Algea expert needed please

have you checked your GFO and its not getting too much flow. too much flow grinds it down to a fine powder and makes your DT looks similar.
 
have you checked your GFO and its not getting too much flow. too much flow grinds it down to a fine powder and makes your DT looks similar.

yup, this has happened to me befor. however usually its a brown haze (color of the ferric oxide in the GFO) not a green haze which I see in the OP pic.

the above is one reason I hate using GFO and hardly use it these days and dont miss it at all. however I will throw it in if/when i see Po4 creep up to higher levels due to overfeeding ect.
 
So. I followed your advice and checked out my gfo. When all of this started i changed out my gfo, and the valve must have gotten set to wide open when i slipped it back behind the tank, so essentially my tank has been filled with gfo for the last two days. I placed on filter socks and filter floss before my return pump stopped the gfo and replaced the carbon. My foxface is the only one that i could find through the brown murky water and he was looking next to death. Ive got him in a qt and hes looking better. As for my other fish i have no idea how to find and rescue them. Anything else i can do? Since i dont have enough on hand, Im going to get some sw from the lfs and do a water change, ill test and get you some parameters as soon as i get the water change done. This has turned into a massive disaster. You have no idea how much i appreciate your help
 
So. I followed your advice and checked out my gfo. When all of this started i changed out my gfo, and the valve must have gotten set to wide open when i slipped it back behind the tank, so essentially my tank has been filled with gfo for the last two days. I placed on filter socks and filter floss before my return pump stopped the gfo and replaced the carbon. My foxface is the only one that i could find through the brown murky water and he was looking next to death. Ive got him in a qt and hes looking better. As for my other fish i have no idea how to find and rescue them. Anything else i can do? Since i dont have enough on hand, Im going to get some sw from the lfs and do a water change, ill test and get you some parameters as soon as i get the water change done. This has turned into a massive disaster. You have no idea how much i appreciate your help

If this is GFO related than your fish are probably fine and just hiding. They could however benefit from increased aeration. skimmer should be on overdrive 24/7 right now. keep pulling out what you can via skimmer and filter floss. This happened to me B4 and was not disasterouse. It will clear up with a little carbon and the above.

If after you test Po4 is low and depending on other testing params such as No3 I may just stop using GFO. remember GFO lowers Po4 ONLY and will throw off Redfield ratio. 1:16:106 do some reading on this. it will help you understand why the preferred method to lower Po4 is through nitrifying bacterial growth. When you use GFO it lowers Po4 which stops the bacterias ability to drive these compounds in redfield ratio.
 
as for disturbing the sand bed, i had the same thing happen, i had never vacuumed the sand but after disturbing it during a water change and having a simmiler problem, i started vacuuming regularly and this has help prevent future outbreaks
 
If there is no coral in the tank, I would turn the lights out for a few days and dose 1ml peroxide per 2gallons of water. Looks like a diatom bloom.
 
glad you were able to figure out what the problem was. it comes with experience but you will never know it all. haha Now its just a matter of a huge messy cleanup project. run filter socks on every drain, carbon changed regularly and keep blowing off the stuff into the water column so it can be pick up by your skimmer and filter socks. keep your flow on the high end if possible add some power heads. and yes water changes especially after you blow the stuff off all your rocks and glass. good luck
 
Yes and no. I cleaned up the gfo mess that occurred in my tank. My fish were extremely stressed by the time I could finally see them through the cloud of gfo, fortunately I quarantined the fish for a few days while the tank stabilized and they made it out okay. My coral did okay I only lost my pink birds nest.

As for the algae I'm still having issues. There is a brown algae growing on my rocks and sand bed (although not to the extent as before) Im perplexed as to why im really having these issues to begin with. I feed every other day, do weekly water changes (0 tds), and started using, and changing filter socks every two days to keep the sump pristine. I'm slightly nervous to restart my gfo, and aren't quite sure about being able to keep up with vodka dosing. So as of now the tank will have a slight algae issue until I can determine a course of action =(
 
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