Unknown Algae Problem

[Katano]

So I have had my reef tank up and running for around a year and a half now. About a month ago I was doing a water change and was stirring up the sand. After I stirred some of it up I noticed the next day that some of this brown algae started forming. I figured that it was cyanobacteria, although I have had cyano before and it started on my rocks and went away after one treatment of Chemi-clean. So I dosed chemo-clean which put my skimmer out of action because it would overflow even when all the way open. After doing the 20% water change 48 hours later I noticed that more of this algae started forming on other parts of my sand bed. I dosed again and did another water change with no results (my local LFS store kept telling me that it was cyano but I remain unconvinced). After doing some research the best that I could come up with was dinoflagellates. I did a 72 hour black out that knocked out the majority of it, except one little patch, but ended up killing my 2 sps frags. Now a week after the blackout the algae has already come back on my sandbed and I have no idea what to do.

 

[Katano]

Photos

Photos

Here are a few photos of the tank as of right now.

 

[Timfish]

Looks like cyano to me. I would siphon off the top layer and either toss it or rinse it well in fresh water. If you've used chemi-clean several times you should be aware it is a form of the antibiotic euthromycin and you quite possibly have created a resistant strain of cyano.

 

[Katano]

I noticed before that when I did the water changes the algae would get worse very quickly. Is that normal?

 

[Betaktical]

More fresh nutrients in the water for them to eat:


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[Katano]

So I should stop doing water changes?

 

[Katano]

New information

New information

So this all started when I was out of town on a college project. My girlfriend just told me that she did a couple of things and then noticed the algae started right after that. She said she vacuumed out the sand looking stuff from my sump and then when she was replacing the water that she sucked out that, in an attempt to quicken the process, used 5 gallons of tap water that she just treated for chloramines. I wonder if she upset the balance that was in the tank and then the tap water just tipped the scales enough for the algae to start growing.

I hope that this new info helps out. I am beyond frustrated because I noticed last night that my torch coral had some slimy black stuff coming out of the center of one of the heads, my frogspawn won't open up fully, and my hammer coral had started to recede.

 

[Betaktical]

Yeah you should never use tap water ever. I can't believe that we call tap water potable water. Between all the different pipes it runs through before it comes out of your tap, and all the chemicals they add it shouldn't be consumed by anything. It's pretty much only good for washing dishes and washing away poop. I'm a plumber and you wouldn't believe what the inside of a 5 yr old water line looks like.


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[Katano]

Yeah I have a feeling that the tap water that she used set the algae off. So now I have no idea what to do. I am not sure if I should continue water changes or if there is something else besides Chemi-clean that I could try.

 

[Betaktical]

Starve it for light can work. 3 days no lights. What kind of corals do U have


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