Sorry, the 5,000,000 thread on a tank with Algae Issues

Bainreese

New member
I am looking to keep my system as simple as possible but don't have issues with more complexity if it fixes issues. Here is my tank...

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Tank specs
65g w/ sump below. Sump below has filter socks, small refugium with Cheto, 3inch sand bed, and some live rock. Also has Curve 7 Skimmer. I powerhead in upper right of tank.
Ammonia : 0ppm
Nitrate : 2-4ppm
Phosphate : .04ppm
Calcium : 450ppm
Alk : 8.9 dkh
Mag : 1400

Tank inhabitants - .Pair of Clowns, Pair of Bangai Cardinals, & Mandarin
Corals - couple zoa frags, Frogspawn, Leather, and a Hammer.
CUC : Emerald Crab, 4-5 Turbo Snails, Blood Red Shrimp, 4-5 hermit crabs

Dosing : Mainly Kent Part B with infrequent Part A as Alk goes down faster than Calcium. I also dose a very light Ion Fuel for the corals.(half dose since the coral load is light in the tank)

I feed 2-3 times daily. Mainly frozen brine and mysis. Generally everything is eaten before it hits mid tank.

Light period is 10 hours. Not over lit by any stretch. To strip LEDs with half blue half white on each.

My issue is with the green and red algae. I want it gone. Can't stand it. The question is what would be the most effective way of getting rid of it with the least amount of hassle. My N & P seem to be under control. I get decently dark green skimate off the skimmer. Although it has only been on the tank for a week now. I have started to see some green algae floating in the tank which gives me hope that it is breaking up....but I just wanted your thoughts on what you'd do if it were your tank.
 
Looks like bacterial algae? Is it actually hair algae or green/red slime?

If it's bacterial, you need better flow.
If it's diatom, you've got excess silicates.

I'm not an expert, but can you take closer shots?
 
Looks like a fairly newly set up system to me. Most likely the 'slime algae' will dissipate as the tank ages.

I would stop the Fuel dosing. Even at half dose, you don't have enough corals to need anything.

You should probably cut back on feeding as well. 2 - 3 times a day seems excessive for clowns and Banggai Cardinals. And I think your Mandarin is going to have trouble finding enough to eat in such a young tank.

I'd add a second powerhead as well.
 
I might add more live rock. The amount of food might be too much for the filtration. Whether the food is eaten or not is not critical. What goes in, mostly comes out, and with about the same energy profile. If the setup is new, the problem might recede on its own.
 
Tank has been set up for 4 months. The Mandarin is trained to eat frozen brine mad mysis but I have also seeded the tank with pods and if I see the population drop I will reseed. I also believe it is mostly slime algae. Although I am not an expert.

I was wondering about flow as I've heard it discussed a lot here. I just don't know how much is too much for a 65g and the two return tubes provide some flow. But I think most of it is near the top and not across the sand bed.

As for the feedings. I thought i was being moderate as I've seen some people talk about 4-5 feedings daily.
 
Tank has been set up for 4 months. The Mandarin is trained to eat frozen brine mad mysis but I have also seeded the tank with pods and if I see the population drop I will reseed. I also believe it is mostly slime algae. Although I am not an expert.

I was wondering about flow as I've heard it discussed a lot here. I just don't know how much is too much for a 65g and the two return tubes provide some flow. But I think most of it is near the top and not across the sand bed.

As for the feedings. I thought i was being moderate as I've seen some people talk about 4-5 feedings daily.

For flow rate in the display shoot for something along the lines of this


Softies -25x
Lps/mixed reef -40-50x
Sps-75x+

Basically find where you are above , and times your display volume ( not total water volume) by this number , add up all your sources of flow and this should be around the number your targeting for those corals


As well are you running a skimmer?

With not a whole lot of flow I'm guessing the food traps in the substrate and is feeding the becateria (cyano)

Ro/DI water?
 
Looks like a fairly newly set up system to me. Most likely the 'slime algae' will dissipate as the tank ages.

I would stop the Fuel dosing. Even at half dose, you don't have enough corals to need anything.

You should probably cut back on feeding as well. 2 - 3 times a day seems excessive for clowns and Banggai Cardinals. And I think your Mandarin is going to have trouble finding enough to eat in such a young tank.

I'd add a second powerhead as well.

+1 to carlso63 recommendations.

Also, two part is supposed to be added in equal amounts. Alkalinity is naturally consumed faster than calcium. The ratio is 20 ppm Calcium for every 50 ppm of Alkalinity. But 2 part additives are designed to add at this ratio so to maintain levels you should be adding equal amounts of A and B. You can correct imbalances with one or the other but they should generally be added in equal amounts. This has nothing to do with your algae and cyano issues.

You also might want to consider running some carbon and gfo.

I started a 30 gallon cube with same amount of clowns and cardinals. I feed about 1/8 of a cube a day of frozen mysis and cyclops and leave the shrimp juice in. Shrimp juice is my coral food. I use 2 to 1 mixture of carbon and GFO in bag and Purigen in a bag and that is it. No protein skimmer. The tank is kicking butt now but early on looked similar to yours with less green algae. Cut back on the feeding and be patient. Good luck.
 
Here are a couple of shots of the tank.

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Gainesville, I was adding just part B because my calcium was nice at around 450 but my Alk had dipped into the high 6.50 dkh or so. Once my Alk has reached a nice 9.0 dkh or so I will begin to dose equally.

I will cut back on the feeding as per suggestions. I will also pull back on the fuel as well.

Thank you all for your input. Some reassurances in there you probably didn't even know about. I would like to avoid GFO if I can and especially with the N & P not being too high without it. I may do some vodka dosing though at some point as it seems as though people have had good results.
 
Algae need phosphorus and nitrogen to grow. If your test reads .04ppm phosphate, then that's the cause. Run a good phosphate remover and it will slowly die.
 
Your problem is nothing the tank is a new setup. with a tank this young it will always have some algae issues until the supply of silicates in the sand and rock are gone and with dosing two part you are suppose to only replace what you use daily so the way you were dosing was just fine but like others have said the dosing has nothing to do with the algae but if you don't dose magnesium you might be able to rid your tank of the algae faster if you slowly up your mag level to around 1800 ppm but don't do it fast raise it over a week or so
 
Algae need phosphorus and nitrogen to grow. If your test reads .04ppm phosphate, then that's the cause. Run a good phosphate remover and it will slowly die.

Granted, I am new to Saltwater, but I am also a perfectionist and I read a lot before jumping in. In my reading .04ppm doesn't seem like a lot and I have also read that eliminating all phosphate can actually negatively impact calcification.

So I think, if these things are true, I would rather cut back on the feedings/fuel and see if that has a good impact before resorting to GFO.
 
Your problem is nothing the tank is a new setup. with a tank this young it will always have some algae issues until the supply of silicates in the sand and rock are gone and with dosing two part you are suppose to only replace what you use daily so the way you were dosing was just fine but like others have said the dosing has nothing to do with the algae but if you don't dose magnesium you might be able to rid your tank of the algae faster if you slowly up your mag level to around 1800 ppm but don't do it fast raise it over a week or so

The tank was set up for around 2.5 months prior to dosing two part or magnesium. Then I bought all my test kits Calcium/Alk/Mag/Phos in order to prepare for adding corals. That is when I noticed the dichotomy between my Cal & Alk, which was strange given that my freshly mixed saltwater comes out at 480 & 10.50dkh respectively. The first magnesium test kit I had probably sat around the LFS too long as it was giving me way low readings and I started dosing Mag religiously trying to bring the levels back up but never saw a blip. Thought it was strange, bought a fresher kit, and sure enough my Mag levels were in the 1500 range. I've backed off to bring it down within more acceptable ranges.

If the algae I'm seeing is truly just a product of excess silicates in the rock/sand from being a newer tank I'll definitely try to be more patient with the system. It's tough, being the clean freak that I am, to see all that algae and seeing other people's systems and the wonderfully white sandbeds they have. But it sounds like I'm going to just grit my teeth and wait it out.

I'm getting good growth on the softies I have in the tank and the fish are happy(aside from my Mandarin looking like he's getting some aggression from something since he has a couple chunks out of his tailfin. So all is well with the world.
 
Granted, I am new to Saltwater, but I am also a perfectionist and I read a lot before jumping in. In my reading .04ppm doesn't seem like a lot and I have also read that eliminating all phosphate can actually negatively impact calcification.

So I think, if these things are true, I would rather cut back on the feedings/fuel and see if that has a good impact before resorting to GFO.

Try and cut back feedings is fine. I had tested my phosphate with Salifert and it came up crystal clear (0ppm). Obliviously that's not true because all that algae would be dead. So I added some gfo and now the algae is disappearing. On the coral reef levels can be as low as .005ppm and even lower in surface waters.
You can also try adding a huge clean up crew.
 
Testing at zero only means that your algae is in equilibrium with your nutrients. The algae is your indicator to the real levels.

If you have algae and your nutrient levels are above zero, that means you should expect more algae to come... If you use N and P removals and your tests read zero, then you're pushing into the negative and they should be dying.

But... Even when algae dies, it decomposes into it's own food: N and P. So you need to actively remove it and export it (water changes, skimming, manual removal, etc...)
 
Besides, the reddish stuff you have on your sandbed is cyano, according to your last photos. More flow and feed less in order to get rid of it.
 
Well today was day three of lights out. It has been pretty good.

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Pretty much all the red cyano is gone and all the green slime from the gravel. I added some additional Trochas snails and Blue Legs to help keep things under control. I cut off the Fuel dosing for the corals. I have cut back feedings to just 2 a day and I'm also changing out my socks every 4 days. The Skimmer has also been doing a great job. I have not cleaned the glass in a week.

I took to heart much of the wisdom shared in this thread and also from a good friend who is my guru thank everyone. I think this multi-pronged approach has really done the job and taught me a lot. If I see a return with all these steps taken I will add the GFO reactor.
 
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