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NitroxBreather

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Good morning. New to this site. Looking for some advise on a new tank I established about a year ago. I have a 250/gal custom reef tank. It's an upgrade from a 110 I had running for about 2 years. When I transfered my live rock and live stock I started seeing a fine fern like algae(maidens hair?). It grows very thick in patches but does not spread to other areas? I first suspected a bloom from the new rock and some die off of the old from the transfer.
Im very sloooowly winning the battle but would like to speed the process up. I'm stumped because my water chemistry is right on, good flow in the tank, running 14K,250watt MH.

If anybody has suggestions or comments I'd love to hear them.

:confused:
 
Welcome!

A picture would help. But it sounds like an invasive type algae that is pretty common. Not much likes to eat it either. You can try a pin cushion urchin or a couple Mexican turbo snails.
 
Yes, turbos, red leg hermits, Mythix crabs, Scosa tank, blue tang and a couple gobbies. The fish nibble but the crabs and snails don't touch it.
 
[welcome]

And good luck to you. I have an annoying turf type algae covering half of my rock and I'm in the same boat. Water parameters are where I want them, bioload's not too heavy, have adjusted my skimmer to try and get more out of it. Nothing seems to be helping it and it actually is getting worse in some areas. I added a sea hare, which promptly ate about a 2x2 inch square of the stuff, but then he disappeared and I haven't seen him again, nor evidence that he is still eating anything more of the algae. My foxface and scopas will pick at it when they're annoyed at me for not giving them constant nori. I'm beginning to wonder if my lights have anything to do with it. While running my Reeflux 12k's I didn't have any of this stuff, now a couple months after starting to use these Ushio 10k's I have algae everywhere.
 
I thought it may be lighting as well. I switch from 10K to 14k in August with no result.
I did find that I had a breif die off some time in June & July of last year. Then a come back in the fail. My lighting system is run off a computer and is programed for seasonal lighting. I'm wondering if the die off had to due with seasonal lighting times (length of day?)
My current plan: push the Calcium Reactors hard (I hope the hard algae growth covers infected areas), keep cropping the growth and lots of water changes.
At the rate I'm going now it should only take another three years to win this battle!:D
 
Since you've already tried turbos... one more idea, remove the phosphates so it has nothing to "eat." I would suggest trying a phosban reactor if you don't have one.
 
I have an invasive that spreads. Fortunately it's contained in a small tank, but it's driving me crazy. I thought I had it beat, but it made a spectacular recovery while I was camping for 2 weeks.

I have a tail spot blenny and an urchin in there who have helped keep it under control. I think the urchin is a "pin cushion." He's from Marine Depot and he's purple w/ short spines. He loves coralline, but will munch the green stuff too.

I did have success eliminating it from one rock by using "unconventional" means. I made a small pancake of underwater expoxy and smothered the sprouts. It worked great on the one rock b/c it was a small area that was easily covered. Now that it seems to be somewhat controlled again, I am planning a tweezer attack followed by an epoxy smothering. Hopefully I'll get this stuff for good.

On the phosphate issue, I've been told that you can test zero for phosphate and still have a problem with it. The plants can consume it so quickly that your tests don't detect it.

Shooter - isn't this one reason you tried the homemade fish food recipe?
 
McBeck you are correct. The phosphates the kits test can test zero due to the algae consuming it. There is also another type of phosphate that the tests do not test for.

I bet part of the increase in shooters algae growth is the phosphates from his home make food.
 
I was under the impression that one made homemade food to get away from the phosphates inherit in much of the production made flake foods and such. To answer the question, yes, this is one reason I made my own food. I have also decreased my feedings somewhat.

And yes, I've pretty much tossed my salifert phosphate test aside as it reads zero, but obviously I have phosphates in there.
 
All food adds some phosphate. In frozen foods, the more liquid that is added to the tank with the food, the more phosphate you may be adding. This is why many "experts" tell you to rinse the frozen mysis or brine in a fine net before feeding them to the tank. It adds only food and a minimum of waste/phosphates.
 
I also know that the titrating kits we purchase are less than accurate. I think you can fully expect that your levels are much higher than indicated.
It also used to be a standard for some city water supplies to add a small amount of phosphoric acid to there effluent to help control calcium build up in your pipes.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9347468#post9347468 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NitroxBreather
I also know that the titrating kits we purchase are less than accurate. I think you can fully expect that your levels are much higher than indicated.
It also used to be a standard for some city water supplies to add a small amount of phosphoric acid to there effluent to help control calcium build up in your pipes.
Click to expand...
Using a RO/DI system or purchasing this water prevents this from going into your tank though. One of the many reasons to avoid using unfiltered tap water in a salt tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9347465#post9347465 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltyunderground
All food adds some phosphate. In frozen foods, the more liquid that is added to the tank with the food, the more phosphate you may be adding. This is why many "experts" tell you to rinse the frozen mysis or brine in a fine net before feeding them to the tank. It adds only food and a minimum of waste/phosphates.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand this, which is why I have since day one I thawed and strained the frozen enriched brine shrimp before adding it to the tank. My homemade stuff was so thick, though, that I had to add RO/DI water to it to make it runny enough to flatten out so I could freeze it and break it off easily. So again, I'm no longer using flakes and my food was made from all fresh ingredients with no fillers or anything that I have to strain off like some frozen food, therefore I would think that my phosphate load on my food would be less. If this is not the case, then what the heck are you supposed to feed your fish?
 
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