anemone small, tank cloudy, algae everywhere

[sly]

Title pretty much says it all. I don't know what's going on. I've had an outbreak of brown hair algae in my tank. My nitrates, nitrites, ammonia are all 0 with pH 8.3 and temp 82. SG is 1.023.
I've kept cleaning out the prefilters and I'm running ozone in my skimmer. My filtered water is clean. I just bought a new element for it to make sure.
Two days ago I did nearly a 100% water change. I scrubbed my rocks with a toothbrush to remove algae and vaccumed the substrate heavily. I threw in two big bags of carbon as well.
Now 2 days later I have brown hair algae all over the place again. My feather duster is not wanting to open much, the anemone is shriveled although its color still looks good. The snails are not eating much and some want to stay flipped up on their backs.
I thought I might have a problem with bad silicon poisoning the water so I removed my fuge for awhile and reglued it with aquarium silicon. I haven't put in back in the system yet but I still am getting a massive buildup of brown algae again.
It's covering my coralline completely and forming thick blankets on the substrate.
I don't know what to do. I just spent $80 on Instant Ocean salt, new water filter, and carbon.

 

[lionfish12]

i think the 100% water change may of bothered the anemone. When i had mine a 10% water change made him go nuts.

 

[sly]

It was already having problems before I did the water change. It opened up a little more this morning than it did the night before I did the water change.
Is it possible that the anemone could cause hair algae to grow everywhere if it is dying? Or is the hair algae causing the anemone to die? Which comes first?
I don't know what is causing this algae. I have 390 watts of PC lighting and the bulbs are only a few months old. I have the lights on for about 14 hrs a day. I'm going to reduce it to about 10 or 8 and see what happens. But I've had my lights on at 14 hrs all year long and not had a problem until now.
Maybe I should leave my lights on for 24 hrs and maybe hope that the algae will choke itself out.. I don't know...

 

[sly]

Here's a pic of the anemone. It's not wanting to open up all the way and is of course laying on its side. It's a little blurry...
I wonder if changing my lighting time will do anything. I'm hoping that the algae will kill itself off. Maybe if I left the lights on 24 hrs it would burn off quicker. Any ideas?
I just fed it today and it did seem to eat. It just doesn't want to open under these conditions. :notsure:

 

[sly]

I turned off the lights early tonight. I'm going to run them on 8 hour cycles for a few days and see how things progress. If things don't get any better or if there's no change, I'm going to run them at 24hrs. However I don't believe that lighting is the problem.
I don't have any way to prove it, but my biggest bet is that the silicon I used weeks ago stressed the environment. I did a major water change and removed the silicon but I still have the same results. I'm kind of wondering if the anemone could be releasing anything that could be causing this algae outbreak. They seem to have happened at the same time and so I don't really have any evidence to believe that the anemone caused this.
If there were silicon poisoning then it's likely that I will just have to suffer through the die-off until things recover. The only thing I don't understand is what is feeding this brown algae? If something did poison the tank, wouldn't it affect the algae also? Is, perhaps, the algae feeding off the poison and would it eventually absorb it?
I'm going to keep removing any surface slime and I will continuously keep the prefilters clean. I'm going to keep the ozone on and the skimmer tuned to produce a wet foam.
I guess this thread has become more of an online journal. I'll keep you posted on what happens and I welcome any ideas or insight anyone can provide.

 

[sly]

Ok, I've decided to keep the lights on 24hrs/day for a few days. The anemone is looking worse while the feather duster is looking better. I still have brown algae and clouds of haze in the tank.
My current theory is that bad silicon poisoned the anemone and now it is slowly dieing and causing the water to be cloudy and is encouraging the algae to grow. I'm wondering if I pull the anemone out and let it die if that will clean up the water. I haven't seen anything smoky come out of the anemone's mouth but its foot is still covered in stringy stuff.
If anyone knows more about anemones let me know, or else I'm going to take it out and let it die since I don't have any place to put it and since I can't find ANY explanation for this sudden outbreak.
I'm still desperately looking for help! Anyone?

 

[reefraff]

Did you use silicone that wasn't labeled for aquarium use? There are some that have chemicals to kill meldew that could poison a tank. Are you running any carbon? I would start running carbon if you aren't already or put new in. the water change should help if you did poison the tank but it may not save you. I hope that isn't what happened.

 

[timg]

How old are your lights? They could be causing the outbreak of algae if they changed spectrum due to age

 

[sly]

Thanks for the replys. I used 100% silicon at first in my refugium. It is Loctite brand "clear silicon sealant" part no. 80242. It does not say "antimildew" or anything on the label. I checked the material data safety sheet and all it showed on it was 3 types of silicon and it noted that it releases acetic acid whild curing. I'm not sure if the silicon was even a problem but I scraped it off and put on some certified aquarium silicon instead and I've let it cure for 2 full days before putting it back in line with my tank.
I have put some carbon in already. Thanks. What's in there now was put in 2 days ago.
The lights are probably 3-4 months old. I just bought new retrofits off ----. They are all 50-50 bulbs.
What I don't understand is despite all this, all my water paremeters are still perfect. I'm showing no trace ammonia, nitrate or nitrite. My pH is holding stable at 1.023 also.:notsure:
I've never had any problems with my tank. This is the first time anything like this has happened. I don't know what to make of it. I'm just about exhausted from cleaning it lately. This has been going on for about 2 weeks. I'm just going to leave the lights on 24hrs and let the algae grow like heck. Whatever's going on, the algae is eating it so I'm going to let it.
One other thing... My fish are doing perfect. They are all eating normal and I haven't noticed any changes in behavior at all. It just looks like someone frosted my glass because the water's so cloudy...:notsure:

 

[lionfish12]

The anemone is POOPING. When ever he has that brown ring around him hes just pooping. The get very small when they poop.

 

[viper_930]

Originally posted by lionfish12
The anemone is POOPING. When ever he has that brown ring around him hes just pooping. The get very small when they poop.
It shoulding be doin this for THAT long. No more than 1 hour IME. And I have never seen the brown ring when it takes a dump either.

 

[sly]

My tank was doing perfect until my fuge developed a leak in it. It was the second time I repaired the leak and so I threw the fuge away. It was a simple 10gal aquarium. I have 10 mangroves in it.
When I took the fuge out of the system I put the mangroves in a bucket under the light until I could add a new fuge.
About a week past and then I glued a plexiglass wall in my new fuge with the loctite silicon. I let it cure overnight and then I filled it up with water and put my mangroves in it and put it back in the system.
About a week later I started getting some brown algae growth. It wasn't much at first and I didn't think much of it. I bought a blue hippo tang and it mysteriously died 3 days later. Meanwhile the algae kept spreading. It got so bad that I vaccumed the substrate and lightly cleaned the rocks with a toothbrush. I also put in some carbon. The next day the algae was back. A few days later I took down my fuge again, wondering if it was the silicon. I scraped the fuge clean and glued it back with aquarium silicon and let it cure for 2 days. I also drained the tank almost completely down and vacummed the substrate heavily (I use crushed coral about an inch deep). I cleaned the powerheads and the rocks. I filled it up with fresh saltwater and the next day I saw a light dusting of brown algae again. Two days later is was getting thick again and starting to blanket the rocks and the substrate. I'm getting thick oxygen bubbles forming on the surface of the algae.
All the while my anemone has been looking bad and my feather duster would not open much. Now the anemone still looks bad and is covered in strings but the feather duster has been opening up more. It's feathers are smoothing out also, where previously they looked wilted. The snails still aren't moving around much and some just want to stay on their back.
I keep getting a film on the surface of the water and the prefilters need cleaning almost daily from sludge. The skimmer is filling up much more now with dark green skim. I have bioballs in my wet dry which I have not done anything to. I still have the 10 mangroves and they all look great.
The only other thing I can note is that about a month ago I put in some nylon mesh in my fuge for water to flow over. This was before I started having problems. I put it there to grow algae to act as an algae scrubber filter. It didn't do much until I started getting the brown algae problem, then it became completely covered with brown algae. I have since removed it from my fuge.
Another thing I noticed is that when I first started getting brown algae, my pH had dropped to 8.0 from 8.3. I put in some Kent additive like I normally do and it raised the pH back up and increased the alk. But it wasn't dissolving completely. I have 2 solutions that I mix into the water but one of them caused white "flakes" of mineral to form on the water's surface. This was different in that normally it mixes into the water. I used this stuff maybe a month earlier and it dissolved fine. :notsure: I thought that maybe the pH had dropped too low for it to mix well but since I've refilled my tank, I tried to add just a little to the water and it did the same thing. It did not want to dissolve. I use Kent tech CB formula. I have also dosed with iodine and iron also but not in a while...

 

[flipper263]

did your water smell bad?
This sounds very similar to what was happening in my tank. I have an anemone as well...and thought it had died and contaminated the tank. In fact I would have bet money on that since we couldn't see the anemone for a few days. Snails falling off the glass and staying on their backs as well. I had a diatom bloom and the water smelled awful! I did a 25% water change. (did all water tests before the change and the only thing that was a bit high was the nitrates at 20)
After my first water change things got a bit better...but still diatoms....did another change of 10% a few days later and vaccumed the substrate and the water is crystal clear right now and things look ok.
Curious if anyone knows what happened so I will be following your thread closely.
Brenda

 

[thomas712]

Sly, I'll read the rest later, don't have time for a detailed read right now.
First, its clear that your anemone is unhappy. Lets take a look at the major complaint.
1. Brown hair algae. In its simplist form we can say that you have a nutrient problem.
2. It could also be complicated by old lighting that has lost its spectrum.
3. It could be that you did to much to the tank at once.
a. 100% water change
b. possiblility that you disturbed the bacteria base
c. also vaccuming heavy might have released more nutrients to foul the water column and your anemone isn't pleased with this either.
4. Running the lighting 14 hours a day isn't going to solve your algae problem only promote it.
5. Perhaps an ozone problem.
I agree with the carbon, just change it after a couple days after the first batch.
I would cut back that lighting to 10 hours per day, and get new bulbs.
When ever you feed your tank and critters there may be just enough nitrates and phosphates in that food to continue to feed that algae. Examin what you are feeding and ways to reduce possible introduction of those fertilizers.
It sounds like your tank may be suffering from being unstable right now. Sometimes less is more, maintain water quality, and chemistry and let it take its course.
If sand substrate then take a good look to make sure that you have the proper infauna necessary to maintain the sandbed. If crushed coral let me know so I can yell at you. <grin>.
Get back with you later.
Thomas

 

[sly]

Thanks everybody.
Tecofish- Yes I'm using Instant Ocean. I had been using Coralife Salt but switched to Instant Ocean when I did the water change. I don't have a test kit for mag or calc. I haven't been able to find one yet. Do you know of a good seller for these kits? (Jesuitson@hotmail.com)
I had the diatom bloom before I did anything to the tank, other than adding my fuge back to the system which is only 10 gals. I did the water change after the bloom happened.
Flipper263- Yes the water started smelling awful. But it has been getting better the past few days.
Thomas712- go ahead and yell at me. I'm using CC. BUT... I have it very shallow and I stir it every week or so so keep it clean from ditrius. I haven't had any problem with this method in 2 years. I don't really think that the CC had anything to do with it. I left the ozone off for about a week and there was no difference so I turned it back on. I'm going to just keep the prefilters cleaned out daily and fresh carbon added and let the tank run its course. I'm also not going to dose with anything else until I get my test kits.
I left my lights on last night and was surprised this morning that the substrate was looking cleaner. The anemone has opened up more than yesterday. I've been cleaning the strings off it regularly. The water is still very hazy. It looks like billowing clouds rolling in the tank. But the brown algae has gone down some.
I'm taking pictures along the way. Then at the end I can show what progress (or regress

) has taken place.

 

[reefraff]

Sly
I have a couple of articles from a magazine explaining what Tecofish was saying, one about ALK and CA and how to correct problems with them and not throw your PH off and another about how to correct PH without messing up ALK and CA. I can't link them so if you pop me your e-mail address I'll send them to you if your interested.
What are your ALK and Ca levels? Your mangroves were in a sandbed? if you stirred that up you may have released a lot of junk into the water.

 

[sly]

Maybe it was a huge chemical instability that caused this. When I added the silicon to the first fuge my pH DID drop. I didn't catch it for a few days. Maybe the system became unstable from the silicon releasing acetic acid in the water and was no longer able to stay buffered and things just kept precipitating.
After I did the massive water change, I haven't dosed with anything since.
The mangroves were not in a bed. They were suspended in water with styrofoam.
I would greatly appreciate those articles. This is perhaps something that was building up over time and when the pH dropped it caused everthing to go out of whack. (jesuitson@hotmail.com)

 

[a short]

reefraff, Can you email me the articls also?
shortcory@aol.com
I am trying to understand this chemistry thing better also.
Thanks

 

[a short]

Sly hope everything works out with your tank. We work so hard to do everything right and then stuff like this happens!

I am from Rogersville originally just down the road a bit I have a 72 bow front also, well mine is a marineland and it says the tank is 80 gal but maybe they are counting the sump in that number? We plan on moving back to Kingsport in the future and I don't look foward to moving my 3 tanks. Good to see people on here from "back home"

 

[sly]

I left the lights on for 24 hrs and it looks like the diatoms and brown algae have tapered off. The substrate is looking very good now. Now the only problem is that the water is EXTREMELY hazy. The anemone is laying on its side still but is not deteriorating any. I fed it again yesterday to try to help it through this mess.
Another problem that I had was that I could clean the glass and within just a few hours it would be coated with algae. This problem has gone away also. Now I get a light white haze on the glass after a few days but not nearly as much as previously.
I've been rinsing my prefilters daily and emptying my skimmer cup also. The skimmer has really been producing the skim lately. It looks like whatever it is, the algae and the skimmer are removing. :joy: