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Algae is killing me!!!


kuda

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We never ever had an algae problem in our big tank. We moved in late June, kept everything the same (including all of the water) except for the sand. We tossed it all and got new sand.

 

Our tank has had a rediculous algae problem ever since! I have tried turning off the lights for a few days, a phospahte reactor, adding to the clean up crew, doing water changes, plucking, scrubbing, pulling algae and my hair out(flame)

 

The water parameters test just fine...what the heck? I expected a small re-cycling period after the move, but this is just frustratingDOH!(threaten)

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Must be the weather or something...I am having a terrible time in my 55 right now...the fish are starving (not really) due to the major cut back of food. The lights out killed the cyano...now I am in the "white" algae due to carbon dosing...

 

New tank, cooked rock, minimal sand...but I fear that the water still stinks, regardless of Ro/DI.

 

Kris

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Must be the weather or something...I am having a terrible time in my 55 right now...the fish are starving (not really) due to the major cut back of food. The lights out killed the cyano...now I am in the "white" algae due to carbon dosing...

 

New tank, cooked rock, minimal sand...but I fear that the water still stinks, regardless of Ro/DI.

 

Kris

 

I hear ya. I have been battling a bacteria cyano infection in my tank for months. Finally I bought a awesome new skimmer from Scott ( thanks again Bro ) and vacumed the old sand bed that I have had for ever. Then I did the Boyds Chemiclean, Then added enough pumps in my tank to make piles of sand move from place to place in my tank. I have some hair algae still but the weird brown cyano infection is appearing less and less. I actually picked up this bacteria on a shipment of ebay liverock ( lesson learned...again unfortunatly) 2 years ago. It never really completly goes away I think. I have pictures somewhere of the bubbles that would form and the long stringy algae that would form.

 

You may end up taking out your rock and taking a wire brush to it. I had to do this before I learned that I needed a ro unit for my water. I scrubbed off all the green hair algae with the wire brush then went and bought like 150 blue legg hermits and they finished the job.

 

I would recomend getting some of that liquid sand bed booster from Isaak at seahorse. It is supposed to boost the bacteria in your rock and sand. While you are there take about 4 of 5 cups of sand from his liverock bins to help reseed the sand bed with fresh stuff from the ocean. Make sure your skimmer is cranking out wet skimmate everyday, Do small weekly water changes and change your carbon every 4 - 7 days. Make sure you have strong current everywhere in your tank and dont forget to make sure you have plenty of cheato or Calupera in your refugium. If your RO unit is making good water then this should cover everything I can think of at the time. Did I mention keep the current strong in your tank...very important in my opinion.

 

Good luck with it.

 

Jay

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yup

 

(sad)The algae that is strangling me is hair algae (I also have a huge bloom of macro algae but that is easy enough to remove)

 

I have ro/di...I have pulled rocks and wire brushed...I have a hefty current...skimmer, phosphate reactor, clacium reactor, ozone...all the same things that were there prior to the move (except the purchase of this phosphate reactor that I had no need for before)(sad)

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wierd cyano just reapeard on me like this past week. and i havent had it for like 5 months. all my poaraMETERS ARE GOOD AND RODI AND EVERYTHING. its a scary trend i guess

 

Oh man....you dont want this one. Its ugly and is hard to get rid of big time.

 

Jay

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I think that the chemical clean route is not the way to go. Besides it making your skimmer go crazy for days...it is just a band-aid fix to the real problem.

 

Overfeeding

Waste build up in rocks that powerheads cant reach (or closed loops)

Overstocking

Less then optimum skimmer

Old lighting

Water temp

Nitrates and phosphates that even a huge ball of cheato can't soak up.

 

I am going with my experiment on the "rock towers". This will leave very little places for the "junk" to hide. I will have CRAZY flow and a very minimal sand bed.

 

I will try to not overfeed my fishes...

 

We will see.

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I think that the chemical clean route is not the way to go. Besides it making your skimmer go crazy for days...it is just a band-aid fix to the real problem.

 

Overfeeding

Waste build up in rocks that powerheads cant reach (or closed loops)

Overstocking

Less then optimum skimmer

Old lighting

Water temp

Nitrates and phosphates that even a huge ball of cheato can't soak up.

 

I am going with my experiment on the "rock towers". This will leave very little places for the "junk" to hide. I will have CRAZY flow and a very minimal sand bed.

 

I will try to not overfeed my fishes...

 

We will see.

 

 

I have to disagree, i have had all parmeters in check, in my frag tank which is plumbed in line to my displa, no cyano in display, but cyano in frag tank...explain that one...i think there is alot to cyano the we still don't fully understand. Even with all the "underlying problems" fixed, cyano can still survive and thrive!!! I ended up removing all the live rock from the frag tank, and that seems to have taken care of the problem. Pretty extreme solution though.... Also i have used chemi clean on my seahorse tanks, where overfeeding is a regular thing, and it has completely solved the problem even with the continued overfeeding. I to am not brave enough to try the chemi clean on a reef, but thats just me.

 

 

As far as your HA battle kuda, you may want to go extreme and just remove all of your rock and switch it out!! Thats what i would do seems like its less work in the long run, but you could end up with the same porblem all over again...nusicane algae's can be frustrating.

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Kuda,

 

Has your pH changed at all? IME hair algae seems to like lower pH's. If it were me, and it has been (a few times), I would:

 

Hand pick out all the algae I could. If you can remove the rocks and place them in a bucket to help scrub them without getting stuff all over the rocks great, if now then do it in the tank. Just pull out all the algae you can. It might take a couple hours, but it's worth it.

 

Then do a big water change, using the siphon hose to vacuum the rocks and all the nooks and crannies. Sometimes using a power head to blow stuff off or out is helpful if you don't have really high flow in your tank.

 

Then kill the lights for three days. Keep the skimmer going, it might go a little nutty, and run a UV if you have one. The no light will help to kill some algae and help all that stuff that got away when pruning just die. When the algae dies it will be releasing some of it's nutrients and spores back into the tank, hence the crazy skimmer and the bonus on the UV.

 

Then do another large water change to help remove all the extra nutrients that are still in the system that the algae released. Dot he same vacuuming process again too.

 

That itself won't win the war, but it's a good opening attack. Not sure what fish/ CUC you have. or what's on your wish list, but now is a good time to start adding a herbivorous fish if it's on your list, increasing the algae eating snails, and or hermit or emerald crabs.

 

You can beat it, it just takes time and diligence.

 

On the cyano issue, after I have "fixed the problem" the cyano has never gone away on it's on. The 3 days no light did kill it and have it never return though. It's a pretty resilient bacteria so if there is food for it, it will grow. JMO

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As far as my opinon on the Chemiclean it is my opinion...I understand that others have had good results. I myself have not. I have used it 2 to 3 times and albet my water is sparkling clear for a bit, the cyano has returned. Lets face it, these micro-organisims (algae) have been around for millions of years! They have out survived a lot of thing in their life time. If you look into "red algae blooms" in the actual ocean, you will see that they mostly (I use that term loosely) occur in areas of high polution or waste. They feed on phosphates, nitrites and nitrates and the other garbage chemicals in the ocean and in our tank.

 

I know why my algae blooms...because of my husbandry (but not for lack of trying). I will admit it...I cannot keep constant flow on every rock and on every piece of sand. Polutants build up...even with the skimmer working OT! I also battle the water in my area and the fact that my RO/DI unit cant keep up with that! Perhaps I will move into collecting rain water! I overfeed my fish and have a small tank. I will try to improve upon what I have already improved upon...

 

Perhaps UV Sterilization (zap those oraganisims right out of the water)

REDOX and OZONE

 

Who knows? I do know that I will keep trying. And I will always value the opinions of others trying as well. After all, this is what this site is all about...one person helping another based on their own experiences!

 

Kris

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Yea i have had tanks where the chemiclean did nothing so i feel ya on that one! I was just mainly stating that even with ideal water parameters and ideal flow somehow cyano can still prevail' date=' its beyond me :D[/quote']

 

Absolutely! It is my point exactly! If only I could recreate the ocean 100%(with out the nasties)...but I don't have a big enough house.

 

Kris

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