Algae scrubber vs vodka dosing vs biopellets

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sturner91

New member
Alright guys I've been having an algae problem for a little while now. I have a good amount of hair algae along with some cyano on the rocks. I went ahead and got a up flow algae scrubber but I think the algae is out competing the scrubber. I run gfo and carbon as well and have a refugium in my sump. My last test was showing 20ppm Nitrate and I don't recall the phosphate at this moment.

In my situation would it be worth it to try diving into biopellets or vodka dosing? Once reaching my desired levels I would attempt to get the algae scrubber to work how needed. I did have an overfeeding problem as well which has been drastically reduced. From feeding a couple pinches of cobalt flake food a day to every few days varying between frozen and flake and pellet. Usually feed about 3 times a week now, roughly.

Any input is greatly appreciated. I will get updated numbers tomorrow after work so there is something accurate to work with.

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How old is the tank and did you used dry rock?In case of your rock is leaching phosphates then no elgae scrubber ,vodka dosing or biopellets would out competing the algae and cyano that grows on the rocks.Because thoose algae feed directly with po4 before its even released into the water column.In this case ,patience is the best way to go and after a while the leaching rocks will get covered in a thin layer of calcium from the water and your cyano and GHA problems will dissapear.Also ,when you use a ATS is recomended not to use GFO and carbon(i think you meant here activated charcoal not carbon dosing,ie vodka).
 
The tank is still a baby. It's been up for 5months give or take. Rock was a combination of live and dry rock. Some was used from my tank when it was a 29g now its a 75g bow front. The added rock was dry rock.
Yes I did mean activated carbon(using brs rox), I'm running the brs gfo and carbon reactor.

Maybe it would be worth it to get a lawnmower blenny to tackle the algae while it's there? It would help with battling the algae as well and keeping the rocks clean, no?

My preference in the end is to stick it out with the ATS once levels are where they should be. As of now I am running the ATS in my display to try and out compete and potential nutrients in the water column. I will be moving the ATS to my refugium eventually though.

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The more you battle the algae and the cyano ,the more you will have to wait until you will have an established tank;Blooms are in this order,diatoms(sometimes) then cyano then the GHA that takes cyano place.After a while the GHA will slowly dissapear and you will have an established aquarium.In the meantime if you interfere and kill the GHA with chemicals,the cycle will start again with cyano bloom first then GHA ...To keep a foxface,a blenny or snails that will eat algae is not a bad idea but the algae should dissapear by itself even if you dont use GFO ,ATS or even if you dont have a protein skimmer.Normally this takes up to a year and a half.
 
I see.
I had cyano problem earlier on I thought that was all I was looking at in blooms. Unfortunately I can't do a fox face due to having a ****y bicolor angel, he's been going after my sailfin tang :(

I think I may draw some luck with a lawnmower to at least help keep the hair algae shortened. Hear they are some good entertainment for the tank too.
I think as you said, it's going to be best to play the patience game at this point. God I hate waiting... [emoji14]

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Wouldnt be adding any other fish except for maybe a mandarin but that wouldn't be till my tank hits the 1yr mark.

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Why do you say that battling the algae interferes with having an established aquarium? I haven't heard that before. I have heard and experienced that it is normal to go through those stages, but I can't see why putting a nutrient export process into place would do anything but benefit your tank long term. Even water changes and manual removal would help the tank, so why do you think that would cause more algae?

The only thing I can think of is if he were to somehow kill off the algae but then not remove the nutrients but that is a separate issue not related to GFO, carbon dosing, or an ATS. If phosphates were leeching from the rock then you want to strip as many nutrients from the water as possible so the phosphates get pulled out faster and with less of an effect. I don't really buy that calcium covers the rock preventing more leeching, the rock becomes live and the phosphates are used up in the live bacteria and whatever else is living in our rocks. The phosphates are mainly still there, but since the living organisms lock it up, it can no longer be used to fuel algae. I just don't see where an algae cycle fits into all this.
 
All newer tanks go through periods of algae, no reason not to fight it as much as possible of course. Currently fighting off a lot of GHA myself, but water is testing very low nitrates and phosphates. If the rock is leaching phosphates, algae will bind it as soon as it is released from the rock. Just got to keep working on manual removal, and maybe add some creatures that eat it. I added a pincushion urchin that is making serious headway in the fight. Pair that with a way to keep removing nutrients and you'll get ahead eventually.

@75mixedreef, for the calcium theory, 2smokes has been touting a claim that the best way to fight phosphates is through calcium, and that it would eventually bind it into the rocks. Its been argued to death a bunch in the chemistry forum a month or two ago I believe.
 
I have a tuxedo urchin that I added in a couple weeks ago he's been moving around like crazy but the algae seems to be growing faster than he can eat. I do have a bunch of hermits in there as well. The algae is primarily only on the rocks. No where else. My refugium is loaded with cyano which I don't mind. Rather it grow there then in display.

As originally stated my nitrates float around 20ppm. I wanna say my phosphate was around 5ppm but I can't recall at this time. I need to run new tests tonight when I get home to have updated results.

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As far as I can tell the algae isn't dying off at all. It's firmly attached to the rocks. Takes a good tug to get it off.

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20 ppm isn't terrible, but you should probably get that down. 5ppm is awful, you need to get that down. Honestly though, I don't think overfeeding is any part of your problem. I feed my fish usually 2x a day, I don't think you should be feeding your fish less than 1x per day. Especially since you seem to have a very heavily stocked tank. 72 gallon I see, from stalking your comments.

How often are you switching out your gfo? With that high phosphates you may need to switch it out sooner as you are exhausting it faster than you think. I think most upflow ATS are pretty low powered, may look into some sort of DIY reactor or waterfall scrubber. Biopellets seems hit or miss, and will take a while to get a good bacteria population built up in them. Vodka/vinegar dosing seems popular, can't hurt to give that a shot to push nutrients down while you do manual removal as well. To fight back the algae, either just keep ripping it out by hand or try a scrubbing it with a toothbrush. Dip the toothbrush in peroxide too, helps kill the algae back.

Also, what are you running in your fuge? Have you tried getting a ball of Cheato in there?
 
Yes it is heavily stocked. The gfo/carbon is relatively new. It's been running for about a month. I did replace the gfo and carbon a week ago to play it safe. I'd prefer to use a waterfall style scrubber but I lack the space to run one which is why I went with the upflow scrubber. My thoughts were, I have a reactor that isn't being used at this moment. I could throw biopellet in there and have that run or dose it with vodka or vinegar. The fuge ran chaeto before which dissolved away. I ended up throwing in some grape looking stuff which did great for a while then it slowly dissolved as well. I just restocked my fuge with more chaeto and some red branchy algae(forget the name of it). I have rubble rock in the fuge as well.

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I do run the eshopps curve led for my fuge for lighting. So I don't think lighting is a problem.

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Vodka will address the Nitrates more than the phosphates I believe, but there is an underlying relationship between the two. That is beyond my knowledge really. But Vodka I think will have the most rapid impact on the levels. Wouldn't hurt to try that, but also get that fuge running well, that will help long term keeping levels down. And for now I'd replace GFO every other week, could go even sooner, hard to tell when it is exhausted, but when levels are as high as you have them it can exhaust very quickly. I'd be willing to bet your gfo hadn't been doing anything for a few weeks.
 
Alright Welp it sounds like my fish are going to get drunk(not seriously). I'm also gonna grab a lawnmower blenny tonight to have. Now to figure out what's a cheap 80proof vodka.

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One last question, when dosing vodka should I dose before or after the skimmer? Basically, my sump setup I can dose directly into the return section or into my skimmer section. I feel it would be best in the return so the vodka goes straight to the display where the algae is creating problems.

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