dirk_brijs
Active member
Can anyone help me cause I seem to be running out of ideas on what this algae is and how to try and get rid of i.
First off aquarium is 400lt with sump and skimmer installed.
Tank has gone through several re setups but since 1.5 years has been set up as a seahorse tank. With the last set up all life rock was removed killed (muratic acid) and gone through the new full cycle. Tank was left cycling for about 3-4 months before adding life foods. Tank was seeded with lots of life copepods and Brine Shrimp. Tank looked pristine clean and no algae to be seen. several days later we started adding some corals. Elegance, Gonioporas, Gorgonians, Toadstool, Red ear sponges and red branching sponges.
Some small patches of algae started to form....must have come in through the rocks of the corals. At no time any kind of food or any other nutrient source was added. 3 seahorses were added few days later.
since then we have added no food or nutrient source besides life brine shrimp.
The small algae patches started to take over rapidly. Gonioporas were the first to get overgrown together with the Gorgonians. We tried to add extra bacteria strain, Liquid phosphate remover (not sure why we tried that as Phosphate levels always read 0 with testing) to no avail. We do about 15-20% water change every 2 weeks top of with RO/DI and been removing the still overgrowing algae by hand as much as we can.....
Bought a silicate test and shows 0 PHophate test shows 0 Nitrate test shows 5ppm (not sure why?) We have added blue legged hermits, Turbos and algae crabs also to try and fight it..... Have also tried a total black out for several days and this seem to effect the algae the most but after 3-4 days lights back on comes back even more vicious as before it seems....
How can algae be so wild growing if no food or nutrient source has been added for close to a year now all the 2 weekly water changes and all things we tried to fight it.... See pictures of the algae we are talking about.....
Any sort of ID or advice on what top try next would be appreciated....
First off aquarium is 400lt with sump and skimmer installed.
Tank has gone through several re setups but since 1.5 years has been set up as a seahorse tank. With the last set up all life rock was removed killed (muratic acid) and gone through the new full cycle. Tank was left cycling for about 3-4 months before adding life foods. Tank was seeded with lots of life copepods and Brine Shrimp. Tank looked pristine clean and no algae to be seen. several days later we started adding some corals. Elegance, Gonioporas, Gorgonians, Toadstool, Red ear sponges and red branching sponges.
Some small patches of algae started to form....must have come in through the rocks of the corals. At no time any kind of food or any other nutrient source was added. 3 seahorses were added few days later.
since then we have added no food or nutrient source besides life brine shrimp.
The small algae patches started to take over rapidly. Gonioporas were the first to get overgrown together with the Gorgonians. We tried to add extra bacteria strain, Liquid phosphate remover (not sure why we tried that as Phosphate levels always read 0 with testing) to no avail. We do about 15-20% water change every 2 weeks top of with RO/DI and been removing the still overgrowing algae by hand as much as we can.....
Bought a silicate test and shows 0 PHophate test shows 0 Nitrate test shows 5ppm (not sure why?) We have added blue legged hermits, Turbos and algae crabs also to try and fight it..... Have also tried a total black out for several days and this seem to effect the algae the most but after 3-4 days lights back on comes back even more vicious as before it seems....
How can algae be so wild growing if no food or nutrient source has been added for close to a year now all the 2 weekly water changes and all things we tried to fight it.... See pictures of the algae we are talking about.....
Any sort of ID or advice on what top try next would be appreciated....
