Please Help !!

F

FishyReef2007

In Memoriam
if anyone can please help me with the algae problem that i am having taht would be great. -- my system is a 120 Gal twin overflow 48x24x24. I have on 2 250 mogal base 10k lamps, 4 96w Actinc bulbs, and 4 1w lunar LED's. The actinics run from 830a-630p, and the halide run from 10-4. For water circ. i have 2 790 GPH external pumps, run 24/7, 2 korilla 4 power heads on wavemaker, for a total of about 1400-1600 GPH in the tank. The tank has aprox 50 gal sump, refugium style. i have a nautalus TE protien skimmer that fills the cup 1/2 full once a week. 1/2 HP chiller, and a 750W Titanium heater, external digital controlled. The tank is 77.6 degrees, and has a PH of 8.2 The tank has a calcium reactor that has effluant of 6.5. The tank also has a phos reactor. The tank has 6 pieces of SPS and 1 zoo colony. I have aprox 50 nasarius snails and 1 cucecumber in the tank. ANY help will be appriciated in making the tank look better


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Just some ?'s. What kind of algae? How old are the lights and what kind of bulbs? Do you use an RO/DI unit? If so how old are your filters? How many fish? How often do you do water changes? How much skim is in a 1/2 cup on your skimmer(1/4 cup, 1/2 cup 1 cup?)?
 
one more ? how long has the tank been running and have you add'd anything new lately, he just forgot to mention these.
 
Well I guess he must have figured it out on his own. If you do have an RO unit whats your TDS coming out of it?
 
ok... to answer questions...

i have no filters.. only refugium. it is RODI at between 0 and 4 PPM on auto top off. what kind of algae is it -- i have no idea - some is hair algae, some is red film, some is like a brown carpet. the lights are coralife 10k that are about 3 months old. nothing new has been added. and i would say 1/2 a cup of skim. hope this helps.
 
when was the last time you replaced the media in your phos reactor? is your cleanup crew only nassarius snails? id recommend getting some hermits and astreas, they would help with the algae, the nassarius snails are great at sandbeds and eating uneaten food, emerald crabs are also great algae eaters. But you can add as many crabs and snails as you want and the algae wont go away without getting rid of the problem. Are there areas of low or no flow behind your rocks, if so throw a powerhead or two back there. what do you nitrates, ammonia, and phosphates test out to?
 
Time to get a tang it seems...

FWIW, there might be nothing wrong with your system at all... sounts like you have a little bit of this and that, and many tanks from the 3-9 month mark go through a cycle like this. It will be over eventually, but in the meantime, you dont want the algae to overrun everything. So yeah... if you dont have snails at least (Im not such a fan of hermits and crabs), get some. And then fish for the longer stuff... blennies are alright, but tangs do the best job on the filament stuff. For the reddish stuff... I would just leave it unless it gets out of control. Its very likely that it will go away on its own after a while. Tuxedo urchins are an option otherwise... they will mow down all types of algae very well... but then you might have to remove it later on depending on the corals you want to add.
 
Could be a combinatioon of cycl;ng and lighting.

First off the tank is only 9 months old so you will get some natural cycling of both green and red algeas. If the Nitrates and Phosphates are under control these will eventuially die off on there worn. A good cleaner crew does help with the cleaning.

Hermit crabs probaly will give you the best initial clean up and I have heard about adding up to 1 per gallon to initialy keep a tank clean during cycling. The draw back on hermits is they ocassionaly go after snails for there shells. Urchins are also highly recommended but if they do not have enough algea to keep them happy they may start on some corals.

Another factor on algea growth that is often over looked is your photo spectrum and duration. Red light while necessary for many corals can cause a spike in algea if it is in excess. There is a balance in lighting between intensity and duration. Regardless how great your spectrum is if the duration is to long it will spike algea growth.

Just looking at your light set up you have roughly 700 watts of power over a 120 gallon tank. So the intensity is about right however if your burning them 12+ hours a day you may have a contributing factor there. I'd run the Atinics for 12 hours a day but the hides for only 8 hours to see how much that helps.

Dennis
 
i olny run my MH for 4-5 hr a day and the atinics for close to 12+hrs it keep my heat down and still get good growth
 
So I think your big issue is cycling time which can last between 6 and 12 months. And you only real fix is to keep the circulation up and have a good clean up crew.

One individual in professional reef maintance told me it was a common practice for him to add one hermit crab per gallon at 3 months and then repeat this at 6 months. Whnen he gets to 9 moths he first then starts to add snails.

Dennis
 
I know it sounds simplistic, but try turning the lights out for 3 days.

When I had a cyano bloom during my early cycling, I did this and had amazing results. Didn't seem to effect any of the corals.

However, it's a temporary fix. You still have to find out what's causing the bloom. For me, (in addition to just the normal cycle), I was causing part of my alage bloom by running the lights too long. I backed off from 8 hours MH down to 4 and it helped significantly. As my tank has gotten older, I've been able to increase the light cycle.
 
If I remember correctly we talked about this at Tom (Prugs) meeting. I do remember you saying that when you filled your system and when you were doing water changes you were not using ro/di water. Now that you have a ro/di system you now are using ro. Correct me if I'm wrong. We also told you that your rocks are probably leeched with phosphates from the tap water and that is where your algae is coming from. If your rocks are loaded with phosphates and you have different kinds of algae your water tests will most likely show no phosphates. Just a reminder of that conversation.
 
ok... small update... i have picked up a tang. -- he seems to be happy in his home, but is not making a large dent in the algae yet... but i know that will take time. I have backed the MH down a bit -- i run only 1 now -- and switch it every other day from left to right, and only run them till 2 pm. I do remember that conversation very well, and i have checked for phosphates many times and have shown zero. I also thought that the original cycle on the tank should only take a few weeks, because this was an established system, it was just taken down and moved.
 
A tang should really do some great things for your algae. Especially after you find out that you also have to feed the tang which is also going to add more nitrates and phosphates to your system. I can't say it enough that tangs really don't eat nuisance algae and if they do you still have not found the root of your problem. Cheers and God Bless....
 
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