ROWAphos induced Red slime/Algae bloom

[johnfr]

My 150 tank has been running for over 3 years. My Nitrates have always tested at very low levels. I have a refugium full of macro which is harvested monthly. My Seachem test kit (not the most sensitive I know) showed Phosphates at nearly 0 also. However, over the last few months the algae growth has incresed. I recently decided that it would be a good idea to add a phosphate removal filter to the system. I purchased some ROWAphos and put 500 ml per the recommended dosage in an old Rainbow Fluidized bed left over from my fresh water days. Adjusted flow to give good fluidization.

After two days of Phosphate removal operation I was experiencing a huge algae bloom such that it is difficult to see from one end of tank to the other. Additionally, I have lots of red slime forming anyplace where large water flow occurs. ie., outlet of protein skimmer, in high flow hoses, overflow grates. large flow = red slime. This is contray to normal red slime charactoristics that it commonly collects in areas of low flow. This is more of a bright red filimatous type of algae.

Before parameters

PH =8.3
Cal =420
Alk =2.5 meq
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 0
Phosphates = 0.01

After 2 days using ROWAphos
PH =8.3
Cal =420
Alk =2.5 meq
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 0
Phosphates = 0.00

After reviewing one of my reef keeping books it has one sentence stating phosphate removers can cause macro algae to die off releasing pollutants into the tank. I would think my after tests would detect that but as you can see parameters appear to be good.

Anyone have any ideas or experience this?

 

[Fredfish]

As you have observed, adding rowphos has changed the dynamics in your aquarium, unfortunateily not in the direction you wanted.

it has one sentence stating phosphate removers can cause macro algae to die off releasing pollutants into the tank

The book is correct, as macro algaes slow down in growth and start to die they will leak nutrients back into the aquarium. This is not the whole story though.

If caulerpa is one of the macros in the tank, have you noticed any change in its growth rates or physical appearance? I t is possible that you have nutrient limited your macro. As the macro stops growing, more nutrients become aviailable to the nuisance algaes for growth.

There is a good series of threads in tha seagrass/algae forum from a year or two ago by plantbrain that goes into a fair amount of detail on the relationship between nutrient availability, macro and micro algae growth.

Basically, if your macros are growing well, they have the ability to suck up a lot of nutients (N, P) a lot faster than nuisance micro algaes, and the nuisance algae will reduce/dissapear. If macro algaes become nutrient limited, small increases in nutrients in the water can lead to rapid micro algae blooms.

In my system, I see a direct negative correlation between the growth of macro and micro algae. I have actually dosed both nitrate and phosphate before to jumpstart my macros when cyano started to show up in my system.

Many people do not like grape caulerpa because it is very sensitive to drops in nutrient levels. I actually like this caulerpa because it acts like a canary in a coal mine. It is my early warning that nutrient levels are getting to low to support macro growth and my system needs a boost.

If this were my system, I would remove the rowphos, dose a little phosphate to the refugium and wait to see if there was any reduction in nuisance algaes.

Good luck,

Fred

 

[johnfr]

Re: ROWAphos induced Red slime/Algae bloom

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9165056#post9165056 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johnfr

I have lots of red slime forming anyplace where large water flow occurs. ie., outlet of protein skimmer, in high flow hoses, overflow grates. large flow = red slime. This is contray to normal red slime charactoristics that it commonly collects in areas of low flow. This is more of a bright red filimatous type of algae.

The bloom is subsiding but still have the bright red slime. This is different from the typical cyno I have seen in the past. Boyd's red slime remover couldn't touch it. Only forms where large flows exhist.

None of my corals seem to be suffering. All look good. Am concerned about this strange bright red slime. Anyone have any idea what this strange red slime is???

 

[tatoofr]

Hi,
How about a pic?

Frank

 

[johnfr]

Photos in Gallary

Photos in Gallary

I uploaded some photos of the red slime into my gallary.

Retested water tonight. Results were:

PH =8.35
Cal =410
Alk =3.2 meq
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 0
Phosphates = 0.00
Silica = 0
Salinity = 1.025

Tested RO water to verify RO filter is working properly. Zero desolved solids in RO water so RO filter is working.

Today the algae growth on glass was noticably less. Water has cleared slightly. Red slime is still persisting in high flow areas. Yesterday Skimmer was not skimming anything. Skimmer is now skimming. Skimmate is very wet. Probably the Boyds red slime remover I added 2 days ago.

So far no corals seem to be suffering except for one sickly bubble coral that has been slowly deteriating for weeks. Assumed to be because of high phosphates which was one of the reasons I decided to try RowaPhos in the first place.

I am currently continuing filtering with Rowaphos. Plants in fuge are still looking good. Have harvested down to small quantity to avoid any chance of die off dumping nutrients back into water.

 

[johnfr]

Yes, definately grows in the dark. No sugar vinager or vodka. Never add such things. Feed fish very sparingly. They get a 2"x2" square of nori algae every other day and about 2 cubes of Mysid shrimp or brine shrimp every other day or two. I did add some Boyds Red Slime remover when this stuff first appeared thinking is was cyno. Had no effect as I noted in an earlier post.


Am happy to report that things have improved over night. Before going to bed last night I turned off the pump to the ROWAphos fluidized bed and the refugium. Water was nearly clear when lights came on this morning. Red film is still present at high flow areas in overflow, sump and skimmer. I had also cleaned the skimmer last night and this morning was still not skimming anything.

Corals seem to be surviving thus far. Yesterday our clown fish spawned in the mist of all this. Must not be bothering them much.

 

[Fredfish]

tatoofr. You can see a recent pic of my tank in my gallery. Its not very exciting by most peoples standards: mostly macro algaes for my seahorses.

johnfr. I'm not sure why you are concerned about your corals. A change in algae species is an indication of changes in nutrient conditions in your tank, but not necessarily an indication of overal water quality.

If your algae is sheeting and slimy it is cyanobacteris. There are many many species and I expect that identification is impossible without a microscope and quite a bit of expertise in identrifying species. It really dosn't matter.

FWIW, Boyds and other cyanobacteria treatments are general purpose anti-bacterials. It will have killed off a lot of beneficial bacteria in your system as well. I personally never use this stuff because it disrupts the 'balance' in your system. They almost never get rid of the problem anyway.

Once cyano establishes a large presence in your system, it takes a while to go away. As with so many things patience is of great value.

Fred

 

[johnfr]

Photomicrographs added to gallary

Photomicrographs added to gallary

I managed to get some photos from a microscope at work today of this stuff. 64x magnification. The photos have been added to my gallary.

Tank has recovered. Water is running clear. Still have some red slime residue in sump and pluming. Think this stuff is some kind of fungus but have no education in life sciences so only a guess.

 

[jnc914]

johnfr- I got the same reddish algae (?) after I started using the Rowa-Phos. My wasn't slimey though, and I was told not to worry about it by my LFS. I like the product and I have no phosphate or nitrates, but I wonder if it is not leaching stuff back into the system. I am researching other products similar to Rowa and see if it makes a difference.

Jason

 

[johnfr]

jnc914

Check my thread on Reef Chemistry forum by same title. As of recent the red slime has dissapated in most areas except my water lines. which I have no way to clean. I suspect this stuff was a fungus of some kind.

johnfr

 

[Sk8r]

I've experienced somewhat the same in a restrained way: I had a terrible phosphate load in film algae that would regenerate every 4 hours. Now that I've got it on the run, I've got a little bloom of red slime. It also damaged some of my acros. In the midst of all this, I got a new skimmer. My old Urchin was rated for my 52 g. The EV 120 is rated for 3x my tank volume. The amount of gunk it's been pulling out constantly tells me there'd been a serious buildup in the year I'd been using an underpowered skimmer. I think there are some precautions to take for cleaning up, but I also think there's a point at which, if you don't get rid of it, it's a problem. In my case I trace the problem to a rabbit fish that was to eat the caulerpa. I had to be on the road: he'd polished off the caulerpa and took after my corals. I gave him another big wad of caulerpa which he polished off---before I caught him. This incident, I think, loosed the phosphate into the tank, and it lurked there, my skimmer incapable of removing it, until we reached a crisis.