Ready to tear it all down

[darrick001]

What kind of light do you have in your refugium. They light should be at least as intense as your display lights. If your running a cheap light you refugium will not be able to out compete the strong lighting in your tank. I run the same lighting in my refugium but have it set for longer and at a more intense setting 50-60% display 100% refugium.
1st Upgrade your refugium light.
2nd buy a lot pods. They will eat left over food , fish waste, algae.
Add phyto plankton and reef enhance if you want the population to grow fast. The phyto will also consume nitrates. The reef enhance will add planktonic bacteria also helping the nitrogen process. My tank has no mechanical filtration of any kind the refugium is my only filter. If I turn my pumps off you can see the plankton in the water. Nitrate and phosphate are undetectable. Just ordered 2 gallons from rusalty.com due to I have to move my tank from one house to another and will be loosing a lot of zooplankton in the move. Watch this video. If you can watch all 10 episodes. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/biome-cycle-ep9-copepods-wipe-out-reef-tank-uglies

 

[chimbo84]

What kind of light do you have in your refugium. They light should be at least as intense as your display lights. If your running a cheap light you refugium will not be able to out compete the strong lighting in your tank. I run the same lighting in my refugium but have it set for longer and at a more intense setting 50-60% display 100% refugium.
1st Upgrade your refugium light.
2nd buy a lot pods. They will eat left over food , fish waste, algae.
Add phyto plankton and reef enhance if you want the population to grow fast. The phyto will also consume nitrates. The reef enhance will add planktonic bacteria also helping the nitrogen process. My tank has no mechanical filtration of any kind the refugium is my only filter. If I turn my pumps off you can see the plankton in the water. Nitrate and phosphate are undetectable. Just ordered 2 gallons from rusalty.com due to I have to move my tank from one house to another and will be loosing a lot of zooplankton in the move. Watch this video. If you can watch all 10 episodes. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/biome-cycle-ep9-copepods-wipe-out-reef-tank-uglies

It’s a Kessil H160 Tuna Flora. It should absolutely be more than adequate and it does grow chaeto quite well but I have not seen it truly outcompete algae in my display. Not sure if I am doing something wrong but I run it on a reddish spectrum 18hrs a day and at about 75% output.
I have followed that BRS series and I have a healthy copepod/amphipod population already so I am not sure what that will accomplish.
So you run no socks or filter roller? Don’t you get a ton of particulate in your water and sump?

 

[Hermie]

It’s a Kessil H160 Tuna Flora. It should absolutely be more than adequate and it does grow chaeto quite well but I have not seen it truly outcompete algae in my display. Not sure if I am doing something wrong but I run it on a reddish spectrum 18hrs a day and at about 75% output.

That stuff took over my refugium the chaeto hardly grew. The chaeto basically got consumed by the nuisance algae.

 

[roggy23]

Try to manual remove them then add some tuxedo urchins..I have 4 in my 180

 

[Fish Think Pink]

hang in there...

people saying 'remove it' ... let me share my easier DIY removal tool

bought scrub brush at home improvement store, but of course those hard brush heads are too large. Used an exacto knife to cut off those long hard bristles. Stuffed bristles into bit of spare tube until tube packed. Ran bit of superglue around edge of bristles stuffed into tube.

WAY BETTER than a toothbrush as longer and harder bristles. Also, don't scrub IN your tank ... I scrub out of my tank and then rinse with tank water, return rock to tank. IF I am scrubbing rock that can't be easily removed due to canopy, then we've made a similar scrubber that is hollow, so as I scrub it also pulls water out of tank ... so its water change and scrub at same time.

HANG IN THERE!!

 

[darrick001]

It’s a Kessil H160 Tuna Flora. It should absolutely be more than adequate and it does grow chaeto quite well but I have not seen it truly outcompete algae in my display. Not sure if I am doing something wrong but I run it on a reddish spectrum 18hrs a day and at about 75% output.
I have followed that BRS series and I have a healthy copepod/amphipod population already so I am not sure what that will accomplish.
So you run no socks or filter roller? Don’t you get a ton of particulate in your water and sump?

There are particles in the water but most of them are plankton. If you already have pods , your using Di water ,controlling the food, turn the refugium light up to 100% and cut back on the display lights .what is your pH of your dropping below 8 your fuge is not outcompeting. There's not a lot of places in your setup for anairrobic bacteria to convert nitrate to nitrogen so that leaves more available for the algae. If your running any reactors try to run the retun lines to your skimmer. Reactors can grow large colonies of bacterial that consume O2 put out CO2. This can increase algae growth by a significant amount. Changing the media can reset the population slowing down the production of nitrate. There is always a source just have to happy find it. I don't know if any of the things you've already tried have an affect on your bacteria or algae but it's possible the hammer approach could be making your problem worse. Problems like this don't get fixed over night. They take patients and time. It can take up to a year for a new tank to stabilize depending on the setup and care. Please excuse any typo's I'm very tired writing this. Heading to bed finally.

 

[trevanthony17]

Dose some galaxy pods from algaebarn.

 

[Reefkeeper28]

It's not gha It's Lynbyn cyano this is reason your having trouble.... your microscope gave you the answer that it's not gha...

 

[Reefkeeper28]

It's not gha It's Lynbyn cyano this is reason your having trouble.... your microscope gave you the answer that it's not gha...

Does it have a root system when pulled out the microscope doesn't look like gha unless it's just not strong enough to see untire structure imo

 

[Funwithreefer]

I’m fed up. My wife is fed up. Even my five year old daughter is telling me the tank looks gross. Can’t say I blame her.

I have been battling this infestation of filamentous algae or whatever for three months now. Starving didn’t work, Chemiclean didn’t work, fluconazole seemed to work but only at a dose and duration that had negative affects on my coral. The second I did a water change to remove the fluconazole, it just came back with a vengeance. Nothing touches the stuff - urchins, Foxface, tangs, snails, and emerald crabs all avoid it.
It has smothered and killed about $1000 in corals.

Is this common GHA? I am really starting to question things because nothing seems to work.

PO4 : 0.06ppm
NO3 : 2.5ppm
Alk : 8.3
Ca : 410
Mg : 1420

Get yourself a sea hare. They will plow through the hair algae in no time. I had the same issue as you and that solved it. Many LFS will even loan them out because once the hair algae is gone, they starve and die. But they are not really expensive at all.

 

[Modge]

I went through similar around the 7 month mark. Your tank is going though an evolutionary process. Raise nitrates to 10. Cut light to 6 hours with blue and uv only no whites. Raise magnesium to 1500. Daily manual removal to help cleaners get ahead. It will eventually be replaced with tons of coraline but not an overnight process. Give it 2 months.

Same - I did the rock scrub with a heavy brush. Ended up getting a sea hare that helped level it…poor guy got blended into my power head eventually.

My kids had the same reaction - I was disheartened but got through it. What really helped me get over the hump was dosing NoPox and not looking at the tank everyday.

Keep the faith!

What’s your PH btw?

 

[Tamberav]

@chimbo84

Not related but I just want to point out your foxface looks really emaciated in the photo. Your fish may need better foods (LRS, Nori, PE mysis) or more of them. Another possibility is internal parasites are the cause.

 

[xCry0x]

I almost regret asking this but how the heck do I reconcile this contradictory advice? Raise nutrients? Lower nutrients? Carbon dose, algaecides, manual removal, refugium, algae scrubber….. all of the above?

Logically, it does not make sense to me to increase nutrients. The algae outbreak happened in the first place because I had an excess of nutrients. And my nutrients are artificially low *because* of the algae that I now have.

The biggest problem with forums like this is that the majority of people giving advice are doing so based on their personal anecdotal experiences. Experiences most often limited to a single tank.

So when you ask about algae on a new tank, everyone jumps in and argues about what worked for them under their circumstances in their tank during the period where they went through the ugly phase/dealt with algae issues.

If I went off my first tank, I basically did nothing and the algae went away.

I ran GFO but besides that I barely ever tested anything, didn't dose anything, forgot water changes more than I remembered them. Had no algae after the initial new tank hump.

My current tank? Complete opposite story. Way more work into the tank, way more issues.

There were a few threads going on similar to this one.

Did you buy a new clean up crew? I can't remember if that was this thread or a different one!

 

[Hermie]

The biggest problem with forums like this is that the majority of people giving advice are doing so based on their personal anecdotal experiences. Experiences most often limited to a single tank.

So when you ask about algae on a new tank, everyone jumps in and argues about what worked for them under their circumstances in their tank during the period where they went through the ugly phase/dealt with algae issues.

So whats the solution then (to multiple recommended courses of action) ?

 

[TokenReefer]

That's the internet today though; which then with good fundamental knowledge you can pick through and figure out what's good/bad and what will work for you...

 

[djf91]

The biggest problem with forums like this is that the majority of people giving advice are doing so based on their personal anecdotal experiences. Experiences most often limited to a single tank.

So when you ask about algae on a new tank, everyone jumps in and argues about what worked for them under their circumstances in their tank during the period where they went through the ugly phase/dealt with algae issues.

If I went off my first tank, I basically did nothing and the algae went away.

I ran GFO but besides that I barely ever tested anything, didn't dose anything, forgot water changes more than I remembered them. Had no algae after the initial new tank hump.

My current tank? Complete opposite story. Way more work into the tank, way more issues.

There were a few threads going on similar to this one.

Did you buy a new clean up crew? I can't remember if that was this thread or a different one!

I agree with all of this. This thread is a prime example of people recommending opposite, contradictory methods. This happens in every one of these GHA threads.

All tanks are different, in different stages, and have different species of GHA or Lyngbya.

Based on where I think this tank is at. I think a sure way to get it out of this mess is to manually scrub and remove the algae weekly, while creating the perfect, STABLE, environment for competitors (corraline). This could take months.

Based on the fact that your fox face won’t touch it, I wouldn’t have much hope for any of your cleanup crew going after it. I would not add a sea hare.

Maturing dry rock takes a long time and is something that aquarists used to not have to deal with as often. In the past, tanks were normally started with live rock from the ocean and rarely had these issues with nuisance algae/Dino’s.

 

[xCry0x]

So whats the solution then (to multiple recommended courses of action) ?

Me personally?

Go to an expert that has a longer track record/broader perspective than I do.

1. My LFS if they come across as trustworthy -- clean/healthy tanks, successful tank maintenance business.
2. If I didn't have a great LFS, I'd lean into the wealth of information BRS has put out over the past handful of years.

BRS & Victor from WWC: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/cont...ls-13-secrets-to-a-successful-first-reef-tank

Tip #1

1. Listen to One Source of Information​

There is more than one way to achieve success but it can be incredibly difficult for new hobbyists to pave their own path. Listen to a single mentor that has produced the level of success you want for your own tank and follow their advice. Do not attempt to combine advice from multiple sources or decide for yourself which is the best method.

Which would then take me to one of BRS's great videos such as:





Then pick something and stick with it for at least 1-2 months.

 

[darrick001]

The biggest problem with forums like this is that the majority of people giving advice are doing so based on their personal anecdotal experiences. Experiences most often limited to a single tank.

So when you ask about algae on a new tank, everyone jumps in and argues about what worked for them under their circumstances in their tank during the period where they went through the ugly phase/dealt with algae issues.

If I went off my first tank, I basically did nothing and the algae went away.

I ran GFO but besides that I barely ever tested anything, didn't dose anything, forgot water changes more than I remembered them. Had no algae after the initial new tank hump.

My current tank? Complete opposite story. Way more work into the tank, way more issues.

There were a few threads going on similar to this one.

Did you buy a new clean up crew? I can't remember if that was this thread or a different one!

This is very true statement. Every person can only give what they have gained through experience or research. I have a very good LFS but they have given me advice that turned out to be bad advice. They are in the business of selling products they don't want there to be a free fix. Most people with this issue just start throwing things at it and then one day it goes away and the assumption is that the last thing, was what fixed the issue. In reality they have no idea what fixed it. There are 100' of potential causes. Just as an example I had high nitrates 80-100 on a 210 gallon tank and could never get them to lower tried all the normal things and nothing worked. Then read an article on carbon dosing and decided to try it. it worked great but 45 days later I had dino going crazy. Undetectable phosphates nitrate 1-5. Dinos covered everything. Sucking it off every day and by the next day it was covered again. At the same time I couldn't keep my pH above 8. While researching I found an article from a university on dino. In the article it found that dino could multiply exponentiay in elivated c02. So my carbon dosing was growing so many bacteria that they were producing enough CO2 to lower my pH and provide a perfect aquarium for dino. Stopped the carbon dosing added an air stone ( does not raise pH) bought a stronger light for my Refugium and everything cleared up except the nitrate issue. Removed a the bio balls from the sump and my nitrates lowered. Replaced my carbon more frequently and nitrate dropped some more. Ran outlets from carbon into skimmer and seen a slight drop. By this point nitrates were back down around 1-5. Took months to determine if the change actually helped. One change wait a couple weeks next change and so on. Everyone here is giving their best advice based on their experience.

 

[NickE]

I didn't read through the whole thread but I just went through a few months of some bad GHA and cyano (I believe it was both but didn't have a microscope to verify). This may not work for you but it helped me out tremendously.

The first step was manual removal. I got a 1/2 hose and made a siphon down to my filter sock in my sump. I went through and scrubbed the rocks and got all the hair algae to get stuck in the filter sock. I left my return pump on but I turned off my powerhead. I had to do this over multiple days. I know it gets tiresome and you can get frustrated but one day I would go at it, get most of it, then go back a few days later and do it again. Replace your filter sock after you siphon through it.

Your phosphate levels might seem OK but it's because the algae is consuming the phosphate and it's trapped in the algae. I ran GFO in a reactor at the same time I was doing this. I also have a small refugium that was growing well, I'm guessing I just had too much nutrients in my system.

To get rid of cyano I did chemiclean but you mentioned you tried that already. My CuC didn't touch anything until I got some blue legged hermits. I am started to see quite a big improvement after doing this steps.

I know it might be difficult and get you down but power through it. It will get better!!!

 

[Hermie]

I'd be willing to bet someone on here that if he carbon doses it will remove the problem algae.