HumblePie Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Well, the last few days I have been undergoing some serious brown algae invasion (with bubbles). After some investigation I am pretty sure that it is Dinoflagellates and I am pretty sure I know what the cause is...My RO/DI filter(s). Anyway, I need some advice. I have tested for PH, Trites, Trates, Calcium, and SG. All are in excellent shape. The tank gets a lot of flow (I have over 1100gph, easily, in my 29g). I used a length of tubing to blow the algae off the rocks and 'turned up' my skimmer to collect the debris. I have also done 40+ pecent water changes the last couple days and the combination seems to have held it at bay (but not decreasing). Unfortunatley, I can't 'blackout' the tank due to corals and drastic scrapingcleaning of the rock is out for the same reason. I have reduced my photoperiod to 4 hours but I can't keep this up because my corals are starting to look a bit unhappy. I have heard that ozone is a good option. Can anyone confirm? What are other suggestionsopinions? Link to comment
kalawai Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 What do you have in the tank? besides corals? Link to comment
HumblePie Posted April 19, 2004 Author Share Posted April 19, 2004 10 Nassirus snails, 5 Astrea, 1 medium brittle star. No other livestock. Link to comment
NanoAmyDee Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Is it just on the sand? Or everywhere? For a 29g I would say you need to up the cleanup crew. Nass snails (IME) are only crap eaters, and don't do much for any algae or growth probs. If you have a fuge, what type of plant life do you have in it? And are you trimming it as it grows? We had problems when we just let it grow, but now that we trim it things have gotten under control (in tha tank). It should fade after time I think. At least it did with us. But we helped things by adding a few turbos and some hermies. Link to comment
~_~ Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 I had Dino's in my 20H not long ago that was caused from overfeeding and lots of detritus hiding in/under the rock. I just vacuumed them up every day whenever I saw them (twice a day usually)...and started exporting more with more skimming/macro, throwing out my billion stalks of xenia, ..etc. Took about a 10 days to see a dramatic reduction in them, a month for them to go away completely. Link to comment
HumblePie Posted April 19, 2004 Author Share Posted April 19, 2004 Originally the outbreak started on my two rocks then spread on the sand and glass. Yesterday when I had the halide on, it looked like the water was carbonated, there was so many bubbles being produced by this algae. I am almost positive that this is from my RO/DI filters. I tasted a sample of the water day before yesterday and it tasted like dirt (literally...and don't ask me how I know what dirt tastes like). I was totally blown away since all my filters should be about half done... Just another expense... In the fuge, I keep an assortment of macro algae. However, up until recently it hasn't really grown much. A few days ago I noticed that all of it appeared to have some slight new growth which lead me to believe that there was a bit of an organic export happening in the tank. It was shortly after that the dinos went wild. To help combat it I added another light above the fuge and kept it on for very long periods about 14-16 hours starting in the evening and reduced my MH to about 4 hours. I'm heading to the store tonight to grab an industrial sized turkey baster for close quarter vacuuming. Did the algae ever cover your corals, etc. I am worried that my corals will be overrun by this crap resulting in a crash (and a recycle)... Link to comment
NanoAmyDee Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 No, it never got on my corals, but the turbos were to thank for that. Whether they were eating the stuff, or just getting rid of it by crawling over it, they did the trick. It definitely sounds like you have had a nutrient increase of some sort. If the algae in the fuge has started to take off at the same time then there is something going on. I think you are on to something with the filter needing to be changed. Change your filter, or go and buy a lot of watr, and do a few big water changes. Also, did you change your salt at all? Do a wash out of the tank, clean all the stuff off the bottom that you can, and try scubbing the surfaces that you can (your filter and skimmer pipes, the glass, clear areas of your LR). Link to comment
HumblePie Posted April 19, 2004 Author Share Posted April 19, 2004 Thanks. I'm heading to get a few carbouys full of water right after work. I think I'll swing by the LFS and grab some Turbos as well. Honestly, I can't think of anything changing. My only guess would be that something in my tank died and threw off the cycle a bit or the water from the filter dumped a bunch of nutrientssilicates into the tank. Since I only have a few critters, I don't feed the tank any food. I only supplement the calcium with Reef Complete. The snails and brittle take care (or were taking care) of the algae and detrious. Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to add more snails since I only have a few. Link to comment
NanoAmyDee Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Blue Sierra had a TON of new snails this weekend when we went by. If that is close to work or home you will want to go by there. Link to comment
HumblePie Posted April 19, 2004 Author Share Posted April 19, 2004 It's not too bad. I'm in Redmond. I was going to try Saltwater City since they are right down the road. However, if they don't have what I am looking for, I'll head on out there. Thanks for the tips! I'll let you know how the battle goes... Link to comment
surfy Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 Have you tested your RO water with a TDS meter? That is one of the best tools I have ever bought. Link to comment
HumblePie Posted April 20, 2004 Author Share Posted April 20, 2004 Actually, no. However, I contacted a fellow online about some new filters. He was kind enough to 'set me straight' about RO/DI and is working on a set of filters to bump by measly 35gpd system to a 100gpd and give me some finer particulate filtering. At the same time I purchase the new filters I'll probably shell out for a TDS meter. If I had one of those in the first place I probably would neve have put that water in my tank and, as a result, possibly never had this outbreak... Who knows... Link to comment
Optimum Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 what exactly is a tds meter, how much and were do I get one? I have never heard of it. Link to comment
HumblePie Posted April 20, 2004 Author Share Posted April 20, 2004 TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids. You can find TDS testers from about $29 all the way up to about $200. Here is a link to one of the $29 ones. Unfortunatley, I know very little about these testers since I just found out about them the other day. TDS tester Link to comment
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