Algea Problems

[Beaker]

I have 2 tanks, both are having some algea issues...heres what i got

Tank #1

This tank is almost 3 years old. I bought it from a friend about 2 months ago (it was moved, water included) when i got it, there were no traces of algea in the tank. Now that ive moved it, i have a nice outbreak of brown algea (this came up within the last week) I figure its just a stage its going through, but is there anything i can do to make this clear up and stop it from becoming a bigger problem? Right now I only have a spotted hawk, bi-color blenny, stripped damzel, 2 percula clowns, and a anemone. (all which came with the tank)

Tank #2 (the big problem!)

This tank is about a year and a half old. It used to look like this:

I had to move about 6 months ago, it took the move pretty well, nothing died. About 2 months ago, i got this green stringy algea growning in it. I bought some more emerald crabs and a lawn mower blenny, as well as a rabbit fish. well, the rabbit fish died and the crabs and the blenny arent eating any of it. it has totally consumed my tank and i cant get rid of it.

I even tried this stuff recomended by my LFS, but it didnt work

Someone else suggested scrubbing my LR with a tooth brush and syphoning it out, but the problem is that i have a hundred or so baby brittle stars in there and they love to hang out in the algea

In this tank I have blue and red leg hermits, 2 large brittle stars and tons of babies, 2 emerald crabs, a cleaner shrimp, pepermint shrimp, lawn mower blenny and other fish that really dont apply to this.

As you can see here, its strangling my corals from all light, its kinda upsetting me and its a very bad eyesore in my livingroom. I didnt spend $$$ to harvest greens

-Brad
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[Anonymous]

Worst case of algea I ever saw.

So, what changed that caused the sudden outbreak? Did you quit doing water changes, or start overfeeding. How many fish do you have? Did you recently add more fish, causing a biological overload?
You have a nutrient problem. Plain and simple. You must get control of it. I think you should immediatley do a 25 - 50 % WC. And you will have to scrub those rocks clean with a toothbrush. You'll never get rid of all that hair algea otherwise. Scrub the rocks in the old tank water after the WC. Cut you feedings in half and continue to do weekly WC of 25% and scrub rocks of any new growth. You should cut your photoperiod to 4 hours until the problem is corrected. Then add 1/2 hour per week back until you reach your desire photoperiod.

Do you use RO water?

How many fish do you have?

Do you have ample detritivores?

Tell us more about your tank so we can help you.

Louey

 

[Beaker]

Worst case of algea I ever saw.

So, what changed that caused the sudden outbreak?

I didnt do anything but move it about 6 months ago, and its just got really bad in the last 2 months.

Did you quit doing water changes, or start overfeeding. How many fish do you have? Did you recently add more fish, causing a biological overload?

Nope :?

And you will have to scrub those rocks clean with a toothbrush. You'll never get rid of all that hair algea otherwise. Scrub the rocks in the old tank water after the WC.

Thats the problem, I have too many baby brittle stars I dont want to kill in the mean time, they all live in this algea.

Do you use RO water?

RO? :? I get it from the LFS.

How many fish do you have?

I have 2 chromis, maroon clown, buble anemone, lawnmower blenny....anything else ive put in there recently has died (rabbit fish, naso tang, assorted blennies)

Do you have ample detritivores?

huh? Ive been doin the fish thing for about a year and a half, I'm not that technical yet. Please explain.

Tell us more about your tank so we can help you.

for filtration I am using the Ecosystem (mud and culerpa) with a fluval canister as well. I feed them once daily, about 6-7 cubes of frozen brine. The lights are on a timer and run from 8am to 10pm.

I hope this helps.

-Brad

 

[Anonymous]

Quote:
And you will have to scrub those rocks clean with a toothbrush. You'll never get rid of all that hair algea otherwise. Scrub the rocks in the old tank water after the WC.


Thats the problem, I have too many baby brittle stars I dont want to kill in the mean time, they all live in this algea.

I respect you for not wanting to kill the baby brittle stars. Pick off as many as you can and sacrifice the rest. All of your corals will soon the dead if you don't get this algea under control.

I feed them once daily, about 6-7 cubes of frozen brine.

If these cube are the same size as the once made by Ocean Nutritian then this is way way way overfeeding. I have more fish than that in my 75 and I only feed 1/2 to 1 cube per day. Gee, how fat are your fishes bellies? I'm suprised that you didn't have an algea problem sooner if you have always fed in this fashion.

for filtration I am using the Ecosystem (mud and culerpa) with a fluval canister as well.

I am not fimiliar with this system.

The lights are on a timer and run from 8am to 10pm.

Way too long. Cut it back until you get your problem solved. You don't need a 14 hour photoperiod. Maximum for MH is 8 - 10 hours per day. But this is not necessary. My tank lights are on from 3-10PM. I am still slowly adding to this photoperiod (battled hair algea a few months ago) but I'm in no rush to get it to 10 -12 hours per day as all of the corals and calms do just fine with the reduce photoperiod.

Quote:
Do you have ample detritivores?
huh? Ive been doin the fish thing for about a year and a half, I'm not that technical yet. Please explain.

You know, snaills, crabs, brittle stars, cukes.

Cut your feeding and photoperiod BIGTIME! I believe this is your problem. Scrub the rocks and do WC's.

IMHO

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I would also test your LFS water for nitrates and phosphates. I once had an algae outbreak I could not identify a cause of since nothing had been added and matintenace routines had stayed the same. When I tested their water, I found the source. Seems they hadn't changed their filter cartidges. Although it may not be the source of your problem, it just something else to check along with what Louey mentions above.

 

[wade1]

It sounds like you've disrupted an old sand bed and stirred up a great deal of nutrients. I'll echo what others have said and take the rock out and scrub it! I had to do this myself and it took over 8 hours, but the rocks were more manageable then... for the second and third scrubbing. There are a couple of things that you can probably do to help the situation, but none will work quickly.

-avoid any additives! most are junk
-overskim it until there is nothing left to skim!!! (really important)
-keep up with water changes weekly, adding up to 25% a month or so...
-reduce feeding to minimal levels
-anytime you see a patch of alge remove it immediately

I know they aren't great options and it'll be alot of work, but the tank should eventually come back, the key is keeping your corals from being overgrown.

Wade

 

[wade1]

PS- This is what mine looked like!

 

[danmhippo]

Ecosystem requires you to plant macro-algae in the genus of caulerpa for the system to work properly. Do you have a lush growth of caulerpa in the sump? If you do not, mostlikely, nutrients reside in the "MUD" is slowly being released and directly caused the algae bloom in the tank.

The tank 1 is suffering from diatom and cynobacteria. Thank 2 is suffering from green hair algae. Both tank's nuiance algae are notorious of their super efficient nutrient uptake. If we ask you to take water quality test right now I would bet NO3 and PO4 reading will comes up to a big fat zero.

You need oversized skimmer, You need to purchase an RODI(reverse osmosis water purifier with De-Ionized resin chamber) to make your own water and mix your own salt. You need to cut down on feeding, way down. I have a 150G and about 10 fish. I only feed a small pinch of prime reef flake once daily. Frozen food 2 cubes weekly for protein supplementation. You really fed too much. Also, if you do not clean and rinse the media chamber in your fluval twice weekly, you shouldn't be using it for the reef setup.

 

[l8_apex_it]

1) Overfeeding is probably one of the main causes. I have had good luck with feeding my tank approximately every other day or even less. When I do feed I just give them a small pinch of flake food or Formula One.

2) the fluval canister filter can collect a lot of the uneaten food and waste and be contributing to your problem even more. Many reefers shy away from using any form of mechanical filtering as it can cause other problems. Since you have one it would probably be a good idea to clean it often by rinsing it out with water you have siphoned from the tank.

Good luck!

 

[Anonymous]

A question I just thought of:

When the naso, rabbit, etc died, did you pull the dead bodies or leave them in there?

Rotting bodies will contribute with the nutrient load.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Beaker, How about an update. How goes you algeaa wars? :wink:

Louey

 

[Ike]

I agree with all of the above statements. But did anyone notice that tank #2 is located right by a window. I have always thought that this was taboo, and could also lead to algae problems. :roll: IMO
Ike

 

[teknopanda]

you gotta get rid of that fluval...and i haven't heard good things bout the ecosystem.

so the pic where the tank is really nice is a pic taken when the previous owner had the tank?

you really should cut the feedings to like 1-2 cubes a day

do you have a sump? if not i think you should get rid of all the filtration you have and just get a skimmer in a sump inside the cabinet.

your lighting period is too long. try the equivalent of sunrise to sunset, but cut it to a few hours a day to kill the algae for the time being.

good luck

 

[Anonymous]

I am also running a Ecosystem. I have the hang on Ecosystem40. My tank is also getting covered with hair algae and cyano. I use Ultra Life Red Slime Remover and it gets rid of the cyano for a couple of weeks. But the hair algae is growing like mad. It even covers the caluerpa in the Ecosystem and causes the caluerpa to die off if I dont keep on top of it quick enough. I tried a Prism skimmer about a year ago but after a day of running the skimmer overflows and leaks on the floor. What kind of Hang On skimmer is really good for a 46 Bow tank? I will also try cutting back on the lighting time.

Thanks
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Schizophrenia Forum

 

[Beaker]

sorry to dig this up from nowhere about a year later.....but someone asked for an update and here it is...

I ended up breaking down the super infected tank and selling it for $150....it was really depressing, but i couldnt aford to fight the algea anymore, much less run both tanks. I only kept the surpant star, spotted hawk, and urchins...they went into tank #1

I still have tank #1...I just moved it to another apartment about a month ago....its doing fine and running the eco system as well. I have plans to get rid of the eco system and get a whole new system.

To answer teknopanda's question of "so the pic where the tank is really nice is a pic taken when the previous owner had the tank?"

No, thats my tank at about 4-5 months old. The First tank pictured is the tank that had a pervious owner, also, the tank i still have now.

Thanks for all the help guys even though the tank turned out to be a total loss.

 

[greenman]

Hey thanks for sharing that with us I will have to say it was somthing else!!!!


I would have to say you messed with and old sand bed .......!!!!
I think thats the cons of deep sand bed in the long run they are like a mess waiting to happen.