Outrageous Macroalgae Problem

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Devilishturtles

Devilishturtles

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jul 9, 2003
Messages
8,543
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Hey guys, I'm having a huge, huge, huge bryopsis outbreak in my tank. Just goes to show you what can show up micrscopically on dryed out liverock. When I upgraded to my 45 gallon, I bought 30 more pounds of liverock from liveaquaria...I was pretty dissapointed that the rock was pretty much dry. A few MONTHS after I have it in my tank, I get an outbreak of, at first, slow growing macro, then it exploded. It's growing inbetwen my sps corals, on my equipment....everywhere.

I've been trying to combat it with wetter skimming, more frequent water changes, phosban and carbon. Going to order a canister and lots of purigen soon as I can afford it. But nothing stops this stuff. It's getting very, very annoying.

I've read about increasing Magnesium levels...is there any truth behind that?

Water parameters are pretty much excellent.
0 NH3
0 NO2
<5 NO3
8.3 pH
470 Ca
~ 14 dKh
0 PO4

So here is my question(s). Will taking it out and scrubbing the rock get rid of the macro? Will it kill the goodies on my liverock? I don't want to cause another cycle by scrubbing off too much stuff. I want to aquascape anyways, so it's a good excuse, but I'm worried. I want to kill the algae without killing my fish and corals. Just looking for some reassurance or ideas.

Thanks for the help. :)
 
You can try to scrape it off in another bucket just rinse it well. I would probably use PWC water. I have read some urchins will eat it. You could also add a UV to help keep the water clean. But watch out for pencils, tuxedos and even pincushions. About the only option left is the long spined, since they don't wedge (pencil) or carry things around (pincushion, tuxedo). I have seen both my pencil and pincushion mow down hair algae. I think there are some snails that might eat it too. Of course, you know the natural way is really the best way to go. Less light, food, PWCs and such.....
 
I dont see anything wrong with scrubbing it Lindsay. If you scrub it in SW then you should not have any die off. That would be my suggestion.
 
The only thing I can think of when scrubbing doesnt work is to cook the rock and let it die off.. It is easy to do but takes a few weeks to do
 
A UV will only kill free floating algae so IMO it will do nothing for HA.. I know a few guys in the my reef club had it bad and they tried just about everything you mentioned and had no luck. One guy used AZNO3 and it killed it dead.. The other tossed the LR and get new rock and has not had it come back.
We talked about it and we figured that the LR releases stored up nutrients to fuel the HA and doing water changes does nothing because its coming from the LR. Again its just out take on things.
Good luck with the long battle..
 
Manual removal will be your best bet. It is a PITB but will give you the fastest results. Time it around water change time and sue the water taken from the tank to scrub the LR in.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, I'll get a pic tommorow to show you just how bad it is.

Scott, I've got urchins, snails, hermit crabs, conchs, etc. NOTHING touches this stuff. Argh. Thanks for the suggestions though. My urchin only likes eating my coraline and nothing else. :(

mad, thanks. Thought about a UV unit, but they sound like more work than I want. I'll have to think about it more.

Mike, Sadie, Lando, thanks. I figured scrubbing would be my best bet, but I didn't want to scrub TOO much. The rock is fairly covered in this crap. Rinsing in PWC water sounds like a great idea, now I just gotta get another rubbermaid for LR scrubbing. hehe.

seaham, what is AZNO3? Thanks for the thoughts. This liverock is new, so I don't think it is the problem, however I could be wrong. The majority of this rock though I've had for a few years, but I've never had a macro outbreak this bad before. It's not Hair Algae, much much worse, hehe.

Thanks again everyone... I'll try scrubbing and see if that helps at all.
 
Just do a quick google for it and tons of info pops up..

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_additives_azno3.asp?CartId=

the Algae is getting food somewhere, either your water or the LR cut the food and the algae will die hopefully.

Try scrubbing and see if that helps, if not you can nuke the stuff. I'm not one to just add stuff to a tank, but when you try everything else chemicals can help.

The rock is new to you, not the world, so who know what type of environment it was in before??
 
seaham358 said:
A UV will only kill free floating algae so IMO it will do nothing for HA.
Click to expand...
I totally agree that it will kill ONLY (not yelling) the free floating spores, I should have mentioned that, so thanks for bringing that up.
Lindsay, keep us updated.
 
Thanks.

I can easily google lots of things, but since you had knowledge about the stuff, I thought I'd ask you. :)

You're right about the liverock, it's not new to the world and I have no clue as to it's conditions before I got it. But I scrubbed and rinsed, scrubbed and rinsed, then scrubbed and rinsed some more. Obviously it wasn't enough to get rid of the macro, but hopefully it was enough to get rid of any junk in the rock.

Scott, I'll keep updated. :)

Thanks guys.
 
FUBAR, thanks. Can't use that link because I'm not a member of reeffrontiers. After a major overhaul of the algae, cleaning of all the equipment in the tank, etc. seems to be getting the algae under control.

I think a major part of my problem was lack of maintence on my filtration. My skimmer was badly clogged with gunk, the powerheads flow wasn't as bad but was still impeded. Now the skimmer is pulling out so much more skimmate and the algae growth is dying down. Still growing, but not exploding. I think a few more vigilant cleanings and big water changes, with some new phosban, purigen, carbon, etc. and I might get the prolem under control.

Thanks again everyone for all the help.
 
Phyl, I only read the first page so far and looks good! I'll check the rest of it out tommorow. Too much jargon, too late at night. haha.

So far, it seems to be a bit under control...for now.
 
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