Jump to content
Top Shelf Aquatics

Please Help! Algae Problems....


bcarrillos

Recommended Posts

I went on a vacation for 3 weeks, and I left my good friend in charge. I showed him how much to feed, do water changes, and adding water to ATO. Well when I came back it was a disaster. I called him right away to ask what had happened, and he said he hadn't done a water change, and hadn't added water to the ATO. And my skimmer was off. So now I'm doing water testing to see how bad everything is. How can I get my tank back to normal?? I need help!

post-89727-0-38219800-1471980651_thumb.jpg

This used to be my Favia Coral

post-89727-0-81181000-1471980723_thumb.jpg

post-89727-0-26966000-1471980755_thumb.jpg

This is my Zoanthid

post-89727-0-69190200-1471980770_thumb.jpg

Flower Pot

post-89727-0-47681000-1471980793_thumb.jpg

post-89727-0-29210400-1471980813_thumb.jpg

 

post-89727-0-33299800-1471980844_thumb.jpg

post-89727-0-14454500-1471980863_thumb.jpg

post-89727-0-32687100-1471980938_thumb.jpg

Link to comment

It can be fixed! What do you have for a clean up crew? Get some Mexican turbos if you don't have any and they'll get rid of the algae. What are your water parameters? Water changes should help but if things are off like salinity, alkalinity and such, you don't want to make any big changes. You want to make sure you bring levels up somewhat slowly.

Link to comment

we have documented probably 200 fixes of that exact same condition using this manner:

 

take no delay, have it fixed by Friday by acting all on the algae and the substrates in the tank. doing things to water alone takes many Fridays

 

you would take the fish out and hold them elsewhere, along with corals

 

leaving only the rocks and tank

 

then you take out rocks put in sep bucket

 

leaving only the sand

 

you take apart the whole tank, throw out old water, and rinse out all the sand with tap water for 20 mins until its pristine

 

then you reassemble perfect sand and clean sw brand new, same SG and temp as the old thrown out

 

then you hand scrub all algae off rocks as detail work, using pics and brushes to actually hard remove and scrape it free, like a dentist removing plaques, that rough. score it clean

 

then, you treat the rocks with peroxide in all cleaned areas so that your growback is lessened, rinse out all detritus from the rocks using clean saltwater, then put your new/old tank back together without a cycle. the peroxide came about after you'd already cleaned all your rocks of algae, not before.

 

the tap rinse doesn't harm the bed at all, its still filthy with bacteria soon after, because in nobodys medical or marine biology book did it say that a brief tap rinse sterilizes knurled surfaces. It says that in online posts :) but its not microbiology...

 

the sw rinse and treat doesn't harm the rock

 

with this, you make a 3 mo process a 3 day process just the same, and we have literally hundreds documented, its a rip cleaning. Its a normal Tuesday for my tank

Link to comment

Yep, I'd start scrubbing as well. A new toothbrush would do wonders for that rock :). Looks like it'd be pretty easy to get rid of it all. Scrape the back wall. Get back on your normal schedule and don't hire that friend ever again :).

Link to comment

I just had this problem. Huge algae spike. It's labor intensive but I've got mine finally under control. Here was my system.

 

1. Scrap anything on the glass off. Do a water change sucking the scraped algae. Use the water you removed and take each rock into the changed water bucket. Scrub away. Keen an eye out for for any small hitchhiker anemones. If you scrub them to death you just exploded their population.

 

2. Replace the removed water with new salt water.

 

3. Pull any remaining algae by hand if possible. Step 4 can handle the rest.

 

4. Head to your LFS and get the largest emerald crabs they have. I've found the small ones don't seem to bother with the vegetation. Keep an eye on them and return them if you find they are eating what they shouldn't. I'd get a minimum of 2. If your tank can't support them long term consider returning the one who doesn't touch the algae (if there is one) once the problem is under control.

 

5. Snails help as a preventative measure. They don't really solve the problem once it exists. That said it's definitely a good time to stock up. Trochus are a good option. Turbos do the trick to. Depending on how many you have now, it's not a bad idea to diversify.

 

6. Water chemistry is also key. There is a good chance your PH is off. People often don't realize that PH is a logarithmic scale. Tenths of a point make a huge difference. The lower the PH, the more soluble CO2 is in your tank. Plants feed on CO2. I use Aquavitro eight.four because it's a buffer (less of a chance of running into an issue), but there are many other PH correction options. Stick with whatever you've used and found to work in the past.

 

7. Repeat as necessary.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-Spencer

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...