HELP! Extreme Diatom Bloom, Brown Water

[LittleFish]

For the last ~9 months I have had this cloudy, brown water that will not go away. It is an algae bloom (I think a diatom of some kind) and I think i just have enough water movement and a large enough bloom to have it suspended in my water. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get rid of it so PLEASE HELP! There should be a picture of the tank and I also took a sample of water to work with me to look at it under a microscope (I work in a marine lab) and have added pictures of the cells too.



Background: RSM 130D

~35-40lbs live rock, assorted snails, sand sifting sea star, assorted soft corals, 2 clowns, 1 yellow tang (yes I know it is too small of a tank. I inherited all these fish plus a blue damsel in a BC14 so this is definitely an upgrade and is what I can afford right now. Please focus )



It has been going for 3 years. It went through an ugly hair algae stage for a couple months right after the cycle, but after that cleared up it ran beautifully for over 1.5 years. In late December 2013, we had a really bad ice storm that knocked out our power for 2 days and I don't have a generator and was visiting my family while it happened. Thanks to the heroics of my boyfriend, my fish and most of the coral survived. He pulled the fish and as much of the coral and rocks out as he could and put them in buckets to bring them somewhere with heat. I arrived home afterward and got everything introduced back into the tank slowly. It went through a cycle like I expected but it was much smaller of jumps than I expected so I was happy. It was looking good for 6 months and around June the bloom began. It showed up quickly and has been steadily ugly since then. The fish and corals seem to be acting normal and doing fine although I'm sure it is an unpleasant environment to live in.



Parameters:

Salinity: 1.026

pH: 8.6 (this is usually around 8.0-8.2 it has just recently gone up)

Alk: ~3.0 (this has also just recently gone up)

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Phosphate: 0

Calcium: 500ppm

KH: 8 (143.2ppm)



In the back I have an inTank media basket with their filter floss pad and a 50 micron filter in the top, chemipure elite in the middle, and carbon and nitrasorb in the bottom. I have 5 mangrove seedlings doing very well, I got a small ball chaeto as one of my latest attempts to do something a couple months ago but that is still struggling right now. I tried some Marine SAT additive stuff that my LFS suggested but that was just a waste of money. For a couple months I did weekly 30% water changes and that did nothing. The bloom just came back full force the next day. I tried leaving the lights out for a couple days and that didn't help at all. My recent experiment is letting it go and doing 30% water changes once a month like I used to do to see if whatever is feeding it will become depleted, but that isn't working either. I use tap water with conditioner, but that is what I have always used in my 5 years of owning these fish and haven't had problems. I can't find anything online about changes to the town water supply so I don't think that's it.

Lower Mag. (100)

Highest Mag (500)

 

[Snelly40]

wow... thats one hell of a bloom... something is way off... i'm gonna give u a bump but wait until the experts chime in... seems like more than a diatom bloom to be that dark...

 

[Snelly40]

so just thiking out loud... could the chaeto be releasing anytting back into the water? you also have a lot of chemicals going on in that rear chamber.. .any of them leaking or leaching anything? this is brown water not a diatom bloom which would be on rocks and sand... whaterver it is is most likely causing that raise in ph... whats the temp?

 

[LittleFish]

Thank you for your input. I thought the same thing about the darkness of the water, it couldn't be just a diatom bloom. That's why I took a sample in a test tube to the lab I work at. There is very little particulate matter other than the algae cells you see in the pictures. I used a Sedgewick rafter counting cell slide so the liquid sample is a little thicker than just a regular slide which is why you see unfocused dark matter in the background of the pictures. I focused on all levels of the sample and it is all those algae cells. The cells in the sample I took in also settled to the bottom very quickly after I took the sample which is why I think there is just enough flow and a large enough bloom to keep it suspended in the water column. I did notice some brown showing up on the sand and rocks before it quickly took over the water column.

The 50 micron filter pad, and chemipure elite were both additions well after the bloom started and the intensity of the bloom has neither gotten better nor worse after their addition. The chaeto was added mid November and usually takes a bit of a hit after being reintroduced to bright lights. It is just now starting to come back from the shock. The only thing that the chaeto would have leached would be ammonia from its decomposing after getting shocked but that hasn't caused any spikes in ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate since it has been added.

Temp is 78.5-79.0 I have reduced lights to 9 hours a day, feed sparingly flakes/pellets every other day

 

[DaveK]

.... It was looking good for 6 months and around June the bloom began. It showed up quickly and has been steadily ugly since then. ...

... I use tap water with conditioner, but that is what I have always used in my 5 years of owning these fish and haven't had problems. I can't find anything online about changes to the town water supply so I don't think that's it. ...

First, I got to give you credit for posting enough information to be able to give you some decent advice. If I had just seen the first photo, I'd have thought that it was a case of just a very dirty tank, but you did demonstrate that this is mostly an algae issue. This almost looks like a plankton culture.

Even though your nitrate reading is zero, you have a nutrient problem. The reason you have a low nitrate reading is because the algae is consuming the nitrates. Nutrients, usually nitrate and phosphate, can come from several possible sources -

Overfeeding - many people feed far too much. Consider cutting this way back.

Not using RO/DI water to mix your SW. This is the first thing I would change. Tap water tends to contain nitrates and phosphates and any water additive is not going to remove them. Get that RO/DI unit and make your own high quality water.

The rocks and sandbed can also contribute to the nutrients. but I don't think it's the case here, because then you usually see algae growing on the rocks and sand, not in the water.

Check your tank for possible areas that may have become dirt traps. This can be media used in the filtration system too. Make sure all media is kept clean. Usually this needs to be done weekly. Note that is cleand, not necessarily changed.

You are also going to need to deal with the water in the tank. This is going to mean large partial water changes. I would change about 50% a week for a few weeks.

One other piece of equipment that will do wonders for algae in the water column is an UV sterilizer. By adding one, it will kill the algae passing through it. They are not that expensive. Usually I don't recommend them, except to resolve a specific issue. You have one of those issues that UV will work well on.

 

[LittleFish]

Yeah that's about what I expected. I am starting RO water and have been looking at uv sterilizers. Any suggestions of which sterilizer is worth the money? I know that some may not work well because of too high flow. Thanks for helping.

 

[DaveK]

Most UV units use just about the same arrangement. It doesn't make that much difference in how it works, but some might be easier to clean or install.

Your right you don't want to over do the flow. However, it doesn't take much to kill algae, compared to diseases. I'd get a unit about 15w to about 25w, and plumb it using a T and valves off the main return, or use a small powerhead to run it.

 

[ddelozier]

DaveK nailed it. Low nutrient readings dont in and of itself explain the problem. You have high nutrient concentrations. When the algae eats the nutrients, it divides, then eventually dies, and the nutrients stay in the system. RO/DI water to mix up fresh SW, and do a TON of small water changes. i'd do 10% 2x per day(or at least 3 hrs apart unless you preheat your Mixed SW). If you heat your water, 1 20% or even better 2x 20% per day. You have to Export the nutrients. The fastest way to do that is Water changes. heck with a tank that small, i personally would do 50% every day for a week.

 

[sirrealism]

Wow. DaveK and ddelozier are right on. Just a thought to add. What about using a coagulator? You have algae floating through your water, If you hyave ever dealt with a pool and had an algae outbreak you use a coagulator to make the algae stick together so the filter can catch it. I know they make coagulators for the hobby. This is just a bandaid to the issue and the things that the others have said are the fix for the issue but to help clear the water give it a try. You will have to clean or replace your filter pad often. I would look for the finest filter pad I can find. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3974+3982+4116&pcatid=4116

 

[LittleFish]

Thanks for the responses. I'll keep you updated on how its going.

 

[LittleFish]

My bloom has cleared up! I apologize for the late response since it has been clear for some time now. I was told my landlord was going to sell my house and had to move so I took that chance to change all the water in the tank and try that method, but the algae came back just as strong as ever and two days after set up was just as bad as in the first picture. I used RO water and it didn't make a dent.

What worked: I finally gave in and bought a UV sterilizer and within 24 hours the bloom was gone. I left it running 24 hours/day for 1-2 weeks just to get it all. I turned it off about a month ago and I have had crystal clear water ever since. I just needed that to kill the algae to break the cycle. Thanks for the help everyone!

Tank after 15 hours of UV Sterilizer running. I used the Green Killing Machine 9W UV lamp