Algae on top of my montipora!! HELP!!

D

dvillar20

New member
Hey guys,

I've been fighting with a brown algae for about a month now. The algae started growing on top of a huge montipora and basically killed the part closer to the live rocks.

At this point I have the algae basically on most of my rocks and it's becoming a pain in the ^]^{....

I have tried basically everything like lowering the light period; stop feeding my corals, i recently started dosing Vodka. I always run phosban an carbon on reactors.

Should I cut and remove the dead part of the montipora where it kept growing the algae?

Other thing I just notice is that ny tank flow is basically cero. i guess because my powerheads are old and doesn't work like before. Might be this a reason why the algae is sticking to my rocks?

PO4 = .08ppm
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0

All red sea pro kits.

Please guys i'm begging some help here..
 
I've had success with it regrowing over the old. Get rid of your p04s and the algae will disappear and your coral will look better.
 
Algae on top of my montipora!! HELP!!

Increasing flow is always a good idea. Generally algae cannot grow on live coral. It might have killed it by shading it from a adjacent location I suppose. More than likely it died in that spot (zero flow is bad for corals particularly Sps) and the algae took over the new real estate. Increasing flow and decreasing phosphates will help. Fragging the coral to remove the dead sections might help but the other two things are more important IMO.
 
At this point if algae is as you say, all over the rocks, then you have a long battle ahead of you. Basically stop feeding the tank, increase water changes, check your RODI, increase GFO, increase flow, decrease light schedule and increase your rock basting. GL, it won't clear up overnight, and can take a month or so.
 
SoloGarth said:
Increasing flow is always a good idea. Generally algae cannot grow on live coral. It might have killed it by shading it from a adjacent location I suppose. More than likely it died in that spot (zero flow is bad for corals particularly Sps) and the algae took over the new real estate. Increasing flow and decreasing phosphates will help. Fragging the coral to remove the dead sections might help but the other two things are more important IMO.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for your comment. I just ordered two new powerhead double of the size I currently owned + i'm changin the desing of how my sump works in order to get more flow.

Can I use phosphate RX to help fighting this battle?
 
Pife said:
I have and it works well if used correctly. Read the threads on here about it. Drip it into a filter sock.
Click to expand...


Sounds great.... I will read a little before adding the Phosphate Rx. I'm currently dosing Vodka... Any problem if I do both at the same time?
 
dvillar20 said:
Thanks a lot for your comment. I just ordered two new powerhead double of the size I currently owned + i'm changin the desing of how my sump works in order to get more flow.



Can I use phosphate RX to help fighting this battle?
Click to expand...


High Flow through the sump is generally not necessary. That is for filtration and contact time is is key. Try to increase random flow. Controllable power heads are great for this. If you are in a budget jebao makes some inexpensive powerful models.

As others have said this is not an overnight fix. Personally if it is very bad I would try to order some dry rock and start swapping out a piece at a time as this is very effective at physical removal.

In the end though improving water quality is your goal. That is the root problem.
 
Dump your gfo for a couple weeks. I had a similar issue. Gfo was the culprit. I can't even get algae to grow if I tried. I have to manually feed my herbivores now.
 
I strived for zero nitrates and phosphates. That was the beginning of all my problems. Cyano, green hair etc. What a mess. Not saying gfo is bad I think it is way too potent. Pull it. 10% water a week for a month. Then slowly put gfo and carbon back. Raise mg levels to 1300+ and I guantee you will not see a spec of algae. I'll post picture of my tank tank. Literately no more gfo carbon and I feed 3 times a day now. When I had gfo and strived for zeros I under fed to battle algae. None of my inhabitants were happy. Today it's 3 times a day and all rocks covered in layers of purple algae.
 
Cyberdude said:
I strived for zero nitrates and phosphates. That was the beginning of all my problems. Cyano, green hair etc. What a mess. Not saying gfo is bad I think it is way too potent. Pull it. 10% water a week for a month. Then slowly put gfo and carbon back. Raise mg levels to 1300+ and I guantee you will not see a spec of algae. I'll post picture of my tank tank. Literately no more gfo carbon and I feed 3 times a day now. When I had gfo and strived for zeros I under fed to battle algae. None of my inhabitants were happy. Today it's 3 times a day and all rocks covered in layers of purple algae.
Click to expand...

That's the first time ai actually hear this. So you are saying that what took you algae out of the tank was turning off the GFO (phosban and carbon reactor)??

Very first time I actually see this...
 
Yup. I also raised magnesium to higher than normal levels. 1400 and it slowly been dropping to 1300 over the last 7 months.
 
GFO only binds with phosphates not nitrates. If you really had zeros for phosphates and nitrates there would not have been hair algae. Nutrients can get bound up in the algae and cause the tests to falsely read zero. Cyano is another issue as it can be fueled by carbon dosing methods. I do not think removing GFO could possibly contribute to getting rid of hair algae. I personally don't like or use GFO but it does not cause algae.
 
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