Algae Outbreak!!!

[midtnmike41]

What would you do if this was your tank? I have tried everything and waited months and I cannot beat this. My tank has become an eyesore. I really need some advice on how to handle this major algae outbreak. I have spent many many hours researching and reading forums on the subject, and feel like I am doing everything correct but with zero progress, in fact I think it’s getting worse. The tank is about a year old and has looked like this for the last 3 months, before that it was a beautiful tank that was thriving.


Parameters

Nitrates 0 (Red sea)

Phosphates 0 (Hanna)

Calcium 430 (Salifert)

Alk 9.3 (Hanna)

Mag 1350 (Salifert)


Here is what I have done so far:

Increased water changes to 20% per week with Red Sea Coral Pro, checked my RODI, it read 0 TDS, decreased light intensity and length, and manually remove all I can every time I have to hood off.


Here are my export methods:

Changing filter socks every 2 days, carbon dosing, skimming, running GFO and carbon in reactors. I have a pretty large cleanup crew of snails and crabs.


What should my next steps be? Please HELP!!!!!!

 

[twilliard]

I would knock your po4 level down, you list it as 0 but I know it's high.
To start take a rock out at a time, remove as much as you want, then soak that algae with 3% peroxide.
Let it sit for 5 minutes and put it back into the tank.
Keep doing that with all your rocks.
Then work on reducing your po4 and doc's

 

[eb2292]

How much GFO are you running? Are you using high capacity or regular?

When there is a lot of available nutrients, GFO becomes spent rather quickly. I would change it out every other day or so until you see an improvement. The hair algae may not release from the rocks on its own, but it will turn from green to brown, then can easily be pulled out by hand.

I would manually remove as much as you can and keep up with the GFO. If you don't have any corals, you can black out the tank for a few days to make another big dent in it.

Also, I would discontinue carbon dosing until you get a handle on the algae.

 

[ReefBum]

A good step one is to identify what kind of algae you have so you can come up with the best plan of attack to beat it. For instance, if it is diatoms then you will have to eliminate the source of silicates. That won't work for dinos, which are much harder to eradicate and require a different plan of attack.

 

[brandon429]

that could be fixed pretty fast you'd be surprised, we've done a few buried in this thread.

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/


we literally can state the day by which the tank will be algae free, then all the choices you have as to what will prevent its return is what you spend time pondering. for a tank eutrophication like yours, if you would read just those 12 pages and not even have to read the linked thread, you will have no algae by next week if you run the method.

the very last post in that thread, the tank rework from the large tank shown, is the right fix.

 

[RyanCSGO]

just curious, what type of lighting are you using? If its T5 how old are the bulbs?

 

[midtnmike41]

I am using AI hydra 26's I have them turned down to 40% for about 7 hours a day.

 

[midtnmike41]

that could be fixed pretty fast you'd be surprised, we've done a few buried in this thread.

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/


we literally can state the day by which the tank will be algae free, then all the choices you have as to what will prevent its return is what you spend time pondering. for a tank eutrophication like yours, if you would read just those 12 pages and not even have to read the linked thread, you will have no algae by next week if you run the method.

the very last post in that thread, the tank rework from the large tank shown, is the right fix.

You have my attention! I skimmed over that thread you posted. Looks like lots of good results. Where can I find detailed information on the actual procedure? Would you recommend external application or dosing the tank? Thanks!!!

 

[twilliard]

External as how I explained the process.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You have my attention! I skimmed over that thread you posted. Looks like lots of good results. Where can I find detailed information on the actual procedure? Would you recommend external application or dosing the tank? Thanks!!!

yea do what @twillard and @brandon429 are talking about. If its an Invasive algae not one of the standards gha you can throw the usual wisom out the window.
Scrub it dip it h202 it kill it. Itll look brand new in a day.

 

[twilliard]

I love the abilities of h2o2! Thanks @saltyfilmfolks

 

[midtnmike41]

I am doing my research right now. I will try to keep this thread updated with my results. I have a few questions. Do you spray peroxide on the rock and let it sit or do you put the rock in a pool of peroxide? How long do I let the peroxide sit on the rock? I only have a few frags in the tank so far so most of my rocks have nothing on them yet. I plan on trying with a few rocks first, then do a couple every session until i have it looking good again. Thanks for everyone's input, I couldn't do it without all you guys. I hope to be on the helping side one day. I have learned a lot since I started this hobby.

 

[twilliard]

I would spray the rock, soak the algae good and let it sit for a few minutes.
You will be amazed at what h2o2 will do to the algae

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have done spot treatments. It works. On my last tank rebuild upgrade. I set the rock in a weak old tank water peroxide solution, scrubbed then rinsed and put them back into the tank. refilled w new salt water.

 

[brandon429]

your tank here presents a hidden mini cycle risk, inside the rocks. not likely the sandbed, see how clean it looks? I can see some growths on the walls of the tank, hardly any on the sandbed, but the clear majority is on the rocks completely as the locus of anchor points, and feed.

Since the eutrophication has persisted a while, we are in no rush, post us pics as you work the fix ill link you to that thread and to the bigger one at nano-reef.com we like to collect all these tank reworks.

you should start with a test rock before the whole tank. take out the test rock and hand brush remove all the algae off externally, drop it down the sink. when the rock is mostly cleaned of it let it sit in a test bucket just an hour or two without treating anything, this is detritus assessment that will exist in your whole tank, but we are working on a small test rock only. See if that live rock that was cleaned, and put into totally clean water in a bucket, has little detritus pellets laying at the bottom after sitting in still cleaned water for an hour or two, this is the literal amazing act of physical ejection occurring only because you've unplugged the pores via the hand removal

if it doesn't occur, your whole tank isn't likely plugged up, and a rip cleaning wont have a way to cause a mini cycle.

if your test bucket shows detritus, we simply have to plan for that in the tank cleaning. after the 2 hours, nail that rock externally with peroxide as our threads show, scrub it nicely, rinse, and put back in tank to compare its regrowth over the next few days.

we do all this before we do anything to your tank, this is how we restore countless eutrophication tanks.

 

[IDNTFU]

I just defeated a diatom bloom I had going on, I cut my ai vegas down to 15% added a few turbos and hermits, 20% weekly water changes and a fresh bag of chemi pure blue did the trick for me, my corals looked great and had great pe even with the lights being turned down so low. Good luck give it a try, also a lawnmower blenny would chomp all that hair algae

 

[midtnmike41]

your tank here presents a hidden mini cycle risk, inside the rocks. not likely the sandbed, see how clean it looks? I can see some growths on the walls of the tank, hardly any on the sandbed, but the clear majority is on the rocks completely as the locus of anchor points, and feed.

Since the eutrophication has persisted a while, we are in no rush, post us pics as you work the fix ill link you to that thread and to the bigger one at nano-reef.com we like to collect all these tank reworks.

you should start with a test rock before the whole tank. take out the test rock and hand brush remove all the algae off externally, drop it down the sink. when the rock is mostly cleaned of it let it sit in a test bucket just an hour or two without treating anything, this is detritus assessment that will exist in your whole tank, but we are working on a small test rock only. See if that live rock that was cleaned, and put into totally clean water in a bucket, has little detritus pellets laying at the bottom after sitting in still cleaned water for an hour or two, this is the literal amazing act of physical ejection occurring only because you've unplugged the pores via the hand removal

if it doesn't occur, your whole tank isn't likely plugged up, and a rip cleaning wont have a way to cause a mini cycle.

if your test bucket shows detritus, we simply have to plan for that in the tank cleaning. after the 2 hours, nail that rock externally with peroxide as our threads show, scrub it nicely, rinse, and put back in tank to compare its regrowth over the next few days.

we do all this before we do anything to your tank, this is how we restore countless eutrophication tanks.

Just to clarify, after scrubbing the rock the first time place in a bucket of fresh water or salt water? I will try to to do this this afternoon. This is GREAT info!!

 

[brandon429]

yes its saltwater, only because we are trying to assess what the rocks will do after the algae is made free without harming the filtration bacteria on the rock, which peroxide does not impact. its not a doubt that peroxide done externally w kill off the algae, but with plugged rocks we have to assess the ejection of detritus first and some will be expected.

all that means is, during the cleaning event which is a big massive rock takedown and cleaning (like we do on the test rock, only skip the detritus test we'll be pulling them to brush off algae and spot treat to kill its leftovers) we w have to continue siphoning out the detritus it pumps out a few weeks after. the ejection process will slow in time (not removing this from your tank is feed for algae regrowth)


the mini cycle risk I mentioned isn't really present when the full tank is reassembled, your tank has a bunch of volume and surface area such that a little detritus wont harm it but still needs to be removed as algae fuel. Its during the disassembly and cleaning process.

when your rocks are sitting in holding buckets for the mass cleaning, if they are leaking a bunch of waste into the holding buckets we need to be exporting those, changing out the water and the detritus, so the rocks and animals don't sit in that rot.

That rot, if applicable, is locked inside the rock and slowly leaking out to feed algae, that's why nothing dies even though its the same mass all along.

when we move previously stored portions of the detritus, large amounts, out into the surrounding water (or test bucket) that does present a mini cycle risk and loss to any other animals stored in the holding buckets.

we should just brainstorm a lot of options before we begin, but how that one test rock behaves is our mini model and the whole tank will comply after we learn what just one does. The test rock idea we brought into the peroxide world as a mini model, primarily not for safety but because we were getting people who spent two weekends reworking a 400 gallon tank, only to have regrowth and frustration next month.

by modeling on test rocks first, we get the doses, dilutions, types of cleaning needed to *sustain* a kill, not just that initial kill.

for some mean algae, you need 35% not 3% wimpwater heh. a test rock and its regrowth totally tells us what to use.

only after your tank is cleaned, detritus free and pretty well sustained off that algae kill we cheated to earn, do you start messing with water params: carbon dosing, algae turf scrubbers, filters, all the common stuff designed to prevent algae. we don't use them as removers, we get that ugly job ourselves. even fish or a clean up crew come after the rework, as preventatives, not as a replacement to this big ugly upcoming job.

 

[midtnmike41]

I was really dreading the work that was going to have to go into this. Now I am getting a little excited about it. It will be tomorrow morning before I get a chance to mess with it, but I will document all the steps I do. I would do it now but I do not have a clean spray bottle laying around and I have no idea how old the peroxide in the closet is. I really wished I had not thrown out that 20 gallons I changed this morning. I guess another small water change never hurts.

 

[brandon429]

I think its worth being excited about, it will restore your enjoyment of that tank. The truth is, even after all our work you will still get some growback but it will never do like it does above because we will cheat it out with peroxide. in six months if a beard starts on one of the formerly cleaned rocks, you lift it out and blast it with peroxide and it will die back. the rest of the time with your tank after we're done will be reducing how much work its taking to maintain the pristine condition, but it will never have algae dominance again that's for sure. we expect your retreatment work to have some requirements even after the big clean, and those wane in time given the right preventative balances stated above. that very last post on my peroxide thread is a wonderful tank ripping documentation, really close to all the work you are considering only he's mapped it all out w pics beforehand

the only thing that happened here was lack of aggressive grazers, like a parrotfish for example, who if swimming by in Fiji saw that growth would saunter (underwater lol) up to the rock, bite the whole area off including the rock and the algae, and then poop out the sand for some lucky animal down below and that area would have no more algae for a little while.