Algae on coral

[tjohnson139]

My tank's fairly new - about three months old. I just bought a green star polyp about a week ago. My lfs said I have everything right - the right lighting, salinity, etc.
It did very well for a few days, then started growing brown algae. The algae is choking it out. It won't open, it's starting to die, etc.
My lfs said to give it an iodine bath and place it directly under my powerheads to try to force the algae off.
There's so much algae, though, that all it's doing is damaging the coral. The algae's not coming off.
Does anyone have any ideas? Is there anything I can do to save the coral and get the algae off, or is it pretty much guaranteed to die?

 

[fishgeek01]

First off welcome to the boards... As far as your question, i would put it in a higher flow area, but not directly in the way of your powerhead. The thing about algae is that you need to figure out why you have it in the first place, getting it off this particular coral may be the question at hand, but the bigger picture says that something is not quite right with your tank. I would have you lfs do a check on your tanks water for phosphates, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, calcium, salinity, and dkh (hardness) and ph. Unless you have the test kits then you can do it. Let us know what your tanks parameters are at and maybe we can help you solve the big picture problem, typically it is from over feeding, (what kind and how many fish do you have) lights being on to long, to many additives, not enough water changes, etc. What size is your tank, what do you have for substrate (sand or cc) How many lbs of rock, what type of filters and skimmer, these are all things we should know in order to help you with your algae problem.

 

[cannonman]

Green stars don't like Iodine, I think a "bath" in it would almost certainly kill it.

 

[aztec reef]

did you had algea before buying coral? if not have you been doing anything differently lately? like increased feeding, increase or upgrade lights,additives? is this your first and only coral? did the coral looked healhty when you bought it?

 

[tjohnson139]

I have a 50-gal bow-front, only 20 pounds of live rock right now, cc substrate, have a 30-gallon refugium set up (caulerpa, miracle mud, etc) for the filtration system, a SeaClone 100 protein skimmer, two power-heads, a 192-watt CF lighting system with daylight, actinic lights and moon-light LEDs.
I have four Chromis and two Clowns, about 5 hermit crabs, 5 snails and a Sally Light-foot crab.
I leave the lights on for 12 hours (that may be too long...I don't know).
I was over-feeding, but the day I got the coral, my lfs told me I was feeding too much, so since I've had the coral, I only feed a small amount every day.
I have a test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. I tested the tank on Wednesday. They're all at 0. My ph is at 8.0. My lfs tested my salinity and said it's perfect - between 1.024 and 1.025. We haven't tested anything else.
I did have a small amount of algae before buying the coral. My lfs said my tank is so new, it was normal - part of the cycles. My substrate was covered in it at one time. It's not anymore and wasn't at the time I bought the coral. The glass gets a little bit on it about once a week that I have to clean off. Other than that, no. I haven't seen algae this thick anywhere on my tank before (other than the refugium).
The coral looked really healthy when I bought it and for the first few days I had it. It was almost completely open for several days.
I didn't use any additives before. Now I add iodine at the advise of my lfs.
I try to change my water about once a month (I've heard with a refugium I don't have to do it that often).
Thanks again for your help.

 

[tjohnson139]

So, I just talked with my lfs. They said to only run the light 5 to 6 hours a day. Is that long enough? Will that solve the problem?

 

[aztec reef]

yeah that could be the prob. if they run they're lights for six hrs and you run them for 12 thats twice and a little of overfeeding and iodine adding.that will cause algea.
imo 6 hrs are'nt enuf. i run mine 9hrs mh 10 hrs actinics,(i wont run lights less than 8hrs)but thats me. i'm not supplement frienly, also i try not to overfeed, and i do weekly water changes.
you can try reducing lighting period a few hrs and don't overfeed . i would also do a 25%-30% waterchange. and stay away from iodine for awhile.