need help with algae

[mikesin]

Hello, I need to ID the two types of algae and either kill it or start over with pest free LR (if there is such a thing)
The first is green & has structure. Its really difficult to remove by hand if not impossible. It grows slowly. The second looks brown in the tank but green once its removed. It is very stringy and can be removed with suction, however, it returns the next day. If left un touched it covers or gets caught ? on some of our SPS ex: birds nests. It also seems too cover/caught on the green algae.
The tank has been up for 3 years now and I have never experienced this before. Some info: 75G, 120LB of LR, mega flow sump in basement, mechanical filtration changed weekly, aqua med t1000 skimmer, mag 9.5 return, 2 - koralia 3's in the display, 1 MJ 1200 to agitate surface to help air exchange, air pump (SL-65) plumbed from the outside powers 2 air stones in the sump & 2 hoses plumbed to top of the display for fresh air exchange, 2 - 80mm fans blowing over the top of the display, (can you tell there was a low Ph problem? Lol) cooling fan over sump, turns on with temps over 79.5*. T-5 lighting with active cooling (6 bulbs), lights are on 10 hrs per day. Dose kalk thru the evening (approx 1G over 14 hours), 350 GPH canister filter used for running carbon every other week, cleaned weekly. 10G water changes every 2 weeks.
Temp - 79*
SG - 1.025
PH 7.8 eve, 8.1 afternoon
Ammonia - 0
NitrAte - 0
NitrIte - 0
Phosphate - 0
DKH - 8
Mag - 1400
Calc - 460
I feed 1/4 cube of formula 1 & 2, cube of frozen plankton or mysis per day, sometimes a pinch of cyclopeeze.
This problem started around Xmas, 3 things have changed around that time
1. T-5 bulbs were changed end of Dec 09. But I change these every year with no issues.
2. We moved to this house in July 09. The tank was moved in 1 day along with the water. Everything was kept wet and no fish or coral were lost. If there was some die off on the LR why did it take so long to show?
Also we went from city water to well water. However we have an 5 stage RO/DI system which reads 0 tds.
3. We purchased a lot of SPS's in December from 2 different hobbyists, was this algae introduced then?
I need to something just not sure what that something is, as the algae is slowly taking over.
I hate the thought of replacing the LR due to most of the SPS are mounted plus there's a pretty good chance of infecting the new rock. What are your thoughts?
Thanks

 

[Raceimage]

I have a similar problem. I started with well water for 10 months or so. Went to RODI and added a reactor with GFO. The algae is diminishing; however, it's a slow process. I use a soft tooth brush to manually remove it weekly. The algae gets caught in the bristles so the pieces don't float throughout the tank and anchor somewhere else.

 

[bmiller1234]

I am losing my battle here also. I have the brown, not the green. I am pretty sure my cause was a dirty RO storage container. The TDS would climb after 2-3 days in the brute so I cleaned it this weekend and I am hoping this will remedy it.

 

[Misled]

The brown is dinoflaggelates. The green looks like turf algae. Both live off phosphates. The dinos come from silicates also.

 

[mikesin]

Thank you for the quick replies. dinoflaggelates, a quick search reveals alot of confusion when it comes to a remedy. However, seems that some have beat it by keeping the lights out for up to a week. Has anyone dealt with this?

Thanks

 

[cloakerpoked]

Nutrients would be your first problem. Before you start keeping your lights out, you need to try to lower the nutrients in the water first...whether that be phosphates or nitrates. Have you had something happen to disturb the sandbed or fish disappear or something?

 

[mikesin]

We have not had a fish die or go missing in over a year (I just cursed myself), have had a few inverts deaths which seems to be a result of dinoflaggelate and toxins they release. I understand what you are saying about nutrients but what nutrients? The water is tested weekly and I never saw a raised or raising level, I even bought a different brand of tests looking for something. The only thing I haven't tested for is silicate, I'll have to get one. I was under the impression that RO/DI filtration removed silicate, membrane removed the majority & the DI removed the rest, but I see that some say they don't. Something that's was new for us with well water is how fast the DI beads are exhausted, I'm told that it is due to high carbon dioxide levels found in most well water. Maybe silicate has something to do with DI depletion too? We get about 100G per DI cartridge.
I'll get a test kit ordered. After posting all of this I realized that one other modification was done, Before I changed the T5 bulbs I did a ton of research on bulb/active cooling and added it to the tek fixture. Just wondering if the new bulbs & active cooling sparked this?
Thanks

 

[bmiller1234]

My algae def spiked when I put in my t5s. I think the increased par to sand caused it to bloom. It might have been there a while and just needed more light.....I was kind of hoping for coral growth not algae....eh such is life I guess.

 

[cloakerpoked]

You wouldn't necessarily test any changes in the water quality, due to it being bound in the algea. In other words, it is in the water, but is being taken up as soon as it's available and fueling the algea growth. This would prevent you from testing it in the water, but it's being added from a source somewhere. Have you ever tested your RO/DI water to ensure that it is free of phosphate, nitrate, etc? Something that a lot of RO units need to function properly with wells is a booster since they need to operate under a certain range of PSI in order to actually work properly. I'm assuming that you've done all that, but just exhausting all options.

If you wanted to change the lighting in the tank, I'd begin by cutting back to 4 hours, not shutting the tank lights off completely. Fortunately or unfortunately, the kind of algae I always seem to end up dealing with is hair algae, and usually for that you just cut your nutrients and add a tang (although my current tang is doing absolutely nothing for the hair algae, and it's driving me insane since my manual removal once every other week or so is definitely a losing battle.)

 

[cloakerpoked]

I am losing my battle here also. I have the brown, not the green. I am pretty sure my cause was a dirty RO storage container. The TDS would climb after 2-3 days in the brute so I cleaned it this weekend and I am hoping this will remedy it.

I've read that if you don't circulate your RO water, that in a short time (days or weeks I can't remember) it will actually begin to pick up nitrates. Not sure how much, if any truth there is to that, but I remember hearing it somewhere.

 

[Misled]

There are a few thoughts on this. First do any of you have filter sponges on an overflow or skimmer?? Do you use filter socks??? If you use any of these, how often do you clean them? They, like a wet/dry can become a nitrate producing factory in a few days. They should be cleaned and allowed to dry out every couple days. Especially if you feed often as food particals can get caught up in these.

The other thing, at least IMO, most people tend to feed too much. I feed my fish every other day. The day inbetween, I put in a small piece of nori, which all fish pick off of. Otherwise, they feed off the reef.

 

[bmiller1234]

I don't run any sponges or socks. Euro 250 skimmer and fuge with rock and chaeto. I am also a every other day sometimes 3 day feeder. But 100 gallon with 2 clowns and a green spot puffer I don't need to fees much. Most of my feeding is target frozen to corals and fish eat leftovers. tanks still 5 months young so that's part of it. Going to set up a 2 liter reactor with phosguatd and carbon and see if it makes a difference.

 

[LeviChar1]

The Cloak has Spoke. (and i agree)

In addition, add beneficial algae in your refugium (or get a hang-on), and that algae will soak up the nitrates and leave little for the ugly hair algae.

That works.

Everything takes time, however.