Terrible Algae Outbreak - Any suggestions?

[Christopher Poore]

Hello Everyone!

I've been battling an algae outbreak for a couple of months. Mostly by scrubbing the rock prior to weekly water changes. I left for 8 days and came back to a terrible outbreak, maybe due to overfeeding by the person watching the tank.

I've never dealt with this much algae before, some of which is really difficult to reach due to the current location of the tank. I have trochus snails, emerald crabs, starry blenny, and a sailfin; none of which are putting a dent into the situation.

Parameters as of last night (trusted kits):
Alk 8.5, Calcium 430, Po4 .1, No3 25ppm

What can I do to end this nightmare?
I was thinking of using Chemipure and turning off the lights for 3 days to drop Po4.

 

[littlebeard]

Looks like too much nutrients. I would say step 1 is to test the nitrate and phosphate levels of your tank. That will help a lot in establishing next steps.

 

[14 foot reef]

Try to include a little more info.
Length of time tank set up
Dry rock or Live rock set up
Water perimeter tests with known trusted test kit brands.
Live Stock list
Filtration list
Lighting type and photo period.

Good luck as this most likely will be an uphill battle for quite some time.

I've had fabulous success beating green hair algae with Fluconazole ( Reef RX ) from pet mountain is the most cost effective source for it in bulk.

 

[Christopher Poore]

Looks like too much nutrients. I would say step 1 is to test the nitrate and phosphate levels of your tank. That will help a lot in establishing next steps.

Tested nutrients last night
Po4 = .10 (hanna)
No3 = ~25ppm (salifert)

 

[Christopher Poore]

Try to include a little more info.
Length of time tank set up
Dry rock or Live rock set up
Water perimeter tests with known trusted test kit brands.
Live Stock list
Filtration list
Lighting type and photo period.

Good luck as this most likely will be an uphill battle for quite some time.

I've had fabulous success beating green hair algae with Fluconazole ( Reef RX ) from pet mountain is the most cost effective source for it in bulk.

Dry rock @ setup
Setup for 1.25yr
Parameters as of last night:
Alk 8.5, Calcium 430, Po4 .1, No3 25ppm
Stock list: 2 clowns, 2 wrasse, 1 sailfin, 1 chromis, 1 helfrichi, 1 starry blenny
filtration: I use 2 filter socks, oversized skimmer, weekly ~15% water change
Light - Radion xr30 and photo period around 10 hr

 

[sp1187]

Dry rock @ setup
Setup for 1.25yr
Parameters as of last night:
Alk 8.5, Calcium 430, Po4 .1, No3 25ppm
Stock list: 2 clowns, 2 wrasse, 1 sailfin, 1 chromis, 1 helfrichi, 1 starry blenny
filtration: I use 2 filter socks, oversized skimmer, weekly ~15% water change
Light - Radion xr30 and photo period around 10 hr

got room for an algae scrubber in the sump?

 

[Christopher Poore]

got room for an algae scrubber in the sump?

I can probably squeeze a small one in.. but it'll be tight

 

[sp1187]

I can probably squeeze a small one in.. but it'll be tight

Works for me.
I’ve never owned a skimmer.
I feed heavy, or so I been told.

 

[beehive124]

Nitrates do seem a tad high. All the suggestions above are great ideas

 

[Christopher Poore]

Anything I can do in the short term? I'm moving in 3 months and won't add a scrubber until after the move..

 

[14 foot reef]

I sent this in a previous post on this thread.


I've had fabulous success beating green hair algae with Fluconazole ( Reef RX ) from pet mountain is the most cost effective source for it in bulk.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

You could try carbon dosing till your nutrients drop to about half of what their at now. And brush the algae off during, it should weaken as you starve it, then the removal with a brush gets easier. Also what’s you magnesium? If it’s low then maybe you need to bump it up to give coraline algae a better chance at winning this fight

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Stock list: 2 clowns, 2 wrasse, 1 sailfin, 1 chromis, 1 helfrichi, 1 starry blenny

Let’s hear about your CUC?

 

[Christopher Poore]

Let’s hear about your CUC?

I have trochus snails, Blue Leg Hermit, various other snails (astria, nassarius, etc), 2 emerald crabs, starry blenny, and a sailfin; none of which are putting a dent into the situation.

 

[Christopher Poore]

I sent this in a previous post on this thread.


I've had fabulous success beating green hair algae with Fluconazole ( Reef RX ) from pet mountain is the most cost effective source for it in bulk.

Can you confirm the algae I'm dealing with is green hair algae? It looks very brown to me

 

[Just John]

@brandon429, this is a job for you!

 

[brandon429]

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

the reason that method rocks is because you get a known clean start date.

as soon as you finish the job, your reef is perfect looking. beats waiting till September right for a hopeful/partial turnaround


its nice knowing that in the time it takes for you to watch Star Wars one that you can have a rip cleaned reef.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I have trochus snails, Blue Leg Hermit, various other snails (astria, nassarius, etc), 2 emerald crabs, starry blenny, and a sailfin; none of which are putting a dent into the situation.

I’m surprised the emerald crabs aren’t chowing down

 

[Melanie Fish]

There's definitely nutrients coming from somewhere with that much algae. Bad source water maybe or bad rodi filters. 4 day black out would def help kill that algae but all that dying algae will prob cause a nutrient spike. A post blackout water change would be a must.

 

[14 foot reef]

Can you confirm the algae I'm dealing with is green hair algae? It looks very brown to me

I can't from the photo you sent, but a small hobby microscope, someone here could identify that easily