Ugh! Algae outbreak!

[Codyheitmiller]

So lately I've been getting algae outbreaks. All over my LR and LS and glass. It's brown and the green thats hard to scrub off. Any idea? Nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, ammonia are all at 0.0 and my lights are on for 6 hours a day. I have 75lbs of both live rock and live sand. I have a sump/fuge of 20g. Tank has been up for four years. I do a 10-15% water change every week, and I have lots of cheato. Also I have recently added 1 BTA, 1 green star polyp, 6 hermit crabs, 3 emerald crabs, 1 cleaner wrasse, and one yellow tang. Could I have added to much at once? My bulbs are only a month old, my ph is 8.4 and salinity is 1.024-25, my temp of water is 78. I had to clean my glass 5 times today. Ugh is it normal to have this many problems on such an established tank????? It's so annoying.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Also I put a fan over my tank to help the temp because it was getting to hot

 

[mr_X]

those inverts didn't make a difference. you just changed the lamps out? maybe the new lamps brought on the bloom.
algae needs light and nutrients to thrive. with zero nitrates and zero phosphates, i can't imagine having a bloom like you describe. i think it's possible to get false zero readings when you have a large amount of algae in the tank.

and yes, tank husbandry is an ongoing thing. no matter how long the tank has been running, a closed system can go bad pretty quickly left unattended.

 

[hackteck]

do you have a tds meter to test your source water?

 

[Codyheitmiller]

I'm using a phosban reactor too. The lights are a month old and are on for 6 hours a day. I'm testing my water with reef master test kits and quick dip tester the picture shows how bad it is

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Just cleaned the back glass. Tang and flame are going crazy and eating all the free floating algae

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Found out my emerald crab as died and was torn apart. Could this have caused it?

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Just cleaned all the glass! It better not all grow back in a day!

 

[Fishtank freak]

Looks like you need to try to turn the lights completely off for three days. That's what I did on my tank and it worked great

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Can't. I have a Ritteri anemone and 6 hours of light is pushing it

 

[mr_X]

turning the lights off won't remove the nutrient issue. what are your feeding habits like? how much and how often? how about nutrient export? water changes?
the crab shell was probably a molt. you'll see him again i bet.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

I have alot of cheato that takes care of the nutrients. I feed my fish 3 times a day. Mostly my cleaner wrasse and it's all frome one cube of misuse shrimp or however you spell it. The leftovers is what my crabs eat and if there is to much left over I take it out with a net.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

I do 10-15% every week

 

[David S]

Your feeding to much,once a day is more than enough,once every 2 days would suffice.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

My cleaner wrasse needs to eat 3 times a day

 

[mr_X]

I have alot of cheato that takes care of the nutrients. I feed my fish 3 times a day. Mostly my cleaner wrasse and it's all frome one cube of misuse shrimp or however you spell it. The leftovers is what my crabs eat and if there is to much left over I take it out with a net.

if the macroalgae took care of the nutrients, you wouldn't have an algae issue.
just because food is eaten, doesn't mean it's gone. it's just changed. DOC, stand for dissolved organic compounds. these things are not seen so easily, like a piece of uneaten food, but definitely contribute to the nutrient level, just like a piece of uneaten food is.
everything you add to the tank must be removed. visible, or invisible, it doesn't matter.

your cleaner wrasse will not die if he doesn't eat 3 times a day.

 

[Codyheitmiller]

Turns out it was a medication that I have been using