Can anybody help a poor soul out with an issue?

[twilliard]

Hi all
I have a battle I am slowly loosing at.
Its about algae
I can NOT get it to stop growing. I have tested for everything. This tank was set up in March and I can not figure this out.
If all my water numbers are right why is it growing? Its that green crap. Slimy stuff.
Phosphates?
Nitrates?
all at 0 (Minor trace on phosphates)
I am thinking its my substrate but why doest it show up on testing?
Please can some one help me out before I move my tank into my new house to solve this.
Thanks a million!

 

[james734]

What kind of lighting do you have? Sometimes lights are just the right spectrium to cause algae growth. Also how much flow do you have in the tank? Not enough flow also can contribute to algae problems.

 

[twilliard]

Thanks James for jumping in.
I have 2 250W MH and 330W of VHO actinics. All is about 4 months old.
I have a Gen-X PCX 40 (1100 GPH) as my return and a big ol Sio rolling around in there.

Here is my lighting schedule
VHO's on at 10 till 9 at night
Halides on at 11 in the morning till 7 at night
Im telling you this stuff is growing like WEEDS
Also I have a farm of feather dusters growing. I remember reading that id there are a lot of dusters that the nutrients are high. Ill be danged if I know how to test for nutrients

Oh Oh
and I olny feed 3 times a week

 

[twilliard]

Heck I would even pay to solve this!!

my tank looks like CRAP! Except for my rock now (thanks brian)

 

[pfish]

Do you have a sump? Whats in the sump? What kind of filtering equipment are you using? Any phosphate reading in the positive is very bad. How much and how often are you feeding? How many gallons is your tank? how deep is your tank?

 

[Dr. Dee]

Algae

Do you have hair algae? or is it green like cyno red stuff.Well if its hair algae you may have a lot of co2 thats if there is a reactor.

 

[james734]

Lighting sounds fine. Do you have a picture of this stuff so we can ID it. It might help in figuring out how to deal with it. What kind of test kits are you using? Do you use RO/DI water? When was last time you did a water change? Can you take some water to a LFS to verify test results? What kind of salt?
Have you tested freshly made SW to see what levels it's at. Would kind of suck to be doing WC to export nutrients just to be putting them back in with new water. The nutrients would be Nitrates and but more Phoshates than anything.

It sounds like the test results might be off a little.

FYI: How big is the tank? Poor water flow can allow junk to settle in places which is perfect for algae growth.

Sorry for all the questions

 

[MarineTeng]

i've heard phosphate tests don't work in reefs cause it leaches to the rocks, i think you have to test the water you put in for phosphates to really see if you're supplying the problem,
also fuges work really well, get some good lighting on it, i've found that the common energy saver compact fluorescents work really well, i think the one i use is 13w and 2700k and it makes my cheato grow and red fuz algae grow at a very quick rate, and that's only with the 13w bulb, it made it grow at least 10x faster then my 20w standard fluorescent aquarium light

 

[NaH2O]

twilliard - have you done any spot phosphate and nitrate tests? This is where you take water samples from various parts of the tank. Such as: water out of the rocks; make a divot in the sand and take some water out with a turkey baster; out of your overflows (if they collect detritus); out of your sump; etc. Sometimes, these pore water tests reveal an issue....but sometimes not. Do you blast your rocks with a powerhead? I would also like to know what the algae looks like (hairy, cyano-like, bryopsis like, etc.). If I'm reading it right, you don't have the algae growing on the rocks...on the sand only? Your tank is still relatively new....what kind of livestock is in there? Skimmer? What test kits are you testing with?

 

[mad921]

I had a lingering cyano problem that sounds similar to what you're seeing (except mine was mainly red). Tests won't help much as I understand it because the cyano sucks up any nutrients in the water immediately. My solution was to address the issue (which I did by thinning out the tank population a bit), then I treated with a product called chemi-clean.

Obviously with any chemical you should try everything else first, but in my case I just felt I needed to break the cycle to really get rid of the cyano once and for all. The upside of the product was that it worked. The downside is that it dealt a blow to my pod population. I also lost a hermit, but it may be a complete coincidence. All of my other fish, inverts, and corals made it through fine.

 

[jsmkmavity]

if your running a skimmer you should be exporting phosphates. if you see some on a test kit that tells me you are importing it from your makeup water or water from water changes or something else. some salt mixes have phosphates so check your makeup water first then some saltwater that has aged a day. then check again after adding-one at a time-any additives or supplements you use. you would be suprised how much stuff is sold for reef tanks that has high phosphates in it. if the algee is growing it will have most of the nutrients in suspension in its cells which is why it doesnt show up on the test kit. it cant grow without the nutrients so you know there there. also phosphates get trapped in the rock and sand and once you find the source and eliminate it it will still take a while to get it all out of the system because it will continue to leach out of the rock and sand for a long time. its a battle you can win-i know from experience-but leave nothing unchecked and trust no food, salt, additive, or supplements claim! check for yourself. chaeto in the sump will compete with the other algee in the system and may even help eliminate it, and its easy to remove from the sump but you dont see it in the main tank. frozen food should be thawed and rinsed before feeding as it has phosphate, and flake food should be svaed for the people watching your tank when on vacation as it has phosphate too.

 

[twilliard]

Thanks Jason. Its the flat green slimy stuff not hair. I will check my makeup water.
OK a little history about my sand.
When I bought the tank the bottom had about 2" of sand (more like dust) and it smelt BAD.
I took about 3/4 of it out and cleaned the bigger sand. So I left 1/4 of the original sand in.
I added new sand about an 1"

Still when I vacuum the sand it smells bad. Lets play dumb here. Is this smell the source?
Also I have been thinking of my RO filters. They now are about a year old. I was told they are good for 5 years. When do I know they are no longer good? (I have never tested TDS) I dont have a way to do that.

 

[Slickdonkey]

You could get a TDS meter, they're pretty cheap. I have one, otherwise I don't know when to change my filters. However, if your water over there on the east side of the state is as good as ours over here, the TDS out of the tap is low anyway (< 35) so that wouldn't be my first bet.

I second running a fuge if you aren't already. The chaeto grows pretty well for me and I don't have any algae in the main tank. Granted my tank is a lot newer than yours the real challenge isn't making a tank look nice at the beginning, but keeping it nice over time.

You could try running some Phosban as well. What exactly are your phosphate levels reading? I had high phosphate levels (1 ppm) and the Phosban cleared it up within a few days. That's probably not a long-term solution but it might help.

Also if you don't siphon the sand you might think about getting some critters to stir it up (nassarius snails, conchs, etc). Again this may not be your problem but at the least it will help prevent junk settling there.

Also don't underestimate the power of a good cleanup crew. My overflows are filled with hair algae and other crap, but the main tank is free of it. That tells me they're doing their job.

 

[jsmkmavity]

your filters should last at least a year or two, probably more since they dont have to remove much from water that is high quality to begin with. the only way to know is test with a tds meter. check incoming and outgoing. i would say the sand is a good bet. if your running a skimmer you could start stirring up the sand with a powerhead but dont do the whole tank at once as this will throw everything out of balance unless you have some in the sump as well. if you dont have a skimmer you can ese a filter bag in your overflowpipe before it goes into the sump or put some type of filter on a large powerhead in the tank. ive cut the white yarn type house water filters in half and plug one end and put the other end on the intake of a powerhead and it will clear up the tank very well after a man-made storm of stirring the sand and blowing off the rocks.