a window?
Next > check your phosphate and nitrate and reveal what it is.
Are you using RODI water or Tap water from the faucet?

Add clean up crew. Snails:
Astrea
turbo
Trochus
cerith
nassarius
Nerite

6-8 blue leg hermits

Other thing you could do is Add fluconasal (flux) which will starve and destroy this stuff.

kinda sorta next to a window, not directly in front of one though but there’s no way around being next to


I recently reduced the white intensity. The seetongs I mentioned above are after I reduced them last weekend.

using a 4 stage rodi, I suspect the filters are about halfway through the life cycle.

my No3 and PO4 levels are in my post, unless you mean to check again after manual cleaning?

Thanks for the input ;)

edit: forgot to mention I added some hermits and snails yesterday

 

[reef_ninja]

I dealt with something similar after using vibrant and blackouts when I was starting my tank last year, the only way I got rid of the algae was to Take the problem rocks out wire wheel attached to a drill to clean it off then hydrogen peroxide bathed the rock. The algae hasn’t returned since....there is a thread somewhere on here that brandon429 has describing what to do. It worked for me

All those pics are 2 weeks post-peroxide treatment (I followed the advice of that thread as well). It makes me think peroxide is more of a bandaid, atleast in my case, instead of a fix.

 

[TriggersAmuck]

All those pics are 2 weeks post-peroxide treatment (I followed the advice of that thread as well). It makes me think peroxide is more of a bandaid, atleast in my case, instead of a fix.

Agreed, it is a method to remove what has already taken hold, but it won't prevent a growback necessarily without addressing the root causes.

 

[TriggersAmuck]

I have a very rock heavy tank (meaning no corals, no Coraline growth or other diversity, only a bunch of Bubble Tip and Rock 'nems.) This was my first dry rock tank (well, actually first dry rock since 1995 when that was all we had). I don't remember having so many issues when I used live rock, but then again that brought its own set of issues. (Such as having to worry about monster bristle worms when hand stirring one's sand bed!).

So I'm looking for a way to introduce that rock covering diversity, preferably without introducing a ton of corals (due to the 'nems being the centerpiece). Thoughts anyone?

@reef_ninja - Did you start with dry rock? I also had issues getting Chaeto to thrive, especially in the first batch (after the tank cycled). I eventually switched to sea lettuce, and it seems to be faring better.

Also, I have come across videos of some of the best looking nano tanks, and one thing in common is that they often feed the tank only 2 or 3 times a week.

 

[reef_ninja]

Did you start with dry rock? I also had issues getting Chaeto to thrive, especially in the first batch (after the tank cycled). I eventually switched to sea lettuce, and it seems to be faring better.

Also, I have come across videos of some of the best looking nano tanks, and one thing in common is that they often feed the tank only 2 or 3 times a week.

Its all live rock (technically uncured) from the Florida Keys.

anyone have thoughts on if I should remove the chaeto? It’a baseball sized, but not thriving at all. I wondering if this could be contributing to the problem?

 

[Uncle99]

You post both nutrients at zero.
Zero is a bad number.
At 6-12 months, I’d be running N at 2-5ppm and Phosphate at 0.02-0.05 (.1 max) and testing stable, week to week.

I have found that ANY sunlight is real bad and algae explodes.
I removed all sunlight...........and no more algae for years now.

 

[reef_ninja]

You post both nutrients at zero.
Zero is a bad number.
At 6-12 months, I’d be running N at 2-5ppm and Phosphate at 0.02-0.05 (.1 max) and testing stable, week to week.

I have found that ANY sunlight is real bad and algae explodes.
I removed all sunlight...........and no more algae for years now.

unfortunately,one of the things I live about my house makes it hard for reefing......there are windows everywhere. ....

With my no3 and po4 at zero, think I should be feeding just a bit more?....

 

[reef_ninja]

Morning bump. Thoughts/questions so far:

-still looking for input/confirmation about whether folks think this is Dino and gha

-should I remove the chaeto, seems I’m exporting too much?

-would some beneficial bacterial additive be something worth looking into?