Ongoing Algae Issue for over a year

[moneymm]

I got my tank about 18 months ago now and its been about 15 months since i havent had an embarrasing algae issue. I do not want to give up on this hobby, but i just cant seem to ever get anything right.

lately i havent been spending a whole lot of time on things, but who can blame me when i have spent countless hours on this hobby and havent had but a moment of a tank that i can look at and be proud of.

currently this is what im looking at.

I have gone through months of bubble algae, that is now gone.

i have gone through months of red slime algae ( i think that is now gone), now im just left with brown hair algae or something else.

i have been doing water changes every week or 2 weeks 30% water changes.

i just started running some GFO and carbon.

i have no corals and 5 fish.

My cleanup crew seems to be down to 1 emerald crab (he ate all the bubble algae a few months ago, and is somehow still alive) and a couple hermit crabs, and maybe 3-7 snails that are left. so i think i need to replenish. is this normal?

i used to go from feeding 1 cube a day to half of that now. (that didnt help).

any tips or suggestions or advice, or should i just give up.

 

[nuttyd]

What type of mechanical filter? What type of water used to top off? How long are you running lights?

 

[moneymm]

What type of mechanical filter? What type of water used to top off? How long are you running lights?

i have a lifereef berlin sump and skimmer.

i dont use an ATO. i have and RODI filter

from 8:30 AM to 7 PM

 

[Sk8r]

1. use only ro/di
2. do weekly 10% water changes.
3. if you have algae, you have an excess of phosphate from some source: usually it's soaking out of rock and sand. Get a GFO reactor and change the media once a month until you see marked improvement.
4. the red stuff is not algae, but bacteria: it often grows when light is improper or when there's a nutrient excess in the tank.

YOu might want to start the whole process with a 20% water change, followed in 3 days with a 30% water change, and ONLY with ro/di water.

 

[nuttyd]

Lights are running a bit long. Try lowering to 6-8 hours a day.
Does the sump have socks or filter floss anywhere? What do you have for sand in the display?

 

[GimpyFin]

That sucks to hear.

Have you tested your water parameters just to see where they are at?

Do you know what your TDS reading is coming off the RO/DI unit for your water? (You want 0.)

What type of rock did you use when setting up the tank? (It's possible the rock has been leaching phosphate causing the algae to take over.) Also, any food, detritus, etc. possibly getting trapped in the rocks and not being cleaned up or exported?

Another thing that may help is a turf scrubber if you have room to set one up. A lot of people use them with very good success. There's some good posts in the Advanced topics section with information.

 

[skipro]

This is what I would do if I was in your shoes:

1. check TDS and Phos levels of fresh RODI - something is feeding the algae
2. Siphon out as much brown algae as you can during water changes
3. Consider cutting your feeding in half - maybe half a cube every 2 days





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[cincyjim]

Sorry to hear about the algae outbreak. I have been battling hair algae since October 2015 and I've just about got it all gone. I think the biggest helping factor for me was using AlgaeFix Marine. You have to be patient though as it will take some time to get rid of it all. I also changed out my power heads each weekend because they would get clogged up from all the algae getting stuck in it. I would do as Nuttyd suggested and that would be to cut down on light time. With running GFO, lower lights, manual removal as much as you can, watching what you feed and how much, and using AlgaeFix Marine you can beat this.

 

[nuttyd]

Second AlgaeFix Marine. Will control of a lot of algae problems. Wont solve it if there is an underlying reason why its growing but will at least keep the tank reasonable till you can figure out why.

 

[JohnnyHildo]

3. Consider cutting your feeding in half - maybe half a cube every 2 days

good advice but the amount fed has more to do with the demands of the fish in the system. for instance i have 7 small fish in my 120g and a single cut up mysis cube lasts me 5 or 6 days. if he has a 40 gallon breeder with 4 fish in it a half a cube would be waaaay too much.
good luck beating your algae. proper feeding, an appropriate size cuc that's suitable to your problems, being very meticulous about water, gfo and some manual removal and you'll win the war.

 

[cincyjim]

Second AlgaeFix Marine. Will control of a lot of algae problems. Wont solve it if there is an underlying reason why its growing but will at least keep the tank reasonable till you can figure out why.

You're right on the money when you say "..underlying reason why it's growing...". That was the hardest part for me and I truly suspect it was a brand of food I was using.

 

[oseymour]

good advice but the amount fed has more to do with the demands of the fish in the system. for instance i have 7 small fish in my 120g and a single cut up mysis cube lasts me 5 or 6 days. if he has a 40 gallon breeder with 4 fish in it a half a cube would be waaaay too much.
good luck beating your algae. proper feeding, an appropriate size cuc that's suitable to your problems, being very meticulous about water, gfo and some manual removal and you'll win the war.

What type of fish do you have that a cube of mysis last you 5 or 6 days?

 

[CStrickland]

I'd start by cleaning your powerheads in vinegar. When they get all grody like that they dont push as much water, and food and poop can settle on the rocks. That fertilizes the algae and makes a vicious cycle where the algae can trap more food in its fronds and grow even more.

Then I'd clean the rocks. The algae has a lot of nutrition stored up in it. If you leave it there then when it dies that just gets composted back into the system for more algae to use. There's a few ways to do that, you can get in there with your hands and yank it out while dipping your fingers in a cup of water in between - yank/dip/yank/dip; or you can scrub it while some kind of filter like a sock or floss is running to catch it and then go back for what you missed with a siphon tube, of course remove the filter and clean the algae out of it right away; or you can take a rock or two out at a time and give it a dip in diluted hydrogen peroxide then scrub it with a soft brush in the sink. The stuff on the glass should be easy enough to get out of there.

You need to do some water testing. Nitrates and Phosphates are fertilizer, you need to know where you're at with them so you can track progress. Especially since youre running gfo - it needs to be replaced when phos level of the water coming out of the reactor starts to creep up. Otherwise it may have gotten used up on day two and you are just spinning wheels. Also, zero TDS rodi.

Yeah you will need to re-up the CUC occasionally. Your hermits will kill snails for their shells and for fun. You can put empty shells in to slow them down but they are still going to hunt.

What skimmer do you have? They come in all sizes, and strengths.

 

[Scottshopinc]

blasting the rocks off before water changes and nopox helped me with algar problems

 

[moneymm]

You're right on the money when you say "..underlying reason why it's growing...". That was the hardest part for me and I truly suspect it was a brand of food I was using.

what food were you using so i stay away from it.

 

[BigEZ77]

On top of everything others have said, I think you might be feeding too much. Half a cube sounds a lot per day for 5 fish. I feed a quarter or less of a cube per day. Won't fix your issue alone but I'm help.

 

[cincyjim]

what food were you using so i stay away from it.

I really believe it was Coral Frenzy. I only say that because after the process of elimination of the products I was using, the HA stopped growing once I stopped using it. Maybe I was using too much of it but I did follow the directions. My HA is all but gone right now.

 

[moneymm]

ok, so my plan is to...

cut feeding in half (again) to 1/4 of a cube 1 time per day.
cut lighting down to 8 hours a day.
continue with the water changes
run gfo and carbon mixed in reactor
scrub off all rocks (remove from tank - keeping it submerged in water the whole time, put in bucket of rodi water and scrubbing clean and putting back)

what about my clean up crew, should I get some new snails? anything else? how long before my tank should be looking good?

 

[bat21]

You should start with a complete blackout for 3 days after you scrub the rocks. That will really knock it all out and you can do some big water changes, and DEFINITELY drop the lighting down afterwards, I would say 4-6 hours a day until you get a handle on this.

But possibly the most important thing is how old are your bulbs? Aging bulbs shift to red and this type of bacteria loves that. Simply getting new bulbs would be a huge help. Which ATI bulbs do you have?

 

[JammyBirch]

+1 on scrubbing the rocks...luckily you don't have any coral in there so you can mess with stuff a little bit more.

Honestly the first thing i thought of was you need an Algae Turf Scrubber...that way you can set aside a place for algae to grow and out compete the DT, search youtube for DIY projects they cost ~$5 to make and take 15 minutes.

You definitely need to figure out what is causing this much growth. The nice thing about the ATS and scrubbing the rocks is you can basically start over with a nice clean setup and manage it if/when it starts to creep back in.

One other note, you need to clean that circ pump, being all jammed up like that is only making your problem worse. Shut it off, pull it out of the tank and scrub the hell out of it with a denture tooth brush...