Wolfinstien69
New Member
Around Feb of this year I started to have problems with algae. I did a bunch of research and tried several things such as reduced lighting, lighter feeding, increased clean up crew, and other things. Pretty much none of it worked so after months of trying I went the chemical rout and dosed with Reef Flux. As everyone stated it took 3 weeks to see results but it did help ..... until week 4 where the algae came back. It came back worse and brought cyno with it. So I had to do a cyno treatment. I was about ready to sell the tank.
After all this I then have a tank with no bacteria (good or bad) and plenty of algae. A neighbor of mine did a water test with his equipment and verified I was reading zero on nitrates and phosphates and all other parameters were in balance. He thought it might be Dino's so onto the next great idea - a blackout.
I did a massive tank cleaning, bought a uv filter and put it in the tank, and blacked out the tank for 4 days. During the blackout I would stick my hand in the tank and stir it up 2-3 times a day to encourage "stuff" to go through the UV and DIE DIE DIE. After 4 days I nervously removed the sheets and found my tank to be beautiful. I had white sand again and 90% of the algae was gone. I felt revived and successful. I was worried it would turn brown/red again in a few days as it had done in the past but to my surprise it went over a week with no problems. Until day 10. Day 10 had 2 small red spots on the sand and we were heading out of town so I couldn't do anything. My neighbor had some nitrate solution I could add to try and bring up nitrates. We were thinking due to no nitrates and no phosphates it brought in dino/diatoms. I brought the tank up to nitrates of 10 and phospates are still at zero. Unfortunately when I came back from vacation...... it sucked. Red/brown sand everywhere again.
Today I took a small sample under a microscope and what I saw looked like blood cells moving around. I think this is Dinos? Today I cleaned the tank to nice white sand and no joke, within 4 hours I had rather dense sections of red again. By tomorrow I guarantee it will look like I didn't even clean. Attached are photos of before the cleaning.
What is the best course of action to solve this once and for all?
Tank is 1.5 years old
90 gal
30 gal sump with chaeto
mixed reef tank with a variety of fish
water parameters are always within spec
After all this I then have a tank with no bacteria (good or bad) and plenty of algae. A neighbor of mine did a water test with his equipment and verified I was reading zero on nitrates and phosphates and all other parameters were in balance. He thought it might be Dino's so onto the next great idea - a blackout.
I did a massive tank cleaning, bought a uv filter and put it in the tank, and blacked out the tank for 4 days. During the blackout I would stick my hand in the tank and stir it up 2-3 times a day to encourage "stuff" to go through the UV and DIE DIE DIE. After 4 days I nervously removed the sheets and found my tank to be beautiful. I had white sand again and 90% of the algae was gone. I felt revived and successful. I was worried it would turn brown/red again in a few days as it had done in the past but to my surprise it went over a week with no problems. Until day 10. Day 10 had 2 small red spots on the sand and we were heading out of town so I couldn't do anything. My neighbor had some nitrate solution I could add to try and bring up nitrates. We were thinking due to no nitrates and no phosphates it brought in dino/diatoms. I brought the tank up to nitrates of 10 and phospates are still at zero. Unfortunately when I came back from vacation...... it sucked. Red/brown sand everywhere again.
Today I took a small sample under a microscope and what I saw looked like blood cells moving around. I think this is Dinos? Today I cleaned the tank to nice white sand and no joke, within 4 hours I had rather dense sections of red again. By tomorrow I guarantee it will look like I didn't even clean. Attached are photos of before the cleaning.
What is the best course of action to solve this once and for all?
Tank is 1.5 years old
90 gal
30 gal sump with chaeto
mixed reef tank with a variety of fish
water parameters are always within spec
