Need help with my tank…bad algae bloom

[kaijor]

So, I went to visit some family for a month and had someone working at my LFS help me with my reef tank. Unfortunately, when I came back to my apartment, my reef tank was a complete mess (probably need to restart potentially).

Tank: 32 Biocube
Livestock:
2 Clownfish
1 Snowflake Eel (small)

Nutrients:
PH 8.1
Alk 6.7
Nitrate: 8.1
Phosphate 0.3

Just a note, I do have a protein skimmer but it was off for some reason when I got home. I still don’t think it explains the algae bloom completely. One thing I did to help is add a refugium to the tank. Anybody have any other recommendations for how I might recover? Also, anyone have any idea what type of algae is present in my tank? I can get some photos under a microscope on Saturday if that is necessary, please let me know.

 

[Pickle_soup]

I want to say dino, but at the same time, some of it looks like hair which doesn't make much sense since they both thrive under different conditions. Looking at your parameters, I would say dinos. But don't quote me on it.

 

[kaijor]

I want to say dino, but at the same time, some of it looks like hair which doesn't make much sense since they both thrive under different conditions. Looking at your parameters, I would say dinos. But don't quote me on it.

I’ll try to get some of the algae under a microscope to see if I can get some pictures. For the time being, any suggestions for what to do?

 

[BanZI29]

Start hand picking it off. that will help. maybe then remove the rocks, put them in a bin of salt water and use a tooth brush to get rid of as much as possible. I did that when I got a hair algae outbreak and it worked.
scrap your glass and physically take it out of the tank.

 

[Garf]

Anybody have any other recommendations for how I might recover?

Looks like a good old fashion cleaning session is in order.

 

[kaijor]

Sounds good that’s what I’m planning to do this weekend.

So here’s a microscopic pic. I’m going to get a better pic tomorrow as the microscope I used wasn’t so great.

 

[kaijor]

Here’s some better pictures of the algae under a microscope. Anyone know what it might be?

 

[Subsea]

Nutrient management comes in many forms. I choose to use nutrient recycling into desirable biomass. Your present hair/dino algae biomass is undesirable, so clean it up with vacuuming and partial water changes.

For long range stability, I suggest adding an algae refugium with activated carbon to remove DOC or better a cryptic refugium that process DOC into food for the microbial loop.

In all cases, increasing biodiversity with diver collected live rock & live sand will maximize stability in your ecosystem.

 

[kaijor]

Nutrient management comes in many forms. I choose to use nutrient recycling into desirable biomass. Your present hair/dino algae biomass is undesirable, so clean it up with vacuuming and partial water changes.

For long range stability, I suggest adding an algae refugium with activated carbon to remove DOC or better a cryptic refugium that process DOC into food for the microbial loop.

In all cases, increasing biodiversity with diver collected live rock & live sand will maximize stability in your ecosystem.

When you say Algae Refugium, you mean like a macro-algae refugium? And do you have any reading on cryptic refugium? Also, what type of live rock would you recommend like from what vendor?

 

[kaijor]

I did clean the reef tank this weekend it's looking a lot better. I also added new GFO (BRS) 8 tbls and ROX 0.8 Carbon (3.2 Tbls) to the tank. I did notice that the algae growing back rather quickly. So here are my new parameters:
Nitrates: 34.6
Alk: 7.1
Phosphate: 0.49
Calcium: 543
PH: 8.1

It looks like my nitrates are quite elevated now. I did have one fish die after I did the cleaning for some reason (I think it was already sick most likely).

I just dosed following:

• MicroBacter7: 6.4 ml
• Reef BioFuel 3.2 ml

One of the things that I'm worried about is that the saltwater I'm getting from my LFS is low in terms of salinity 1.023 and it seems to have a rather high TDS (I forget the exact measure, +100 I believe). I'm thinking of going to another LFS in my area for saltwater to see if that might help some. I was wondering if there is anything else that I can do?