Algae Issues

[alyxandria]

Hi all! I just did a huge tank overhaul about four days ago on my 29G reef and replaced the sand and removed a bucket of hair algae and scrubbed down my rock as well as doing about a 50% water change. It was good for the first three days or so but the algae is coming back. I need advice!

This is the tank right after the clean up.



This is the tank currently:



There's bubbles on the rock that come and go.


It's growing on my corals inhibiting their growth.




It's kind of stringy.


So here is what I am doing:

I've mixed fresh salt water to do another water change on the tank tomorrow and am going to do another in another few days. I've also been running my blues for 10 hours and my whites for 8.

I've ordered:
- Reef Octopus Classic 100 Hang-on-the-Back Protein Skimmer
- 2x Jebao WP10 Wave Maker Pumps with Controllers and a TC-4A Twin Dual Controller
- BRS Mini Reactor and GFO and Carbon

I'm hoping these will help keep my tank in better shape but what my real question is - what else should I be doing?

I am at my boyfriends right now but as soon as I get home in about half an hour I will post the water parameters.

Thanks in advance. 😊




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[alyxandria]

Okay here they are:

pH: 7.5-8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <5ppm
Calcium: 425 ppm
Alkalinity: 11.2 dKH
Magnesium: 1360 ppm
Phosphate: 0.04 ppm

Another thought I'm thinking is that because the tank is "kinda" by a window. I have one behind me where I'm sitting right now as well. This is what I mean:



The algae did also start from the left side of my tank. Im going to invest in thicker curtains (my cat has ripped holes through the blinds I currently have anyway and they let in a lot of light)


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[Reefing Madness]

Ok, so heres the deal. My tank get Arizona morning sun, for a few hours in the morning, direct sun, at 100 degrees in the summer. I don't see that stuff.
You have your numbers inline now, but what were they before this big outbreak?
You need to keep the GFO running in there, or get a Lanthanum- liquid phosphate remover, your number is good at the moment. Keep it there.
With the advent of buying a skimmer and running GFO, your all set.
To keep it at bay, run a complete black out for 3 days, this will kill it off again. Get your stuff on there as soon as you get it.
Then, see what happens.

[alyxandria]

Originally Posted by Reefing Madness

Ok, so heres the deal. My tank get Arizona morning sun, for a few hours in the morning, direct sun, at 100 degrees in the summer. I don't see that stuff.
You have your numbers inline now, but what were they before this big outbreak?
You need to keep the GFO running in there, or get a Lanthanum- liquid phosphate remover, your number is good at the moment. Keep it there.
With the advent of buying a skimmer and running GFO, your all set.
To keep it at bay, run a complete black out for 3 days, this will kill it off again. Get your stuff on there as soon as you get it.
Then, see what happens.

Good point. They were probably pretty out of whack beforehand. I'm afraid to do a blackout right now because some of the corals are still recovering from the algae attack and I feel like if I did that I might just lose them completely. I do have a blanket around my tank right now to only keep in the light coming from my LEDs. I'll stick with shorter lighting periods until my stuff comes in. The skimmer should arrive tomorrow and the powerheads and gfo a few days later. Hopefully it helps.

Though I also have no idea how to set up the skimmer so it's off to YouTube I go lol.


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[Reefing Madness]

Yea, you should be able to YouTube your Skimmer, and have a bunch of vids pop up. Give a shout if you can't figure out something. Im sure theres a bunch that will be able to help out. Skimmers are pretty easy to set up.
You could give your corals time to recover some, then black out the tank, your choice. Or wait and see what happens with the skimmer and GFO on the system. That will really help, that much I can tell you.
You can be able to beef up your CUC, ones that would eat the HA, Turbo Snails, Banded Trochus, Astraea Snails, Margarita Snails.
I don't advise hermits, because they are scavengers, and when they are hungry they are apt to eat anything in the tank, including your corals.

[alyxandria]

Any ideas as to what kind of algae looks like? I'm kind of concerned it may be something that I'm going to have a hard time getting rid of.


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[Reefing Madness]

Welp, the color is off, so hard to tell. Stuff in the sand bed, if its red, its cyano.
The other stuff, kinda looks as if you have DINOS going on.

[alyxandria]

Nothing red, no cyano. That's just the lights making it look red.

I know that I had crazy hair algae going on for a while.

The bubbles and stringyness just kinda got me worried about Dino's.

Just want to get a positive ID so I can find out how to get rid of them..


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[alyxandria]

Here are some more pictures:









Will all that equipment help fight this algae if it is Dino's? What else should I be doing to get rid of Dino's?


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[Reefing Madness]

No, the new equipment will not help fight Dinos. Kind sucks you went from killing off Hair Algae to fighting a bad case of Dinos now.
How I beat dinoflagellates, and the lessons I learned — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
Problem Dinoflagellates and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

[Sniperhank]

It could be dinos. No reason why you couldn't treat like it is them.

[alyxandria]

Its being suggested to me to do a tank blackout for 3 or 4 days to kill the algae/dino's. Would this work? I am concerned with my corals dying if I do that though as they are still recovering from the hair algae attack and have not fully opened back up yet. They are starting to look better though. Today when I looked it looks the same but there are no bubbles in the algae. Is that a thing for Dino's? I seem to notice them after the lights have been running a while. I'm headed to go get the equipment right now. Almost feel like buying completely new rock at this point though I know that probably won't help.


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[alyxandria]

Okay I read that and I am going to print those pages out and work on doing those things. I'm nervous about toying with ph though. Is that something that is necessary? What would changing the ph affect in terms of fish/corals? I can do it but I don't have a super accurate test kit for ph.


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[Sniperhank]

Try the blackout and reducing the nutrients in the water column and see where it goes from there. New rock won't solve the issue at hand.

[mr_X]

I agree with all the previous posts. It could very well be dinoflagellates, and if so you would treat it like any other nuisance algae. From Wikipedia-
Food inclusions contain bacteria, bluegreen algae, small dinoflagellates, diatoms, ciliates and other dinoflagellates
I would wave my hand in the tank uprooting it from whatever it's on, vacuum out whatever you can, and do water changes. I wouldn't be too concerned about this, more than you should be concerned about something like bryopsis. Actually, I'd rather have this than hair algae because hair algae doesn't want to let you vacuum it off.

I have had something like this before and it took about 6 months before it disappeared, using the above method of removal.

[alyxandria]

I think I killed it!! I blacked the tank out from Thursday to Sunday night and the algae is all grey looking and it seems to be dead. I'm going to take a new toothbrush to the rocks tomorrow in a fresh few gallon bucket of saltwater and then maybe in another bucket of fresh to be thorough. I waved most of it off with my hand but some are still on the rocks. The skimmer and reactor are working awesome also.



Fingers crossed this takes care of it!!


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[Sniperhank]

How are the parameters?

[alyxandria]

Will check in the morning and post!!


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[Reefer James]

Are you running both pumps at same time. You should be if not. Don't switch off between them.

Get some hermits and emeralds. An Urchin would be sweet. Increase flow more..

Also don't clean the sand or rock like that. Use a gravel vacuum and slowly siphon it clean... Use a turkey blower to clean between the rock in the water. It;s also good to just keep high flow so the rocks stay cleaner.

Too bad you can't fit a tang

[alyxandria]

Originally Posted by Reefer James

Are you running both pumps at same time. You should be if not. Don't switch off between them.



Get some hermits and emeralds. An Urchin would be sweet. Increase flow more..



Also don't clean the sand or rock like that. Use a gravel vacuum and slowly siphon it clean... Use a turkey blower to clean between the rock in the water. It;s also good to just keep high flow so the rocks stay cleaner.



Too bad you can't fit a tang

Yep! I am. I have hermits as well. Personally don't like urchins but to each their own I think. I have an eheim gravel vac that I use as well as multiple other siphon vacuums. The power heads I bought increase the flow and I have them on a high enough setting to keep things moving but not have a hurricane in there. I think we will have a tang in our 75G eventually!

I like the idea of the turkey baster.

*Will check parameters after work.