Can't shake this algae...

[aras]

Thanks all. Some great suggestions here! Here is my plan of action:

• New GFO reactor is up and running. Will be replacing Rowa Phos weekly.
• Hydrogen Peroxide ordered. Will clean few smaller rocks without corals for now. Don't want to kill too much bacteria so will go slow with this one.
• Will syphon out most of the gravel that is currently badly covered in GHA, leaving few patches for goby and shrimp. Rest will be bare bottom until things start improving.
• Will reduce light intensity to 60%, in a week to 50%.
• Will cut feeding to every other day for fish, and once a week for corals. And yes, I always rinse frozen food.
• Already trimmed chaeto. Will look into how to increase lighting in the sump.
• Will buy some clean-up crew.

Hopefully this will do the trick. If there is no or little improvement in a month or so will start looking into chemicals"¦

 

[mcgyvr]

Go slow taking out the substrate..

 

[ajoe]

Go slow taking out the substrate..

Good advice here.

Also, ..no need to change RowaPhos weekly. Simply let the reactor run for 24 hours and test the Phosphate levels of the water coming directly out of the reactor to get a base line. Then simply re-check the water coming out of the reactor (not the aquarium) each week. When you see a rise in phosphate levels that is a sign that the reactor media is either saturated and/or approaching saturation and not as effective and ready to be replaced. The length of time it takes your media to reach saturation is unique to your tank based on the contents, live stock, feeding/nutrients etc. I doubt you will need to change your media each week unless their is a lot of nutrients and waste in the water. After a month or so you will have a much better idea of how much life you can get out of each media change. This point will change as you add more to the tank so it is now something you just do going forward. Just takes time. Your on the right track. Maintenance is part of the hobby.

 

[aras]

Good advice here.

Also, ..no need to change RowaPhos weekly. Simply let the reactor run for 24 hours and test the Phosphate levels of the water coming directly out of the reactor to get a base line. Then simply re-check the water coming out of the reactor (not the aquarium) each week. When you see a rise in phosphate levels that is a sign that the reactor media is either saturated and/or approaching saturation and not as effective and ready to be replaced. The length of time it takes your media to reach saturation is unique to your tank based on the contents, live stock, feeding/nutrients etc. I doubt you will need to change your media each week unless their is a lot of nutrients and waste in the water. After a month or so you will have a much better idea of how much life you can get out of each media change. This point will change as you add more to the tank so it is now something you just do going forward. Just takes time. Your on the right track. Maintenance is part of the hobby.

Not sure that would work in my case. There is no detectable phosphate in water. So, both inlet and outlet would show 0. The idea is that once I start manually removing algae, the phosphate that normally would be feeding that removed algae would be absorbed by fresh Rowa Phos rather than feeding new algae... I think you are right, replacing media every week is probably an overkill, but I prefer to go a bit overkill for now and try everything I can before resorting to chemicals.

In regards to substrate, I don't think it performs any major filtering in my tank - it's a very thin layer mainly for aesthetic purposes.

 

[Heuristic]

You need to get outa my head!:lolspin:

This is excellent advice as exactly how I would go about it if it were me. IMHO, testing for NO3/PO4 in the middle of an outbreak is a waste of time. You would not have the problem if they were not present (in excess) in your system. Use a reactor for your GFO - a sock is a horribly inefficient way to go. Change is often - in your case it could be used up in days, not weeks.

Ya, once the algae out break has started testing for PO4 is mostly useless. It's going to read 0 because all the algae is eating it all

There a lot of solutions suggested here, and I just wanted to point out some alternatives, rather than argue the various merits.

I understand that you're in algae hell right now and you're desperate for solutions. Been there! We all have. Hell, if someone were to tell me to hook up a car battery to my tank and electrocute the algae, I might have tried it! But I have to say that killing your live rock does not sound like a good solution to me. Chemically removing algae just opens up real estate for guess what - more algae.

Algae and plants are natural components of ALL natural bodies of water. How we deal with them in our aquariums is a matter of choice. You can choose to employ all manner of devices and techniques to combat these ugly (and natural!) intrusions into your pristine, little box. I choose NOT to fight a losing battle against Mother Nature. I'd rather work WITH her. If we accept the fact that algae is always going to be there, we can then decide WHERE in our system we want it, and in what form we want it to take. Some folks use refugiums, others use algae scrubbers. There are lots of ways to 'work with' algae. I chose to fill my display with beautiful macro algae, seagrasses and a cast of thousands clean up crew.

Algae is nature's way of balancing out ecosystems. You can choose to fight it, and assert your dominance and control over nature, or you can give up some of that control and 'steer' nature in the direction you want, and let her do the heavy lifting for you.

Again, this is just another alternative. I'm sure any of the other solutions will work. That's the great thing about this crazy hobby - given enough time and effort, ANY method we choose will work. You just have to decide what methods suit your style.

Me? I'm just a lazy, nature lover…

I like this take a lot. I try to fight nature with nature and as you said, redirect the algae to the refugium.

 

[wrott]

I've been using Vibrant the past month, it works well, no more vallonia.
I'd use it for light cleaning, 1ml/10g every 2 weeks--maybe dose it once a week for first 2 weeks, then back down.
https://www.uwcmn.com/shop-for-vibrant

 

[aras]

Good news! Things seem to improving I did most of the things I listed in post #21 (except increasing sump lighting and leaving tank bare bottom). I suspect Rowa Phos in a reactor is helping the most... Thanks everyone for ideas :beer: