Algae Identification and Assitance

[rpeeples]

Hi Folks, I recently encountered an algae problem and was hoping to gain assistance in identifying, controlling and elimanating the problem.

Just to give you a little history of the tank this setup is approximately 13 months old. The main display is 225G with a 60G sump under the deck. As you can see from the pics below I am caring for an assortment of Softies/LPS/SPS and my beloved tangs. I have a fair amount of live rock with very thin layer (1") of Oolite sand. I run two tunze 6100's (4000G/hr) in addition to a closed loop pushing around 3600G/hr plus my return which is around 1000G per hour. I top off with Kalkwasser and run an ATI BM250 Skimmer and a 20G fuge with Chateo within an 8" deep sand bed.

About a month ago I went through a rock work remodel removing all the rock/coral/fish/etc from the tank. As a result of the process I used about 100G of new saltwater.

Approximately a week after completing the remodel I began to experience the problem below. I have completed about 4 water changes in the last two weeks which included siphoning the sand and rock. Within hours, the sand starts to rebuild the same slime like algae which looks to be killing off some of my snails but not effecting any of my fish and/or coral as of yet. In addition to the pictures below I am also noticing it parts of my rock.

Also a thin layer of green film has been accumulating on the glass within 24 hours of cleaning. Again this has been happening since the rock work remodel.

Feeding: I have been feeding Nori twice a day. Prime Reef Flakes (Large Pinch) once a day and about 5 small cubes of mysis or brine with a pinch of cyclopeze every third day.

Recent Changes:
1. Added new bulbs went from Phoenix 14Ks to Iwasaki 14Ks (4-250Ws) and Geisemann 39W Pure Actinic T5s (4)

2. New 418 Geo Media Reactor running GFO and Carbon from Two Part Solutions

As of tonight here are my water parameters. Testing was done using Salfiert test kits except for the SG of which a Pinpoint Salinity Monitor was used.

SG: 1.026
Mg: 1425
KH: 10 or 3.6meg/l
NH4: 0
NO3: 2.5 PPM
Ca: 440
NO2: 0
Phosphate: 0
Temp: 78F

Top Off Water was also tested with Nitrates and Phosphates at undetectable levels. I am using a 6 stage RODI system with a TDS Meter displaying 0 on the output for the salt mix and topoff water.

Your help is greatly appreciated and if you have additional questions just let me know. Thanks for your time

Display:

Algae Pics:

 

[nano mania]

Looks like red slime, cyanobacteria. Check you phosphate and nitrate levels. If they are elevated use a phosphate sponge such as RowaPhos. Increased flow can also help get rid of it.

 

[rpeeples]

I was thinking red slime as well but this actually has a very brown hue which looks much different then red slime I have seen in other tanks. However on the rocks it takes on a more red appearence. I don't know if I can get much more flow in the tank without creating a tidal wave. You can actually see this stuff wave along the sand so I know there is good flow on the substrate. I have tested nitrates using two test kits....Salfiert and Elos and both are within 2 to 10 PPMs which I don't think are to far out of tolerance. If my nitrates were in the 50 to 100 PPM then I think I would attribute this to outbreak to water parameters but I could be wrong?

 

[Billybeau1]

Doesn't look like red slime to me.

If you are happy with your chemistry parameters, I would look to lighting.

Have you recently changed lighting or bulbs ?

 

[rpeeples]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11635898#post11635898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
Doesn't look like red slime to me.

If you are happy with your chemistry parameters, I would look to lighting.

Have you recently changed lighting or bulbs ?

Did you see something in my parameters that would concern you? I thought they looked pretty well inline but I am no expert here.

Half way down the initial post I mentioned I changed from 14K Phoenix's to 14K Iwasaki's....do you think this could have contributed to the issue?

Over the past year I have never vacuumed my sand bed but after the rockwork remodel I decided to start to try and remove and detritus...perhaps this is the culprit....but like I said....I have been doing water changes bi-weekly and once I remove this stuff from the sand it is back the next morning

 

[bertoni]

How big are the cubes of frozen food? About the size of a frozen Formula 1 cube? That sounds like a lot of food to me.

 

[rpeeples]

The actual product is called "life line", the cubes are little smaller than your typical formula one or san fransisco bay brand cubes. Over the past 2 weeks I have tried to reduce feedings given this outbreak.

 

[bertoni]

I'd probably cut back to a cube or less per day, and see how that goes.

 

[rpeeples]

Will do....at this point I will feed a 1/2 sheet of Nori, one pinch of flake, and one cube.

 

[BADGUS]

I encountered the exact same problem,took water/algea samples to a fellow reefkeeper and said that upon stirring my sand and adding 10lbs of new LR caused this nasty outbreak,it is the exact same stuff.After 3~4 weeks the problem got worse,my sps,lps corals started getting covered in it.I had to start the tank again,the corals are being cared for by him,i have new live sand and new kaelini live rock.Hope you don't go to that extreme.But if your corals start getting covered in it,u might wanna take it all out and cycle the tank again.Sorry to hear that.

here's a pic of mine b4 and after.Sorry the detail sucks,i wasn't purposely trying to get a pic of the algea,3megapixel camera.But you see the brown in the sand,it was all over the rocks/corals aswell.In person it looks ugly.

New rock,no sand yet,have sand now.

 

[Boomer]

Doesn't look like red slime to me or me either but a heavy growth of Diatoms

 

[Carnavor180]

ya diatoms

 

[rpeeples]

Thanks for the feedback......Looks like I am in for the long haul.....I just refilled a media reactor with fresh GFO and Carbon, I will keep siphoning rock and sand, reduce the light cycle and manage the water parameters to the best of my ability....I will also cut back on the feeding.

I also switched to Red Sea Coral pro salt from Reef Crystals...not sure this will play a roll but I thought I would give it a shot.

I heard to schools of thought on doing water changes during diatom outbreaks....any suggestions and why doing it or not doing it is the way to go?

Thanks

 

[bertoni]

In this case, I would probably do some water changes, and remove as much of the slime as is easy to get, to help remove nutrients from the system.

 

[rpeeples]

Thanks again....I will keep the thread posted with updated pics and status...please keep the valuable ideas and suggestions coming.

 

[bertoni]

You're welcome! Good luck!

 

[packer]

I would think it is a combination of the rock and sand disturbance, especially if you did not vaccum your sand much at water changes. Then it probably accellerated with the new lights, new bulbs and change of spectrum usually equals some sort of algae reaction in my past experience.

 

[Fraggle Rock2]

Might be dinoflagellates, it looks similar to what others have posted. Do a search on RC there are some threads about it.

 

[HowardW]

<<< I also switched to Red Sea Coral pro salt from Reef Crystals...not sure this will play a roll but I thought I would give it a shot. >>>


You made that switch before this problem? If so, I think that may be your problem right there, as I've heard from others about large algae / cyano outbreaks immediatly after switching to Red Sea salt due to the fact that Red Sea salt is taken right from the Red Sea via solar evaporation and their cleaning process is not 100% yet and the salt has been reported to cause various algae and other breakouts in some cases.

If it's not the salt change.......I've also heard of outbreaks like yours after disturbing the substrate too much and it releases a lot of built up nutrients/detritus to the surface of the substrate and into the water column.

It could also partly be all the new MH bulbs being changed at the same time, especially if the old ones had some age.

Just some ideas...

 

[rpeeples]

I changed to the Red Sea salt after this outbreak so I don't think I can contribute this to the salt at this time. However, I think you have good points about the sand disturbance, rock work and lights.

For the first year of this new setup I really never vacuumed the sand and then for some reason, after rearranging the rock work, I decided to due so vacuuming.

The bulbs were also about a year old when I replaced them and going to from a Phoenix to these Iwasaki's 14K was a huge change in spectrum plus going to the Pure Actinic Giesemann might have had a lot to due with this.

Yesterday I completed another water change by again cleaning the "stuff" off the sand bed and siphoning the rocks. I also reduce the light cycle with MH only being on for 6 hours. I also raised the PH to around 8.5 which Randy recommended in a previous article.

Within a 1/2 hour of doing the water change you could see the brown stuff begin to form on the sand bed. You could literally sit and watch as this begun to develop. The good news it did not develop to the extent it has over the past month and as of this morning it was holding steady with not additional growth but seemed to be receeding.

The other thing I noticed this morning (and yesterday) was a whitish haze in the water. Not sure if this a bacterial bloom as a result of the water change or if it's the system going through a biological cycle trying to stabilize itself? I will try to take some more pics tonight and post them.