Prolonged issue …..

[ollzzz12]

Any advice as I feel like I’m fighting a loosing battle….

As you can see from the pictures I have a pretty bad GHA problem. It has been like this for a few months now (maybe longer) I’m picking out clumps weekly but it just keeps growing back, most of it is to small to grab with my fingers and scrubbing with a tooth brush doesn’t go to well.

Now it’s getting to the point it’s starting to affect my corals it’s kind of annoying me.

Tank is 2+ yrs old,130L (32g) , AI Blade lights on 12hr schedule including 1 hour ramp up/down)

I’d say it’s a medium to low flow tank I should add I am currently raising my nitrates with brightwell neonitro (aiming for 10-15ppm)

I feed a homemade frozen every other day now (consists of prawns, scallops, also mixed with marine feast frozen containing artemia, krill, chopped cockle and red plankton.,I also added green spirulina powder (as I was told a while ago this was great for coral growth) could it be the spirulina?

Filtration I run floss, rowaphos, carbon, purigen, and some chaeto (12hrs opposite light schedual)

I have plenty of algae eaters; lawnmower blenny, tux urchin, 10+ hermits, 5+ snails

I honestly don’t know what else to try.

My next steps are possibly a Kole Tang for a year or so untill it outgrows the tank.

Or very tempted to try brightwell razor & micro bactor clean, how ever I’ve heard these can take a toll on corals.

What are your guys thoughts?

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

So I’ve got a fluval flex 32g , originally had 2 stock fluval marine 3.0 in the lid. Could barely grow zoas on the bottom. So I added the blade into the middle. Corals seem happier now.
Blade has been in 4 months now.

But the algae problems existed before that. It just seems now growing faster then ever

So you already had nutrients in water the algae was using to grow. The prior lights werent doing well. Now you upgraded and because of the upgrade the algae is getting worse due to better lighting. Even reprogramming can increase growth. Ontop of which you were feeding and dosing to increase nutrients which further caused the algae issue.

So tank was running just fine till just prior to new lights when algae started growing. This maybe caused by a pocket or area of detritus/nutrient build up somewhere.

If you changed food whether brabd or type, it may contain more nutrients as well increasing the algae.

If running for couple years no issue and suddenly you have, something changed or something needs cleaning/replacement. Could be sandbed leaching nutrients. This is further aggrivated with increased added nutrients and better lighting.

I would start by lowering feeding and manually cleaning the gha out. Brush and airline tube will help syphon. This will take a long time. Run more blues and less white for a while if you can so there is less photosynthetic light for algae.corals will be fine.

You can also do as large of a water change you want but since no nutrients not much of a point. Just syphon around rock and such to see if there is anything lodged or built up. If you have never cleaned the sandbed. Do small areas at a time during waterchanges.

Disturbing entire sand bed at once can cause issues unless you fully remove and clean. I dont think your at this point nor recomend yet.

Basically did anything change or did you notice something just before algae took off. Even if its minor or you think unrelated. New product? New equipment, feeding, different items used or replaced etc?

 

[ollzzz12]

So you already had nutrients in water the algae was using to grow. The prior lights werent doing well. Now you upgraded and because of the upgrade the algae is getting worse due to better lighting. Even reprogramming can increase growth. Ontop of which you were feeding and dosing to increase nutrients which further caused the algae issue.

So tank was running just fine till just prior to new lights when algae started growing. This maybe caused by a pocket or area of detritus/nutrient build up somewhere.

If you changed food whether brabd or type, it may contain more nutrients as well increasing the algae.

If running for couple years no issue and suddenly you have, something changed or something needs cleaning/replacement. Could be sandbed leaching nutrients. This is further aggrivated with increased added nutrients and better lighting.

I would start by lowering feeding and manually cleaning the gha out. Brush and airline tube will help syphon. This will take a long time. Run more blues and less white for a while if you can so there is less photosynthetic light for algae.corals will be fine.

You can also do as large of a water change you want but since no nutrients not much of a point. Just syphon around rock and such to see if there is anything lodged or built up. If you have never cleaned the sandbed. Do small areas at a time during waterchanges.

Disturbing entire sand bed at once can cause issues unless you fully remove and clean. I dont think your at this point nor recomend yet.

Basically did anything change or did you notice something just before algae took off. Even if its minor or you think unrelated. New product? New equipment, feeding, different items used or replaced etc?

Really helpful reply thanks.

So I’ve had pretty bad GHA for a while now (gonna say upwards of a year) but never noticed to much with the blues on so it never bothered me. How ever like I said now I believe it’s causing some of my corals not to open and I can see it growing all over them.

The original lights just weren’t cutting it and were. Zoas stretching, lost lps corals & anemones, so I put it down to weak lights (plus from a lot of research I found out the fluval leds aren’t the most powerful) so I added the AI Blade start of last December. (I’m gonna cut the white right down now like you suggested too)
I only run the 2 Fluval leds on Blue-100% cyan-80% purple-75% (no white or red) and the AI Blade runs high royal blues and blue all day with about 8 hours of white. The growth has probably been a little more then before on the algae side of things.

In January I added a skimmer. How ever this as always put out an extremely wet skim. Never thick. Always clean bubbles rising.

Another thing I can think of which I have noticed a increase in algae is that about 2 months ago I reconstructed my whole tank adding 2 new pieces of rock, I did kind of notice the algae take of a little from here but I initially assumed that’s because I disturbed so much detritus that it may have caused a small spike, but now I’m starting to think maybe more rock area under light, more algae?

Dosing : i used to dose NoPox up untill about 4-6 weeks ago when I noticed my nitrate at 0. I also linked dosing nitrate to the closing up of some of my soft corals, no clue why but I’ve brought 3 frags now of this really cool GSP (never seen any like it only reason I brought GSP) how ever all 3 frags closed within 2 weeks
the guy I brought from runs huge coral farms and he said his nitrates are always around 15ppm hense the dosing nitrates to help coral health (I prioritised this over the GHA).
I also turned off my skimmer for the past 2 weeks to help it raise nitrates. Again how ever algae growth has still been pretty heavy during this time.

From what I can remember I’ve always had relatively low nitrate how ever I used to use an API test kit so never to accurate. About 4 -5 months ago my nitrate was between 0-5 (API Test) how ever phosphate was 0.5 (salifert) but my zoas used to grow and spread like crazy .
So this year I set on getting my nutrients right, added rowaphos to control phosphate. Brought salifert nitrate test, and Hanna phosphate test. And my levels have been pretty stable around here for the last 3 or so months (phosphate jumps from time to time)

Feeding : maybe my frozen mix is to dense, I made it about a year ago and tbh I think I went abit overkill, used frozen prawns, 1 nori sheet, frozen scallops, few cubes of BCUK Tropical feast (already frozen store brought fish food) I added garlic, green spirulina powder. I also had some marine quintet left over (cubes of Artemia, red plankton, squid, chopped cockle and chopped krill superba) so I threw all of them in too. Made me over 400 1cm sizes balls

Now I’ve typed that out it’s making me thing this could be an issue? Do you think it could be worth mixing all the frozen balls back up with to rodi water and doubling the batch size to half the nutrients of each ball?


Last night I did a lot of manual removal again, did a 20% water change, cleaned off my wave makers, increased the flow in the tank and I’m gonna bring the white down (low whites or no whites?)

Sorry for the lengthy reply…..

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Really helpful reply thanks.

So I’ve had pretty bad GHA for a while now (gonna say upwards of a year) but never noticed to much with the blues on so it never bothered me. How ever like I said now I believe it’s causing some of my corals not to open and I can see it growing all over them.

The original lights just weren’t cutting it and were. Zoas stretching, lost lps corals & anemones, so I put it down to weak lights (plus from a lot of research I found out the fluval leds aren’t the most powerful) so I added the AI Blade start of last December. (I’m gonna cut the white right down now like you suggested too)
I only run the 2 Fluval leds on Blue-100% cyan-80% purple-75% (no white or red) and the AI Blade runs high royal blues and blue all day with about 8 hours of white. The growth has probably been a little more then before on the algae side of things.

In January I added a skimmer. How ever this as always put out an extremely wet skim. Never thick. Always clean bubbles rising.

Another thing I can think of which I have noticed a increase in algae is that about 2 months ago I reconstructed my whole tank adding 2 new pieces of rock, I did kind of notice the algae take of a little from here but I initially assumed that’s because I disturbed so much detritus that it may have caused a small spike, but now I’m starting to think maybe more rock area under light, more algae?

Dosing : i used to dose NoPox up untill about 4-6 weeks ago when I noticed my nitrate at 0. I also linked dosing nitrate to the closing up of some of my soft corals, no clue why but I’ve brought 3 frags now of this really cool GSP (never seen any like it only reason I brought GSP) how ever all 3 frags closed within 2 weeks
the guy I brought from runs huge coral farms and he said his nitrates are always around 15ppm hense the dosing nitrates to help coral health (I prioritised this over the GHA).
I also turned off my skimmer for the past 2 weeks to help it raise nitrates. Again how ever algae growth has still been pretty heavy during this time.

From what I can remember I’ve always had relatively low nitrate how ever I used to use an API test kit so never to accurate. About 4 -5 months ago my nitrate was between 0-5 (API Test) how ever phosphate was 0.5 (salifert) but my zoas used to grow and spread like crazy .
So this year I set on getting my nutrients right, added rowaphos to control phosphate. Brought salifert nitrate test, and Hanna phosphate test. And my levels have been pretty stable around here for the last 3 or so months (phosphate jumps from time to time)

Feeding : maybe my frozen mix is to dense, I made it about a year ago and tbh I think I went abit overkill, used frozen prawns, 1 nori sheet, frozen scallops, few cubes of BCUK Tropical feast (already frozen store brought fish food) I added garlic, green spirulina powder. I also had some marine quintet left over (cubes of Artemia, red plankton, squid, chopped cockle and chopped krill superba) so I threw all of them in too. Made me over 400 1cm sizes balls

Now I’ve typed that out it’s making me thing this could be an issue? Do you think it could be worth mixing all the frozen balls back up with to rodi water and doubling the batch size to half the nutrients of each ball?


Last night I did a lot of manual removal again, did a 20% water change, cleaned off my wave makers, increased the flow in the tank and I’m gonna bring the white down (low whites or no whites?)

Sorry for the lengthy reply…..

This info is great and will help figure out. 2 things I noticed was you stated it was a year ago when uou noticed the gha and you made your feedingmix a year ago. That can be the correlation. Then lights and dosing to bring nutrients up caused further growth.

The pictures provided arent to bad. What is the list of all your cleanup crew, fish and inverts in your tank? If light on cleanup crew you may need to add but can be determined when listed. Sometimes to many fish can also be an issue.

i would reduce feed but also keep up with maintenance. Sounds lile you can dial skimmer down. The fact the skim is wet and clear could mean the water level is set to high or skim level.

Your plan so far sounds good. It will be slow. Once you provide a bit more details we can figure out a more proper plan. But seemss over feeding is part of the issue which your going to reduce and then lights further caused which you are also adjisting. Some algae can still grow under blues but will be diminished.

Your goal is to increase nutrients while getting rid of gha per your statements. As algae goes away more nutrients will be available. So we only want to reduce algae first while slowly lowering nutrients to see how things react.

 

[ollzzz12]

This info is great and will help figure out. 2 things I noticed was you stated it was a year ago when uou noticed the gha and you made your feedingmix a year ago. That can be the correlation. Then lights and dosing to bring nutrients up caused further growth.

The pictures provided arent to bad. What is the list of all your cleanup crew, fish and inverts in your tank? If light on cleanup crew you may need to add but can be determined when listed. Sometimes to many fish can also be an issue.

i would reduce feed but also keep up with maintenance. Sounds lile you can dial skimmer down. The fact the skim is wet and clear could mean the water level is set to high or skim level.

Your plan so far sounds good. It will be slow. Once you provide a bit more details we can figure out a more proper plan. But seemss over feeding is part of the issue which your going to reduce and then lights further caused which you are also adjisting. Some algae can still grow under blues but will be diminished.

Your goal is to increase nutrients while getting rid of gha per your statements. As algae goes away more nutrients will be available. So we only want to reduce algae first while slowly lowering nutrients to see how things react.

Current stock list is as follows:
1 clown
2 yellow belly damsel
1 3 stripe humbug
1 lawn mower blenny
1 chalk goby
1 emerald crab
1 tux urchin
5 trochus snails
1 turbo snail
10+ variety of hermits


From tomorrow I’m discarding all my food and moving back to frozen brought from the shop. I’m gonna assume by homemade blend is to much too, on another forum someone said sometimes store brought fish can be sprayed with preservatives when in transport which can cause breakouts. So I’m gonna revert to basic frozen mixed made professionally.

I’ve turned white downs from 50% to 20% I’ll try for a few weeks and can reduce again if needed.

But now I understand. Couldn’t get my head around the fact I had low nutrients but high algae. Now it makes sense, it’s not in the water column because it’s all being absorbed.

Would reef flux be a good way to go?

 

[907_Reefer]

For an out of the box idea (that I use), when my GHA gets bad I use a $14 electric toothbrush on it, underwater. Works fantastic. I'm not a fan for chemicals to 'fix' algae.

Rubber band (lots) a plastic baggie onto the brush, rubber band a siphon on, run the brush while you pull out water for a change.

Post in thread '907 Tank & Stand Build - 55 Gallon' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/907-tank-stand-build-55-gallon.905830/post-11237671

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Current stock list is as follows:
1 clown
2 yellow belly damsel
1 3 stripe humbug
1 lawn mower blenny
1 chalk goby
1 emerald crab
1 tux urchin
5 trochus snails
1 turbo snail
10+ variety of hermits


From tomorrow I’m discarding all my food and moving back to frozen brought from the shop. I’m gonna assume by homemade blend is to much too, on another forum someone said sometimes store brought fish can be sprayed with preservatives when in transport which can cause breakouts. So I’m gonna revert to basic frozen mixed made professionally.

I’ve turned white downs from 50% to 20% I’ll try for a few weeks and can reduce again if needed.

But now I understand. Couldn’t get my head around the fact I had low nutrients but high algae. Now it makes sense, it’s not in the water column because it’s all being absorbed.

Would reef flux be a good way to go?

Definetly go with frozen for aquariums. You can also rinse with rodi prior to rid of any added ammonia and such. You can use a net to do this. You could add a nessarius snails for sand. I woupd also focus on feeding the fish and only spot feed corals that need a bit more. The fish waste also helps feed coral. I would continue with ylthe plan you have set out. Dont worry dosing anything yet but will take time to clearup.

 

[ollzzz12]

For an out of the box idea (that I use), when my GHA gets bad I use a $14 electric toothbrush on it, underwater. Works fantastic. I'm not a fan for chemicals to 'fix' algae.

Rubber band (lots) a plastic baggie onto the brush, rubber band a siphon on, run the brush while you pull out water for a change.

Post in thread '907 Tank & Stand Build - 55 Gallon' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/907-tank-stand-build-55-gallon.905830/post-11237671

Ready good idea I may try this

 

[ollzzz12]

Definetly go with frozen for aquariums. You can also rinse with rodi prior to rid of any added ammonia and such. You can use a net to do this. You could add a nessarius snails for sand. I woupd also focus on feeding the fish and only spot feed corals that need a bit more. The fish waste also helps feed coral. I would continue with ylthe plan you have set out. Dont worry dosing anything yet but will take time to clearup.

Okay great thanks. I’ll cut back on coral feeding then and see how things go. Really appreciate your help!

 

[slav621]

Did the black out eliminate all algae?

Yes for the most part. After the blackout I cleaned the tank again cause you will still see the algae it is just dead. I added a Pincushion Urchin as well that helped tremendously.

 

[dkline]

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

I think I have seen in the forum that when you have a bad algae outbreak but nitrates are low it could be that you actually have normally high nitrates but your algae problem is rapidly consuming it making it seem low. So adding more nitrates is really potentially increasing the problem. If you do a blackout and kill/clean the existing algae you may see a sudden jump in nitrates to the level they actually are had your algae outbreak not masked the level.