Any experiences and solutions with this algae?

[dzhuo]

dzhuo,

You said that feeding your tank more helped the problem? Makes me wonder if stopping the AA's was a good idea.

Yup. As I mentioned earlier:

1. I stopped GFO and ROX .8 (carbon).
2. Start to feed more.

These 2 did probably 90% to 95% of the damage. Once I took GFO and ROX .8 offline and feed more, almost immediately, I saw an improvement on pod population. Prior to that when my tank was at 6 months old, I hardly see any pods at all even at night. That's highly unusual given that my tank is 150g with a 40g fuge; you just don't see any pods in such a large tank for over 6 months. The only thing that it seems to grow is this cyano. This leads me to believe my tank is too sterile. Once feeding is up, the pods returned. Soon enough, coraline and tiny bits of micro algae shows up and the cyano decline rapidly. The critters that I added also prey on this cyano but they were added later; they did help. This probably took care 95% of my problem. The last punch was lights out and it get rid of it 100%. An extremely small amount of this cyano has returned since but I fully believe (as my tank continue to mature) they won't have a chance to last long.

Sorry I have no idea AA would make any difference. I have heard mix result. If this were my tank, I would just go back to basic and forget about AA, Zeovit or carbon dosing. Let the tank mature the way we used to keep them before these more advanced methods become popular. If down the road, you have nutrient issue and feel the need to go back to them then go back.

After all, we have been keeping very nice SPS tanks for decades before we even know about carbon or AA dosing.

 

[JG1]

Yup. As I mentioned earlier:

1. I stopped GFO and ROX .8 (carbon).
2. Start to feed more.

These 2 did probably 90% to 95% of the damage. Once I took GFO and ROX .8 offline and feed more, almost immediately, I saw an improvement on pod population. Prior to that when my tank was at 6 months old, I hardly see any pods at all even at night. That's highly unusual given that my tank is 150g with a 40g fuge; you just don't see any pods in such a large tank for over 6 months. The only thing that it seems to grow is this cyano. This leads me to believe my tank is too sterile. Once feeding is up, the pods returned. Soon enough, coraline and tiny bits of micro algae shows up and the cyano decline rapidly. The critters that I added also prey on this cyano but they were added later; they did help. This probably took care 95% of my problem. The last punch was lights out and it get rid of it 100%. An extremely small amount of this cyano has returned since but I fully believe (as my tank continue to mature) they won't have a chance to last long.

Sorry I have no idea AA would make any difference. I have heard mix result. If this were my tank, I would just go back to basic and forget about AA, Zeovit or carbon dosing. Let the tank mature the way we used to keep them before these more advanced methods become popular. If down the road, you have nutrient issue and feel the need to go back to them then go back.

After all, we have been keeping very nice SPS tanks for decades before we even know about carbon or AA dosing.

Yeah, I'm done with carbon dosing, but was just doing a little AA's since my SPS were so bad looking. I've noticed the SPS have been looking better but it's hard to narrow it down to just the AA's since I did stop zeovit as well

 

[mightymizz]

Still trying to decide on a plan.

So we are pretty confident that chemi-clean won't work with this type of stuff?

Also updated for new pictures.

 

[JPMagyar]

Still trying to decide on a plan.

So we are pretty confident that chemi-clean won't work with this type of stuff?

Also updated for new pictures.

O.K. I'm gonna play the heavy here because folks have been hinting around the edges and you don't seem willing to accept the answer, but PLEASE remember that I want to HELP and I have a LOT of knowledge and EXPERIENCE as do several of the other previous posters. Anyways, here it goes:

1) Your tank is too young to be concerned about a particular algae.
2) Dosing anything for algae is unnecessary.
3) Stick to the basics of a Berlin System and your tank will thrive.
4) If you must "do something" then try buying a standard "Clean up crew" including 50 Blue Leg Hermits, 5 Emerald Crabs, and 100 Turbo snails. If this doesn't rid you of every inch of algae I will personally refund the cost of your purchase, and that is a serious offer you can PM me about if you're interested.


Here are 3 tanks that do not dose anything for algae or bacteria and rely on the natural balance of a Berlin System.


ReefBum

Steve Weast

Mine

 

[mightymizz]

@ Jpmaygar- No offense taken!! I would rather hear the truth about anything than to roam in confusion. Really appreciate your post.

I am only concerned about this algae as its supposed ability to thrive in ultra low nutrient or high, and that very few people have successfully been able to eradicate it.

You are right in that this particular tank is young and if I had hair algae I wouldn't even be worried.

Thanks so much again for your input and in any of my threads it is always welcome!!

I will try beefing up my clean up crew regarding the hermits and snails. Maybe not to those numbers, but I will add a significant amount minus the emeralds as I am too worried about their long term potential.

 

[NatureNerd]

+1 What JPMagyar just said and SushiGirl said earlier.

 

[mightymizz]

Ok, so today I bought 30 dwarf blue legged hermits. They are small, but they did not have the larger blue legs in.

I will scrub a couple of rocks and see how these small hermits do.

LFS did not have any Tech M, so I am not trying that yet.

 

[mightymizz]

Scrubbed rocks and man is this stuff resilient. I used a metal wire type of brush similar in size to a toothbrush. Hardest part of this algae removal for myself and any critters is the anchor it puts down.

I almost feel like I will need something that scrapes the anchor off the rock, maybe like a tuxedo urchin?

I will update as my journey progresses with this nastiness.

 

[kissman]

remember just because your phosphates read 0 does not mean they are 0 the algae is eating it up before you can test it.

 

[mightymizz]

Well, I added some turbo snails and I watched one mow down one tuft of this stuff so I am now optimistic that if I keep it so it doesn't grow too long, the turbos will eat it.

Hopefully it will get eradicated completely.

 

[goochesfish]

My tank wil be 2 years old soon. I've gone through all kinds of algae despite weekly water changes, skimmers, algae fix. Etc. I think going through algae is a phase a tank goes through. 3 months is very young. You'll find that you'll rid yourself of one type only to be replaced by another. Please be patient. There will be lots of ugly phases before you get your tank to look like the one above.
I am currently algae free and I've done nothing different. Algae runs it's course.

 

[JPMagyar]

I'm excited to see that you are focusing on a "Clean Up Crew", but I will add that they do die out and require refurbishment time and again . . . and then I will add that I had 3 glasses of wine and got angry that somehow the "mine" picture got deleted from my post above so I'm adding it again to show tanks that don't dose anything. As an added piece of interest I will mention that I read an article which proved a correlation between carbon usage and Lateral Line disease and I compounded that with my own experience regarding both excessive GAC usage as well as problems associated with bleaching due to Rowaphos (or similar phosphate removing agents) fines and an article which talked about bacterial levels before and after "carbon dosing" that showed how bacteria in an established tank seems to have a certain steady state relationsip which all seems to point to the conclusion that establishing a bacterial balance in a saltwater aquarium is the key and in order to do that one needs a large volume of water and LR in relation to the creatures one is attempting to keep.


Anyways, if you read all that and get what I'm saying then Kudos to you 'cuz it's obviously all the ramblings of an obsessed loony :celeb3:


Joe

 

[d0ughb0y]

advanced aquarist website is preventing hot links to pictures, so it is not RC fault and nobody deleted your picture.

if picture dissappears again, just go to advancedaquarist and look for 2011 march issue.

 

[JG1]

Here's what Tech-M did for my tank.

5-8

5-11

5-12

5-14

 

[mightymizz]

Very nice! Like I mentioned, I personally watched some turbo snails devour a couple of tufts of my algae. Now to wait and see if they come back or if their anchor was totally removed.

If not, Tech M will most likely be my next attempt, but so far I am happy that the turbos are eating it.

 

[zachfishman]

I've got it too, got it bad (amongst other issues haha). My turbos will eat it, but only if I manually place them on the LR. (my snails sure do love the glass walls of my DT...)

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