Came home to this....

[Ftfunnative]

Had a death in the family and had to leave really fast. Left the mother-n-law in charge and I came home to a huge algae bloom. Water leave was low and my salinity was at .026, wikes.
Did a water change and replaced the filter pad, added some chemipure, and scrubbed a couple of rocks. Levels were all normal, except for my phosphates, 5. Which makes sense.
Jbj 28 quad Is the tank.



























Pretty new at this and any help would be awesome.

 

[Kio707]

1.026 salinity is ok. That's what pure salt water is. Rest looks like hair algae. Good cuc and pwc will clear it up.

 

[Craigj247]

Yikes that's a lot of algae... Just keep up with the regular water changes... Use RO/DI water and check your nitrates and phosphates regularly. You can also try running your lighting for a lower period of time as well as less feeding. Other than that it is pretty much patients .

 

[melosu58]

Also try to siphon up that stuff when you do your PWC`s. Manually remove as much as possible.

 

[Ftfunnative]

So I got The phosphates down to .25. Still doing water changes. Tank still looks horrible.

Do you think my corals are going to make it?

 

[Kio707]

So I got The phosphates down to .25. Still doing water changes. Tank still looks horrible.

Do you think my corals are going to make it?

They should...

 

[Craigj247]

The corals should be good provided that you can keep bringing those levels back to normal... The algae will take time to die off though... You could try installing a uv just for the moment...

 

[Bettafanatic]

Wow! That's a lot of algae. You could try getting some snails to eat away at the algae but then again, I'm new to saltwater so my advice is probably pretty poor.

 

[Kio707]

Wow! That's a lot of algae. You could try getting some snails to eat away at the algae but then again, I'm new to saltwater so my advice is probably pretty poor.

Actually, some good advice.

 

[Bettafanatic]

Actually, some good advice.

Wow, really? That's quite a shock to me actually

If it's hair algae, I'd go with some turbo snails. I hear they are good for hair algae, and I have a couple myself, but then again, I am a beginner so if I'm wrong, do correct me

There are plenty of snails that are good for clearing up algae. I think there might be some crabs and shrimp too, but I'm not as educated in those areas.

 

[Kio707]

Turbo snails, emerald crabs.

 

[Bettafanatic]

Turbo snails, emerald crabs.

A+ to this

 

[Ftfunnative]

So the tank is starting to clear up at night, but as the day goes on the algae comes back up. So I have turned my lights down to see if that will help.

Got my phosphates down to zero finally!!

CUC is working over time and some of my corals have started to open up again. They still are not happy, but at least I know the are still alive.

Doing 5 gallon water changes ever day and plan on doing 10 on Thursday. Going back out of town and will be back on Sunday. Not going to have the mother-n- law watch the tank this time! Hahaha

Hopefully I come back to a clean and happy tank! I'll post pics when I get back.

Thanks for all the help. Any other suggestions?

 

[AquaRick]

Now that your phosphates are under control, what are your nitrates looking like?

You can always do one huge water change before you leave. 50-60%. It won't hurt your corals/fish etc.

 

[Elitehunter1]

That would be cyano buddy. Chemiclean is amazing at dealing with that stuff. It will clear it up in 2 days. Do you have weak water movement there?

 

[Ftfunnative]

Trats are 0.

I added an extra head two months ago, so I feel like I have good water movement. I guess I can move it around a bit and see if that will help.

Ill look for chemicmean. Is that the same as chemipure?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Elitehunter1]

I'm not sure if it is, I know there are a few options. I had a tank I was using to grow Live rock , I had only water movement from the filter . It got it bad, like 70% of the tank bad. I used that stuff as directed and it was money. 48 hours and it was gone. Obviously I elected to get some better water movement, that's of coarse not the only issue but it counted

 

[Ftfunnative]

So I got home last night and the tank looks great! All of the algae is gone except for a couple of red slime spots and it is on its last leg. I do have a little algae growing on two rocks that looks different than what I had before. Not sure what it is, but hopeful it will soon die as well.

So I did 5gal water changes everyday for five days, added a phos controller to the water and that as it. Well ok, maybe a little praying that it would clear up too.

All the corals have opens back u except for one, a green finger mushroom. Seeing how they are really hardy, I'm not too worried about him.

I'll post pics tonight when the lights are on.

Thanks for all the advice! Ohhhh, i did order some chemiclean that should be here tomorrow. Looks like I won't need it, but will have it on hand if this ever happens again.