Green Dust Algae

[ReefDoctor]

I'm having problems with green dust algae all of a sudden. I left for 3 days over the Thanksgiving weekend and I came home to a bright green tank. The algae itself is dust-like and comes off easily with a mag float. It just comes back after 30 min, like it floats around in the water and re-settles.

 

My lights are on with sunrise/sunset and I run a moonlight from sunset to 10pm so I can see my tank as I'm not home during the day. Is this too long? I was thinking of adding Phosban to my my filtration as I have no way to measure phosphates. I feed half a flake to my fish daily. I don't think its too much.

 

I use 0 TDS RO/DI water from home. My ammonia-nitrites read 0 and my nitrates read <5 on the API test kit. I'm stocked with one blue hermit, two astrea snails, a stomatella snail or two as hitch hikers and I have a leather coral and a euphyllia branched hammer.

 

I've been reading, and some people suggest this is a green dust algae in zoospore form and that I should just let it grow out for 21 days to make it complete its "cycle". Other people have referred to this as "green diatoms" eating my silicates from my sand and others say its part of the normal "uglies" a tank has to go through.

 

Any ideas?

 

I was going to pick up some more snails this weekend...

 

 

Display: Fluval Edge II 12 gallon tank

Return pump: Eheim AEH1001310 Compact Water Pump 600 for Aquarium

 

Skimmer: Mame-design Skimmer III powered by Tetra Whisper 10 air pump

 

Heat: Eheim Jager Aquarium Thermostat Heater 50W

Light: 48 leds (24 chips 10000-14000K + 24 chips 455-465nm included with Marine Pac III

[brandon429]

on a tank that small you would opt for repeated 80% water changes, its worth the work. trying to cure it in-state is a chemical hassle, its an unusual state for your tank. corals are used to good nutrients, about to remove that with the phosphate scrubbing

 

 

phos scrubbing as a preventative measure in a non algae loaded tank is good measure, making up for algae w it isnt, risky, threads show you can overstrip your coral and still have the algae.

 

not downing phosphate management its great, but never reactive.

 

reactively you want to go with mass export by hand and by elbow grease for sure, then test for po4 and scrub accordingly.

 

lucky to have a small tank, literally change water over and over until its super clean. Ive seen people hold their fish in a bucket, scrub the nano down good with several huge water changes (doesnt hurt coral, I have vids showing it) and then refill/acclimate fish etc.

 

any time something abnormal happens in a nano, the majority of the threads we get for assistance are not after someone took decisive action, its after much hesitation and 'all natural' methods first

 

its not that it cant go away naturally, it did for those giving that advice. its that it might not, and coming from this forum you can see what indecisiveness looks like

[ReefDoctor]

I'm not sure I follow. I understand the point of doing large water changes, especially if there some sort of chemical imbalance, however, I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to remove? Excess phosphates in the water column? Surely changing water won't get rid of algae spores as they're on the rock and the glass. Wouldn't it just become the same in the next two weeks?

 

I'm just trying to understand the logic behind this decision instead of acting rashly.

 

Thanks

[brandon429]

No its good to brainstorm first I agree.

 

Since your tank went weeks w no probs what changed in three days while gone? Post full tank shot pics and we can point where phosphates are being sinked

 

 

No tank is free of algae spores or fragments, yet biomass control works to keep them in check when something allows them to bloom Ive yet to see that action not be indicated. Let's see tank pics to prepare a plan.

[ReefDoctor]

Here is nothing "new" really. Last tank addition was three weeks ago with two corals and two snails. My water was slightly cloudy so I added some Purigen two weeks ago. I'm wondering if that sucked all my nitrates which caused a surplus of phosphate and hence the algae. I have some phosban so I was thinking of adding that but I'm afraid I'll screw it up even more by playing with levels of things. I'm not at home so I can post tank pics later this evening.

[ReefDoctor]

Here is a picture of the tank. I put some Seagel into the back to see if my phosphates could be the problem. I can't measure them, but since I need them to be as low as possible, it should help.

 

Also, my TDS reads 0-1 on my RO/DI water. Does that mean I am NOT adding silicates?

 

*EDIT* I also did a 50% water change two nights ago...

[brandon429]

I don't see manifestation of silicates looks like your sourcewater is rather clean, if the test is accurate.


The option exists to either deal with the haze through phosphate stripping and time, or to simply change out 100% of the water and use phosphate stripping as preventative only, never a remover of algae. a low micron pass polishing filter for a fw tank would prob remove the suspended matter.

. You can hold the fish and coral in a bucket, rinse out all the sand to make sure no detritus and refill with perfectly clean water then put the coral back in no acclimation, just match temp and sg to the holding water. This green haze is pre eutrophication for your tank. Powerful biomass removal is the right step because it sets the stage for deliberate action. Leaving algae in the tank, and treating indirectly through nutrient controls is exactly why the peroxide thread is fifty pages and not three.

Reacclimate the fish. That will fix your issue. With no ideas about lighting, temp or nutrient spikes while you were out we can't say how it happened, only again the pic supports total biomass removal and unsinking that sandbed back to new. Some poop is in it, because there are two fish and some coral and some food added to the tank.

Others would recommend to take a different course, if that method has been used to correct a hundred tanks with before and after pics I say take it

[Littleworld]

Hey - how do you go? I'm having the same problem, stuck for a fix. Have been running a mini-Oxydator, tried a few large water changes and manual removal, now thinking about carbon dosing too... Any insight would be helpful! Have googled the **it out of it.