Another dang algae question...

[dacia]

Wow. It's been a couple of years since I posted. But, then again, my tank has been diong wonderful since then...until recently. Here's what I have:
55 gallon reef tank with 30 gallon sump/fuge under the 55 in the stand
ASM-g1 skimmer in the sump
2 Maxi-jet 900 powerheads in the main tank on each end (there was a third in the middle of the tank, but it conked out on me and I haven't replaced it yet)
Lifereef overflow with Magdrive return (I think it is a 500, but it's been so long since I've looked at it...)
My ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0 and my ph is 8.2. The temp stays around 80 24/7. My lights are 4x65W 10,000k white and 2x65 actinic 03 which stay on 9 hours a day and some moonlights on the rest of the time.
---My fish: 2 percs, 1 tomato clown, 1 purple pseudochromis
---My corals: finger leather, lots of green and purple shrooms, colt, green star polyps, ricordias, red button polyps
---I also have a red tree sponge, lots of white sponges that have just "appeared," something that looks like a red plant that just "appeared," a green brittle starfish, cleaner shrimp, tons and tons of little snails (they're multiplying!!!), lots of little unidentified starfish (I think they hitchhiked on the rocks), and a couple of blue legged hermits...I haven't seen my other hermits or little green crab lately, so I'm guessing they are dead??
---I also have a couple of damsels in the fuge with a handful of macros that are not flourishing like I had hoped...
Here's the problem:
My rocks are getting brown tint to them...my sand is getting covered in brown algae...I have to scrape walls with a razor blade to get the hard calcareous green algae off everyday...and my colt coral seems to be shrinking...
SO: How do I get rid of this problem? How big of a water change, how frequent??? Do I scrub the rocks, or will that crap die off eventually with the tips you are about to give me? Anything that I can buy which will eat the crud off the sand (I'm tired of scraping it and cleaning it everyday)?
Thanks for the help!!!

 

[teen]

are you using RO/DI water?
how deep is your sand bed?
what do you feed your fish and how often?
whats your water change schedule/ last time you did a water change?
what are your nitrates and phosphates at?
sounds like a nutrient problem to me. your tank sounds mature which could be a bad thing if you dont have a really deep sand bed. could also be due to the fact that you lost a powerhead. any pics of the algae?

 

[jchmiel]

One thing is that, maybe something died. Check your phos and nitrates. Maybe something is rotting in a corner.

 

[dacia]

I am using RO/DI water. My sandbed is about 2-5 inches deep, depending on the area you are looking at (my fish and starfish constantly push the sand around so the bed has hills rather than being flat like it started out). The fish eat Formula 1 flakes once a day when the lights come on. I'm not sure about the other nutrient levels. I'm going to run out and get test kits after I eat lunch, because I am sure the levels of nitrate and phosphate are probably high since I am seeing the brown crud. I normally do water changes once a month, and it will be due May 1. They are small water changes, though (like 5 gallons or so).
I just took a toothbrush to the rocks, and the brown algae easily came off. I don't have a digital camera, but I might be able to borrow one later today to show you the pictures of the crud.
Any suggestions?

 

[teen]

do a 15 gallon water change may 1st and try and siphon out as much of this algae out as possible while doing the water change. get it off all the rocks and try and siphon out any other junk you see on the sand bed.
id also suggest replacing the powerhead you lost and checking the phosphate and nitrate levels.

 

[dacia]

10-4, will do. I'll probably do the water change this afternoon, though. I'm tired of cleaning the crud everyday.

 

[mr. limpid]

I would also check your protein skimmer is working prop.. This would cause a high protein in the tank which would cause alge growth. good luck

 

[dacia]

Originally Posted by Mr. Limpid
I would also check your protein skimmer is working prop.. This would cause a high protein in the tank which would cause alge growth. good luck
I do have a question about that---my protein skimmer gets a lot of green liquid from the tank, not the coveted "foam" unless you count the fact that it "foams" to the top then liquifies in the cup. Anyway, don't know what to call it, but the pipe beside the skimmer that you can raise or lower (it's beside the larger assembly, not inside the skimmer itself) which has water flowing through it...hope you know what I am talking about...exactly how high should it be for the best performance? And another question I have is this: how high should be water level be in the sump compared to the skimmer assembly for best performance? I know my skimmer is working, but I'd like to get it working at its best ability.

 

[dacia]

Oh, and another thing...do you think that I have too much light for the tank? It's 390 W of PC total which is approx. 7.9 wpg. Too much for softies and some LPS? I want to get a bubble, brain, etc, when the algae problem subsides and everything is back under control.

 

[dacia]

And should I get a bigger cleaner crew? How many of what? I'm not sure what kinds of snails I have (there are lots and lots of little babies that are too young for me to ID right now) but I'm low in the crab department and only have 1 shrimp (a cleaner).

 

[teen]

the skimmer should only foam in the neck. the foam then runs into the cup and turns into that green/ borwn liquid. the water in your sump should be as high as your skimme rneeds it to be. as long as your getting gunk in your skimmer collection cup, your probably fine.
you dont have too much light. you'll be fine with a bubble coral and brain, both need to be spot fed though. you can keep any lps and softy imo.
i personally like nassarius snails. they clean the sand bed and the glass. i have turbos as well, but there clumsy and knock stuff over. a persian sand conch would be a nice addition too. he should keep your sand bed nice and clean. i find that most crabs have the ability to pick at corals, even if there considered reef safe, so i stay away from all of them.

 

[dacia]

OK, I went out and bought some test kits. The phosphate is between .25 and .50, which is not perfect, but not as high as I suspected. On the other hand...the nitrate level is embarrassingly high. I am going to perform a 16 gallon water change tonight (the water is mixing now). Should I be doing water changes each day, or just once a week until it gets better? I also bought a couple of handfuls of caulerpa which is sitting in my sump/fuge right now.
I'm just really upset

about one of my percs. I took the guards off the powerheads to clean them...and when I went to put them back, one of my percs was face up into the PH intake.

I cut the power off and he swam away from it...but he's got bruising on his face and it looks like the thing sucked his eyes so hard they are protruding...

I've never had that happen before when I cleaned the powerheads! I don't know how long he was there, but I know it was less than 30 minutes (that's how long I had the guard off of the bottom. I hope he's OK!!!

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by Dacia
OK, I went out and bought some test kits. The phosphate is between .25 and .50,
.25ppm phos will retard coral growth. Introduce a phosphate magnet along with your water changes.
Also keep in mind that your high phos level is after absorbtion by your algae, so your levels are really high.

 

[dacia]

So how do I fix it? I bought my macros today, and will be doing a 16 gallon water change, but how often til it's better should I change the water? And is 16 gallons enough (I have around 75 total gallons with tank and sump, 55 tank)?

 

[socal57che]

Condition didn't occur overnight, so don't be too concerned with having instant changes in water condition. Better to do several small water changes than a few large ones. 10 gal every 3 days until parameters are in check should be fine. Start using a phosphate magnet like phosban and change it every water change to maximize it's ability to remove phosphates. Decrease your feeding to every other day and switch to frozen meaty foods that don't contain vegetation (phosphates) for a while.

 

[discusking]

The brown algae that is forming in your tank is most likely some sort of dianoflagelle. If you havent added any more bioload to your aquarium, the sudden "bloom" is most likely due to excessive amounts of silicone, and/or phosphates in the water. This excess nutrients was mostly likely introduced via top off water or possibly contaminated salt water. Since the problem is mostly likely from your water source, doing more water changes will just exaserbate the problem. The best thing to do is to get phosphozorb, which absorbs phosphates, nitrates, and silicon. This will provide you will some temporary relief, but you need to isolate the source of the excess nutrients. Is there a plant hanging above your tank, because often times if some of the runoff from the plant was to get into your tank, then the fertilizer in the soil could cause an algae bloom. If it is in your tap water, use distilled or RO water to top your tank off. Good luck

 

[dacia]

I replaced the "dead" powerhead with an MJ 1200 (it was priced wrong in the LFS, so I got it for cheaper than the 900 I went there to get!), threw some extra macros in the refugium, and completed a 16 gallon water change.
I've already noticed some differences. I'm going to do a small water change every few days as was suggested and test the water daily. I'll look into the phosphozorb, too. I use RO/DI water for water changes and top-offs...and I have no house plants. :notsure: Maybe the extra nutrients are coming from the fish food? Could I be feeding them too much? Should I replace the light bulbs?
Maybe the problem was that previous water changes were too little and too infrequent?
At least that hurt perc seems to be OK. He was stressed out earlier, but he seems to be OK...hurt, but surviving.

 

[teen]

the p04 is most likely from the food your feeding the fish. did you use any base rock in your tank?
a phosphate reactor is pretty cheap, around $50, its usually the phosban that gets exppensive in the long run.
how old are your bulbs?

 

[dacia]

I didn't use any base rock. I just made my seascape of live Fiji rocks on top of my sandbed (which is mostly Southdown, seeded with a handful of live sand). I am thinking of buying those 200 copepods from this website with some nassarius snails to take care of the detritus. I believe that all those babies that I have are astreas. If I'm not mistaken, they are algae eaters, not detritus eaters.
The bulbs are about a year old now. Probably overdue for new ones? I'm not sure how often to change them.
Maybe a dumb NooB question, but would a phosphate reactor help at all with the nitrates?
My ammonia and nitrite are at 0. My pH was low this morning, but it is normal now (8.2). Temp is currently at 80. I think my calcium is a little low, but it may be a bad test kit. I have the API kit. It read 320 both before and after adding a little Turbo Calcium...so I did a small water change (6 gallons) just in case it was a bad test kit and I didn't need the Turbo.
Thanks for the help! And, my little clownfish is doing much better today. Still looks like it hurts, though, but he's swimming around and eating.

 

[bonebrake]

Have you ever replaced your RO/DI filter cartridges? The filter cartridges are only good for about a year and the RO membrane only lasts 2-3 years. What is the TDS of your fresh RO/DI water?
:notsure: