Algae and air bubbles everywhere...please help...

[Anonymous]

Brown algae and air bubbles everywhere, with occasional spots of green hair algae. Since I got rid of my tiger goby, the sand looks like crap. I got rid of the goby because I wanted the pod population to increase. Even with caulerpa in the tank, this has not happened, so I'm SOL. Can anyone give me some ideas to get my tank back to normal?

Yesterday afternoon I began dosing with carbon and phosphate remover.

Thanks in advance.

Peace,

Chip

 

[jmeader]

From the little info that you have given, I suspect that you may be dealing with cyano. That would indicate that your DOCs are elevated and carbon will help with that. It would also indicate that you might need to improve your circulation and mechanical filtration. I'm assuming that you already have a good PS going.

 

[NoriMuncher]

Had a bad hair algae problem that a sally light foot cut down on (also a very fun critter to watch, always busy if a bit skittish). Problem went away completely when I upgraded my lighting (I know, your were hoping for a cheaper answer

).

 

[Anonymous]

It's not cyano, I know that. It's brown algae, with some green hair algae. I currently have 440 watts of VHO lighting. WHat I've done is while the phosphate remover and carbon are in the sump, I've had the lights off. Today is the 2nd day, and I'll remove them tonight and put the lights back on. I'm thinking of running a shorter photoperiod, and getting a timer to regulate that.

Thanks for the input.

Peace,

Chip

 

[fishfarmer]

Question: You lost a bunch of corals recently, some xenia I believe. Have you cut back your feeding since losing these "nutrient sinks"? I'm guessing your bioload and nutrient cycling are out of whack.

[ September 22, 2001: Message edited by: fishfarmer ]

 

[Lockart]

I had a bad hair and bubble algae pfoblem in my 125 gl reef. I could not find anything that was causing it as the phosphates and other nutrients that were associated with algae were none existent. I left the lights off for days and tried many recommended cures with no improvement. Finally I began removing portions of the LR (1/4 of the tank at a time)and put it in 3 5 gl buckets with powerheads for circulation. after 2 days I lightly scrubbed the rock with a tooth brush and then put it back for another 2 days. when I put the clean rock back in the tank I kept a seperation between the clean and infested rock and directed all water flow away from the clean rock. I have had the reef back together for 8 months now with no sign of new algae except for a couple of bubble which I promptly removed the rock and cleaned the bubble algea of them disinfected the the area it had grown with tech-d. My reef has never looked better.

 

[Lockart]

Also wanted to mention that the rock has begun to grow new life and I lost no corals or fishes during the process or since. The rock was kept in my garage which is almost totally dark for the 4 days. Good Luck!

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by fishfarmer:
<STRONG>Question: You lost a bunch of corals recently, some xenia I believe. Have you cut back your feeding since losing these "nutrient sinks"? I'm guessing your bioload and nutrient cycling are out of whack.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, I have cut back on feeding quite a bit, actually. Removed as much of the dead tissue as I could immediately after that big coral loss. I also think the caulerpa in my tank is causing some problem. I'm going to remove that into a small tank next and see what happens.

Thanks.

Peace,

Chip