Algae Control in 1 year old tank

[Dasani]

Hello all!

 

Long time reefer who took a long break. I settled into a house and set up my 25g IM Lagoon about 11 months ago. The first few months were fantastic, but the last 5 have been a struggle. I've had a bubble algae outbreak and can't seem to get control of diatoms, dinos, and other stuff I can't identify. 

 

My tank params over time are listed below. My phosphate have been hard to control, which could be the reason for all this. I currently run a Bubble Magus skimmer, 2-3x the recommended dose of Phosban in a media bag along with Chemi-Pure. I have the BRS 4 stage RO/DI reading 0ppm. I perform a weekly 4g water change, sand cleaning, and turkey baste the rocks, but Phosphate hardly ever get below .05. Diatoms are always back within 2 days of water change. I have 3-4 emerald crabs hardly making a dent in the bubble algae. I have 30+ snails and a couple hermits. I run an XR15 9 hours per day. I only feed my 2 clowns 1 pinch of pellet food per day. I don't do any dosing outside alk, cal, mag. I manually remove algae every week but it's always back within 2-3 days.

 

I have also lost 4-5 SPS frags. The other 2 are hanging on but colors are awful and there's been no growth in the past 3 months. I've also noticed stagnate growth of my Zoas over the past 2 months. 

 

Any suggestions? (Sorry pics are blue, can't seem to get the right colors with the iPhone). Considering getting an ICP test, but wanted to see what other options are there.

 

 

Thanks!

[seabass]

We'd get a better idea of the color without your reef lights on at all.  However, ideally, take a pic with just the white LEDs.

 

I'm wondering if you just have cyano, versus dinos and diatoms.  Cyanobacteria is often caused by excess organics in your tank (on the sand and rocks, as well as in the water).  Maintenance (or lack thereof) is often the culprit.

 

Alkalinity between 6 and 9dKH is a big enough swing to cause problems for stony corals.  Nutrient stability is also important.  You don't want nutrients to bottom out (especially phosphate).  Phosphate of 0.10 ppm is good (0.20 ppm is even acceptable).  I might also consider trying to increase the level of nitrate.

 

The bubble algae is another issue.  It's next to impossible to control it with nutrient reduction, and I had similar results with Emerald crabs.  Reef Cleaners claims that their crabs will make an impact; so you might try that.  Some people recommend Vibrant for bubble algae; however, I would avoid that like the plague.  My solution was to frag off (and remove) sections of the rock and corals which where affected.  Sure that's extreme, but I managed to get rid of it.

[TheKleinReef]

Bubble algae is awful to deal with. I broke down and dowsed my rock in hydrogen peroxide and bought 12 emerald crabs. It’s been 6 months and it hasn’t come back.

 

I agree with seabass. The sandbed algae seems to look more like cyano or diatoms but it’s hard to tell with the blue. 

[Dasani]

Thanks for the feedback. I will say it does look more red than brown in most areas. I will run some chemi-clean and see if that helps.

[seabass]

ChemiClean will kill the cyano (with antibiotics).  But until you address the excess organics, cyano will keep coming back.

[Dasani]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

ChemiClean will kill the cyano (with antibiotics).  But until you address the excess organics, cyano will keep coming back.

Do you have any recommendations for this? I do use a turkey baster for my rocks and siphon sand weekly. I also have an MP10 at 65% on reef crest mode so a decent amount of flow. Anything else I can add?

[seabass]

3 hours ago, Dasani said:

Do you have any recommendations for this? I do use a turkey baster for my rocks and siphon sand weekly. I also have an MP10 at 65% on reef crest mode so a decent amount of flow. Anything else I can add?

That all sounds good.  Plus you run a skimmer and even use filter media (activated carbon).  It seems like you are doing it right.

 

Of course, we're making some assumptions, like it's actually cyano and not something else (like diatoms); and that your maintenance is thorough, your equipment is working efficiently, there are no low flow areas, and your filter media isn't exhausted.  Do you dose or feed anything else (amino acids, Reef Roids, ect)?

 

Occasionally, cyano lingers around seemingly even without excess organics.  In these cases, ChemiClean might end up being the best solution.  I just hesitate to recommend or use antibiotics (or other chemicals or meds) unnecessarily, as that can sometimes really throw off the balance of your tank and lead to other issues.

[seabass]

12 hours ago, Dasani said:

I run an XR15 9 hours per day.

I'd probably also try cutting this down by an hour.  And maybe a little less red in the light spectrum.

 

  

8 hours ago, Dasani said:

I do use a turkey baster for my rocks and siphon sand weekly.

Just wondering, do you ever stir the sand bed?  Also, how deep is the substrate and is it sand or crushed coral?  I ask because, after a year, mulm tends to build up in any substrate, and detritus will get trapped more easily in crushed coral.

[Dasani]

17 hours ago, seabass said:

I'd probably also try cutting this down by an hour.  And maybe a little less red in the light spectrum.

 

  

Just wondering, do you ever stir the sand bed?  Also, how deep is the substrate and is it sand or crushed coral?  I ask because, after a year, mulm tends to build up in any substrate, and detritus will get trapped more easily in crushed coral.

I did decrease my light scheduling today. I've included some pictures of my tank today which is 24 hours after my water change. This also shows some of the stringy brownish green algae that took over and killed a zoa frag. The top layer of sand was clean yesterday after siphoning and this is what has grown back in one day. I do have a thinner Carib-Sea sand. In the back corner where a lot of this algae is it's about 1". About .5" deep near the front glass. I do stir it up a little, especially in the the back corners with less flow, but it's not enough to make the water cloudy for more than a few minutes.

 

I did dose some Amino Acids and AB+ during June and July but stopped as I did not see much difference in 2 months and was trying to keep everything as stable as possible.

 

Edit - I change my chemi-pure every 3 months and my phosban every 8-10 weeks. I change the filter floss every week as well.

 

Thanks for all your help!

 

[mcarroll]

On 9/18/2023 at 5:21 PM, Dasani said:

Long time reefer who took a long break. I settled into a house and set up my 25g IM Lagoon about 11 months ago. The first few months were fantastic, but the last 5 have been a struggle. I've had a bubble algae outbreak and can't seem to get control of diatoms, dinos, and other stuff I can't identify. 

Looks like you have a range of algae growing – which in terms of reef resilience should be a good thing.  While it looks like there was algae growth everywhere, it doesn't look like you had any one kind that was really dominant.  (But I have limited photos to go by, correct me if wrong.)

 

It sounds like you might be trading that for something worse...the algae the smothered your zoas.   Is that the same as the "brownish" algae we see on the sand in the latest photo you posted?  Any chance you can get a microscope pic of that algae?  (Even a toy microscope will work.)

 

Unfortunately, you really can't troubleshoot algae growth by lowering nutrient levels.  (ie starvation tactics)

 

Other things (eg corals) are more sensitive to nutrient availability than algae.  Plus there are WORSE algae than your have which are HAPPY in disuturbed/low nutrient situations like that which you've been trying to create.  (eg dinos, chrysophytes)

 

On 9/18/2023 at 5:21 PM, Dasani said:

My tank params over time are listed below.

NO3

It looks like NO3 (nitrates) has consistently been VERY low, near zero.   I may have missed it, but do you know what caused the spike in the June-July timeframe?

 

PO4

PO4 has consistently been more available than NO3, which is good...PO4 is more crucial.  However in that same June-July timeframe (and after) it looks like PO4 started to tank.   Ie. numbers appear to have reached 0.00 ppm, or close.   This is not good.

 

ALK

Alkalinity has been much more erratic than NO3 or PO4 by comparison.  Any thoughts on this?

 

On 9/18/2023 at 5:21 PM, Dasani said:

Diatoms are always back within 2 days of water change.

Unless your RODI is "leaking" silicates into your reef (a possibility that sounds like you've eliminated), those probably aren't diatoms.

 

If you don't have access to a microscope can you get a sample of the algae in a vial, shake it to pulverize the sample into bits, then leave it under l lights for a while and see if any of the algae reforms in to a mass.  Only dinoflagellates will move on their own like that.

 

On 9/18/2023 at 5:21 PM, Dasani said:

I have 30+ snails and a couple hermits.

What is the breakdown on this 30 – what types of snails, and how many of each?  Can you get an updated count of who's still "reporting for duty"?  In the pics so far I see 1 snail "on duty' and 2 or 3 "on permanent break". 😉 

 

If we are talking herbivores-only, you might end up needing up to 2 Turbo snails (or equivalent) per gallon before you get control.....usually a number WELL below that is required in most tanks.

 

On 9/18/2023 at 5:21 PM, Dasani said:

I run an XR15 9 hours per day.

You should be able to get away with 12 hours a day, but maybe not if your setup isn't quite right or is set up for overkill.

 

Check your config and make sure that ALMOST ALL of the light that's getting into the tank is BLUE.   Just enough white to make things look good TO YOU is the other main "color" component.  The other colors are better turned off in most cases.  (The odd-color emitters are mostly for photography or other secondary uses.)

 

Do you have a lux or PAR meter to verify the overall intensity level the tank is getting?  If not, at LEAST get a lux meter app for your smartphone....but a $10-20 lux meter from eBazon is way better.

 

You want overall light levels lower rather than higher....something around 10,000 lux (150-200 PAR).

 

Let us know what you measure!

 

On 9/18/2023 at 5:21 PM, Dasani said:

I manually remove algae every week but it's always back within 2-3 days.

Manual removal is the most-correct method, so you were ON THE MONEY with this.  👍 BUT you have to hit the algae just about every day if you want to make progress.

 

ALSO...the fact that it comes back so fast means you still need more CUC to keep the areas clean that you work on – specifically herbivores like Turbo, Astrea, Trochus, etc, snails.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

I did dose some Amino Acids and AB+ during June and July but stopped as I did not see much difference in 2 months and was trying to keep everything as stable as possible.

This is the only thing I've seen you mention that corresponds to that June-July timeframe where your test levels were suspect.  Interesting, but is there anything else to the "story" of what was happening back then?

 

THE GOOD THING is that you still appear to have a WIDE variety of things growing on your rocks, nothing is dominating.   This should make recovery EASIER, even if the tank doesn't get that SPIC-N-SPAN clean look you might be imagining.  (Reefs should be "a bit" dirty for better health anyway.)

 

The idea is for your corals to be happy....then the rest of the "issues" can come along in their due time.

[TheKleinReef]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

Unfortunately, you really can't troubleshoot algae growth by lowering nutrient levels.  (ie starvation tactics)

Wrong. 
 

OP. Start with finding a method that stabilizes the nitrate and phosphate. if you’re having algae smother corals, you can remove the coral or rock it’s attach to and dowse with hydrogen peroxide/tank water mix of 1:1. That will kill any algae but not the coral. 
 

With your nutrient levels I doubt that’s Dino’s but mccarroll loves to baffle people with the Dino goose chase. 
 

my gut says the dissolved organics  in the system are climbing feeding all this excess algae and diatoms/cyano. See if you can boost your mechanical filtration to prevent organics from breaking down in the water column. 

[Dasani]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

Looks like you have a range of algae growing – which in terms of reef resilience should be a good thing.  While it looks like there was algae growth everywhere, it doesn't look like you had any one kind that was really dominant.  (But I have limited photos to go by, correct me if wrong.)

 

It sounds like you might be trading that for something worse...the algae the smothered your zoas.   Is that the same as the "brownish" algae we see on the sand in the latest photo you posted?  Any chance you can get a microscope pic of that algae?  (Even a toy microscope will work.)

 

Unfortunately, you really can't troubleshoot algae growth by lowering nutrient levels.  (ie starvation tactics)

 

Other things (eg corals) are more sensitive to nutrient availability than algae.  Plus there are WORSE algae than your have which are HAPPY in disuturbed/low nutrient situations like that which you've been trying to create.  (eg dinos, chrysophytes)

 

NO3

It looks like NO3 (nitrates) has consistently been VERY low, near zero.   I may have missed it, but do you know what caused the spike in the June-July timeframe?

 

PO4

PO4 has consistently been more available than NO3, which is good...PO4 is more crucial.  However in that same June-July timeframe (and after) it looks like PO4 started to tank.   Ie. numbers appear to have reached 0.00 ppm, or close.   This is not good.

 

ALK

Alkalinity has been much more erratic than NO3 or PO4 by comparison.  Any thoughts on this?

 

Unless your RODI is "leaking" silicates into your reef (a possibility that sounds like you've eliminated), those probably aren't diatoms.

 

If you don't have access to a microscope can you get a sample of the algae in a vial, shake it to pulverize the sample into bits, then leave it under l lights for a while and see if any of the algae reforms in to a mass.  Only dinoflagellates will move on their own like that.

 

What is the breakdown on this 30 – what types of snails, and how many of each?  Can you get an updated count of who's still "reporting for duty"?  In the pics so far I see 1 snail "on duty' and 2 or 3 "on permanent break". 😉 

 

If we are talking herbivores-only, you might end up needing up to 2 Turbo snails (or equivalent) per gallon before you get control.....usually a number WELL below that is required in most tanks.

 

You should be able to get away with 12 hours a day, but maybe not if your setup isn't quite right or is set up for overkill.

 

Check your config and make sure that ALMOST ALL of the light that's getting into the tank is BLUE.   Just enough white to make things look good TO YOU is the other main "color" component.  The other colors are better turned off in most cases.  (The odd-color emitters are mostly for photography or other secondary uses.)

 

Do you have a lux or PAR meter to verify the overall intensity level the tank is getting?  If not, at LEAST get a lux meter app for your smartphone....but a $10-20 lux meter from eBazon is way better.

 

You want overall light levels lower rather than higher....something around 10,000 lux (150-200 PAR).

 

Let us know what you measure!

 

Manual removal is the most-correct method, so you were ON THE MONEY with this.  👍 BUT you have to hit the algae just about every day if you want to make progress.

 

ALSO...the fact that it comes back so fast means you still need more CUC to keep the areas clean that you work on – specifically herbivores like Turbo, Astrea, Trochus, etc, snails.  

 

 

This is the only thing I've seen you mention that corresponds to that June-July timeframe where your test levels were suspect.  Interesting, but is there anything else to the "story" of what was happening back then?

 

THE GOOD THING is that you still appear to have a WIDE variety of things growing on your rocks, nothing is dominating.   This should make recovery EASIER, even if the tank doesn't get that SPIC-N-SPAN clean look you might be imagining.  (Reefs should be "a bit" dirty for better health anyway.)

 

The idea is for your corals to be happy....then the rest of the "issues" can come along in their due time.

This is all fantastic information!

 

To answer these questions one by one...

The algae that smothered the zoas was the stringy algae shown in the 4th pic in my 2nd post. Not the diatoms/cyano filmy brown or red algae. I removed it off the plug by hand every week for months but they finally melted away this week. I have this this stringy algae growing on the base of my torch and candy cane corals. It has only hit the one area of the tank shown in that 4th picture. Which is the front right just below my MP10. 

 

I do not have a microscope but that could be my next investment to find out what all this is.

 

NO3 - I've never had an issue with high nitrates. I have dosed some ESV nitrate back in March/April/May but once I got those levels to 2-5ppm, I stopped dosing and tried to maintain these levels. I've thought about dosing more to get those to 10ppm but I'm afraid to spark more algae growth.

 

P04 the big one - June/July is when I first added Phosban which initially took the phosphate down to .02 which I believed was a great level to add my first SPS. This was right around the time I added my first SPS frags which 3/5 died within the first week (one came in dead in warm water, I think they were also fresh cuts so maybe not the healthiest to start with). The others have not looked great or grown a millimeter since (a monti cap and pink lemonade). This one has been extremely tricky. I've continued to run Phosban in a media bag, haven't missed a water change in 9 months and only feed 5-7 times per week but my phosphates have been all over the place the past 2 months (by that I mean between .05-.12 but as you can see, constant up and downs and never been steady for more than 2 weeks). I did have a spike last week because my phosban hit 10 weeks. I replaced it and it did come back down .1 over 4-5 days. I do use a Hanna Checker but maybe it's faulty? I have been testing around the same time every week (between 3-6pm). Any recommendations on maintaining a solid .1?

 

ALK - I feel like I've gotten steady the past 3 months. The graph makes it look like more jumps, but it's been remaining between 7.5-8.0 the past 3 months. I think I've gotten the dosing down with 5ml of ESV per week.

 

Snails/CUC- I have ordered 2 Reef Cleaners 25g rimless packages and a custom package. One was around November, 2022, the 2nd around April 2023. These contained 24 dwarf ceriths, 5 nassarius, 7 florida ceriths, 6 astreas, a 6 nassarius vibex and a couple hermits. In July I ordered a custom pack with 4 emerald crabs (I can still spot 3 but they don't come out of the rocks), 8 astreas, 10 florida ceriths, 8 nassarius vibex, and 10 nerites. To this day I can spot maybe 10-15 dwarfs, 3-4 ceriths, 8 nerits, 4-5 vibex and a couple crabs that seem to be active. I am probably due for another order so please let me know what you'd recommend for that.

 

Lighting - I do run my XR 15 at 100% UV, 100% Royal, 100% Blue, 70% Warm White and 70% cool white. It is definitely very blue, but maybe I should turn the whites down even more? It is the Blue version, not the pro. I run it at 70-75% intensity with a 1 hour ramp up and ramp down.

I do not have a PAR meter but that might need to be an investment as well.

 

And finally, yes, the weird thing is that I do have plenty of coraline growing but also this algae outbreak. I had great growth in April/May/June on my zoas and acans, but I am also about to lose a torch that never fully opened in 6+ months. June/July was when my phosphates were at the lowest, but I don't think a spike to .1 should be causing this much algae? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I've maintained the same waterchange, cleaning, feeding, phosban, and alk/calc dosing for 4 months but since then, there's been this outbreak even as the tank has aged so I'm just not sure what is going on.

 

Hope this answers your questions!

[Dasani]

29 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

Wrong. 
 

OP. Start with finding a method that stabilizes the nitrate and phosphate. if you’re having algae smother corals, you can remove the coral or rock it’s attach to and dowse with hydrogen peroxide/tank water mix of 1:1. That will kill any algae but not the coral. 
 

With your nutrient levels I doubt that’s Dino’s but mccarroll loves to baffle people with the Dino goose chase. 
 

my gut says the dissolved organics  in the system are climbing feeding all this excess algae and diatoms/cyano. See if you can boost your mechanical filtration to prevent organics from breaking down in the water column. 

Any recommendations on more mechanical filtration? I run filter floss in both media baskets and the skimmer, but curious what else I can fit in the back chambers?

[TheKleinReef]

6 minutes ago, Dasani said:

Any recommendations on more mechanical filtration? I run filter floss in both media baskets and the skimmer, but curious what else I can fit in the back chambers?

I would up the flow a tad to get the debris into the floss. Change the floss out consistently, and increase the skimmer water level height to pull out a little more (ie “wet skim”)
 

Goal is to get the organics out before they dissolve into the water column. 

[mcarroll]

4 hours ago, Dasani said:

That looks like a patch of hair algae to me...with some bubble algae and coralline mixed in.  Not too surprising that it was the hair algae that seemed to irritate them.

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

Which is the front right just below my MP10. 

Interestingt.

 

Right under the pump is usually the lowest-flow area of the tank, and consequently also a detritus settling zone.   (A coral that can tolerate lower flow should do well there!  Or....shade the area and put an NPS there.)  But ideally you'll want a second flow source in the tank to ease that dead spot a bit.  Running two pumps in alternating fashion is one simple way to erase almost all dead zones. 

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

I do not have a microscope but that could be my next investment to find out what all this is.

As mentioned a $10-$20 toy scope will work....you'll only need 400x power or so.  But a decent real scope is only $50-$100 and is MUCH MUCH nicer to use.

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

NO3 - I've never had an issue with high nitrates. I have dosed some ESV nitrate back in March/April/May but once I got those levels to 2-5ppm, I stopped dosing and tried to maintain these levels. I've thought about dosing more to get those to 10ppm but I'm afraid to spark more algae growth.

I see a little bump in the graph in the April timeframe.

 

What about that spike in the graph you provided that runs from about June through July?

 

It looked like most of the early time on the graph was 0.00 ppm.   If it was really more like 2-5 ppm then that's fine.

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

P04 the big one - June/July is when I first added Phosban which initially took the phosphate down to .02 which I believed was a great level to add my first SPS. This was right around the time I added my first SPS frags which 3/5 died within the first week (one came in dead in warm water, I think they were also fresh cuts so maybe not the healthiest to start with). The others have not looked great or grown a millimeter since (a monti cap and pink lemonade). This one has been extremely tricky. I've continued to run Phosban in a media bag, haven't missed a water change in 9 months and only feed 5-7 times per week but my phosphates have been all over the place the past 2 months (by that I mean between .05-.12 but as you can see, constant up and downs and never been steady for more than 2 weeks). I did have a spike last week because my phosban hit 10 weeks. I replaced it and it did come back down .1 over 4-5 days. I do use a Hanna Checker but maybe it's faulty? I have been testing around the same time every week (between 3-6pm). Any recommendations on maintaining a solid .1?

What happens if you stop trying to chase a number for PO4....where does it settle?  (Ditto for NO3?)

 

Your efforts might be all that's causing that variability, BTW.  And for what it's worth, anywhere in the range of PO4 values you've mentioned would be fine....even higher values would not be a problem.

 

You could run a test on some tap water or another "neutral source" to see what the Hanna reports, but I bet the tester is OK.   I will say that if you're new to Hanna testers, they can be tricky to get reliable results from while you get used to the way they work.  They are quite unlike traditional test kits.  Do you seem to get predictable results?   Test yourself by running three consecutive COMPLETE tests in a row (including cleanup) on the same water sample.  If you get three almost identical results in a row, you're fine and the tester is fine.  I do this triple-test process whenever I have any reason to question a test result I get.  It's possible for test kits, reagents, to go bad.  Mistakes can be made.  Etc.  Triple testing will show which it is (or isn't) for-sure.

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

To this day I can spot maybe 10-15 dwarfs, 3-4 ceriths, 8 nerits, 4-5 vibex and a couple crabs that seem to be active.

Seems like you have all tiny snails...or mostly.  None of the Astreas survived?

 

If that's it for what you have currently, then adding some BIG snails is all I'd suggest for starters....that's tricky if you have to order online though, since your tank is only so big and they usually have some kind of minimum order requirements to make the cost of shipping worthwhile.  But however you can, get more Turbo or Astrea or Trochus snails...bigger ones will help more considering your current team.

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

Lighting - I do run my XR 15 at 100% UV, 100% Royal, 100% Blue, 70% Warm White and 70% cool white. It is definitely very blue, but maybe I should turn the whites down even more? It is the Blue version, not the pro. I run it at 70-75% intensity with a 1 hour ramp up and ramp down.

I do not have a PAR meter but that might need to be an investment as well.

Don't wait for an "investment" level event to happen....start getting data asap with a lux meter app (there are many, "Galactica lux meter" is one I have used).  Also, if there's any hesitation to spending $300 on a PAR meter, then DON'T hesitate to spend $15 on a handheld lux meter.  I use the common LX-1010B lux meter with the sensor on a cord and have found it very useful.  You can always pull the trigger later on a PAR meter...never too late.  🙂 

 

I'm not familiar with that specific light, but the numbers do suggest that your white levels might be higher than they need to be.  They definitely should be at the minimum level that still looks good to you.  (I doubt UV is hurting or helping anything....but is it normal on that light to run them at 100% output?  I just wonder because UV LED's have had a reputation of being short-lived compared to the other LEDs we use.)

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

And finally, yes, the weird thing is that I do have plenty of coraline growing but also this algae outbreak.

I think you just have a rapidly growing reef that hasn't got quite enough CUC (and corals) to keep the rock tended.  The algae is just doing what it does – it likes the SAME conditions as the corals we keep!  🙂   As in the wild, if there aren't enough CUC to keep the algae at bay, corals will usually lose out.

 

You're the #1 member on the CUC of course...and you're the one responsible for all algae that gets enough time to mature – cuz then the snails can't eat it, and fish generally won't eat it.   CUC critters only eat fresh algae nubs.  So it's important to have enough of them that the WHOLE tank gets enough "snail coverage" so that algae can't grow too big before it gets found.  Last, snails hunt on memory.  So if any areas have been overgrown for a while, snails will be actively avoiding them.  When you do a cleaning, concentrate in one small area so it gets completely clean.  And then gently place a snail in the middle of that space so at least one knows about the new space that needs grooming.  (You need more CUC if this gentle re-placement doesn't help.) 

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

I had great growth in April/May/June on my zoas and acans, but I am also about to lose a torch that never fully opened in 6+ months.

This corresponds to when you added Phosban and started trying to control nutrient levels.....IMO roll back that whole plan and see how your corals react to nutrient levels where they're trying to go.

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

June/July was when my phosphates were at the lowest, but I don't think a spike to .1 should be causing this much algae? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Not per se, no.  There isn't that much difference between 0.10 ppm and 0.20 ppm to anything in the tank.  But erratic water stats always favor algae growth vs beneficial critter growth.  So it's possible that algae is being favored.

 

The issue, if any, was that PO4 appeared (on the graph) to reach 0.00 ppm in July.  That could have an effect on algae, and algae competition....reducing competition for algae, that is.  Green algae have "roots" that can access phosphate even when the water has been totally depleted down to testable levels....so it will thrive while other lifeforms (eg coral) that require dissolved nutrients struggle or fail.

 

1 hour ago, Dasani said:

I've maintained the same waterchange, cleaning, feeding, phosban, and alk/calc dosing for 4 months but since then, there's been this outbreak even as the tank has aged so I'm just not sure what is going on.

I would discontinue the phosban for the time being, at least for a few weeks.

 

Double down on algae removal by hand...as described.  Try to hit at least one patch every day.  Limit yourself to 20min of cleaning in one sitting if it seems like too much – you want to win the war, not the battle. 😉 

[Dasani]

So a quick update.

It's been about 2 months since my original post. I have since decreased my lights by 10% and cut the time down an hour. The algae has slowed a decent amount, but still present and growing on my frag plugs. I've done a few peroxide dips and it goes away for a week but then is back in full force. The algae is too small for me to hand pick off the plugs and I think it's causing my zoas to stay closed.

 

My corals are still not doing well. Zoas have not been open for a month, acans are losing color and stay shriveled. I also lost a hammer coral. The only things that looks happy are some mushrooms and a candy cane.

 

I just received results from my ICP test and here are the results. The only major difference is nitrate. I think I have a faulty test kit. However, I don't think 36ppm should be killing all my corals? Iodine was also low, but I don't think that would kill hardy softies or LPS either.

 

Any thoughts?

 

[mcarroll]

I posted a ton of thoughts back in September.  👍

[mmsoucie]

You’re not alone, I’m battling hair algae! Just keep doing all the things suggested earlier.  I think we’re gonna be in this for a while.