7 Month Wild Algae Battle

[tylersarah]

Looking for some expert algae eradication advice. We have been battling green hair algae for 7 months and are looking to take our algae fighting arsenal to the next step, here's the back story:

120 gallon tank with AI Sol lighting & 40 gal sump with refugium. Chaeto ball included, although, it doesn't grow much even since we upgraded the lighting, I can assume it's because the GHA and friends are absorbing all the nutrients.

We run BRS high capacity GFO, 1.09 C changed every four weeks. We use nutrient transport mode on the mp40's, I turkey baste the rocks and manually pull the hair algae many times per week; I've scrubbed it with a toothbrush and on the back wall with an algae scraper. In addition to 2 mp40s I added a Tunze powerhead to increase flow. We've tried lights out a few times. I feed blackworms and raw frozen seafood, minimally, but still twice a day to suit the needs of the butterflyfish. We have a starry blenny, a conch and many snails and crabs, none of which seem up to the task.

Things I have not tried that I'd like to open up for discussion:
Carbon dosing - vodka, vinegar, biopellets
Algae Scrubber
Peroxide

Out of the above, I like the idea of biopellets and the algae scrubber the best. Our corals have attached to multiple rocks making it hard to remove for peroxide treatment and I'm not fond of the side effects of vodka/vinegar dosing.

So, if this was your tank what would you do?
Which combinations are most effective or does it completely depend on the system?
Can you run biopellets and GFO simultaneously?

Here's some pictures, not only do we have GHA we have quite a variety of other algae, but the GHA is by far the greatest nuisance in our tank.

Pink hair algae:

Bubble algae:

Leaf like green algae that grows vines:

And the grand finale:

We have such a beautiful tank, it's a shame to see it full of algae every day and we are willing to do what it takes to rid of it.

 

[kga943]

how long do you leave your light on ? and you need to change your gfo more and make sure you are using the correct amount,and check your phosphates a couple times a week so you know when theirs a change up or down and do more water water changes i started doing them every week

 

[SteviesReef]

Peroxide helped me, but GFO really knocked it out. Looks like you are already running GFO, though. You can do peroxide right in the tank. I dosed 5ml each night for 7 nights in a 28 gal nano cube with no problem (sps and lps).

 

[tylersarah]

how long do you leave your light on ? and you need to change your gfo more and make sure you are using the correct amount,and check your phosphates a couple times a week so you know when theirs a change up or down and do more water water changes i started doing them every week

Our lights ramp up and down, they're on roughly 9 hours a day. I'm with you on changing GFO more, it's expensive, will look more into regeneration and change it more often. I have a Salifert kit and a Hanna phosphate reader which both test 0 phosphates and we all know that's not true. We have been doing weekly 20 gallon water changes for a very long time.

 

[tylersarah]

Peroxide helped me, but GFO really knocked it out. Looks like you are already running GFO, though. You can do peroxide right in the tank. I dosed 5ml each night for 7 nights in a 28 gal nano cube with no problem (sps and lps).

I will give this more consideration, but I'm really hesitant. Where did you find your calculation for the amt of peroxide? Do you think changing GFO every two weeks, or maybe every week vs every four would be more effective than the peroxide route?

 

[Reaper85]

I had a start of dinoflagettes showing up in my new tank and I cut the lights for 3 days and dosed peroxide. When I dosed I took a 1 ml syringe cut off all flow in the tank and injected directly into the Dino's. after 3 days they were gone and haven't returned. I read peroxide works great for nuisance algae as well. Just dose 1 ml per 10 gallons of water. Also no effects on fish, inverts, or corals

 

[Reaper85]

If your going to use peroxide make sure it is the 3% solution

 

[kga943]

have you checked your ro/di water ?

 

[tylersarah]

have you checked your ro/di water ?

Yes, all good.

 

[tylersarah]

Can anyone name the algae in the first and third picture?

Still debating peroxide vs biweekly GFO changes, or both.

 

[brandon429]

the thread on peroxide is huge, on page two of the nanos forum. pest algae problem challenge

its true you can use it in tank, but there is something better. if you will take the time to remove the rocks, with acros and all sitting right on the rocks, you will knock the algae out much much better. I always recommend that before dosing the whole tank even though yes we get lots of posters who do that well.

your pics are perfect for diagnosis, all those corals can be exposed for ten minutes easy, daily if you wanted to its in their genes for adaptivity to it.

you would be quite surprised how well peroxide works if you apply it in the ways we show to be the most reliable. the thread isnt fifty pages of fail thats for sure.

but its one of many ways, everyone can name six ways of beating algae you just select one or more and go lol

but at least the thread is there for you to read. I always say dont commit to a whole tank on anything if you can avoid a huge test risk.

take out one target rock you can get to, go get some peroxide from medicine cabinet. use a dropper to position it around the corals, only on target. use a dilution of fifty percent 3 percent peroxide and fifty percent tank water as a dilution run if you are going to target corals, and none of those corals you have pictured are accutely peroxide sensitive weve tested every one so far in the thread.

this external method though is the bomb...no coral contact, total contact on target, and your rocks are algae free in a week. sure you may have to retreat, what algae method has even been one off? but you wont find a better algaecide we can control with total protection on non targets than peroxide thats for sure. myriad algaecides exist for our tanks, good luck pronouncing their active ingredients.

given a choice between that stuff and oxygen water, I chose the o water for my tank and it works wonders. who gives a crap about phosphates, Im free lol

 

[brandon429]

if your test rocks work out, please take before and after pics on at least a few of them and post pics we collect in that thread, it really helps others to see pics. thats really the only selling point, is shocking before and afters.

so all treatments have a worse case scenario, and here it is for peroxide.

in a tank as large as yours, a huge overdone amount would have to be added to kill everything. if you stay within the ranges we post, nothing non targeted will die and your worse case scenario is soon after you clean your rocks it grows back.
we recommend using a new bottle of peroxide not an old one. how good is dr pepper opened after a week lol
but this is a window of opportunity

you can make tank changes to slow or stop it, but you will find in time that algae battling is about using different methods to remove it or prevent it.

GFO is a starver, a preventer, not an ideal remover. this is why people up their gfo and kill off things. its meant to be a baseline, consistent chemical binder you dont over do it.

a power round of external treatments with peroxide and not changing anything about your tank is my initial offering. youd be surprised knowing how many tanks simply dont have big repeat problems after an initial biomass removal. clean up crews tend to get back on the ball, the keeper takes action next time at the *first * sign of regrowth vs tankwide etc

there is nothing wrong with making green rocks super nice. what you do long terms sets the pace for your tank.

if I had a tank with as much dollars in it as that one, Id read the full peroxide thread, any magnesium dosing thread, get an aplysia sea hare either way, and make some attempt at those two.

all other algae threads are par for the last 20 year course...control nutrients etc, we know. if that worked nobody would have problem algae threads. sometimes direct action is needed and is all thats needed, a test rock will show. it wll also show you what growth rates to expect, you dont have to make big commitments to get us some nice pictures of peroxide.

the best part is if it works, you arent making big changes to your tank, its 75 cent ones with big easy results.

in the last ten pages of the peroxide thread there are numerous posts about submerged applications where you dont remove rock, thats second best. best way is removing the rock, its a total nondiluted application to the target and all other forms of application are diluted runs, slower kills etc.

 

[ACBlinky]

Are there any turbo snails in the tank? I have ten, ranging from the size of a big marble to golf ball sized, and when there was fuzzy green algae in the tank, they absolutely decimated it.

I'm also curious, are you lighting the refugium 24h/day? My chaeto grows like stink, and there's a little cyano and caulerpa keeping it company, lit constantly. The display gets green film algae and NOTHING else. I now spot-feed the turbos with nori, because the chaeto far outcompetes anything else for nutrients. My reef is heavily fed; I have non photosynthetic corals and LPS that get large daily helpings of frozen foods, and the crabs, shrimp and other scavengers are very well looked after

 

[tylersarah]

Are there any turbo snails in the tank? I have ten, ranging from the size of a big marble to golf ball sized, and when there was fuzzy green algae in the tank, they absolutely decimated it.

I'm also curious, are you lighting the refugium 24h/day? My chaeto grows like stink, and there's a little cyano and caulerpa keeping it company, lit constantly. The display gets green film algae and NOTHING else. I now spot-feed the turbos with nori, because the chaeto far outcompetes anything else for nutrients. My reef is heavily fed; I have non photosynthetic corals and LPS that get large daily helpings of frozen foods, and the crabs, shrimp and other scavengers are very well looked after

Yes, the butterflyfish killed a few, but we have three that actively clean the overflow box, but don't seem to clean the rocks.

As for the fuge, we run a LED light 10 hours a day, we can increase that though. I'm all for new advice.

And for Brandon the peroxide advocate...still researching

 

[tylersarah]

Full tank shot to get an idea of what we're dealing with.

I'll try the peroxide and post pictures to the nano thread. There's an arch rock to the right that is easily removable. I can target the algae with the 3% peroxide using a dropper. How long do I let it sit before I rinse with saltwater?

My #1 concern is the Muelleri Butterflyfish, he's sensitive and I'm always concerned with "his" environment. You and others say it's fish friendly, I'll try it with spot treatment only.

Here's the thing, there are areas I will not be able to spot treat. I'm hoping with the eradication of some algae other areas will die off. I'm going to continue running the GFO changing every 2-3 weeks and turn the fuge light on longer.

 

[csauer52]

Well to be honest, have you tried measuring the PO4 levels coming out of your reactor? Once a month GFO changes hardly seem like enough to me, especially given the amount of gha in your tank. Before trying anything else I would get a sense of where the PO4 levels are by measuring the output from your reactor. You may need to change every few days rather than once a month depending on how quickly it's being exhausted.

That's how I would approach it anyway.

Good luck.

 

[4ddiction]

Before sandy knocked out my tank, i had problems with Dinos, so decided to use h202 to kill them off. It worked pretty well actually. However it also destroyed 80% of my green monti. So it depends on what you have in the tank on how the h202 will affect it. Personally i think you have an extremely high phosphate production, and probably nitrate problem. I think you should invest in some biopellets, gfo, and start running those two together. Scrub as much of the **** you can and suck out any bubble algae as it can spread with spores. Do like a 50% water change, and slowly introduce the pellets.

I incorporated biopellets to my new running tank and i have to say i have no algae. GFO is keeping my phos down as well. The only place i have a tiny bit of GHA is from the two live rocks that i kept from the first tank, and it turns out the reason behind that is due to it leaking nitrates from inside the rock.

Also what sort of skimmer are you running? H202 is just a bandaid you should try to find the source of the evil. I see you have a 120g you should have a skimmer thats rated more than the tank you actually have.

Good luck on your battle and dont giveuP!

 

[megadeth72]

when you get done with the battle consider a carbon source

 

[Aquari]

If u have battled it for 7 months , I think you should consider using peroxide, it worked for me in the past. for chaeto, it grows best on 6700k lights. I use 65watt 6700k lights of America brand flood lights. I also have figimud on my fuge. Combination of 6700k and figumud grow chaeto like there's no tomorrow, I run it 24/7 and prune it once a week. Also do u have a good skimmer? Once u get rid of it, I think u can prevent it with a good skimmer/ chaeto and gfo

 

[Aquari]

Over time phosphates will be observed by live rock and slowly released back into the water even the water is free of phosphates so you will not be easily starve the gha by gfo or other means. Also don't bother checking phosphates as it will read 0 as your gha is consuming it. I tried one of the solutions with peroxide and I dosed my whole tank which worked for me without any coral damage. At that time I only had lps and soft corals though, didn't have any sps corals