Overfeeding?

[henryjd]

Hello,
I have been fighting algea in a 180g tank. It has 2 Clarki clownfish, 1 Potters Angel, 1 Dottyback, 1 Algea blenny, 5 blue/green Chromis, 2 cleaner shrimp. The liverock has 1/2" of thick green algea. I have 3 250w MH lights and 4 39w PC atinics. I have the atinics running 12 hrs a day and the MH for 6 hrs a day.
I have been running ROWAPhos to get rid of Phosphates and it is testing as 0. I am thinkng I must have phosphates but the algea and ROWA are taking it all up.
There is halmedia also growing in the tank.
I have been feeding the tank each morning but am not thinking I must be over feeding it. Recommendations?
Thanks

 

[Bmgrocks]

sounds like Hair Algae

1 if ur not using RO/Di, its time to change

2 Optional clean up crew, UR algae blenny? whats he doing
Turbos, Red Legs, Mithrax, people say they do stuff, I have used Sea Hare's and swear by them, everythin else not so much

3 Ur lights sound great, did u have a recent switch? like all pc's to MH's.. if not, how long has ur tank been up

4. You could Hand Pull, and Scrub with a Scrub brush, toilet wand etc. All ur LR, in a TUB of Fresh Water, I've done it works great.
my pod population did fall, but i have a fuge, and it came right back.

5. Ur running ur phos. reducer, sounds good, keep testing. Also TEST UR WATER source..

 

[henryjd]

BMGRocks,
I am using RO/DI water. I have lots of blue leg hermits, 12+ turbos, 20+ other snails, 3 emerald crabs.
I have had the MH and PCs up for about a year.
I do hand pull and scrape but it looks better for a short while and then all grows back. the Algea blenny is HUGE but he does not seem to make much difference.

 

[Bmgrocks]

...well...The best i can reccomend, believe me i had a terrible HA problem, my clean up crew did nothing, is to Hand Scrub with the brush, all the rocks in fresh water, Continuing to replace the fresh water.

It really does remove all your hair algae.

Then after my rocks were freshly scrubbed, i added a sea hare, that ate any upcoming hair algae and a FUGE

my fuge works wonders, its an AC70, filled with chaeto, the chaeto simply outcompete's the HA for any nutrients, Growing and staying contained.

Try the fuge, u may need to build, if you don't have already a Sump with a compartment to a fuge

if thats out of the question, I'd Go with 2 AC110's because u have a 180g tank.

Easy to mod, takes about 10min at most, and 24 hrs to dry.. in the nano reef forum there is a log on how to build one

 

[alexb518]

1. are your bulbs also a year old? that could be part of the problem.
2. yes, you're over feeding. try to take 2 days a week off from feeding. I'll feed two on and one off.
3. water changes??? how often and how much? if you're doing biweekly changes, start doing them weekly. i've noticed a huge difference from just doing that.
4. cleaning your rocks in fresh water is not a good idea. i can only imagine why bmg had algae problems. kinda counter productive. it's not a bad idea when you're cleaning and about to cure your rocks...but that's it.
5. do you have a cleanup crew? throw in some blue leg hermits and some snails. sea hares are great for hair algae, but toxic if they die or get stuck in a power head (it does happen).

 

[UrbanSage]

Add a refugium..... Best way to control algae. Afterall, the algae is providing a service for us, so giving it a great place to thrive out of view benefits us.

 

[Deprecated]

Lots of good suggestions here but if your bulbs are a year old, I would suspect that as being a large contributor. Halides shift in spectrum over time and in my experience, caused large algae problems if I let them go too long.

 

[Bmgrocks]

AlexB-and what can you imagine...GO AHEAD AND tell me how bad my tank was...

i simply scrubbed LR, and Dipped in FW to remove HA..Counterproductive?
Got rid of HA

sure it prob. killed Beneficial Bacteria, Pods, ETC. but i have a Sand Bed, I have a Full Fuge..

So tell me how it was counterproductive if the prob. was solved.

and i am now running RO/DI,

 

[BCreefmaker]

Add a refugium..... Best way to control algae. Afterall, the algae is providing a service for us, so giving it a great place to thrive out of view benefits us.

damn rights, hair algea and byprosis is my macro algea

 

[ruarox]

lfs told me not to wash lr with fresh water because it will kill all bacteria. i was given 30lbs or live rock covered in hair algae. the lfs said to scrub it in saltwater and no lights on it for 2 weeks. so far so good

 

[henryjd]

I try not to mess with the tank too much and just let it flow but after all of the suggestions and reading other threads, I am thinking I will
1) replace the MH bulbs
2) replace my RO/DI cartridges
3) reduce my feeding to every other day for a couple of months
4) try a 3 day - no lights and see what it does to the algea, although the tank still gets a fair amount of light from the room (house has alot of glass)
5) setup a fluidized filter for phosphates
6) next water change (in 2 weeks), hand scrub as much of the rock as I can

Damn..this is starting to be alot of work

 

[drummereef]

henryjd, just for the record can you list all your water params? All the above suggestions you've listed are good ideas. Also, what algae eating animals do you keep? Do you have any snails?

Mostly want to know what the nitrate level is currently.

 

[henryjd]

Drummereef,
Salinity - 1.023
PH - 8.2
Amonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0
Mag - 1140
Alk 3.10meq
Calc - 410
Phos - 0 (tested by me and by LFS)
I I have lots of blue leg hermits, 12+ turbos, 20+ other snails, 3 emerald crabs. I have a huge Algea Blenny

 

[henryjd]

I had 3 Sailfin blackmollies but they recently disappeared....

 

[hndakd]

im also dealing with an extra extra amount of hair algea in my tank. im running phosguard just got my new skimmer a couple of weeks ago, and im pulling rocks out and scrubbing them. So far so good. I have had little growth from the HA but what i have done to help with that is a kinda three step. First i turn off all the pumps except the return, then i clean the powerheads off cause the get clogged with all the hair algea and use one to blast as much of the stuff off of the rocks as i can to get it in the water column, then i take a net and just net out as much as i can. doing a water change right after helps also. if been doing this for a couple of weeks and right now im doin a 3 day "blackout" to get what is left.

the biggest thing to remember is to stay vigilant. work for a couple of days on it then give it a rest to let everything settle back down. Im almost at the 2 month mark for workin on it and everything is almost gone. patience is the best virtue to have with this stuff.

 

[henryjd]

hndakd,
Thank you for the support. My wife is suggesting 3 gallons of drano and pump the whole tank down the toilet....as she says - "why do we have a green stinking box in our living room"

 

[hndakd]

i have my wifey sayin the same, but after stayin with it for awhile she left me alone. now she actually calls me up and tells me if there is something wrong or needs to be done.