Need Algae help- losing battle

[Draco]

So, something happened to my 28 gal nano cube few months ago.. most my corals closed/melted/died off. Everything was beautiful then! It's been running for 2 years (a year in a 9 gal nano before I upgraded) Here's the story:

A few weeks ago, my serpent sea star died. My clown pair, 6-line, rock boring urchin all are doing well.

I've continued my 5 gal weekly water change added phosguard and purigen to the filter chambers in the back. I have chaetos in place of filter media in the filter compartment in the back which works great for over a year.

My nitrite (or was it nitrate?) was slightly elevated a few months back when it all started. All tests are normal now. I can get you the measurments tonight when I get home from work, but everything was good (ammonia, ph, nitrate, nitrite, calcium was excellent.. and forget the others)

In the past few days, I've noticed some of my corals are slowly coming back- especially my galaxia. My Duncan is growing an extra head. Some Zoas looks like they're trying, but the algae is fighting them. Something is going right in my tank.

However.. the algae! It's taken over and my tank looks severely neglected. It's brown with bubbles inside them- not sure which one it is. I can take a pic tonight.
Also got some sponge-like algae growing on my powerhead (it's only on my powerhead). For a while diatoms formed on my sand- thought my tank restarted its cycle for some unknown reason (nothing has been added for over 6 months)

I've turned my lights off for 2 days.. helped a little but still there. left it on for a few days and turned it off again last night.
I've ordered lots of snails and crabs from ReefCleaners- including an Emerald Crab a few weeks ago. they're not making a dent.

I've done 5 gal WC twice a week for the past 2 weeks (4 WC's in 2 weeks).. nothing so far.

Any suggestions on how I can clean the algae fast? It's getting messy with me plucking them by hand and I don't think it's working either.

[Pjanssen]

can't tell without pics. brown with bubbles sounds like dinoflagellates. difficult to get rid of, but not impossible. There are a lot of threads on the matter on this forum and many other reef forums,

[Draco]

can't tell without pics. brown with bubbles sounds like dinoflagellates. difficult to get rid of, but not impossible. There are a lot of threads on the matter on this forum and many other reef forums,

 

 

it's not dinoflagellates, judging by photos I see. I will have to take a pic tonight

[Draco]

here's some images.

Water is a bit murky because I had to scrape the glass to get better photos. Hope it's clear enough for you to see




and the spongy like algae on the powerhead:

[dandelion]

Take out the rock and do some manual removal. Maybe spot treat with peroxide as well? Make sure you rinse it well before putting it back. I would dose some prime in the tank after peroxide too. Prime being a reducing agent should theoretically neutralize any peroxide left (oxidizing agent).

[Benny314]

Something is causing high nitrate or phosphate in the system, the algae is then consuming it and masking the high levels from your test kits.

You need to find out what's causing it and stop it to starve the algae out.

Do you do anything to maintain your sand bed/rocks. Uneaten food and waste can settle on and under the rocks if you don't blow them off regularly with a turkey baster and the algae will then take hold. Once you have lots of algae like that it traps more waste and prevents it being filtered out adding to the problems.
Manually scrub the rocks to get rid of the bulk, do a large water change straight afterwards and then continue regular water changes every few days as well as maybe reducing feeding.

[Clown79]

That doesn't look like dino's and it doesn't look like diatoms although some of the brown on the green algae looks like diatoms dusting it.

 

I agree, something is causing the nitrates/phos but not showing on the tests because the algae is absorbing the nutrients.

 

I went through a similar issue just different algae type...i think most encounter an issue at one point or another.

 

 

I did the following and it helped a lot.

 

1. Cut lighting time and ensured no natural light from windows was getting to the tank

 

2. Changed out filter floss 2x a week

 

3. Fed fish every other day

 

4. Cleaned out all my powerheads and hob filter

 

5. Started vacuuming sand and blowing off my rocks with the turkey at wc time

 

6. Increased flow

 

7. Stopped adding things like zooplankton

 

I'm not sure what was the culprit but it helped me get rid of the algae.

 

What is your water source?

[tarunteam]

Sounds like there is die-off in the live rock. Have you accounted for your clean up crew? Are all of them alive? The best thing you could do is continue what you're doing now. As long as you're adding little nutrients to your tank and exporting more out the law of conservation says you should eventually eliminate most of the source over time.

[Draco]

wow, thanks for the helpful responses, everyone!

 

I use the boxed water from Petco for water changes (same one for the past 3 years of owning reef tanks- its more convenient for a nano and lack of storage for mixed water buckets). and RO water for top-offs.

 

I turned the lights off, 2 days so far and it looks slightly better. I will keep it off for longer.. first time I kept it off for 2 days.. maybe it wasn't long enough. the only light on is for the chaetos in the rear chambers (which looks amazingly clean)

 

I've vacuumed the sand every month or so.. never had a problem until now. I'll have to vacuum more. I never really blew dirt off the rocks- guess that could've been the downfall?

 

I can't tell if all my snails and crabs are accounted for.. I am sure a few did die off. So many hiding places, I can't count them. a handful did find their way into the chambers in the back and it's hard for me to see clearly back there.

 

my next WC is this weekend. I will remove whatever rocks I can to clean them off- most of them are all puttied together and I won't be able to take most out. I will scrub what I can first then the WC.

 

thank you again everyone, for all your help! Keep the ideas coming please.

[Benny314]

Glad we could help.

Don't need to lift the rock out if it's a PITA, just get a tooth brush and give them a good scrub in tank before you syphon water out for your water change. When syphoning suck up all the scrubbed off algae and crap.

Black out wise, I wouldn't push it more than 3 days, corals can cope with 3 days of darkness, after that you risk killing coral and of course that then adds to your nutrient issues.

[Clown79]

If your rocks are puttied together i would just scrub them and syphon like benny said. Buy a cheap pair of tweezers to help pick out the hard areas.

 

I would only black out the tank for 3 days as well but you can cut down to 8hrs of light only which helps.

 

I started cleanibg my rocks with a turkey baster when i had nitrate issues in my first tank. It seems no matter how high the flow, detritus still gets on them.

 

I have always lightly vacuumed my sand every week because there is a lot of stuff that settles in it. I would not advise it if your sand bed is deep though.

 

Since adding that to my weekly routine its helped.

 

You are on the right track, its just about time

 

By any chance, the prepared water you purchase, anything added to it?

[Falcon789]

I am curious of how you vacuum your sand? I have fine sand so when I use a siphon I just end up taking sand out of the tank. Is there something better I could use?

[Clown79]

My sand is the fiji pink not the oolite size but still pretty small.

 

What I do is i put the syphon tube on an angle and vacuum small amounts, with a turn and lift motion. Very lightly. This allows little sand to go into the vacuum but gets the detritus in. If the sand goes up the tube, i cut the suction on the other end where the water is coming out with my finger, allowing the sand to drop back in place. Then continue.

 

I use a smaller vacuum with the smaller hose, water pours slowly(like paint drying) but it prevents too much sand sucking up. I tried the bigger hose which is faster at sucking water and draining into my bucket but it removed too much sand.

 

Does what I wrote make sense?

[SantaMonicaHelp]

All good advice up here, indeed import/export of nutrients is an important factor.

 

Also very effective is a scrubber. Have you ever considered building one? Here's an informative link on the basics:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/301547-lowest-cost-way-to-eliminate-green-hair-bubble-turf-and-slime-algae/page-15

 

SF

[HarryPotter]

All good advice up here, indeed import/export of nutrients is an important factor.

 

Also very effective is a scrubber. Have you ever considered building one? Here's an informative link on the basics:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/301547-lowest-cost-way-to-eliminate-green-hair-bubble-turf-and-slime-algae/page-15

 

SF

Ehh. Algae scrubbing takes nutrients out, mechanical filtration will remove detritus BEFORE it breaks down. Why let food rot when you can just remove it?

[brandon429]

This tank should be hand cleaned of all algae outside the tank first, the sandbed fully cleaned as well as part of a full tank takedown and cleaning, then reassembled clean. After being forced algae free, any of the methods above could be tried as preventatives.

 

Leaving the algae in the tank to takeover is the full cause so far, we should reverse that trend. After external cleaning, hit the rocks with peroxide after cleaning to hit the areas nicely then do something different as preventative, that order of ops can fix you easily

[Newstead]

If it is an AIO, add siphoning out the back chambers to your cleaning routine (I use,a turkey baster in my biocube). Shocking what collects back there to rot in one week.