Tank gone whack! Help!

[Taylah]

So the past month my tank has just gone downhill. I am doing a consistent water change 20% weekly and feeding livestock every 2 days. My hammers were doing great then they started retracting. Now I have a bunch of algae growing on the rocks and back walls. I lowered the whites in the lights and changed my filter sock more frequently, put more flow in the tank, however it just comes back! I’m quite stuck and I would love to know someone’s approach to this issue. Thanks!
Images attached below

Had tank for just over 1 year

Parameters:
Salinity: 1.027
Temp: 23.7
Alk: 7
pH: 8.2
N03: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0ppm
Calcium: 380

2 clowns
1 bangaii
1 bi colour blenny
2 strombus snails

Illumagic magic xmini light
Standard aquaone skimmer
Jebao SW-4 wavemaker
Filter sock

 

[BlennyTime]

If your nitrate and phosphate are really 0, that’s probably your issue. I’d cut back on the water changes and remove the filter sock, and possibly feed a little more to get the numbers up.

Getting those up a little should help with the algae and make the corals happier. Once the corals recover, you could consider a several day blackout to help with the algae if it’s still around.

Some additional snails, hermits or other clean up crew members would probably be good to consider as well.

 

[Sam816]

well all your nitrates and phosphates are bound in the algae. start with scraping walls, siphoning small sections of sand and pulling algae from the rock(out of the tank) followed by 10-20% water change. Do it every 3-5 days. you don't want shock your corals with sudden change in parameters. I see one white skeleton already. also add small amount of bacteria from the bottle + sludge buster/tank refresh type bacteria to breakdown any organics. Do you use any filter sock? change it after half an hour to an hour of water change. i would avoid adding any chemical based additives.

 

[Taylah]

If your nitrate and phosphate are really 0, that’s probably your issue. I’d cut back on the water changes and remove the filter sock, and possibly feed a little more to get the numbers up.

Getting those up a little should help with the algae and make the corals happier. Once the corals recover, you could consider a several day blackout to help with the algae if it’s still around.

Some additional snails, hermits or other clean up crew members would probably be good to consider as well.

Cut back on water changes
Remove filter sock
Additional CUC
Blackout in future

Gotcha! Thanks heaps!! I’ll see how this goes

 

[Taylah]

well all your nitrates and phosphates are bound in the algae. start with scraping walls, siphoning small sections of sand and pulling algae from the rock(out of the tank) followed by 10-20% water change. Do it every 3-5 days. you don't want shock your corals with sudden change in parameters. I see one white skeleton already. also add small amount of bacteria from the bottle + sludge buster/tank refresh type bacteria to breakdown any organics. Do you use any filter sock? change it after half an hour to an hour of water change. i would avoid adding any chemical based additives.

When you say add a small amount of bacteria, should I use Tim’s one and only live nitrifying Bacteria (used it for the first cycle of my tank) or should I use something like Seachem pristine sludge buster? Any suggestions?

Can I scrape algae from rock in tank whilst siphoning it? Don’t think I’ll be able to get the rock out...

Thanks for the reply!!

 

[SifuMemphis]

How big is your tank? Adding a algae eater in there can help. Tang, Blenny, etc. Like others have mentioned, the reason you're seeing 0/0 nitrate and phosphate is because the algae is absorbing them. Throwing in some CuC, and some fish that would eat the algae can help you reduce it over time

 

[Jekyl]

Coral are suffering from the lack of nutrients. I'm guessing you have a gravel vacuum for doing water changes? Use a toothbrush with it and scrub / suck the algae out during changes. I'd also start feeding a little more. Starving the system of nutrients will cause more issues.

 

[Taylah]

How big is your tank? Adding a algae eater in there can help. Tang, Blenny, etc. Like others have mentioned, the reason you're seeing 0/0 nitrate and phosphate is because the algae is absorbing them. Throwing in some CuC, and some fish that would eat the algae can help you reduce it over time

Tank is the aquaone mini reef 120L

Will add some CUC

Cheers for the reply!

 

[Taylah]

Coral are suffering from the lack of nutrients. I'm guessing you have a gravel vacuum for doing water changes? Use a toothbrush with it and scrub / suck the algae out during changes. I'd also start feeding a little more. Starving the system of nutrients will cause more issues.

Yes using a gravel vacuum, when you say scrub do you mean scrub the rock or algae surfaces?

Will start feeding more. I thought feeding was a contributing problem to the algae, I am definitely wrong

Cheers for the reply!!

 

[Jekyl]

Yes using a gravel vacuum, when you say scrub do you mean scrub the rock or algae surfaces?

Will start feeding more. I thought feeding was a contributing problem to the algae, I am definitely wrong

Cheers for the reply!!

Anywhere there's algae use the toothbrush to scrub it. Hold it at the end of the siphon so it gets sucked out when freed up

 

[Jekyl]

I dealt with tank uglies for over my first year. Are you using RoDi water? Could be contributing.

 

[CMMorgan]

I'm just going to double down on the CUC. Growing pains... hang in there... this too shall pass.

 

[Jekyl]

For CuC I'd recommend going to reefcleaners.org and ordering the package for half your tank size. It comes with a lot of diversity which will be better than just grabbing a few snails or an urchin

 

[Rmckoy]

Will a foxface or a tang eat long hair algae like that ?

I’d fuel up your scissors
If cut short .
sometimes a lawnmower blenny will eat it .

 

[Jekyl]

Will a foxface or a tang eat long hair algae like that ?

I’d fuel up your scissors
If cut short .
sometimes a lawnmower blenny will eat it .

In my experience there isn't a fish or invert out there that will take care of an algae problem. They do help a little, but don't solve anything.

 

[Taylah]

I dealt with tank uglies for over my first year. Are you using RoDi water? Could be contributing.

I am using RoDi water, TDS reading zero and shouldn’t needing to be changing filter anytime soon. My initial thought was this but 0 TDS means no silicates are in the tank.

Cheers for the reply!!

 

[Taylah]

I'm just going to double down on the CUC. Growing pains... hang in there... this too shall pass.

Sounds like CUC will solve some of my problems. I have 2 strombus snails in now, what CUC member do you recommend?

Cheers for the reply!!

 

[Taylah]

For CuC I'd recommend going to reefcleaners.org and ordering the package for half your tank size. It comes with a lot of diversity which will be better than just grabbing a few snails or an urchin

Will definitely look at this! Cheers!!

 

[Jekyl]

Sounds like CUC will solve some of my problems. I have 2 strombus snails in now, what CUC member do you recommend?

Cheers for the reply!!

See my above post about it

 

[Taylah]

Will a foxface or a tang eat long hair algae like that ?

I’d fuel up your scissors
If cut short .
sometimes a lawnmower blenny will eat it .

I did actually try this, especially with the hair algae, blenny doesn’t seem interested though unfortunately.