7 Month Wild Algae Battle

[nysbadmk8]

API Algae Fix, and external peroxide dips, and a very good clean up crew, are all tactics Ive employed to be algae free.

 

[leeweber85]

Have you thought about your rocks leaching something? Seems strange you would have it so bad with running GFO and having a blenny in there. (I assume he has been eating it?)

 

[mil hse]

For the pink hair like algae a blk spine urchin will eat it. Get a small one. You can try setting up a algae scrubber if you have the space for one. There is a bunch of info of RC about them. Might help

 

[tylersarah]

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.

I will test the reactor output later, but for now, I can tell you I tested the display tank yesterday with a Hanna Phosphate kit and it read .05. The GFO is a little over a week old. Are there any foul side effects to changing GFO weekly or more? Other than the hit on the pocket book?

 

[tylersarah]

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!

Biopellets + GFO together, I thought that was a bad idea, no? BRS once told me I'd have to stop running GFO to get the biopellets working.

The skimmer is a Super Reef Octopus XP-2000 rated for 600L or 160 gallons. Think a beefier one is necessary?

When you used peroxide, was it a full tank dose or did you dip the monti in a diluted solution?

Thanks for the post, I really appreciate the discussion :beer:

 

[tylersarah]

when you get done with the battle consider a carbon source

Biopellets?

 

[tylersarah]

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

I'm going to get the chaeto growing, the goal is to have a chaeto farm. Funny thing is, there's no gha in the sump, my system is working backwards.

As for leaching phosphates and nitrates, I agree, it's coming from somewhere. Why my tank is so problematic, I don't know. 40 lbs of the live rock came from my 26 gal which didn't have algae issues and the rest came from the man who we bought the tank from. We cooked all his rock properly before placing it in the tank and the algae didn't start for quite some time. Just a hypothesis, I feel the 2 mp40s weren't enough flow to keep the detritus buildup in check, coupled with not blasting the rocks manually or siphoning the sand and I believe I built algae nutrient traps that turned into an algae farm. Now undoing the damage is a full time job.

 

[tylersarah]

Here's our basement sump. There's room for an algae scrubber, I've researched these and it's still under consideration.

 

[t4zalews]

I believe I see a massive bryopsis explosion. Have you tried using Tech M to raise your magnesium to 1600 and keep it there for a little bit. I've done this and my bryposis disappeared. Only Tech M will work as it has somethign else in it that is effective..I tried using the BRS mag and it doesnt work.

Do you have a TDS meter on your RO/DI unit? if not, I'd suggest getting one. Something is feeding it.

 

[KafudaFish]

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

Still debating peroxide vs biweekly GFO changes, or both.

Looks like grape caulerpa and bubble algae. You also have feather caulerpa in the other.

The grape is easy to pull out with eyebrow tweezers.

How old was the aquarium when this all started?

 

[ReeferKimberly]

I believe I see a massive bryopsis explosion. Have you tried using Tech M to raise your magnesium to 1600 and keep it there for a little bit. I've done this and my bryposis disappeared. Only Tech M will work as it has somethign else in it that is effective..I tried using the BRS mag and it doesnt work.

Do you have a TDS meter on your RO/DI unit? if not, I'd suggest getting one. Something is feeding it.

I was going to suggest that it was Bryopsis as well. Which seems to thrive in clean water. Try the Kent tech M like said above. Also, I had a bit of a problem but it was because I was doing a lot of water changes....so the tech M weakened it and I picked up several animals to eat it (foxface, urchins, sea hare, snails, ect). It really takes a battle. My algae eating animals would only touch it AFTER I raised magnesium with Tech M. It weakened it, they killed it. You don't get to call yourself a supreme reefer until you have battled bryopsis and won Good luck, it DOES go away, you just gotta be on it and if the Tech M only weakens it then pick up some animals to finish it off. Search on here, there is a massive thread about killing it with Tech M.

 

[t4zalews]

Well said. The Tech M turns the bryopsis to a clear color and from there i had a foxface that mowed it down. As said, you have to have something to eat it off of the rock after it is in its clear state. I guess it will eventually dissolve.

bryopsis was a cinch compared to my year plus battle with dinos. Consider these algae problems, well they are bad, easily controllable not requiring drastic procedures.

 

[tylersarah]

I believe I see a massive bryopsis explosion. Have you tried using Tech M to raise your magnesium to 1600 and keep it there for a little bit. I've done this and my bryposis disappeared. Only Tech M will work as it has somethign else in it that is effective..I tried using the BRS mag and it doesnt work.

Do you have a TDS meter on your RO/DI unit? if not, I'd suggest getting one. Something is feeding it.

I've been debating whether it's bryopsis or hair algae, but bryopsis is hair algae...I found this interesting algae slide show:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/reefslides/index.php

I have a majority of the algae in the show, maybe my tank could be a living show?

Anyway, I've read of Tech M, will research more now. I currently use BRS Mag, stable at 1450.

Yes, we have TDS, water is high quality.

 

[tylersarah]

I was going to suggest that it was Bryopsis as well. Which seems to thrive in clean water. Try the Kent tech M like said above. Also, I had a bit of a problem but it was because I was doing a lot of water changes....so the tech M weakened it and I picked up several animals to eat it (foxface, urchins, sea hare, snails, ect). It really takes a battle. My algae eating animals would only touch it AFTER I raised magnesium with Tech M. It weakened it, they killed it. You don't get to call yourself a supreme reefer until you have battled bryopsis and won Good luck, it DOES go away, you just gotta be on it and if the Tech M only weakens it then pick up some animals to finish it off. Search on here, there is a massive thread about killing it with Tech M.

I've been reef keeping for nearly 10 years, I've won battles, but not this. Yet...it can't be a salad bar forever.

 

[tylersarah]

Looks like grape caulerpa and bubble algae. You also have feather caulerpa in the other.

The grape is easy to pull out with eyebrow tweezers.

How old was the aquarium when this all started?

At nine months I began to see patches of the hair algae. The feather, grape, pink and bubble are all recent additions.

 

[tylersarah]

The battle plan

The battle plan

Here's what my battle plan is, if it works and stays away I'm going to send all of you gift cards for a free lunch :celeb1:

1. Fuge light on 24/7, grow that Chaeto!
2. Up GFO changes to bimonthly.
3. Order large amounts of Tech M and raise Mag from current 1450 ppm to 1600+ no more than ~80 ppm/day and watch.
4. Keep turkey basting and pulling algae like I normally do.
5. If it begins to die off add ~25 turbo snails, hopefully they can handle the Mg.

Now, since it was mentioned before, water changes, should I back off and do them biweekly to help keep the Mag elevated or buy more Tech M to compensate?

And if that doesn't work I'll play with peroxide and algae scrubbers.

 

[csauer52]

Test your gfo output so you know when to change it. You may need to change it more frequently than every 2 weeks even.

 

[tylersarah]

Test your gfo output so you know when to change it. You may need to change it more frequently than every 2 weeks even.

Will do. We find the GFO hardening more often than not despite regular adjustments and cleanings. What if we threw the reactor out the window and put the GFO in a mesh bag. Simple and easy to clean...

 

[tylersarah]

Also, a highly reputable LFS suggested Red Sea NO3 P04 - X for controlling algae other than bryopsis. I searched and couldn't find any solid reviews, anyone have experience?

 

[tylersarah]

Day 2 of Algae Combat

Day 2 of Algae Combat

Test your gfo output so you know when to change it. You may need to change it more frequently than every 2 weeks even.

Been learning all kinds of things about my tank, thought I'd update.

The PO4 in the GFO output is .06 ppm said Hanna Checker. The display tank has .05 ppm PO4. So, the GFO needs to be changed more than once every 1.5 weeks to be less than the tank.

But, here's the thing. My RO water has TDS = 2. I use just RO, not RODI and the filters are practically new. The PO4 in the storage Brute is .18 ppm and the PO4 from the RO outlet is .09. So that tells me there is some phosphate coming through my RO, and it's doubling in the Brute due to dirt and debris or whatever.

So, does that conclude I need to add DI? Let's talk realistically and not be paranoid, are these numbers significant in the grand scheme of things? A feeding contains 10 fold the amount of phosphates in the water... Obviously, my tank has a problem and the PO4 algae food is coming from somewhere and while the RO water and Brute are contributing, I'm not convinced it's a significant source. When you test PO4 in RO and in storage Brutes do you have readings >0?