Algae bloom caulerpa sexual?

[tsdid]

I am having a problem with greenish clowdy water and am trying to find the source of the problem. I have a 40 gallon tank with 25lbs of live rock and 40lbs of live sand 10 hermit crabs 2 pajama cardinals 1 margarita snail and a serpent star. I also have some caulerpa and a small bush like plant that is like a small ball and very currly with no roots, sorry for no name off hand. I did a water change last sunday may 6th and i cut a few peices off the caulerpa, the water change was done with my new RODI, and i did waist the first 5 gallons, the water read 0 tds, and 0 nitrates. Later that day I notice the water was cloudy and it continued to be clowdy all week. I did another waterchange yesterday the 12th and that did nothing. I have done allot of reading on this site trying to find my problem. Currently i am going to keep the lights off for a few days, since I dont have any corals it should be a problem, and I am cutting my feeding back, I was feeding one time a day and it was a quarter of a mysis shimp block, Too much, I think it might have been. I also read that caulerpas can release there intake, would this cause the clowdyness, my levels are all good, after the waterchange my nitrates are les than 5 ammonia and nitrites are 0 and ph is 8.2. Can someone help me solve this problem.

 

[bonebrake]

When caulerpa goes sexual it produces a yellow tinge to the water; not green. It sounds like you are experiencing some sort of phytoplankton bloom. I would recommend making sure you are not introducing excessive nutrients to the water and temporarily attach some sort of hang-on filter or a canister filter with a very fine filter cartridge in order to get the majority of it out.
:joy:

 

[tsdid]

What cause the phytoplancton? Currently i am running a wetdry and it basically has 4 sources of filtration the prefilter, a felt pad that the water falls on after the overflow box, and then carbon in a filterbag and then a blue sponge before the sump. Is this enought? I have a protien skimmer running as well. I just did a waterchange yesterday and it just seems to be gettin more clowdy. It does seem to get clowdier when the lights have been on, does that mean its an algae bloom?

 

[tsdid]

also i woulnt say that it is very green you could probably say it was yellowish green,

 

[bonebrake]

Phytoplankton blooms are almost always a response to an influx of nutrients from somewhere and can be further fulled by lighting, but it is not the limiting factor.
Did anything large (fish or invert) die in your tank recently?
Is your wet-dry really dirty with lots of gunk built up or is the filter pad in need of being changed?
It doesn't sound like you are feeding too much if you're only feeding a quarter of a mysis cube per day.
How long has the tank been setup?
:notsure:

 

[tsdid]

the tank has been up for little over a month, nothing has died either, everything seems to be doing great. the hermits are molting, should i remove there molts could that be the problem?

 

[tsdid]

the thing that gets me is that i used the RODI water, and it tested 0 tds. that means there should be nothing other then h20 in the water. unless the nutrients are comeing from the salt, but its the same brand i have been using, instant ocean, it is a new bag however.

 

[reefreak29]

leaving the molts in wont hurt any , what are your phosphates at it could very well be an algea bloom

 

[tsdid]

i dont have a phoshate tester, i will be getting one tomorrow. I started my tank with tap water , I did a 10 percent waterchange after the cycle with RO water, and now the last 2 water changes were with RODI water.

 

[bonebrake]

No, don't worry about the molts. I'll occasionally take out molts if it is convenient for me, but I don't make a habit of it; something in there will eventually consume it.
Some new tanks (yours is still new) go through a phytoplankton bloom. It doesn't happen to everybody and isn't that common, but it does happen sometimes. Make sure your skimmer is running good and I would even ramp it up so it is pulling a "wetter" skimmate to pull as much of the phytoplankton out as possible.
A phytoplankton bloom is a major eye sore, but it doesn't hurt the fish or any corals (except for the more light demanding ones if it is excessive enough to block the light from reaching it and the bloom lasts for a week or more).
It should eventually clear on its own in a week or two if you skim heavily and reduce feeding. If you find that it doesn't, make absolutely sure there is no source of excess nutrients being added, add another filter that can sift the phytoplankton out of the water and do more radical water changes on the magnitude of 50-75% every other day.

 

[tsdid]

what is the differance between phytoplankton and algae bloom, is it the same thing? Should i take out the caulerpa, just to make sure it is not spewing nutients into the water?

 

[bonebrake]

Originally Posted by tsdid
what is the differance between phytoplankton and algae bloom, is it the same thing? Should i take out the caulerpa, just to make sure it is not spewing nutients into the water?
"Algae bloom" is more of a generic term and can be applied to a bloom of any type of algae. A phytoplankton bloom is when the water turns green to some degree.
You can take out the caulerpa if you really want to, but as long as it looks healthy I see no reason to take it out.
:joy:

 

[jimmy 4]

is this calupera going sexual?
And what does going sexual imply. Is it a bad thing?

 

[bonebrake]

If that "flower" in the middle is coming off of a caulerpa stalk, yes. It makes a tank an eye sore when it goes sexual because it makes the water turn yellow, but I have not heard of any reports of it hurting any fish or corals. It seems to be cleared up in a week with skimming, water changes, and running activated carbon.
:joy:

 

[tsdid]

there are differant types of caulerpa, my does not have fern like leaves on it, its the same shape just solid. I didnt see any flowers on mine, and activated carbon doesnt seem to be helping much, but its only been 1.5 days or so. I have my lights off is this going to help with my problem you think. I also have my skimmer going at full capacity and its not really pulling much out

 

[bonebrake]

Originally Posted by tsdid
there are differant types of caulerpa, my does not have fern like leaves on it, its the same shape just solid. I didnt see any flowers on mine, and activated carbon doesnt seem to be helping much, but its only been 1.5 days or so. I have my lights off is this going to help with my problem you think. I also have my skimmer going at full capacity and its not really pulling much out
What is your water change schedule like?
How many have you done so far and how much did you change each time?
:notsure:

 

[tsdid]

well its been set up for 6 weeks, to start it off i put the live rock 25lbs and 40lbs of live sand in it, then 3 days later added 2 pajama cardinals, and let it cycle, Everything prettymuch cyled in 3 weeks then i added some hermit crabs because algae was growing on the sand and rock, the hermits solved that problem. a week after that i bought 3 snails and 1 serpent star, 2 snails didnt make it, it think i didnt acclimate them well enought? but the crabs ate them, and i didnt remove the shells. About the 3rd week once the cycle was completed i did the first waterchange with RO water from work did about 10 percent change. Everything was fine no problem. 2 weeks later I did the water change with my RODI unit I bought during the week i made about 13 percent, I did let it make 5 gallons before makeing any usable water, After this change is when it got clowdy. My wife does stay home on mondays with my son, and she did have the windows open it that room, That could have contributed. and then 1 week(may 12) after that I did another water change about 10 percent,and hooked up my skimmer and added carbon, and it didnt help(so far) I added the plants about 2 weeks after setting up the aquarium.

 

[bonebrake]

It sounds like you did everything by the book.
Keep running the carbon and the skimmer.
If it doesn't clear up at all in a week or gets worse, do three 50-75% changes every other day.
:joy: