Extremely fast algae growth in glass…for no reason?

[vetteguy53081]

What's funny is my tangs and angel fish follow the scraper on the glass. They eat the algae I scrape off the glass as I scrape it. I've almost smacked my fish a couple times with the scraper. They want every morsal I scrape off. They think it's feeding time.... If only they ate it off the glass...

Mine too LOL. the Flipper edge shave the algae in strips and the tangs are there to gobble it up

 

[tigre44]

I have the same problem in 2 days can hardly see thru the glass. I just scrap it off I think the clam and corals must love it as my growth rates are amazing

 

[John Bolden]

For algae scrappers what is best because I have a flipper nano and it barely puts a dent in it.

 

[Treefer32]

For algae scrappers what is best because I have a flipper nano and it barely puts a dent in it.

The only scraper I've found works well, but requires frequent blade replacement since it's so thin: It's this one.
However, the scraper tends to break at the screw points where it screws together. For a nano you could probably get a shorter one of the same brand and it would probably work very well. These are glass only scrapers. Trust me when I say I've tried a lot of scrapers. It seems the blades are never sharp enough to scrape hardened film algae. The blades for this scraper work great on tough to get off algae. Just that the blades usually are good for 1-2 scrapings. (at least on my tank they are.)

I wish there were sharp wide blades for large tanks with large glass panes. Using a 3" long blade on a 31" tall 6ft wide pane of glass takes forever. I'd love a 6 or even 10" wide blade on a handle. I'd clean my glass way more often!

 

[MnFish1]

The only scraper I've found works well, but requires frequent blade replacement since it's so thin: It's this one.
However, the scraper tends to break at the screw points where it screws together. For a nano you could probably get a shorter one of the same brand and it would probably work very well. These are glass only scrapers. Trust me when I say I've tried a lot of scrapers. It seems the blades are never sharp enough to scrape hardened film algae. The blades for this scraper work great on tough to get off algae. Just that the blades usually are good for 1-2 scrapings. (at least on my tank they are.)

I wish there were sharp wide blades for large tanks with large glass panes. Using a 3" long blade on a 31" tall 6ft wide pane of glass takes forever. I'd love a 6 or even 10" wide blade on a handle. I'd clean my glass way more often!

The Flipper wood magnet scrapers work well as well IMHO

 

[Ironfish]

Hi there! I’m actually kind of stumped when it comes to this situation and it’s something I’ve never dealt with in over two decades of reefing. Since transferring over to this system (almost two years ago) I’ve, for the most part, been dealing with very fast algae growth on the glass. Now, it’s not a major issue as it’s easily solved by scraping the glass but it’s not exactly fun maintenance. This is what the glass looks after about two days:

Now, you’re probably thinking that this guy just needs to get his nutrients in check but believe me, I’ve tried that. I generally run my systems at about No3: 5-10 and Po4: 0.04 - 0.07. I’ve also tried driving the nutrients down to zero (both on accident and by purpose) to the point where corals have started showing severe stress without it making any difference. I’ve also tried running my levels higher if, for some strange reason, HIGHER nutrients would help. Nothing.

My ICP tests generally come back without nothing major out of whack, perhaps some low traces from time to time and one time bromine was fairly high which I chalk up to a testing error. No high silicates or anything like that.

Other information is that I run both a 110w UV and a 200mg/h ozone unit (controlled by my profilux) that draws in to my bubble king supermarin 250. These factors should also help to reduce film algae growth as when it’s scraped off and goes in to the water column it should be nuked by the UV/ozone. I’ve also tried turning both off to see if I might be keeping the water a bit TO clean and that had a negative effect for some reason…still nope!

Next up was lighting but since I run two different tank on the same system with vastly different lighting setups and spectrums but that ain’t it.
Oh and I’m not feeding any live phyto or anything like that.

Under similar conditions in the past I'm used to maybe scraping the glass once a week just because…but could probably have stretched it to two.

So…I don’t get it is there something obvious I’m to stupid to see?

Ive been dealing with the same exact issue. (Even did in my older system)
1000 lt system with Phosphates in the 0.05 to 0.08 range and Nitrate around 15 but working on lowering it and keeping it below 10.
I also run a UV, a ReefMat, ozone through my Bubble King and on top of it I have an algae scrubber with the photoperiod at night.
And algae grows back in 2 days.
I just assume everyone had to clean their glass every other day

Thanks for sharing your tank journey. It definitely was a huge inspiration for my tank!

 

[Ironfish]

I was in the same boat months ago and this worked wonders.

Ill give this a try as well.
Thanks!

 

[Ironfish]

What's funny is my tangs and angel fish follow the scraper on the glass. They eat the algae I scrape off the glass as I scrape it. I've almost smacked my fish a couple times with the scraper. They want every morsal I scrape off. They think it's feeding time.... If only they ate it off the glass...

My tangs and angels do the exact same thing!

 

[JAMSOURY]

How’s your return/turnover flow rate from your sump?

I used to run mine on low, just because it’s quiet, but I have increased it and am now running my return pump at 80%. I’ve noticed a difference on build up. My glass seems to go a little bit longer than usual without the cleaning. Might be worth a try if you think your return flow is on low!

 

[UMALUM]

Ill give this a try as well.
Thanks!

I started an every other day treatment to try and out compete a small cyano issue which it did nothing for but after two weeks my water clarity and glass was the cleanest it ever looked. I also ditched the magnet and started using a filter sock to clean the glass. Made sense to me to remove it instead of just scraping it back into the tank?

 

[ReeferTang44]

I hate to be that annoying guy that’s asking everyone for help quite often but if you guys have a minute can you look at my most recent post/threads about corals and the one I’m concerned about. I just would like some peace of mind if there going to be ok or if I need to do something then what do I need to do.

 

[Patx]

Depending on the light fixtures/type etc...
I try to keep my front glass "in the shade" the better I can.
Almost no green.
But every situation is different.

 

[Sneak]

Definitely something you want to research before implementing, but UV and H202 dosing have helped me not have to clean my glass for over a week at a time. UV is popular but H202 dosing is less popular. I did a small dose of .3ml per 10 gallons on a doser at night and that kept my glass clean.

 

[ninjamyst]

My 200g has the same issue. My phosphate dropped from 1.2 to 0.2 and still get film algae every 2 days. It's annoying and usually appears in center of the glass

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Not abnormal. Ive gone from every 4 days to 2 days and its film algae and you would think with all my tangs- It would be zero but not the case. I use the magnetic algae scrubber which takes all 2 minutes.

Well, it’s abnormal for me haha. I know that every tank is different and all that but this is way out of the norm from my previous experiences and I figure there has to be a reason for the different outcome.
Like I’ve ran 6500k halides in the past with much higher nutrients and the growth of film algae is way faster in this tank than I’ve ever experienced in the past.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Ive been dealing with the same exact issue. (Even did in my older system)
1000 lt system with Phosphates in the 0.05 to 0.08 range and Nitrate around 15 but working on lowering it and keeping it below 10.
I also run a UV, a ReefMat, ozone through my Bubble King and on top of it I have an algae scrubber with the photoperiod at night.
And algae grows back in 2 days.
I just assume everyone had to clean their glass every other day

Thanks for sharing your tank journey. It definitely was a huge inspiration for my tank!

We seem to have fairly similar setups and the same outcome….I’m gonna go ahead and blame it on the bubbleking skimmer or something

Definitely something you want to research before implementing, but UV and H202 dosing have helped me not have to clean my glass for over a week at a time. UV is popular but H202 dosing is less popular. I did a small dose of .3ml per 10 gallons on a doser at night and that kept my glass clean.

I’m currently running a 110w UV and ozone. I have used peroxide ages ago and as it’s just another oxidizer I (should) be getting the same effect from running ozone. However, I’m a bit hazy on the specifics so it’s definitely something I’ll look in to again

One interesting tidbit is that I’ve generally struggled to keep my ORP at my preferred range of 375-390 in this tank. I’ve always chalked it up to me having a fairly high PH with the low point being 8.45ish. Perhaps there might be something else at play here?

 

[Jedi1199]

Glad you posted this thread actually, because I have the same darn issue. Scrape the glass in the morning, by evening its back. My old 55g never had this issue and it was placed in the exact same spot as my 135. The flipper works to a small degree but this stuff is like glue. I really need to get in there and scrape it by hand at least a couple times a week.

 

[RelaxingWithTheReef]

I recently had a similar issue. For the longest time I would scrape the glass, and the glass would be fouled the next day. The color of the growth concerned me as it was not green, but a pale white / brown color. Finally I took a scrape, and examined the sample under the microscope. Turns out it was a small cell dinoflagellate causing the problem. The rest of the tank appeared normal except for some lack of SPS color, poor growth, and some unexplained acro tissue loss. But no brown patches, snot or bubbles, etc. Turned on a 1 watt/gallon UV installed on the sump return with about a 5x turnover, and fortunately the problem immediately went away. Now the glass requires cleaning every couple days, and the growth is greenish. Under the microscope the growth is identified as primarily single cell algae and diatoms. The corals are also much happier now.

I was concerned with hitting the tank with such a high level of UV, but there is no question the UV is having a very positive effect on this tank.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I recently had a similar issue. For the longest time I would scrape the glass, and the glass would be fouled the next day. The color of the growth concerned me as it was not green, but a pale white / brown color. Finally I took a scrape, and examined the sample under the microscope. Turns out it was a small cell dinoflagellate causing the problem. The rest of the tank appeared normal except for some lack of SPS color, poor growth, and some unexplained acro tissue loss. But no brown patches, snot or bubbles, etc. Turned on a 1 watt/gallon UV installed on the sump return with about a 5x turnover, and fortunately the problem immediately went away. Now the glass requires cleaning every couple days, and the growth is greenish. Under the microscope the growth is identified as primarily single cell algae and diatoms. The corals are also much happier now.

I was concerned with hitting the tank with such a high level of UV, but there is no question the UV is having a very positive effect on this tank.

Glad to hear that it worked out! Although I run a decent sized UV I haven’t, unfortunately, seen any real effect. I’ve gotten rid of Dinos with much lower wattage/liter than I’m running now but some strains could be more resistant I guess.
I’ll definitely scrape some of and put it under a microscope. Never occurred to me that it might be dinos.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

An update: I managed to crash my nutrients down to near undetectable due to me not realizing that my auto feeder had run empty (normally feed 4 times a day with a very healthy amount of pellets and flakes).
This basically coincided with my last post here.
I’ve had a bit of cyano in a couple of low flow spots and that just exploded over night. I remembered that I had a couple of bottles of chemiclean that I imported ages ago (not available in Europe) and never used as the problem solved itself with a lot of elbow grease.
However, life is very busy at the moment and I probably wouldn’t have the time to do it the “right way” and figured I’d give chemiclean a shot.
The cyano went away but lo and behold: during the treatment and about a week afterwards I basically had no growth on the glass. A section that I missed with the scraper also turned completely white.

However, another week passed and now the film on the glass is back and grows as quickly as it did before.

What gives?! This would point to the issue being bacterial but it looks just like the same regular film algae I’ve seen for over two decades. It also comes of in mats if I leave it alone for a while (like in the back wall) just like regular algae does.
And still, regardless if it’s bacteria or algae 110w of uv and 200mg/h of ozone should fry it lol.

Like I wrote before, it’s not really a huge issue. What bothers me is that I can’t figure out what’s going on.