Algee

gandolf8

New member
I have been battling this Algee for wks now and still here.
I tried lights out for 72 hrs
I also used peroxide if some one has any other ideas would you please let me know. thx.

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Algae needs food to grow. Food comes from light and nutrients. You have coral, so you cannot remove the light without adversely affecting your coral.

Remove the nutrients (nitrate and phosphate), and your algae problem should be solved.
 
increase water changes once a week with ro di water. use GFo. add tangs add a urchin or snails. slow the feedings down to every three days thats what i did and water is perfect now and i bought a new skimmer lol
 
I have check for both nitrate and phosphate and don't have any.

How are you testing? What type and brand of kit or meter?

At any rate, the fact that the algae are there means that you have enough nutrients to grow them. Algae are amazing adaptive species but they can't cheat science.

to provide specific suggestions we need specific info. How old is the tank? What's your livestock list? How big is the tank? What and how much do you feed? What sort of equipment is on it (skimmer, carbon, GFO, anything else related to nutrient export)? What is your water change schedule and where do you get your water from?
 
I have check for both nitrate and phosphate and don't have any.

what test kit did you use?

Often with large algae blooms, the po4 in the tank is being consumed by the algae at a rate equal to it's production. Meaning, the phosphate is in your tank, just not in the water column. When this happens, it'll be undetectable.

Purchase some GFO, shorten your photoperiod, and do a good cleaning and a water change, which you should be doing on a regular basis.


Algae doesn't just appear out of nowhere, it needs fuel to grow.
 
ok
Sal 1.025
DKH 8.3
Alk 3.06
Mag 1450
This is a 180 gal in wall. I have a water changer right now does 3 gals pe 24 hrs. Here are some picture. I use Salifert for cal, alk, mag. I use red sea for nitrate and phosphate, Ammonia. May have to get new ones.

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This is the refug on back of tank.
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The Refug on left is no longer there and the system on right is water changer.
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I have an Reef Octopus NWB-2000 Protein Skimmer
 
Two important notes that I was going to touch on are:

How are you testing? What type and brand of kit or meter?

At any rate, the fact that the algae are there means that you have enough nutrients to grow them. Algae are amazing adaptive species but they can't cheat science.

to provide specific suggestions we need specific info. How old is the tank? What's your livestock list? How big is the tank? What and how much do you feed? What sort of equipment is on it (skimmer, carbon, GFO, anything else related to nutrient export)? What is your water change schedule and where do you get your water from?

and (in reference to the peroxide):

What the........ ?

Algae is present because of NO3 and PO4. Try to understand the source of them in order to determine the best solution(s).

What is your flow like (equipment used, turnover rate in tank)?
Do you use ro/di? If so, any TDS?
What do you feed, how much, how often?
Do you ever do any large water changes in addition to the auto changer?
What's your substrate like? Do you frequently sift it and your live rock with a power head or turkey baster?

Here are a couple of water change calculators. The first gives a view of how much original water is left based upon your change amount and schedule. The second pouts more emphasis on how dirty the water is to begin with and how much pollution takes place each day. I don't think that you'll know that if your algae is keeping your readings so low.

I geek out on this kind of crap, so I was interested in comparing our percentage of water changed. It looks like I change 30%/month, and you change 40%/month. So, it sounds like either your changes are taking less pollution out of the system, or I've got other things going on in mine that remove nutrients (fuge, activated carbon, carbon dosing, etc).

http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php
http://www.theaquatools.com/water-changes-calculator
 
What is the TDS of the water coming out of the RO/DI?
Have you taken a look at Algae Turf Scrubbers? I built one and scrape off about 1.5 cups of algae every 7 to 10 days. It isn't a quick fix or the entire solution but it looks like you have room for one and it could be a piece to the long term puzzle.
 
TDS is Zero
Gary you have to do 1mil for every 10gals of water for peroxide is far as the lights left off for 72 hrs
 
What kind of algae is it?
The rock it's growing on is not real, is it?
I've never recommended "lights out" (or lighting in general) as a reason for nuisance algae growth. I can't imagine using peroxide in a reef aquarium and peroxide isn't going to solve this problem. You have some expensive equipment. (No fan of Dialyseas here. I would get rid of it along with any wet/dry. JMO.)

UV is no solution to this problem.

GFO is a step in the right direction. Run carbon into GFO. See how far it gets you. PO4 and/or nitrates are the "fuel" for nuisance algae but look at what kinds of corals you're keeping- not exactly the types that thrive in a really clean system. (Nice Goni. Is that an Elegance coral on the far left?)

I would feed the hippo large pieces of food and try to coerce the Foxface and Purple Tang into eating that algae. Load snails in (that's why I asked if it's an Elegance). Get a Sea Hare.

I would attack this algae (after identifying it) gently.
Yank as much of it out as you can by hand (again. And again.) No LaCl3.

How much coralline growth do you get in there?

Tech M might be a really good step in the right direction in this particular aquarium.
 
Is that a foam wall? Could be part of the problem. It may leach nutrients that drive it or the pores get packed with detritus and lead to this.
 
This is a foam wall .The question is will I ever get rid of it or will I have to take out the foam wall.
As for the Dialyseas machine been running it for yrs now never had a problem with it.
This algee started when I did the foam wall.
 
Think you've found your problem. :) I'm not sure why it would cause an issue but it obviously has. Just not natural, hope its not difficult to remove. Good luck!
 
Before we implicate the foam wall, can we get details on it? How did you build it using what materials?

I ask because, clearly, there are lots and lots of people using foam walls in tanks without uncontrollable algae outbreaks, so IMHO we should at least give it a fair trial.
 
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