When is it ugly stage vs need to take action

[Diesel48]

Not sure if this is new tank uglies or not. Tank turns 10 months old tomorrow. Started sterile, dry rock and bare bottom. 14 gallon AWC weekly. All RODI water, TDS reading 0. NO3 is 2.5ppm and P04 has been .02-.05. Light schedule is 9 hours, more white for 4 hours in the middle. Just not sure if I need to take action or this is just the tank maturing. It is 160 galllons. I have probably 30 snails and 10 hermits. The green algae looks like felt, it is not cyano. In the darker areas of the rock there is algae that looks like dust bunnies. Not sure if that is detritus or some dark algae of some sort. Also in one of the pictures you will see a ton of feather duster worms. They seem to be spreading like crazy. Not sure if this is good or bad. Seems like way to many to me. Anything eat them?

 

[Reefer40b]

Pictures sure look like green cyano... if you turkey bast it does it just float away? How old is this tank?

If it not cyano then how much are you feeding? Feather dusters/bristle worms etc amount is usually dependent on how much you are feeding..

If just green hair, rent a sea hair from a LFS he will take care of it.

 

[Johniejumbo]

I wish I had feather dusters growing like that! It does have that bright green cyano look to it. If it’s not that I’m not sure what it is. Might consider siphoning some out then leaving the lights off for a bit. It’s not real bad right now but personally I think a little action may need to be taken. The 10 month mark is late end for “uglies” I think.

 

[Reefer40b]

I wish I had feather dusters growing like that! It does have that bright green cyano look to it. If it’s not that I’m not sure what it is. Might consider siphoning some out then leaving the lights off for a bit. It’s not real bad right now but personally I think a little action may need to be taken. The 10 month mark is late end for “uglies” I think.

I missed where he said 10 months... I usually see a second ugly spell at 8 months and its usually GHA. You could just syphon it out and it most likly will not come back.

 

[sstanley223]

I think your rock looks awesome!

 

[Silent]

4 weeks of vibrant got rid of my uglies. Video sucks but you get the point.

 

[W1ngz]

For a 10 month tank I would expect to see more coraline coverage. Something subtle is not right here. How about the rest of your parameters, and anything else you're dosing or adding? What is the lighting, intensity and duration?

I would scrape that stuff off, let the flow pile it up and then siphon it out, to target whatever specific elements it's feeding on.

 

[Diesel48]

I appreciate all of the responses!

P04 has been between .01 - .05 with the Hanna
N03 has been .5 - 5 with Safialert

Changed lighting a few weeks ago. I lowered my T5 hybrid with 5 kessills to 8" above the water. They were 12". Lights run 9 hours a day with more white for 4 hours in the middle. Algae was there before lowering them.

I dose about 20ml of Soda ash a day, calcium uptake has not been equal to alk.

For awhile the green was only growing on the glass, started spreading to the rocks when I lowered my lights. I do have a couple patches of red Cyano on the rocks. I plan on syphoning them out today.

I was feeding a good amount. Trying to keep nutrients in the tank. 2 rounds of pellets, a 1/4 sheet of nori and froze LRS at night. Had issues getting readings of N03 and PO4. I am probably just feeding this algae at this point.

As far as filtration goes, I just have a rollermat, a skimmer and run activated carbon from time to time.

I feel like I have a good fish load for a 160 display. 13 fish in total. 6 tangs, 2 clowns, a royal gramma, cardinal fish and 3 anthias.

one feather duster worm has turned into hundreds and hundreds of them.

The darker green area on the bottom glass is an area I scrapped maybe a few weeks ago. It was that white almost looks like dead coraline but maybe just preticpate. I needed to use a straight razor to scrape it off.

 

[W1ngz]

Ca, alk, mag levels.

 

[madweazl]

Ca, alk, mag levels.

Why would any of those matter?

 

[W1ngz]

Why would any of those matter?

Why is there no coraline anywhere?

 

[New&no clue]

It seems like your CUC is small for a tank that size. I have probably 100+ snails, hermits, conch, and urchin in my 75. They do an awesome job keeping algae at bay. But the best thing for sand is my diamond goby.

 

[Diesel48]

I do have small blotches of coraline, just not a ton. I keep alk at 7.5dkh, Calcium is 440ppm, Mg is the weird one. 2 weeks ago 1440ppm this week 1540ppm. I think some testing error on that one. I have not added any MG. Using red sea kits for Calcium and Mag.

I just blew off all the rocks, pumps are on constant to bring to the sump. Tried scrapping the green off the bottom with a kent scrapper. It is stuck to the bottom glass. Need a sharp razor blade to actually get it off. As I said before it feels like felt when I touch it.

 

[Daddy-o]

Dose Vibrant. It is a bacteria that will eat the algae.
Cheers! Mark