Best way to treat this algae

[ralph82396]

Hi all,

I set up this tank almost a year ago and initially everything went great, month 2 we went through our ugly stage which lasted about two months and then rocks started to clear up and I had some coralline growth coming in, recently I have what looks to me like turf algae taking over the rocks and I really only see new coralline on the glass (Which I scrape off). can anyone confirm is this is truf algae or not? growing up my parents had 8 pristine reef tanks in our house and I have been doing this on my own for a decade and I still don't feel confident in my nuisance algae ID. all fish and corals are doing great except a Duncan colony but I pulled it up to look at it and it has 3 new heads sprouting out so I assume its bulbed up from splitting.

- SG 1.025
- NO3 - 25
- PHOS - 0.1
- Mag 1350
- Calcium 400
- ALK 10
- PH 8.2

its a 180 Gallon DT with a 55 sump 40 gallons of said sump is a divided refugium half chaeto and half calupera

Stock list
- purple tang
- orange shoulder tang
- Blue hippo tang
- Tomini tang
- Sailfin tang
- One spot fox face
- Royal gramma
-2 Maroon clowns
- 2 Sergeant majors

the tangs and fox face graze all day but don't seem to make a dent

CUC (from what I counted this morning)

- 2 Pincushion urchins
- 20 Dwarf hermits
- 20 Cerith snails
- 3 Mexican turbos
- sand sifting star
- coral banded shrimp
- skunk cleaner shrimp
- 2 large sargassum shrimp

Feeding
- 2x Nori sheets every day
- sinking pellets 1-2x a day
- meaty foods (mysis, clams, chopped shrimp, and wild caught Mahi, seatrout, snapper or whatever else i catch eggs) 2x week

flow is 33 X turn over of DT volume
protein skimmer 4X water volume

Sorry about the long read I just want to make sure all bases are covered and sorry about the grainy ness of the last pic its from my tank cam that I look at at the office.

Thanks in advanced

 

[griss]

- NO3 - 25
- PHOS - 0.1

I think this is your issue. A large imbalance between nitrate and phosphate. The nitrate is VERY high and your phosphate is on the high end of tolerable. This is likely fueling whatever this algae is. You generally want to balance your nitrate and phosphate at 1-10 ppm and 0.01-0.03 ppm, respectively, to help reduce nuisance algae. I'm attaching a handy water parameter chart the BRS published. I keep a laminated copy of this in my fish area for quick reference.

I cannot tell what type of algae it is as the close up pictures are a bit fuzzy. Could you get a closer, more focused picture of the algae?

 

[ralph82396]

Thank you I'll call home now and see if someone can get a good pic

 

[kharmaguru]

Looks pretty turfy. Could try a tuxedo urchin. Could also try starving everybody of the Nori for a few days and see if they gain interest in it.

 

[ralph82396]

I think this is your issue. A large imbalance between nitrate and phosphate. The nitrate is VERY high and your phosphate is on the high end of tolerable. This is likely fueling whatever this algae is. You generally want to balance your nitrate and phosphate at 1-10 ppm and 0.01-0.03 ppm, respectively, to help reduce nuisance algae. I'm attaching a handy water parameter chart the BRS published. I keep a laminated copy of this in my fish area for quick reference.

I cannot tell what type of algae it is as the close up pictures are a bit fuzzy. Could you get a closer, more focused picture of the algae?

View attachment 32394948

here are some clearer pictures

 

[ralph82396]

Looks pretty turfy. Could try a tuxedo urchin. Could also try starving everybody of the Nori for a few days and see if they gain interest in it.

they pick at it all day, I have 6 herbivores that pick at it on just two nori sheets for breakfast I just dont think they can keep up with it.

 

[ralph82396]

they pick at it all day, I have 6 herbivores that pick at it on just two nori sheets for breakfast I just dont think they can keep up with it.

my fox face orange shoulder and sailfin are fat on this stuff

 

[griss]

Looks a bit turfy to me as well. I think you need to bring your nitrate and phosphate down to the levels in the chart I posted and that should help or eliminate it.

 

[ralph82396]

Looks a bit turfy to me as well. I think you need to bring your nitrate and phosphate down to the levels in the chart I posted and that should help or eliminate it.

Thank you, I’ll start looking for more efficient ways to export nutrients and reduce the feeding as much as possible

 

[griss]

Water changes will help. If you have a media reactor, GFO will help reduce phosphate BUT don’t drop your phosphate too fast/much or you could cause other algae problems.

In fact, with your readings, I would concentrate on reducing nitrate first.

 

[ralph82396]

Water changes will help. If you have a media reactor, GFO will help reduce phosphate BUT don’t drop your phosphate too fast/much or you could cause other algae problems.

In fact, with your readings, I would concentrate on reducing nitrate first.

What are your thoughts on vinegar dosing

 

[griss]

What are your thoughts on vinegar dosing

Tried it many years ago and don’t think it really made a difference. So, I don’t do it.

That said, this hobby is weird, what works for one person may not work for another.

I honestly think, instead of throwing things into the tank, try to remove them (nitrates) via water changes. That’s JMO.

 

[wildman926]

If you have the room, deploy an Algae Turf Scrubber (ATS) in your sump to naturally remove the high nitrates and phosphates.

Here are links to info on them here in the Advanced section -

Basic Info
Advanced Info

 

[ralph82396]

If you have the room, deploy an Algae Turf Scrubber (ATS) in your sump to naturally remove the high nitrates and phosphates.

Here are links to info on them here in the Advanced section -

Basic Info
Advanced Info

I don’t have much room for a scrubber but I am moving things around to make my fuge larger, I upped my weekly 10% water change to 20% today and am cutting down on feeding until the algae starts to back off

 

[ralph82396]

If you have the room, deploy an Algae Turf Scrubber (ATS) in your sump to naturally remove the high nitrates and phosphates.

Here are links to info on them here in the Advanced section -

Basic Info
Advanced Info

I also went and bought 80 astrea snails to add to the CUC and they seem to be making a difference

 

[wildman926]

Your plan sounds ok for now. But long term, not so much. The CUC will always leave some algae behind and tend to die off, and the weekly water changes gets old. The ATS will remove the high phosphates and nitrates naturally for you. It will also outcompete the tank algae for those nutrients.

I have ran an ATS on both of my tanks since 2014 and have not had any tank algae since then. If that is your goal, then I suggest them.

 

[ralph82396]

Your plan sounds ok for now. But long term, not so much. The CUC will always leave some algae behind and tend to die off, and the weekly water changes gets old. The ATS will remove the high phosphates and nitrates naturally for you. It will also outcompete the tank algae for those nutrients.

I have ran an ATS on both of my tanks since 2014 and have not had any tank algae since then. If that is your goal, then I suggest them.

I guess I can probably rig a HOB ATS out of an old HOB filter to have some LED strips and some PVC screen. I’ll make that my project this week

 

[wildman926]

I also run a chaeto reactor. That bails me out when I am over due on the ATS maintenance. Those 2 things, and a skimmer is all I run.

 

[ralph82396]

Thank you I’ll see where I can move stuff around and see where I shove everything

 

[Paul B]

Why do you want to eliminate it? Looks fine to me and I'm sure your tangs love it.

My tank is over 50 years old and I got that stuff all over the place just the way I like it because that is a sign of health. But what do I know?