Waterborne algal bloom! Concerns?

[ReefNewbie12]

Hello everyone, a couple days ago my nutrients must’ve spiked or something as the cyanobacteria (working on getting an airstone so the treatment for that can be used, don’t worry!) went crazy. And not too long ago my water turned green. (Some of the turbidity in the image might be from bubbles) I am quite certain this is algal in nature as green water is practically diagnostic of such an occurrence afaik so I was wondering if there were any concerns I should have with this type of bloom? As far as I know most waterborne blooms reported on the forums seem to be bacterial on nature so I just want to know if there’s any concerns I should have with this?

Parameters (not exact, sorry) tested with Tetra easystrips
Ammonia measured at safe (~0)
Nitrate measured at ideal (~0)
Nitrite measured at safe (~0)
Alkalinity measured at ideal 2 (~300)
PH measured at acceptable (~7.8)
The kit does not measure Phosphate, is this most likely to be the issue? I do have a phosphate sponge available.

All tankmates are fine, the fish ate, the gorgonians appear a small bit fussy, all mushrooms are as usual okay. Though recently I had found one hermit crab out of 5 dead and though the water clarity may be part of the issue I haven’t seen any of the others today, could more of them died and the algae and cyano soaked up the nutrients enough that by the time I tested the parameters it was back to normal?

 

[Miami Reef]

Bacterial blooms are dangerous because they remove oxygen from tank. You need to find a way to remove it fast.

Here’s a list of what you’ll need to do:

1. point a pump towards surface to get erratic ripples. Like waves splashing at the beach…but without the water going on the floor. - this increases oxygen

2. Run activated carbon. This removes toxins and the organic food source. Starves out the bacteria quicker.

3. keep temps around 77F. - increases oxygen. Slows bacterial growth.

If you have a UV/diatom filter, run it now.

 

[ReefNewbie12]

Bacterial blooms are dangerous because they remove oxygen from tank. You need to find a way to remove it fast.

Here’s a list of what you’ll need to do:

1. point a pump towards surface to get erratic ripples. Like waves splashing at the beach…but without the water going on the floor. - this increases oxygen

2. Run activated carbon. This removes toxins and the organic food source. Starves out the bacteria quicker.

3. keep temps around 77F. - increases oxygen. Slows bacterial growth.

If you have a UV/diatom filter, run it now.

Thing is I am absolutely certain this isn’t bacterial in nature or at the least not a heterotrophic bacterium, bacterial blooms seem to be slimy build-up or cloudy, this is outright green! Like what you’d feed Daphnia or BS with.

 

[Miami Reef]

Thing is I am absolutely certain this isn’t bacterial in nature or at the least not a heterotrophic bacterium, bacterial blooms seem to be slimy build-up or cloudy, this is outright green! Like what you’d feed Daphnia or BS with.

I see cyano which is also considering a bacteria.

I still stand by my post above. I now will recommend you do water changes. Activated carbon will remove the haze. You seem to be going through the new tank syndrome. You need to act fast because your fish won’t survive in that anoxic environment.

Update: you also need to increase your flow! Follow my steps and your problem will be solved.

 

[Miami Reef]

No airstone. You need a powerhead/wave maker. Air stones are those bubble things they use in freshwater tanks.

Run filter floss/socks too.

 

[ReefNewbie12]

No airstone. You need a powerhead/wave maker. Air stones are those bubble things they use in freshwater tanks.

Run filter floss/socks too.

The airstone isn’t for aeration, it’s because the cyanobacteria treatment will remove oxygen from the water. airstones are also used frequently in saltwater from what I can tell and are recommended for aeration semi-frequently. The tank has an in-built pump (it’s a biocube 32) and thus already has what are, as far as I know, most of the function and benefits of a powerhead, including aeration.
The flow is not much of a problem as far as I can tell and to be quite honest if I could increase it I would fear for the mushroom corals as they are generally considered to not take higher flow well. Though I did see the “increase flow” recommendation while looking initially for problem solving on cyanobacterial blooms.

 

[Miami Reef]

Honestly at this point I’d consider a rip clean. (Since adding flow isn’t helping). @brandon429

Also, this quote from you is contradictory:

“The airstone isn’t for aeration, it’s because the cyanobacteria treatment will remove oxygen from the water.”

That basically means you are using the airstone for aeration. Powerheads do a much better job at getting oxygen into the tank.

You are most certainly underestimating how much flow your mushrooms can handle if the walls your powerhead is hitting is still covered in Cyanobacteria.

 

[Miami Reef]

I understand you did your research, but if you are having this problem, something is wrong with your husbandry. It should never look this bad. Especially not with living organisms like fish and inverts.

 

[ReefNewbie12]

Bump
I am updating on the situation and bumping now, so far there haven’t been any confirmed casualties and the fish are eating fine, gorgonians haven’t been extending and the mushroom corals seem to be acting a little weird (though it’s hard to tell with the cloudiness ): ), I have gotten a bottle of vibrant and plan on dosing soon, I just want to know if there’s any concerns I should have with this or if it won’t work for free-swimming algae. I’m sorry for saying some kinda stupid stuff before (I really should’ve just went and clarified that I’d meant the airstone was for temporary usage, not constant usage). I’m well aware that my cyanobacteria situation is quite bad (though I wouldn’t call that a “never should’ve happened” level thing) but this thread is about the probably worse issue and not a common pest that you can find eradication methods for by just looking its name up.

 

[ReefNewbie12]

Bump
I’m really at a loss here, I dosed the vibrant yesterday and as of right now today the situation hasn’t improved, I suppose my concerns that it might not effect unicellular floating algaes were correct, I tried to get a look under the microscope but found nothing! Not even a single cell! (just my luck to be fair) I hope this isn’t some floating cyanobacteria. I don’t even know what I’d do then, it’s not like, say, replacing all of the water is really a safe option for the fish and inverts in the tank, and considering it had managed to get to this point quickly in the first place makes me doubt that, say, two 50% water changes would do much either. If anyone has any ideas please tell me, I really just don’t know what to do anymore.
Here’s a picture of the tank, everything is still at the least alive, the fish ate fine today, gorgonians still aren’t extending (probably the cyanobacteria to blame there though, I’ve been cleaning both of them best I can), ricordea has continued to contort about in many weird ways but is at least not melting, rhodactises are contracted but otherwise seem ok, discosoma are alive as well as the ball anemone.
The only thing I could really think of right now is maybe putting a clam from, say, the grocery store, in for a short while and seeing if it can eat up the algae, but I’m not about to try that any time soon.


I really feel like I’ve failed at this point to be honest, at the least everybody is alive but I don’t know if I’ll really handle losing the fish well If something takes a downward turn.

 

[Miami Reef]

@ReefNewbie12

How are you assuming you are a failure based on your tank? This seems like a normal learning curve to me.

Now, I have the information to help you restore your tank, but I need to know if you are willing to accept my advice?

 

[ReefNewbie12]

Bump
The “Oh my god finally” post

So it seems like either the vibrant has decided to do its job for once (doubtable) or the algae has finally had its “oh *@#!” moment and ran out of nutrients. I don’t think nutrient crashes are good in general last I checked but, considering both pests have been hit pretty hard from the looks of it, this time it seems to be a little bit of a godsend. I’ll still keep everyone updated, but I really hope this is the end of this bloom.

 

[ReefNewbie12]

I would like to announce the final recovery

It seems either the vibrant just took a bit to kick in, or nutrients indeed reduced sufficiently, as I was surprised to a very pleasant sight coming down this morning: almost perfectly clear water (at least, it feels like its almost perfectly clear after all that green). While I do fear that it may come back should nutrients rise again, I just have some rock cleaning and the regular schedule to do today it seems!

 

[kados]

If you have have the space in your sump cabinet, a UV sterilizer would clear up your water really well. I use them on all my tanks for glass algae and water clarity. I just responded to your chemi clean post. The UV would fix the need for that moving forward. I've used chemiclean in the past and it works great. After UV, never used it again.