What the heck? brown/purple algae on zoos...

sk8rreefgeek

New member
My tank has been running great for over a year and a half. Lately, I've noticed some brownish, stringy stuff on some of my zoos.
A few colonies arent opening all the way now. Seems like the algae will hold them shut, or halfway open.
I took some water into a very reputable fish store owner yesterday. He kinda laughed and asked "where did you steal this water from? everything is freakin perfect"
I have never, ever seen ANY trace of nitrates, and I keep everything as neat and clean as possible. I am guilty of using TAP, but we are supposed to have great water quality here and has never been a problem.
I traded some tri-color cloves for two 5 gallon jugs, filled with RO/DI and did an 8 gal water change yesterday.
Also, I only have about 15 crabs and 5 snails.
I have also noticed 100's of small starfish populating the tank and I took out about 50 yesterday.

What could be causing this? My hard corals aren't looking as good as they used to either...
 
Here is the most recent pic I have, its about 3 months old


<a href="http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r41/karlkidd/?action=view&current=P3120250.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r41/karlkidd/P3120250.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
When you use tap water for the water changes, you are introducing a lot of elements that can cause headaches down the road. One issue is the buildup of silicates in your tank that comes from tap water. The more your tank evaporates, the more concentrated silicates and any other contaminant become. The silicates can cause a diatom bloom in your tank which may be what you are describing.

The other issue is your nitrates. Even though your readings are "normal", they may be that way due to your algae problem feeding off of the nitrates and thereby causing your nitrates to appear falsly low. I would check a silicate level as well as a phospate level. Also think about your water flow. From the picture, I can only see one powerhead which may be too little.

Ultimately, with a reef tank this size, it is well worth the investment for a RO/DI system. It will probably save you money and headaches down the road-otherwise keep feeding your algae problem with tap water. :D
 
Very interesting, I am having the exact same thing. Its not limited to my zoas tho, Its coming out of the sand too. Its not the diatoms I fought at the beginning of the tank that were more of a brown film, this is like brown slimy hair coming out of my sand and some zoas. I do run RO/DI, however my filters on it are about 8mo old. I have TONS of flow!
I also run GFO and GAC
 
I would like to get an RO/DI unit, but I have so many other obligations it's tough to put my tank at the top of the list. The dude at the LFS hooks it up with free water, so I'm going to start using his water and see what happens.
As far as flow goes, the return outlet is up at the top left, pointing to the right, so there is a little more than you can see. One problem is that I have a nice colony of tri-color cloves that I don't want to blow around too hard.
He did check for phosphates and said it was exactly where I want it to be.
Would more crabs or snails help?

jbird- did this just start? It looks like we started our tanks right about the same time too....
Also, what is your CUC like?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15370446#post15370446 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sk8rreefgeek
I would like to get an RO/DI unit, but I have so many other obligations it's tough to put my tank at the top of the list. The dude at the LFS hooks it up with free water, so I'm going to start using his water and see what happens.
As far as flow goes, the return outlet is up at the top left, pointing to the right, so there is a little more than you can see. One problem is that I have a nice colony of tri-color cloves that I don't want to blow around too hard.
He did check for phosphates and said it was exactly where I want it to be.
Would more crabs or snails help?

jbird- did this just start? It looks like we started our tanks right about the same time too....
Also, what is your CUC like?

It started about a month ago. My cleanupcrew is down to bare minimum... like 8-10 snails and 8-10 hermits. No sand sifters. I wouldnt consider my algae as a real problem, theres not that much, I just have not had any real algae outbreaks for a long time so it bugs me a little. One interessting observation is it seems most prevelent in the morning when my t5 suppliments are on (which were over a year old) when my halide comes on the algae seemed to fade. I put new bulbs in my t5 this morning. we'll see what happens.
 
That's weird because this started about a month ago as well. My actinic bulbs are pretty shot now. My 12ks are only about 6 months old, but I was wondering if the dim actinics could cause a problem. I didn't think it would.
It wasn't a big deal to me either until I started noticing some zoos not opening.
Let me know how the new bulbs work.
 
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