turf algae problem

[aquaboy620]

I have had these rocks in my tank for over 3 years now. I used to toothbrush my rock back when I first started. My rocks were always clean. Now I have a turf algae problem and my fowlers and chevron tang can only do so much. my nitrates stay about 20ppm and no matter how much I change the water and filters it stays the same. I was bored yesterday and decided to use a turkey baster and blast my rocks. man so much crap(detritus) shot out from the rocks. was nasty. clouded my tank pretty bad. anyway if I toothbrush my rock will this help get rid of my nitrates and turf algae? hate to sound like a newbie but was wondering if anyone toothbrushes their rock or if there is any ill effect? I have plenty of powerheads and 1 seaswirl. about to have 2 seaswirls soon. but somehow the crap just sits there. and yes I have a euro reef rs250 skimmer.

 

[guinness0514]

you should do just what you did. Get a turkey baster and blow off the rocks. a toothbrush is only going to get the surface. LR is chocked full of holes and such that a toothbrush can't reach. If you blow off the rocks with a powerhead or baster and let the skimmer suck up the crap. I would try to do it once a week

 

[aquaboy620]

cool. i will. but toothbrushing would probably get off some of the algae. I hope

 

[atwinparadox2]

are you using RO/DI water? Maybe increase the flow or switch it up to be more random to keep anything from settling on the rocks?

 

[Michael]

its possible your green hair algae is bryopsis, if so its really hard to shift, raising magnesium levels is a good starting point, and get the rock out of the tank and really scrub it hard, i use a nail brush which slides over my hand, its my daughters haha, so if you have any girls in your life ask them to get you one of the nail brushes, they are very useful.

 

[aquaboy620]

I had an extra koralia 4 and started blasting the rocks today. got a good amount of the detritus into the filter.I did this for about 2 hours straight. i will continue to do this for a few days a week and see how it goes. I noticed after I did thid the fowlers started eating it alot faster. maybe he wants a cleaner meal. haha. I want to get emeralds. I'm convinced that they will work cause my girlfriend started her 12 gallon nano with stuff that came out of my tank(water, sand, rocks, sponges and some corals) instant nano. she took some rocks that had this algae on them and we got 3 emeralds for her tank and watched them tear it apart. the tank is almost completely rid of the algae. we'll see if I can get a good deal on like 20 to 30 of them from my LFS. I will keep you guys posted. thanks for your insight.