Needing the insight of the old salts ....

[av8]

A sad story ....

I'm in week 8 of a nasty algae bloom. The back story: my tank, a 55 gallon with deep sand bed (Jober) with separate 10 gal skimmer tank & 29 gal fuge (cheto) tank, has been online 24 years. The fish and inhabitants I can see are all fine. While not as many pods as previously, they are still present and I continue to dose them (as I raise them separately.)

I probably caused this calamity: I made a mistake ... I added too much Tropic Marin All for Reef, elevating my alkalinity to 11.6, for a brief period. I should have been testing more frequently. But to be fair, after 50 years of reefkeeping, testing is very boring. I had hardly done any testing in more than a dedcade. To further confuse things, I had just added an AI blade LED light.

I've been doing continuous small percentage water changes, am running an Eheim canister loaded with Rowa phos, and after 6 weeks I'm not seeing any improvement. I'd been running for many years with NO filtration, other than the skimmer and the cheto. No socks, no mechanical filters, etc. And everything was great.

Again, the creatures I can see appear to be fine. The old clown, she's 32, is fine. The snails are fine. Bumble bees are fine. There are pods on the glass and swimming free. I cannot see the corals as the visibility is so poor.

All test/measurements are zero. But I don't own a low range Phosphate test kit. Hanna introduced their "low range" right after I bought the "standard" tester. Thanks Hanna.

I'm not sure what has happened. Might I have killed off the rotifers with the high alkalinity? Might have caused the DSB to excrete phosphates with the high alkalinity? Might have ??????

It's very discouraging ; ) Any ideas or good wishes appreciated. If anyone else has ever had an extended bloom I'd appreciate hearing how it resolved.

 

[Dan_P]

A sad story ....

I'm in week 8 of a nasty algae bloom. The back story: my tank, a 55 gallon with deep sand bed (Jober) with separate 10 gal skimmer tank & 29 gal fuge (cheto) tank, has been online 24 years. The fish and inhabitants I can see are all fine. While not as many pods as previously, they are still present and I continue to dose them (as I raise them separately.)

I probably caused this calamity: I made a mistake ... I added too much Tropic Marin All for Reef, elevating my alkalinity to 11.6, for a brief period. I should have been testing more frequently. But to be fair, after 50 years of reefkeeping, testing is very boring. I had hardly done any testing in more than a dedcade. To further confuse things, I had just added an AI blade LED light.

I've been doing continuous small percentage water changes, am running an Eheim canister loaded with Rowa phos, and after 6 weeks I'm not seeing any improvement. I'd been running for many years with NO filtration, other than the skimmer and the cheto. No socks, no mechanical filters, etc. And everything was great.

Again, the creatures I can see appear to be fine. The old clown, she's 32, is fine. The snails are fine. Bumble bees are fine. There are pods on the glass and swimming free. I cannot see the corals as the visibility is so poor.

All test/measurements are zero. But I don't own a low range Phosphate test kit. Hanna introduced their "low range" right after I bought the "standard" tester. Thanks Hanna.

I'm not sure what has happened. Might I have killed off the rotifers with the high alkalinity? Might have caused the DSB to excrete phosphates with the high alkalinity? Might have ??????

It's very discouraging ; ) Any ideas or good wishes appreciated. If anyone else has ever had an extended bloom I'd appreciate hearing how it resolved.

Could the new light have encouraged the algae growth? You did not mention what algae were growing. A photo of the aquarium under white light might help with the diagnosis.

 

[gbroadbridge]

A sad story ....

I'm in week 8 of a nasty algae bloom. The back story: my tank, a 55 gallon with deep sand bed (Jober) with separate 10 gal skimmer tank & 29 gal fuge (cheto) tank, has been online 24 years. The fish and inhabitants I can see are all fine. While not as many pods as previously, they are still present and I continue to dose them (as I raise them separately.)

I probably caused this calamity: I made a mistake ... I added too much Tropic Marin All for Reef, elevating my alkalinity to 11.6, for a brief period. I should have been testing more frequently. But to be fair, after 50 years of reefkeeping, testing is very boring. I had hardly done any testing in more than a dedcade. To further confuse things, I had just added an AI blade LED light.

I've been doing continuous small percentage water changes, am running an Eheim canister loaded with Rowa phos, and after 6 weeks I'm not seeing any improvement. I'd been running for many years with NO filtration, other than the skimmer and the cheto. No socks, no mechanical filters, etc. And everything was great.

Again, the creatures I can see appear to be fine. The old clown, she's 32, is fine. The snails are fine. Bumble bees are fine. There are pods on the glass and swimming free. I cannot see the corals as the visibility is so poor.

All test/measurements are zero. But I don't own a low range Phosphate test kit. Hanna introduced their "low range" right after I bought the "standard" tester. Thanks Hanna.

I'm not sure what has happened. Might I have killed off the rotifers with the high alkalinity? Might have caused the DSB to excrete phosphates with the high alkalinity? Might have ??????

It's very discouraging ; ) Any ideas or good wishes appreciated. If anyone else has ever had an extended bloom I'd appreciate hearing how it resolved.

I doubt it would be Phosphate or Nitrate related.

It is more likely to be the change in lighting with the extra trace elements from the AFR feeding the algae.

I'd turn off the new light and let the algae consume the extra trace elements.

 

[av8]

Could the new light have encouraged the algae growth? You did not mention what algae were growing. A photo of the aquarium under white light might help with the diagnosis.

This photo taken with LEDs on cool white only.

 

[jda]

Is there organic carbon in all for reef? I would more more concerned that you caused a waterborne bacterial bloom with new organic carbon.

I would get a canister filter or reactor in there with a good amount of activated carbon.

 

[Spare time]

Get a cheap UV and it will be gone in a few days. I personally like the green killing machines.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Don't want to sound critical but several observations:
IMO,
11.8 Alk is not the cause while few there are those that consistently run their Alk near that high.
All test measurements cannot be zero
A new light could have exacerbated the issue but likely not the cause.
Could be bacterial but more likely parameter imbalance or combination of both.
Testing may be boring but necessary.
My recommendation is a large water change or series of them along with testing of all major parameters.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Is there organic carbon in all for reef? I would more more concerned that you caused a waterborne bacterial bloom with new organic carbon.

There is. Good point.

 

[Dan_P]

This photo taken with LEDs on cool white only.

The color of the bloom is suggestive of a micro algae bloom rather than a bacteria bloom, but only examination with a microscope would tell.

Be careful of suffocating the aquarium at night as this potential algae infestation switches to respiration at night.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is there organic carbon in all for reef? I would more more concerned that you caused a waterborne bacterial bloom with new organic carbon.

I would get a canister filter or reactor in there with a good amount of activated carbon.

I don't expect the formate will have very much effect, and the bloom looks green. It's barely got any useful chemical energy in it. It is very nearly CO2 already.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Given all that has been said above, water changes, UV and carbon, turn off the new light for a few days.

I would run the UV very minimally (maybe just a few minutes here and there) to start, as without fully understanding what is going on, I would be very afraid of creating a low oxygen situation. Keep the skimmer cranking.

That said, I would certainly defer to Randy and Dan, as they have a far better handle from a chemical standpoint.

Good luck!

 

[av8]

Don't want to sound critical but several observations:
IMO,
11.8 Alk is not the cause while few there are those that consistently run their Alk near that high.
All test measurements cannot be zero
A new light could have exacerbated the issue but likely not the cause.
Could be bacterial but more likely parameter imbalance or combination of both.
Testing may be boring but necessary.
My recommendation is a large water change or series of them along with testing of all major parameters.

The color of the bloom is suggestive of a micro algae bloom rather than a bacteria bloom, but only examination with a microscope would tell.

Be careful of suffocating the aquarium at night as this potential algae infestation switches to respiration at night.

The color of the bloom is suggestive of a micro algae bloom rather than a bacteria bloom, but only examination with a microscope would tell.

Be careful of suffocating the aquarium at night as this potential algae infestation switches to respiration at night.

All: thank you for your insightful comment and guidance.

I've tried examining with my microscope, but I cannot see anything. As a point of reference so you can see what I'm looking with, I've shared what I believe to be a rotifer (video) from my scope on Google Drive here:


Rotifers: interesting little critters, aren't they?

I'm running as much surface agitation as I can and my skimmer is running full time. When I mentioned Dan P's comment my wife offered, "yup, that's what plants do" (reverse respiration at night).

I have ordered a GKM ultraviolet light. I've never needed one before, but reefing keeping is a lifelong adventure.

 

[av8]

An update, and a somewhat controlled experiment: I just started up a GKM (green killing machine) 24 watt UV. I placed it in my skimmer tank as that is how I have my system set up; individual sub-systems. With the inflow turned off, I expect (hope) to see a clearing soon! There is only about 7 gallons of green-water in the skimmer tank. I'm hoping the skimmer will immediately catch whatever the UV kills. The plan is to then slowly direct display tank water into the skimmer bucket. Any methodology feedback is appreciated. I'll report back soon.

 

[gbroadbridge]

UV doesn't kill anything, it sterilises the organism it so that it cannot reproduce.

To achieve that requires the appropriate bulb wattage and water flow past the bulb to obtain the correct radiation exposure.

Just a technical explanation for you.
It will take time to work.

 

[jda]

The phyto might need to start to be broken down by bacteria (or something) before a skimmer and effectively remove it. Depending on the species and the size, it might not be a good candidate for a foam fractionation to collect... but it might. Eventually it will when it does and some heterotroph starts to break it down.