Confusing algae outbreak need some help please.

[Shinte305]

Tank started exactly February 28, 2015 almost exactly 4 months ago. For the first two months i had RO water and now i have 0 tds RO/Di.

Ive gone through each cycling stage rather quickly i used live rock since day one and i went through a quick brown algae phase than cyano than started getting green algae and now at 4 months im getting specks of coraline algae on the glass and mo10 pumps.

but.... I have a little of everything. I see a small patch of cyano still tiny tiny bit on sand. And some small packs of brown algae still there.

Whats getting crazy as hell is this odd CLEAR short string hair algae that is growing like crazy on my entire overflowbox and both circulation pumps. No where else.

Any idea if this is normal for a new tank?????? Cant seam to find anything on this.

Specs. All tested wit salifert
60 gallon tank 30 gallon sump
0 amo 0 nitrite 10 nitrate
0 phosphate (I'm sure this is bull caca hence the algae i have)
430 calcium
10 alk
1330 mag

 

[Shinte305]

Forgot to mention my stock is
20 or so turbo snails 2 peppermint shrimps
2 clowns 1 bartlett 1 goby
1 big nassarius snail
6 frags of different zoas, purple death pallies, and ........... Brain coral i think it was XD.

 

[Azedenkae]

Yes it is very normal. Once you add food to the tank, there will invariably be algae growing unless you can deplete the nutrients in the water quickly enough.

 

[anthonys51]

their will always be some algae in your tank. its perfectly normal and healthy. key is to keep it under control with skimmer, water changes, feeding correctly and cuc.

 

[Shinte305]

Its so slimey!!! I just took out my mesh filter and its full of slime clear algae with a slight brown tint to it but very slightly it feels like snot....

 

[Shinte305]

I expect algae but this one type of snot algae is terrible and it started about a week ago and it seams to be getting worse it clogs my filter sock in a matter of 3 days and makes my sock feel like a bowl of slimey clear snot. Its not on my rocks or sand just filters and a huge amount in my overflow box.

 

[eddiereefs]

U proba ly have dinoflagalettes. They are slimey algae with bubbles in it that have a toxin that kills snails. Turn ur lights off for three days and siphon as much as possible

 

[anthonys51]

your filter sock. does it get light

 

[jminick2]

I don't really see how this is normal.....you have way too many nutrients you need to export them out better. skimmer water changes better flow will help with the cyano.
just because your tank is new doesn't mean it has to have bad outbreaks of unwanted algae.

 

[whosurcaddie]

Do you have a GFO reactor? You need some method of removing phosphate from your water or it will continue to build until you have a massive algae outbreak.

Look at the phosban 150. Its cheap and easy to maintain.

 

[Azedenkae]

I expect algae but this one type of snot algae is terrible and it started about a week ago and it seams to be getting worse it clogs my filter sock in a matter of 3 days and makes my sock feel like a bowl of slimey clear snot. Its not on my rocks or sand just filters and a huge amount in my overflow box.

Yeah your filter sock is acting as a surface for adherence. If it clogs in three days, that is quite a lot of nutrients in the water, but unless you are overfeeding, decreasing food addition is not recommended. Best to just clean it out regularly. I do with mine, it's a good method of nutrient export. A turf scrubber, essentially.

 

[Shinte305]

Its only in high flow areas i have noticed. Its in each mp10 pump and in over flow and i had to clean out my return pump and skimmer. Its not on the glass or wall or rocks. And its very slimey like snot very gooey.... All other types of algae isnt out of control everything else is very minimum. Cyano is practically gone. Brown algae is almost gone too. Its just this slime that just started a few days ago that is going nuts on my equipment

 

[anthonys51]

why dont you take a picture of your tank. so us what you mean. its hard to diagnose without knowing all the info. people will give opinions, but there like asses we all have them

 

[Shinte305]

This is a picture of my over flow boxes U Tube it shows the clear slime string algae that's taking over my equipment. Like I said before it's not on any of my rocks sand or corals or glass. Just on my equipment to the point that my return pump was getting clogged and I had to open it up clean it so that the flow would return to normal.

 

[Shinte305]

Come to think of it... only one thing has changed since I started this tank......... I started this tank using felt filter socks which filter out a lot of stuff and had to be changed out every 4 days but due to being a full time student and working 30 hours a week I couldn't keep up with it so I switched to mesh socks and now I clean these out once a week. And they catch a lot of things too but not as much as felt.i did this change about two and a half weeks ago and this slime algae started about 3-5 days ago at least. Could this be an affect of the new weaker filtration from the 200 micron felt to a 200 micron mesh??????

 

[anthonys51]

go back to the mess and see if it stops, really only way to tell. we can give guesses. some educated but trial and error baby but yes it will catch more stuff. go on bulk reef supply there like 5 bucks each i bought 20.

 

[Salty Cracker]

20 turbos in a 60 gallon?

 

[Shinte305]

Yeah 20 turbos. I don't have much algae it's just this slime crap on my equipment..... and yeah I'll see if I go back to felt socks.....

 

[Shinte305]

So no one has had an algae clear slimey and string like. Look at pic lol....=(

 

[Azedenkae]

Its only in high flow areas i have noticed. Its in each mp10 pump and in over flow and i had to clean out my return pump and skimmer. Its not on the glass or wall or rocks. And its very slimey like snot very gooey.... All other types of algae isnt out of control everything else is very minimum. Cyano is practically gone. Brown algae is almost gone too. Its just this slime that just started a few days ago that is going nuts on my equipment

I know exactly what you are talking about actually, I've seen it a lot. The reason why it occurs in high flow areas is because that is where there is the most amount of nutrients is passed through, so it can very quickly develop in those areas.