Algae?

[jasonamyers]

I've got a rough batch of what I think is algae but I wanted to make sure before I tried to attack it. Advice welcome and picture attached

 

[Diesel]

Algae alright.
Will ask you some questions first.
Looks like this tank been running for a while looking at the rock, did you made a chance recently?
What are your Po4 and No3 sitting at and what were they three weeks ago?
Any CUC's that your are missing, maybe a fish died off?
Did you checked your skimmer if it is working correctly 100%?

 

[jasonamyers]

The tank is just over 7 months old. N03 showed 0 2 days ago and 0.75 3 weeks and 2 days ago (Red Sea Test Kit). Po4 showed 0.04 both measurements (RS test). I had added some snails from reefcleaners. I'll go through the sand and do a health check on all of them. All fish are account for and the skimmer seems to be working as it had previously. I did add some power heads in case it was flow just yesterday.

Thank you very much for the ideas and response! I'll dig deeper.

 

[Diesel]

If No3 is below 1ppm now but it shows 0 as of now you might want to raise that a bit.
Looks like you went through some kind of mini cycle again by stirring your sand.
Most likely we talking here Diatoms, it's not a big deal and should disappear by it self if the bacteria will pick it up again.
A extra water change can't hurt either.

 

[jasonamyers]

So I did a through check for dead clean up crew had to go through the sand pretty throughly. The tanked looked good for a few days, but it's back to terrible again.

 

[jasonamyers]

Here are some current pictures

This one is the weirdest with all the little bubbles on the rock.

 

[jasonamyers]

Will post full test results after done testing

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Are you feeding any Aminos or carbon sources? Vitamin C, acroPower, No Pox etc?

 

[jasonamyers]

I had stopped nopox for over a week prior to this cleaning

 

[jasonamyers]

Stopped it when when I orginally posted.

 

[jasonamyers]

I was used Reef energy A and B for the corals

 

[Oceansize]

Your nitrates and phosphates don't appear to be the culprits, although I am curious what you're doing to maintain phosphates at 0.04. If that's where the level is normally then I doubt phosphates are the culprit, but if they've only recently risen to 0.04, then maybe they are the reason. If you're using GFO or some similar product for phosphate control, perhaps it has gotten exhausted?

When I had what you have, using UV did seem to make a difference but what really made the difference was time. UV, CUC, GFO, phosphates at 0.03 and nitrates below 5ppm all helped, but at the end of the day it just stopped on it's own. If it's due to something dying then things will rebalance over time.

FYI the bubbles are from respiration. All that means is the algae/diatoms are doing really well, lol.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

new Ish Thank?

 

[jasonamyers]

Just under 8 months

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Just under 8 months

Young tanks esp and particularly dry roch ones don't have bacterias deep in the rock quite yet. It makes nutrient control a bit more unstable. IMO what you'll see is superficial reactions (quick) to added nutrints. Reatehr than being processed deep in the rock is all on the surfaces, so its easy without that huge competion of an established bio filter its usually easier to feed unwanted organisms, usually cyano, almost directly. (one cause of the ugly phase, lack of competition by desirable organisms and bacteria)
carbon sources and aminos will feed them almost directly. So Id say your ahead of the game if your not seeing algaes. Id much rather have cyano or diatoms than GHA.

My o2, blow it off clean it up, check you water to make sure its silicate free, lean back on bacterial amino feedings and it should fade out.
Your numbers are spot on so.....

 

[jasonamyers]

Alk - 8.4
Ca - 465
Mg - ran out of reagent mid test grr
NO3 - 0
PO4 - 0.04
Are tonight's numbers...