Algae bloom

[Alexrd09]

I have had an algae bloom that I cant get under control for 6 months now. I have a 47 gallon bow front with a 10 gallon sump. I have chemipure elite, activated carbon, phosban running through a reactor and a small protein skimmer. I have 2 new kessel blues that run for 8 Hours per day and I have 4 small power heads that alternate flow. I have tried water changes, chemiclean and even a 24 hour black out. I also added a small UV sterilizer that made no difference. The black out worked for a few days but the algae came back. Corals and fish seem to be doing fine but I constantly have to be blowing the algae off them. I feed pellets once maybe twice a week (reduced it to limit adding nutrients). I used to feed reef roids weekly but stopped bc of the algae bloom about 2 months ago. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Alexrd09]

The tank has been up and running for about 3 years

[bribo12]

What’s your nitrate and phosphate at? Hard to tell from the pics but could be dinos or cyano, does it go away at night?

[Alexrd09]

No Nitrates and phosphates. Even bought a test to check for silica levels. I use Red sea coral pro salt with RODI water (bulkreef supply). Dont know why I would get diatom bloom like this our of nowhere. I originally thought it was a bad batch of salt.

[bribo12]

Sounds like you bottomed out and got dinos. Do they go away at night?

[Alexrd09]

Yea somewhat. What does bottom out mean

[Alexrd09]

Any recomendations

[bribo12]

They’re both at 0 which is bad. Any chance you have a microscope? Lol. Hard to know if it is 100% dinos without a scope for positive id. Usually with dinos you want to raise nutrients so other algae’s can compete with it and then use blackouts and water changes to control it until it is eradicated. Depending on the type a good uv sterilizer can help too.

[Alexrd09]

Ill test again to see where im at. Should I shut down phosban reactor and protein skimmer for a few days?

[melosu58]

Can we get a regular color picture? Have you tried a different type of food? As for the uv to will need one with a long kill time. Look for this one " Coralife Turbo-Twist UV Sterilizer, 36 Watt. A little pricey but the 19 years I have had it I have not had any parasite or algae issues. Post that picture so we can see better.

[Alexrd09]

Here are some photos with the lights off and the flash from my phone. I shut down skimmer and reactor for a few days and have been trying to syphon off as much as possible. Here are my parameters from today:

PO4: between 0-0.25 ppm (API kit)
NO3: 0 ppm (API)
Salinity 1.026
DkH: 9 (Hanna)

Ill try to get additional photos with normal lighting when the lights come on. Any suggestions? I read the all dino threads I could find and am trying some things to help out.
This is what I have done so far:

1) Weekly 10 gallon water changes (47 gallon bow front with 10 gallon sump): this seems to make the problem worse so im considering stopping.
2) shut down skimmer and reactor
3) added trochus, nassarius, and cerith snails (to restock cleaning crew. I only had a few astrea snails left)
4) added automatic feeder (for consistency)
5) dosing daily BRS A and B (to increase DkH): ordering doser to add more consistency

I did notice my Pod population was non -existant in the tank. Should I add pods and dose live phyto? Im considering a lights out period but am aboiding it bc i recently (2 weeks ago) added and Acan that my wife is in love with.

Here is my normal feeding routing:

1) new life spectum pellets (autofeeder)
2) frozen mysis or brine for target feeding corals once a week
3) reef roids target feeding for corals
4) considering adding live phyto to get pod population up and make corals happy

[bribo12]

Is it in the rocks too or just sand? When I had dinos I had luck dosing Live Phyto, adding pods and dosing nitrate.

[Alexrd09]

Sand and rocks but mostly sand. I am going to add live phyto and pods. What did you use to dose nitrates?

[bribo12]

Any snot bubbles or just that like dark mat?

[Alexrd09]

I saw some snot bubbles but ive been kicking it up everyday and switching out the filter sock so I havent seen any a couple of weeks. Here are the photos with lights on. Attachment 321493Attachment 321494Attachment 321495Attachment 321496

[Alexrd09]

These didnt load in the last postAttachment 321503

[Sniperhank]

This is just cyano. Apply the KIS effect to it. Increase flow to the area, water changes. I'm just coming back from vacation, but without reading a word I see a young tank going through the phases of aging itself. Just go slow. Looks like you are doing just fine.

[Alexrd09]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

This is just cyano. Apply the KIS effect to it. Increase flow to the area, water changes. I'm just coming back from vacation, but without reading a word I see a young tank going through the phases of aging itself. Just go slow. Looks like you are doing just fine.

Pardon my ignorance but what is the KIS effect.

[BigRedsReefs10]

Keep It Simple

[Alexrd09]

Lmao Thank You!! Ill crank the skimmer and reactor back on and continue my water changes weekly. You think it is ok to keep dosing live phyto? I added live pods and want to try to get the population back up to normal. I will also adjust power heads to maximize flow. Thanks for all the advice guys. Ill keep you posted on progress!