Help? Please?

[Tylt33]

Here's the current situation: My tank has been engulfed in algae for approximately the last month. And I mean ENGULFED. Red slime-ish algae, green hair algae, red fuzzy algae, on the sand, on the walls. Growing on the Macro-algae I added to try and out compete the garbage algae. My coral have been moved to my 12g tank as a refuge, but were showing their skeletons, and looking terrible. My fish are becoming skinnier, and based on Dr. Wilkerson's book on Clownfish, it would appear that one of my fish is getting "Pop-eye" (a sign of bad water quality). For the life of me I can NOT figure out where the heck my Phosphates and Nitrates are coming from.

Stocked in my tank:

2 Percula Clowns
1 Lawnmower Blenny
2 Skunk Cleaners
1 Yasahashi Goby
1 Tuxedo Urchin
1 Tiger Tail Cucumber
A few snails and a few hermits

My tank is 34g. It was set up last August. I moved in March, and it was fine then, and was fine until sometime around June. Currently there is around 50lbs of live rock and 40lbs of live sand in it.

Current Readings:

Ammonia: 0 ppm (Salifert & Red Sea Tests)
Nitrite: 0 ppm (Salifert & Red Sea Tests)
Nitrate: .25 ppm (Crud...) (Salifert & Red Sea Tests)
Phosphate: 1.0 ppm (YIKES) (Salifert & Red Sea Tests)
Calcium: 400
PH: 8.27 (Pinpoint Monitor & Salifert to get a ballpark)
SG: 1.024 (Refractometer)

Major events that happened just before the algae explosion:

1. The weather got warmer.

2. The tank was moved. It was fine for a few months after. The new location gets a bit of sun on it.

3. I put some chaeto in a dark part of the tank. I think it died and released some nutrients back. That was a couple months ago, and I've long since pulled it. There is now some in my display, and it gets engulfed in the other algaes, and doesn't look like it is growing.

4. I added the tiger tail cucumber. Could it be stirring up trapped nutrients?

My light cycle has been 8 hours per day, and I've since reduced it to 5 hours per. The temperature has a bit of a range, from 78 to 82, but the change is gradual. I have switched to feeding my fish ONLY Spectra Therum Pellets (to reduce PO4), and feed them only what they can eat. I was previously feeding cyclopeeze and frozen mysis, soaked in Vitachem, Garlic Extreme, and Selcon. I'm not sure now if my fish are suffering from the change in diet, the cruddy water, or both (I'd imagine both).

I've been doing 30% water changes weekly, and to my dismay, this does not seemed to even have dented the P04 readings! The nitrates dropped somewhat, but it could be due to a different interpretation of the colors from day to day. I get my water from the local fish store, which has a RO/DI system, and I have been testing the water that I'm adding for Nitrates & Phosphate (I have never detected any).

I purchased the pinpoint monitor, as I'd hoped my PH was low; as I understand it, a low PH causes PO4 to be un-bound. However, my PH was within normal ranges. Now I'm clueless as to how to proceed, other than to continue water changes, and I've purchased Phosban.

Please, if you have any insight, and have read this long list of woes, offer up any advice/suggestions you might have.

Thank you.

 

[weluvfish54]

have you tried leaving your lights off for a few days?

 

[Tylt33]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13324363#post13324363 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by weluvfish54
have you tried leaving your lights off for a few days?

I haven't, as I've figured it might be better at this point to let the algae grow and pull the PO4 and NO3 out of the water, rather than damaging the one remaining coral and harming the fish.

 

[nikon187]

hook up that phosban reactor and do the dark period. wrap you tank in a blanket so no light can get in ( only if temps permit mind you)

 

[danielc316]

i had a some what similar problem. all my numbers where ok and yet my fish seemed weird. one had a pop-eye. i pretty much did every thing that has been said: cut off the lights, limit the feedings, and doing water changes every other day. my last one was like 50%. i used water from my local fish store, made sure they gave me .23 salt level water. took a week but every thing is back to normal.

 

[steri]

Re: Help? Please?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13324275#post13324275 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tylt33


4. I added the tiger tail cucumber. Could it be stirring up trapped nutrients?

I wonder about this. I added a cuc a couple of months back. I had an algae bloom within a few weeks of adding him. It's all over the sand and spreading onto the rock. I've never had algae like this, and my tank has been up for over 18 months.

I've wondered as well if me adding the cuc stirred up some nutrients in the sand and if that is what is causing the bloom. I cut down on my light times. I also turkey baster blasted all my rocks and did a WC. The problem is still there, but not as bad as before. I am hoping it will get better with time, but as soon as I read that you recently added a cuc, I thought, "that's odd, that's when my problems started."

My tank gets some sunlight every morning. It has ever since it is set up. That never seemed to affect the algae before the cuc.

I will say, odd as this sounds, when the lights go out at night, by morning (before the lights come back on), it looks as if there is no algae at all in my tank, on the sand, on the rocks, on the glass....nothing. As the lights come on after a few hours, then you see it, always in the same spots. In my tank it tends to be it's worst right after the cuc cleans a spot.

My next plan will be to turn all lights off for 3 days, but I am trying to avoid that at all costs. Anyone else think hiscuc could be stirring up nutrients that have been stuck in his sand bed. Personally, I think that's the issue. It just sounds so similar to what happened to me.

 

[WhiteLightsaber]

Are you using RO water? I would check your top-off water to be sure there are no nitrates or phosphates in there. Do you have any powerheads in the main display? Low water circulation can cause detritus to gather in the substrate, leaching nitrates and phosphates.

 

[Sk8r]

if you are not using ro/di water you could be feeding the beast every time you top off or do a water change.
Alternatively---some rock has more of it than others.
Bottom line, you are going to have to export it in dead algae, strong skimming, and water changes with ro/di.
Also get an alkalinity test and keep your alk and ph in line.

 

[Tylt33]

Re: Re: Help? Please?

Re: Re: Help? Please?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13325874#post13325874 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by steri
I wonder about this. I added a cuc a couple of months back. I had an algae bloom within a few weeks of adding him. It's all over the sand and spreading onto the rock. I've never had algae like this, and my tank has been up for over 18 months.

I've wondered as well if me adding the cuc stirred up some nutrients in the sand and if that is what is causing the bloom. I cut down on my light times. I also turkey baster blasted all my rocks and did a WC. The problem is still there, but not as bad as before. I am hoping it will get better with time, but as soon as I read that you recently added a cuc, I thought, "that's odd, that's when my problems started."

My tank gets some sunlight every morning. It has ever since it is set up. That never seemed to affect the algae before the cuc.

I will say, odd as this sounds, when the lights go out at night, by morning (before the lights come back on), it looks as if there is no algae at all in my tank, on the sand, on the rocks, on the glass....nothing. As the lights come on after a few hours, then you see it, always in the same spots. In my tank it tends to be it's worst right after the cuc cleans a spot.

My next plan will be to turn all lights off for 3 days, but I am trying to avoid that at all costs. Anyone else think hiscuc could be stirring up nutrients that have been stuck in his sand bed. Personally, I think that's the issue. It just sounds so similar to what happened to me.

I really suspect the cucumber may be the culprit. How big is the one you added? I can't help but wonder if they release some NO3 or PO4 as a byproduct. I think I might start a seperate thread with a poll.

 

[Tylt33]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13326215#post13326215 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WhiteLightsaber
Are you using RO water? I would check your top-off water to be sure there are no nitrates or phosphates in there. Do you have any powerheads in the main display? Low water circulation can cause detritus to gather in the substrate, leaching nitrates and phosphates.

I have two powerheads in the main display.

From my original post:

"I've been doing 30% water changes weekly, and to my dismay, this does not seemed to even have dented the P04 readings! The nitrates dropped somewhat, but it could be due to a different interpretation of the colors from day to day. I get my water from the local fish store, which has a RO/DI system, and I have been testing the water that I'm adding for Nitrates & Phosphate (I have never detected any)."

 

[Tylt33]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13326233#post13326233 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sk8r
if you are not using ro/di water you could be feeding the beast every time you top off or do a water change.
Alternatively---some rock has more of it than others.
Bottom line, you are going to have to export it in dead algae, strong skimming, and water changes with ro/di.
Also get an alkalinity test and keep your alk and ph in line.

Hi Sk8r, thanks for the reply. From my original post:

"...I get my water from the local fish store, which has a RO/DI system, and I have been testing the water that I'm adding for Nitrates & Phosphate (I have never detected any)."

and

"PH: 8.27 (Pinpoint Monitor & Salifert to get a ballpark)"

 

[Ryan45]

Have you checked the TDS of your LFS RO water to make sure it is actually good?

 

[steri]

Re: Re: Re: Help? Please?

Re: Re: Re: Help? Please?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13328980#post13328980 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tylt33
I really suspect the cucumber may be the culprit. How big is the one you added? I can't help but wonder if they release some NO3 or PO4 as a byproduct. I think I might start a seperate thread with a poll.

The one I added is about 6 inches long

 

[WinnipegDragon]

I assume the 34g is the RSM you mention in your sig.

I'm not sure that it has the finest skimmer in the world, it's basically a Prizm. If the cuke is stirring up an established sandbed, the skimmer may not be keeping up with the nutrients released.

Check in the Nano forum and read the RSM owner's club thread. Those guys have figured out a ton of mods to improve the RSM.