For past few months, I’ve been battling what appears to be a green film algae in my 2.5 year old 75. I’m calling it “film” because it is not filamentous like GHA, but – unlike cyano or diatoms – it clings to the surface of rocks and does not immediately siphon out when doing water changes, although it does siphon off easily from tank and overflow walls.
Here are some photos of the algae:
I added a dozen Turbo snails, and even a Dolla Bella Sea Hare. The Sea Hare seemed to eat green hair algae in the tank but would not touch the film stuff. When the GHA was gone so was the Sea Hare. The Turbos (and other herbivores I have in tank) do not seem to eat the stuff either.
I have confirmed with a reliable Hach test kit that my phosphates are near zero – they should be – I use a cup of GFO in a reactor and change it weekly.
Nitrates are zero with API test.
Alkalinity hovers around 8.0; calcium at about 425; and salitiy at 35 ppt.
I also have a separate reactor with a cup of BRS ROX GAC, also changed weekly, and an adequate skimmer – the AquaMaxx ConeS CO-2 Skimmer -- which pulls a few inches of brown crud from the system every 1-2 days.
I feed sparingly (about 1/6th of a sheet of Nori daily for the Foxface, about 5 ml of saltwater teeming with baby brine shrimp in the am, and in pm ½ cube of assorted frozen food for remaining fish (yellow watchman goby with his pistol shrimp, yellow tail damsel, royal gramma, and mandarin goby).
I do 10% weekly water changes with zero TDS RO/DI water and use this as opportunity to remove as much of the algae as possible from the tank.
For the past 6 weeks, I have been dosing: (1) Algae Fix Marine at recommended dose; and (2) NOPOX @ 5 ml a day because at the time I did not have a reliable PO4 kit and reasoned that the new algae must be connected to a rise in PO4. If anything, I would say that the algae is slightly worse after starting to dose AFM and NOPOX.
At this point, I’m out of ideas about how to eradicate this stuff from my tank. Any advice would be appreciated.
Mike
Here are some photos of the algae:
I added a dozen Turbo snails, and even a Dolla Bella Sea Hare. The Sea Hare seemed to eat green hair algae in the tank but would not touch the film stuff. When the GHA was gone so was the Sea Hare. The Turbos (and other herbivores I have in tank) do not seem to eat the stuff either.
I have confirmed with a reliable Hach test kit that my phosphates are near zero – they should be – I use a cup of GFO in a reactor and change it weekly.
Nitrates are zero with API test.
Alkalinity hovers around 8.0; calcium at about 425; and salitiy at 35 ppt.
I also have a separate reactor with a cup of BRS ROX GAC, also changed weekly, and an adequate skimmer – the AquaMaxx ConeS CO-2 Skimmer -- which pulls a few inches of brown crud from the system every 1-2 days.
I feed sparingly (about 1/6th of a sheet of Nori daily for the Foxface, about 5 ml of saltwater teeming with baby brine shrimp in the am, and in pm ½ cube of assorted frozen food for remaining fish (yellow watchman goby with his pistol shrimp, yellow tail damsel, royal gramma, and mandarin goby).
I do 10% weekly water changes with zero TDS RO/DI water and use this as opportunity to remove as much of the algae as possible from the tank.
For the past 6 weeks, I have been dosing: (1) Algae Fix Marine at recommended dose; and (2) NOPOX @ 5 ml a day because at the time I did not have a reliable PO4 kit and reasoned that the new algae must be connected to a rise in PO4. If anything, I would say that the algae is slightly worse after starting to dose AFM and NOPOX.
At this point, I’m out of ideas about how to eradicate this stuff from my tank. Any advice would be appreciated.
Mike
