what is the problem with algae

[kenny5130]

I have a question about green algae. I know it is a sign of high nutrients and that a w/c is needed. But what harm does it do ? Other than the sight of it, is there any problem with it ?

 

[Ron Reefman]

It can/will over grow our corals and choke them to death by blocking the light. And once some algae gets a foothold in a coral colony, it can be next to impossible to get it all out and keep it from growing back.

 

[JammyBirch]

It can/will over grow our corals and choke them to death by blocking the light. And once some algae gets a foothold in a coral colony, it can be next to impossible to get it all out and keep it from growing back.

+1, if a coral reciedes and algae, such as GHA or GBA, setup shop the coral will likely never grow back in that area.

 

[figuerres]

also if you have a lot of it and say the power goes out and the tank is not getting normal water movement and light then that stuff will start to die and the nutrients it was holding will be released into the water and that may dead to some problems ... granted a power loss / lighting loss may also be an issue for a tank with coral also... just saying that it would be a side effect.

 

[Sk8r]

It starts small from phosphate leaching out of rock and sand. If you let it go, it may become a solid, tank-filling mass of soft green inedible algae that no fish will eat.

 

[hkgar]

It starts small from phosphate leaching out of rock and sand. If you let it go, it may become a solid, tank-filling mass of soft green inedible algae that no fish will eat.

Yup, ended up happening to me. Had to take all rock out for scrubbing 7 H2O2 treatment and still have some that is trying to come back . So far controlling by pulling the small initial clumps out. It also seems to like low light.

Any ideas how to beat it?

I have started dosing vinegar and have an algae scubber and use GFO.

 

[CStrickland]

Rocks can leach phosphate if they came to your tank from a high phos condition, but even if they come to you clean they can absorb phos from the water of an improperly maintained tank. That's when you see algae blooms after a year of happy rock, because it has been taking up the phos from the water all along, gotten saturated and stopped.

It's basically about removing as much as you add, whether it's coming from rocks or food. The trouble with scrubbers, gfo, et al. is that they are in direct competition with the algae for inorganic phosphate, so it's a toss up who will get there first. That's why I also like to vacuum my sand and blow the poop out of my rocks every week, to remove as much waste as I can before it adds phos to the water column. This seems especially helpful for the little nooks in my tank that don't get as much flow, and around corals that I target feed (my sun coral is a messy eater). The rocks on those spots seem prone to holding phos from the food and poo that lands on them, and once algae starts there it's even worse b/c the algae catches food in it so you have an extra high phos localized condition. But there are lots of nice tanks that remove nutrients other ways, I think they have better skimmers than me and my rocks aren't purged yet.

More info here http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/#4 From the article:

Flake fish food is typically about 1% phosphorus (3% phosphate equivalent) by weight (and many products have such phosphorus data on their labels). Consequently, if five grams of flake food is added to a 100-gallon aquarium, there is the potential for the inorganic orthophosphate level to be raised by 0.4 ppm in that SINGLE FEEDING! That fact can be a significant issue for reefkeepers: what do we do with all of that phosphorus? If the food is completely converted into tissue mass, then there will be no excess phosphate. But much of the food that any heterotrophic organism consumes goes to provide energy, leaving a residue of CO2 (carbon dioxide), phosphate and a variety of nitrogen-containing compounds (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.) as shown above. A fish, whether it is an adult or a growing juvenile, consequently excretes much of the phosphorus that it takes in with its food as phosphate in its waste.

There has been some research that suggests that in a high phos condition coral has trouble growing its skeleton, and also some inverts do not thrive when the nitrates are high; so in that sense the algae is a sign of another problem. Like a canary in the coal mine, so you can fix it before your tank starts to go south. But mostly it's just annoying