Pale, Brown and Sad - what's my gameplan?
- Thread starter timdanger
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Anemone0524
New member
I thought I was reading a post about my tank we're in such similar situations.
My tank's been up for 1 year now. Battled algae and slow-growing, pale sps the entire way. Specifically the algae you have -the cotton candy algae. It's the worst kind for sure.
Recently I got desperate and started removing live rock that i was convinced was continually leaching phosphates into the tank. I am going to be a lot more selective of the live rock I put into my tank next time, for sure. You're probably already aware of how pointless manual removal is with this algae. Ironcially, my sps appeared their best (which is still a 10 on the sad-meter) when the cotton candy algae was at plague levels.
The algae was sucking all the nutrients right out of the water column. Even out-competing my Chaeto.
I think you need to shoot for the ULNS like it has been said before. I'm installing biopellets in a reactor soon, but others still prefer vodka/bacteria dosing. Growing/pruning chaeto, in my experience, only helps a little bit but it certainly won't get you to ULNS.
Be patient! It takes a lot of time to get a stable successful tank. Keep the dosing regular and consistent. Don't overfeed! (I have a 90 gallon with 8 fish, 3 of which are tangs and a trigger. I feed no more than 30 spectrum pellets daily to the entire tank and then endulge once a week with frozen food. The fish are fine.
My tank's been up for 1 year now. Battled algae and slow-growing, pale sps the entire way. Specifically the algae you have -the cotton candy algae. It's the worst kind for sure.
Recently I got desperate and started removing live rock that i was convinced was continually leaching phosphates into the tank. I am going to be a lot more selective of the live rock I put into my tank next time, for sure. You're probably already aware of how pointless manual removal is with this algae. Ironcially, my sps appeared their best (which is still a 10 on the sad-meter) when the cotton candy algae was at plague levels.
The algae was sucking all the nutrients right out of the water column. Even out-competing my Chaeto.
I think you need to shoot for the ULNS like it has been said before. I'm installing biopellets in a reactor soon, but others still prefer vodka/bacteria dosing. Growing/pruning chaeto, in my experience, only helps a little bit but it certainly won't get you to ULNS.
Be patient! It takes a lot of time to get a stable successful tank. Keep the dosing regular and consistent. Don't overfeed! (I have a 90 gallon with 8 fish, 3 of which are tangs and a trigger. I feed no more than 30 spectrum pellets daily to the entire tank and then endulge once a week with frozen food. The fish are fine.
I've got the cotton candy type growing all in and around my chaeto -- i tried rinsing it off, but they seem to have "bonded," so to speak.
manual removal, agreed, is absolutely pointless. it grows back in 3 days.
i could certainly try ramping up the GFO (like i said, using the BRS granular GFO right now, but it won't last long -- i've actually got cotton candy algae growing IN THE GFO CHAMBER OF THE REACTOR if you can believe that). maybe it IS excess nutrients after all.
so, N-P pellets (vodka solid) like the current TOTM uses? Is that what the kids are doing these days?
manual removal, agreed, is absolutely pointless. it grows back in 3 days.
i could certainly try ramping up the GFO (like i said, using the BRS granular GFO right now, but it won't last long -- i've actually got cotton candy algae growing IN THE GFO CHAMBER OF THE REACTOR if you can believe that). maybe it IS excess nutrients after all.
so, N-P pellets (vodka solid) like the current TOTM uses? Is that what the kids are doing these days?
rigleautomotive
Premium Member
Can you provide some pics.there are other indicators to look for other then color and a pic would certainly help.ie polyp extension,growth formation,lack of active growth tip,pests etc... a pic is worth a thousand words for me and seeing what your animals actually look like will help us help you better
ChicagoReefOne
New member
I would consider something like this, what could possibly be leaching phosphates into your tank? Could it be the rock? How does your LFS store their RODI water? Is it food-safe plastic or some other plastic that could be leaching phosphate? Perhaps you should check the TDS of your top off water.
I followed the feeding conversation too and would second that as well. I feed Spectrum pellets also and the fish are healthy and happy, but I also supplement with frozen food cubes since that's necessary. I thaw the cubes first and strain out any nasty liquid that comes out. I would suggest that you consider a similar feeding schedule.
Pictures would also help us to understand the situation. Good luck!
Anemone0524
New member
in my case, i was new into this hobby and overfed like crazy for a 4-5 month period. I think the rock absorbed my excess nutrients and then once I got the equation fixed, started leaking them back out causing algae growth.
For the original poster....wow, you have cotton candy algae growing IN YOUR GFO container? LOL that's insane. even my strain of CCA was not this bold.
I hesitate to suggest this (because it didn't work for me) but some reefers swear by using Extra Large Mexican Turbo's to eat up the CCA. Maybe once you get a handle on your nutrient situation, you could add one or two to help you clean up the rest.
Pictures please!
For the original poster....wow, you have cotton candy algae growing IN YOUR GFO container? LOL that's insane. even my strain of CCA was not this bold.
I hesitate to suggest this (because it didn't work for me) but some reefers swear by using Extra Large Mexican Turbo's to eat up the CCA. Maybe once you get a handle on your nutrient situation, you could add one or two to help you clean up the rest.
Pictures please!
I've gone back and forth on the CUC for the Fuge -- I am ready to give in on that and just add them, because it's not getting any better, and it clearly has resulted in a migration of the cotton candy algae from the fuge to the display. I might add a few more herbivorous snails to the display as well, but we'll see -- I've generally had trouble keeping larger snails fed (because they don't want to eat any of the algae i do have, because they are slimy jerks).
I will definitely get some pictures tonight -- I think it would be good to document the algae growing in the GFO container. Fascinating stuff.
Ycore
New member
I'm starting to be convinced you can have high nutrients without phosphate/nitrate.. My phosphate read .00 using a Hanna photometer and nitrates were undetectable using API after a week of running Phoslock, yet I had some patches of Cyano in low flow areas and flatworms were thriving. Been using Zeovit for a few weeks now, cyano is gone and flatworms dying out, yet phosphate still reads .00 as well as nitrate.. There has to be some component amongst "nutrients" that one can't test for and doesn't necessarily correlate to nitrate and phosphate levels.
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d0ughb0y
Active member
the above is exactly why I say a photometer is not needed and presence of algae is a better gauge. just because a photometer says 0 does not mean phosphate is 0. algae lives on phosphate, so if there is algae, there is phosphate.
OP, how about removing the fuge altogether. most fuge I see are nothing but a big detritus trap. fuge may help, but certainly not a necessity. you do not need a fuge to get 0 nitrate and phosphate.
ChicagoReefOne
New member
I've been thinking about this situation a lot today and I have some thoughts. First, this has got to be a case of high nutrients. If it was low nutrients then the algae couldn't grow and it would be dying off. The fact that you cannot read a level of the nutrients in the water means that they are being absorbed by the algae quickly, hence the rapid algae growth. The paling and browning corals corresponds to this as an indicator of poor water quality and phosphates. But since you are running GFO and other chemical media the rapidity of the algal growth is somewhat interesting and puzzling.
The first step has got to be reduced feedings and checking the water sources for phosphate contamination.
I hope this stuff can help!
The first step has got to be reduced feedings and checking the water sources for phosphate contamination.
I hope this stuff can help!
thanks everyone for weighing in -- i've uploaded some pictures, so when i get a chance this evening, i'll post them on here (including some hilarious pictures of the algae growing in the GFO canister of media reactor).
i changed out my GFO and GAC last night and added a couple of snails to the fuge. we'll see how it goes.
as far as phosphates being leached, here is the path of my water:
1) from LFS (Atlantis Aquariums, owned/operated by Marvin over on the Deltec board). He says they use a kidney-dialysis-level RODI filter (for whatever that's worth).
2) pump top-off water into a yellow gas can from Lowe's; pump D-D H2Ocean water into red gas can from Lowe's. [note: this seems like the only possible culprit]
3) immediately empty most of top-off water (if not all) into old IO salt bucket i use for top-off water. it sits in the gas can for no more than a week.
4) dump new salt water into Home Depot bucket (dedicated to new salt water for water changes) within 1-2 weeks of acquiring it to heat it up and then do a water change.
that's it.
d0ughb0y
Active member
is that filter sock being used? because I see a flex pipe in front of it.
you can clean your sump, remove all the red stuff, rinse the chaeto, maybe take out the LR rubbles and rinse them in tank water to remove any algae and detritus. I can't see all your fish, but it looks like half a cube every other day is enough.
I don't see a skimmer, if you don't have one, maybe consider using a skimmer in that middle section.
you can clean your sump, remove all the red stuff, rinse the chaeto, maybe take out the LR rubbles and rinse them in tank water to remove any algae and detritus. I can't see all your fish, but it looks like half a cube every other day is enough.
I don't see a skimmer, if you don't have one, maybe consider using a skimmer in that middle section.
u]WHAT STUFF USED TO LOOK LIKE:[/u]
frogspawn used to look like this:
my green cap with blue polyps (seen as creamy in the right tier picture) used to look like this:
ATL ocean blue papillare (front of right tier)
ATL pink flamingo selago
orange digitata:
my coralline algae used to look like it did in this FTS:
at least my ATL idaho grape has consistently been terrible -- used to look like this:
frogspawn used to look like this:
my green cap with blue polyps (seen as creamy in the right tier picture) used to look like this:
ATL ocean blue papillare (front of right tier)
ATL pink flamingo selago
orange digitata:
my coralline algae used to look like it did in this FTS:
at least my ATL idaho grape has consistently been terrible -- used to look like this:
the filter sock is being used -- the overflow drains into it. the pipe you see is the return line from my media reactor, so i don't run it through the sock.
i have a bubble-magus nac3 in the sump -- here's a better "full sump" picture (older, but shows a better view of what it looks like)
d0ughb0y
Active member
wouldn't all the snails be dead if that was copper?
anyway, I would just manually remove the algae as much as possible, and just reduce the feeding and just monitor if the algae comes back or not, if it comes back, does it come back slower, etc.
I can't really tell if you have enough flow in your sump, but the rubbles and the dsb could reduce the flow and cause algae.
you can feed the media reactor return to your filter sock, it helps specially right after putting in new media.
anyway, I would just manually remove the algae as much as possible, and just reduce the feeding and just monitor if the algae comes back or not, if it comes back, does it come back slower, etc.
I can't really tell if you have enough flow in your sump, but the rubbles and the dsb could reduce the flow and cause algae.
you can feed the media reactor return to your filter sock, it helps specially right after putting in new media.
