Algae explosion!

[max42]

Saga continues.... I returned from my trip and could not see farther than 2 inches into my aqurium. I changed 15-20 G of water which lighten the green cloudiness considerable. I turned the whit light timer fro 10 hr/day to 8.
That evening (about 4 hours after the water change I could already see it getting greener and cloudier). I was not able to change any more water but turned the light timer down to 5 hrs. I am only feeding once per day. The water continued to get worse over the weekend.
The green is only the water. The live rock was not stained green like I though would occur (there are some green alge stains, not hair alge).
I tested the phosphates = 0 and all other parms are normal.
Any ideas? That was a quick green rebound.

 

[shyfish]

Are you useing a skimmer? The green water problem I had, I thought was suspended algea.
Oddly when I treated my tank for cyano the green went away. So maybe its bacteria suspended and the chemclean fixed it. I did a 20% change 48 hours after use. My water is now crystal clear.

 

[max42]

I am using a skimmer and it is collecting green nasty water. What is chemclean and is it safe for fish, inverts and some mushroom corals?

 

[shyfish]

Your skimmer is collecting the green nasty yucks out but not efficient enough to clear things up.
Chemclean is for cyano. Which is a bacteria. It is reef safe. Won't hurt corals, invertibrates or fish. Just make sure you follow the instructions. First 24 hours no skimming, second 24 hours skim. Make sure there is no charcoal in your system because it will nulify the chemclean.
After 48 hours do a water change.
This helped me, it might help you.

 

[max42]

I wish I knew if it was cyano before I treat for it. My tank should be done with the cycle (about 6 weeks now). It has went thru the typical amonia, nititrite/nitrate spike and dip to zero. Since I added my CUC I saw what appeared to be shrimp larvae (not pods) since the coral band shrimp had the blue green belly which went away coincident with cloudiness and many white specs. This clears in a few days. It happened againg about 2 weeks later (about a week after adding mushroom corals), this time it did not clear but got progressivly green.

 

[bizzmoneyb]

it sortof looks like cyano in some spots and diatoms in others.
im guessing your tap water has just thrown everything haywire and the algae is just having a field day on it. your phosphates are probably showing zero because the algae is eating it all.
how much do you feed? what kind of flow do you have in the tank? this is what feeds cyano.. excess nutrients and low flow.
i wouldnt use any chemicals unless its a last resort.
if i were you i would start by taking the rocks out and just giving them a quick brush off to remove whatever loose algae you can. keep doing changes with the R/O water. get as much of that tap water out as quick as possible. increase the flow in the tank. get some nass and turbo snails. the turbos should eat up some of the algae on the rocks and glass and the nass will keep the sandbed stirred to prevent the algae on the bottom. ive also heard mexican turbos devour algae.. and they are pretty big. i never had any hermit crabs eat algae. and they are snail killers. IMO go with snails over hermits.
if this does nothing then i would completely scrub off the rocks and do a total water change

good luck. keep us posted.

 

[max42]

Here’s an update: slight recap…. Last Saturday I changed about 15 G of water which significantly improved visibility. Also changed the white light timer from 10 hr to 8 hr. Later that evening the water had noticeably got more cloudy and green again (after the light had been on about 8 hrs. I decided to turn light timer to 5 hrs per day and see how it went. Sunday the water was continuing to be greener and murkier. I have been gone since Monday. Yesterday the tank was considerably better (nothing different the past few days other than amount of light and no use of frozen food, feeding only once per day). This morning water was even better. Not sure I understand the sudden turnaround, seems like dramatic changes in 24 hr period.
Any thoughts on the use of frozen foods such as cyclopese as the culprit? It would seem obvious that light may also add to the problem.
My concerns are the mushroom corals need more than 5 hrs/day of white light and if I don’t use cyclopese then they will not get sufficient food. Same concern for the 2 brittle stars getting food as the clowns eat the pellets.