What Can I Do About this Algae?

[nemonlizzy]

So I've posted about this algae in the ID forum and have not gotten, really, any help. I figured maybe posting it here, as I am new to this life, I might receive some more information.

 

I have been fighting it for months, it's killed some of my snails (I think, or I have really lazy, stupid snails) but it doesn't look AT ALL like dinoflagellates.

It has taken over the entire tank, I have starved the tank for a week at a time or more, and I have covered the tank (total black out) for 3 days. The stuff still lives. I really don't know what to do at this point other than trash the tank. Someone has mentioned diatoms but it doesn't grow on my sand, ONLY on the rock facing the light. There are small brown spots all over the rock and on top of these brown splotches are very clear fuzzies. Not even my emerald crabs can pick the brown splotches off the rock.

[jestep]

You might try taking out most of the water and directly spraying the algae on the rock with peroxide and re-fill after 5 minutes with the water you removed. It's pretty good at taking out most algaes.

[Gilligan]

A black out for 3 days may not be enough.

 

I will say that the black-out technique does work, at least for me. It wasn't an algae problem I had, but I did have lights out over my live rock for 7 or 8 days, (Key Largo dryrock), and it is blast white again. The tank has been online for a few weeks again now with no occupants, I have not even had to clean the glass, so I can attest to nutrient retention in the system feeds the algae.

 

How old is the tank?

 

I would not rely on a cleanup crew to rid you of an algae problem, it seems to be hit or miss, mostly miss on a immature tank. It seems to be adding bio-load to a bio-load problem. In a mature tank?, sure I could see a couple snails puttering away, helping to maintain things visually.

 

I have something similar on two frag discs, seems to be tough stuff.

It seems to stay on those two particular plugs, which makes me think they may be leaching something.

 

What kind of rock is it? Looks like dry base rock?

 

What are you using for water?

 

How often are your water changes? How much?

 

Are you using moonlights? (On my FW tank, I have to consider little blue moonlights as part of my total daily time, or at least keep it to a minimum.

 

I don't think you should bin the tank just yet, unless you want to use the opportunity to change something.

[nemonlizzy]

How will 2(HO) affect my corals or livestock? No problem with taking all that out btw, just curious if I can leave it in.

 

The next thing is going to be relocating the stock and a full week or more black out.

 

The tank is probably 6 months old.

 

The whole tank is filled with dry rock I wanted to culture into nice, coraline filled LR. This stuff choked the WHOLE tank of all the coraline.

 

Water was RODI from LFS, but now its RODI from my filter with Reef Crystals.

 

Water changes happen every week or more often than that ever since it's been running, each time is either 33% or 16%

 

No moonlights, used to have a 130 Watt PC 50/50 on there for a while, now I have my own programmed LED lighting system hanging.

 

The opportunity to change something would be getting rid of that hideous rock and starting over with something that looks halfway decent. There's a ton of people around my area always getting rid of there systems for DIRT cheap and their rock is usually pretty nice. Have to do a good scan over it to check it for algae, but I might ditch this rock and get all new. This is my Last Ditch Effort.

[Gilligan]

Grab a 40 litre / 10 gallon semi- transparent rubbermaid tote (22"x16"x9") or similar, makes a good temporary home for frags and even a few fish etc.

 

You have to be somewhat careful with the H2O2, there are others with more experience with this that may want to chime in, but it is handy stuff.

 

The only time I ever tried it, was on one of those frag disc I mentioned above that has similar algae to your tank. I did a mild mixture and dipped the button polyps. It cleaned up pretty much everything except the dark brown/black deposits. It's still there though lol.

 

Anyhow the little zoas didn't seem to mind and perked up a few hours later. Perhaps I will try it a little longer next time.

Also I noticed the bottle of H2O2 had expired in 2008, so that may have had something to do with it.

[jestep]

How will 2(HO) affect my corals or livestock? No problem with taking all that out btw, just curious if I can leave it in.

 

Most corals are fine with short dipping or exposure the exception being some types soft coral, usually leathers, mushrooms, and tree type corals. Some sensitive SPS don't fair well either. If you don't have to, I would avoid spraying the coral directly.

 

The drain the tank method is easiest for an established tank because you can leave enough water in for fish and shrimp and directly spray the rock without hitting sensitive coral. Once the tank is filled back up, the amount of peroxide used won't damage anything in the tank itself.

 

If you have the ability to remove the rock and the coral on the rock are ok to dip, you can do a 50/50 peroxide / saltwater dip for about 5 minutes. Rinse and put it back into the tank.

 

Either way may take a few attempts to get it all. I have yet to find an "algae" that isn't affected by peroxide. Dyno and some other stuff may not be the same though.

 

Different nightmarish algae but there's a ton of discussion on H2O2 treatment methods here: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/268706-peroxide-saves-my-tank-with-pics-to-prove-it/

[kush.]

what are your parameters like?

[Tamberav]

I would try h2o2 like others suggested. If you did end up starting over with new rock then I would clean the entire tank thoroughly with vinegar and all the equipment/sump and do 100% new water and 100% new sand because I would be worried this stuff would still exist in the tank otherwise and take over your new rock.

[gulfsurfer101]

Or if you can remove all the rock from your tank, I'd try scrubbing it with a wire brush in saltwater with heavy a concentration of h202. I've done this to kill caulerpa and gha along with some weird brown s*** that I thought was diagnosed that kept coming back after my ex killed my tank by pouring bleach down my 150g over a year ago. The rock leaches po and grew really long brown hair looking algae for months till i finally got tired of the battle and did this to all of it. It is now nice and purple and pest free in my 75g.

[Tamberav]

Or if you can remove all the rock from your tank, I'd try scrubbing it with a wire brush in saltwater with heavy a concentration of h202. I've done this to kill caulerpa and gha along with some weird brown s*** that I thought was diagnosed that kept coming back after my ex killed my tank by pouring bleach down my 150g over a year ago. The rock leaches po and grew really long brown hair looking algae for months till i finally got tired of the battle and did this to all of it. It is now nice and purple and pest free in my 75g.

 

God dammit.. why are bitches so crazy. I hate hearing when people do this kind of crap

[blacksand_reefer]

i just locked up the bleach in our house.

[Gilligan]

i just locked up the bleach in our house.

 

....that sounds rational.

[nemonlizzy]

Haven't checked my parameters in over 3 weeks, got tired of wasting the testing kits as they kept turning up 0 for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The others;

pH 8.2

Alk 8-10 depending on time since last water change

Calc 400-420 depending on time since last water change

Mag 1250

 

I'll try pulling all the rocks out and letting them sit in saltwater with heavy 2(HO) and see how it does for 10 minutes or so.

 

Won't 2(HO) kill all the bacteria in the rock thus making my tank cycle over again?

 

None of the algae is on ANY of the sand, glass, or coral as far as I can tell. It does like the acrylic overflow and the plastic on the powerheads... curious little $#!^s.

 

Anyone identify this stuff?

[jestep]

Do you have the ability to have someone test PO4 and NO3 using very good test kits if you aren't using really good ones? Hanna is great for PO4 and salifert or red sea for NO3.

 

Resembles dyno or a strange form of cyano to me but really no certainty for me.

[gulfsurfer101]

God dammit.. why are bitches so crazy. I hate hearing when people do this kind of crap

Because when things have gone too far and nothing helps, this is a last resort before chunking out all your rock and buying more to start over with. In my case I was replacing nearly 100 pounds and buying it over was not in the cards. I did this and the nuisance algae disappeared for good and now it is bright purple less than a year later. If it didn't work I wouldn't tell somebody wise to do it. We all have different methods that all work.

[nemonlizzy]

Someone on another board mentioned 2 drops of lugols in the 29 I guess once or twice a week. What is the gen consensus on this?

 

Next step is taking all coral out and turning all rocks over and leaving coral out to see what happens. I just acquired a 40 breeder and I'm going to set this up as my temp tank for stuff like this.

[nicholc2]

I still contend it's Lobophora. I have the exact same stuff. Once it grows larger you'll realize I'm right.

[jtwisconsin]

I can tell you that an H202 dip did wonders for the algea problems in my Spec V. I pulled the rocks and did a 5 minute dip in a 50/50 mixture of H202 and saltwater. Did a quick rinse in RODI water afterwards and then back in the tank.

 

The results were amazing, and the zoas I was ready to throw away are starting to come around and open again 1 week later. They literally had been covered in algae and closed for almost 2 months and I was sure they were not going to recover.

 

If I had the same problems that your pics show, that would be the first thing I would try.

[ninjamyst]

+1 to H202. I have dipped my zoas in 50/50 mixture numerous times and they are fine. I atually just finished scrubbing the top of rock in the tank to get rid of lots of hair algae. I wouldn't dose the tank though

[nemonlizzy]

So I have some pretty large rocks, not too large that they wouldn't fit into a 5 gallon bucket, but do you suggest a dip that large? Good thing 2(HO) is pretty darn cheap at the dollar store. 50/50 would put me at about 2 gallons of 2(HO) Is it safe to leave my acropora and other types of sps, lps, and softies on the rock? I have spent FOREVER acclimating these little guys... Would hate to destroy them. 5 minute dip then rinse with RODI?

[Gilligan]

Try your mix in a spray bottle rather then a dip, you will use less peroxide this way, although a good dip could potentially be more thorough.

[ninjamyst]

5 min is a bit long IMO. I usually do less than one min. There's a LONG and detailed thread on H202 doing on this forum. Try searching for it. Firs time, I recommend a 30 H202 / 70 water mixture. And you can just use a new toothbrush and dip it in the mixture and scrub the rock so you dont have to dip it. I would avoid getting H202 on sensitive corals. I dipped a sunset monti in H202 and it bleached the crap out of it.

[nemonlizzy]

Still waiting for time to do this whole remodel of the aquarium. I think it's going to be a dip, and a rotation of the rock at the same time. Then take all the fish out and starve the living crap out of the tank as much as I can. We'll see how this goes. Anyone see an issue with taking the CUC out of a tank like this for the time being, just to ensure no more deaths of CUC members to continue feeding the algae?

[nemonlizzy]

Did the remodel, I've successfully almost killed my entire red montipora and almost killed my green candy coral in the event. Ended up using 1:2 ratio of 2(HO) and saltwater. It still did major damage on ALL corals. OH and the algae is still there and growing. The only algae gone is what I scrapped off with a wire paint brush.

[Gilligan]

That is unfortunate.

 

What technique did you end up using to apply it? Dip or topical brushing?