A 'bloom' or wild sudden growth of algae, sponges, microfauna, aiptasia, etc------happens in nature and it can happen in your tank.
A novice's first instinct is---things have run wild! I have to get something to eat it!
Problem with this is---blooms happen because of some nutrient becoming way, way over-abundant. And when whatever-eats-it eats it and poos and that poo breaks down, the same darn nutrient goes right back into your system to fuel the bloom.
So...what may really help is getting something to deal with the excess OR to kill it. And THIS has a problem. If you kill off something that's really abundant in your tank, you are not only returning the element to the water system, you are stacking nitrate and other nastiness atop it. There is one pretty good answer for this problem, which is a little bit related to the first scenario I posed-----and that lies in having a good skimmer. A skimmer, yes, REMOVES amino acids from your water, and helps get rid of what was causing your problem. Skimmers aren't cheap. The best ones produce a thick foam, not a bubbly suds; and they are really good at getting the crud out.
But maybe you have a tiny tank or maybe you aren't rich this month. There is one other thing you can do, after you have used some means to kill off the problem, and that is a pretty big water change. I recommend a 30% change, two days later a 10% change, and then three days later another 10 % change. This is work. But it is a way to 'export' all the nastiness you've had built up in there, that some organism used to fuel three generations of offspring, and nastiness.
That said, there is ONE situation that just keeps giving, and that's when you have rock that's got a lot of phosphate built into it, so that you have sheets of green algae that wave in the current. It WILL soak out eventually and be wonderful rock. Phosban and other such ferrous compounds are a good cure, they REMOVE the phosphate, binding it up to the ferrous particles, and can hammer the phosphate down on their own. Trick is, which many don't know---you have to change the medium weekly until you see the algae begin to get thready and rocks to get bare. Spendy! But 'stuffed' medium can't absorb anything, so if you want results---change it out!
But! but if your rock was not conditioned enough, this soaking-out can go on and on and on literally for more than a year. I had one of these messes on a reset up. I used Fluconazole, and I have, yes, a really good skimmer. I caution you...that stuff is nasty, and my skimmer was producing green-black-gunk for two months, filling up over and over and over. So don't just cavalierly toss this stuff into your algaed tank and hope to be done in a week, and DON'T use it if you haven't got a good skimmer, or you'll be worse off than you started. But it is a cure.
A novice's first instinct is---things have run wild! I have to get something to eat it!
Problem with this is---blooms happen because of some nutrient becoming way, way over-abundant. And when whatever-eats-it eats it and poos and that poo breaks down, the same darn nutrient goes right back into your system to fuel the bloom.
So...what may really help is getting something to deal with the excess OR to kill it. And THIS has a problem. If you kill off something that's really abundant in your tank, you are not only returning the element to the water system, you are stacking nitrate and other nastiness atop it. There is one pretty good answer for this problem, which is a little bit related to the first scenario I posed-----and that lies in having a good skimmer. A skimmer, yes, REMOVES amino acids from your water, and helps get rid of what was causing your problem. Skimmers aren't cheap. The best ones produce a thick foam, not a bubbly suds; and they are really good at getting the crud out.
But maybe you have a tiny tank or maybe you aren't rich this month. There is one other thing you can do, after you have used some means to kill off the problem, and that is a pretty big water change. I recommend a 30% change, two days later a 10% change, and then three days later another 10 % change. This is work. But it is a way to 'export' all the nastiness you've had built up in there, that some organism used to fuel three generations of offspring, and nastiness.
That said, there is ONE situation that just keeps giving, and that's when you have rock that's got a lot of phosphate built into it, so that you have sheets of green algae that wave in the current. It WILL soak out eventually and be wonderful rock. Phosban and other such ferrous compounds are a good cure, they REMOVE the phosphate, binding it up to the ferrous particles, and can hammer the phosphate down on their own. Trick is, which many don't know---you have to change the medium weekly until you see the algae begin to get thready and rocks to get bare. Spendy! But 'stuffed' medium can't absorb anything, so if you want results---change it out!
But! but if your rock was not conditioned enough, this soaking-out can go on and on and on literally for more than a year. I had one of these messes on a reset up. I used Fluconazole, and I have, yes, a really good skimmer. I caution you...that stuff is nasty, and my skimmer was producing green-black-gunk for two months, filling up over and over and over. So don't just cavalierly toss this stuff into your algaed tank and hope to be done in a week, and DON'T use it if you haven't got a good skimmer, or you'll be worse off than you started. But it is a cure.
