JT101
Member
Hello! It's been a while
Help!!
My reef tank is slowly being overtaken by hair algae and cyano.
My AquaPod 24 was established in June 2007. For almost 3 years now I’ve had basically the same inhabitants: a hawkfish, a pair of oscellaris clowns, and a small blue tang (yes, it is ONLY about 2” long and has stayed that way for almost 3 years). As far as inverts go I have a few small green ricordias, a nice paly rock, a medium finger leather, several button polyps and green star polyps.
I have always had a LITTLE cyano here and there but always dealt with it by vacuuming it off the substrate during weekly 33% water changes. However, about 6 months ago it started getting worse. Then the hair algae came!! I change my bulbs every 6 months (2 36W actinic PCs and 2 36W 10,000K daylights). At on point a local LFS told me to put in 100% actinic, which I did. This really made a huge difference, but after a while the algae started coming back, so I dropped my light schedule from 8 hours to only 5. Most of the algae went away, but after a few weeks of this I noticed my corals started to look a little anemic, so I gradually brought the lights back up to 8 hours a day. The good news was the corals began to come back – the bad news, so did the hair algae. One day I literally scrubbed each and every surface of the tank with a brush and ran a diatom filter. The tank was immaculate for about a week but my corals didn’t look so great. I noticed the purple “mat” that comprised my green star polyps was gradually getting covered with cyano. I gently scrubbed it clean. The polyps took a day or so to recover from this “manhandling” but eventually began to open. However, the cyano came back again and started to grow on more than the GSP. Soon, it was even growing on my button polyps and a really beautiful little bright green zoa “tree”.
My GSP’s which were at one time vibrant and radiant green are now a mere shadow of themselves, with only a few polyps extending because the mat is getting covered by cyano. The “zoa tree” looks anemic – whereas it was once a dark green it is now a sickly lighter shade – and many of the polyps are covered in cyano that, despite how many times I clean them, they always get covered up in a few days.
I recently cleaned my skimmer and it is no better or no worse than it ever was.
I have looked and looked on line for some kind of help, but the only thing I ever see is this sort of advice:
Make sure you only use RO/DI water. Well, DUH!! I’ve been using nothing but for 2 years (the first year was NSW from the local shore). My membrane was just changed in January and all my resin and other filters get changed every year. The fresh RO/DI has zero phosphates, TDS is 0ppm ALL THE TIME (I use an inline TDS meter) and phosphates are zero. I’m fully convinced it is NOT my RO/DI.
Don’t overfeed. I’ve actually cut down on feedings yet the problem is only getting worse.
Make sure you have a lot of flow. With (2) Koralia Ones and a MaxiJet 1200 in the back, my tank looks like a washing machine. In fact, I have GHA and cyano growing in areas that have the STRONGEST flow as well as the weakest.
Change at least 20% of the water every month. I’ve been doing 30% weekly since day one. The problem took about 2-1/2 years to get bad enough to the point that I’m writing this.
Make sure you use GOOD salt mix. Using nothing but Tropic Marin Pro Reef I’m pretty convinced my salt is perfect. Ironically, my tank looked better with NSW I used to harvest myself until it became a concern in the winter what with road salt runoff concerns etc plus the PITA factor of going out on a cold day to get it.
This is caused by overstocking. Look at what I have. Even if it IS overstocked with fish, why was the tank good for 2-1/2 years?
Your lights are bad! As mentioned earlier, I change my lights every 6 months.
Your nitrates are high. My nitrates have never been above 10ppm and are usually around 5ppm, going way back to a few months after my tank was established.
Honestly, these are all amateurish, newbie suggestions that I am sure are fine for someone whose tank has perhaps just cycled, but I believe I have checked all the basics and still have a problem. Not poking fun at these comments, but this is pretty much all I ever see on the subject. Isn't it obvious that people with this problem have already tried the obvious (newbies aside)? On the other hand, I’m perfectly willing to accept some advice and constructive criticism; I can always learn from others more well-versed in this subject!! What I believe is wrong is SOMETHING has changed DRASTICALLY but I can’t identify it. Is it possible the tank is getting “old” (I have heard of something called “old tank syndrome” but I’d be hard-pressed to believe that that can happened to 2-1/2 year old reef – still…)
I truly appreciate any advice you can offer.
Help!!
My reef tank is slowly being overtaken by hair algae and cyano.
My AquaPod 24 was established in June 2007. For almost 3 years now I’ve had basically the same inhabitants: a hawkfish, a pair of oscellaris clowns, and a small blue tang (yes, it is ONLY about 2” long and has stayed that way for almost 3 years). As far as inverts go I have a few small green ricordias, a nice paly rock, a medium finger leather, several button polyps and green star polyps.
I have always had a LITTLE cyano here and there but always dealt with it by vacuuming it off the substrate during weekly 33% water changes. However, about 6 months ago it started getting worse. Then the hair algae came!! I change my bulbs every 6 months (2 36W actinic PCs and 2 36W 10,000K daylights). At on point a local LFS told me to put in 100% actinic, which I did. This really made a huge difference, but after a while the algae started coming back, so I dropped my light schedule from 8 hours to only 5. Most of the algae went away, but after a few weeks of this I noticed my corals started to look a little anemic, so I gradually brought the lights back up to 8 hours a day. The good news was the corals began to come back – the bad news, so did the hair algae. One day I literally scrubbed each and every surface of the tank with a brush and ran a diatom filter. The tank was immaculate for about a week but my corals didn’t look so great. I noticed the purple “mat” that comprised my green star polyps was gradually getting covered with cyano. I gently scrubbed it clean. The polyps took a day or so to recover from this “manhandling” but eventually began to open. However, the cyano came back again and started to grow on more than the GSP. Soon, it was even growing on my button polyps and a really beautiful little bright green zoa “tree”.
My GSP’s which were at one time vibrant and radiant green are now a mere shadow of themselves, with only a few polyps extending because the mat is getting covered by cyano. The “zoa tree” looks anemic – whereas it was once a dark green it is now a sickly lighter shade – and many of the polyps are covered in cyano that, despite how many times I clean them, they always get covered up in a few days.
I recently cleaned my skimmer and it is no better or no worse than it ever was.
I have looked and looked on line for some kind of help, but the only thing I ever see is this sort of advice:
Make sure you only use RO/DI water. Well, DUH!! I’ve been using nothing but for 2 years (the first year was NSW from the local shore). My membrane was just changed in January and all my resin and other filters get changed every year. The fresh RO/DI has zero phosphates, TDS is 0ppm ALL THE TIME (I use an inline TDS meter) and phosphates are zero. I’m fully convinced it is NOT my RO/DI.
Don’t overfeed. I’ve actually cut down on feedings yet the problem is only getting worse.
Make sure you have a lot of flow. With (2) Koralia Ones and a MaxiJet 1200 in the back, my tank looks like a washing machine. In fact, I have GHA and cyano growing in areas that have the STRONGEST flow as well as the weakest.
Change at least 20% of the water every month. I’ve been doing 30% weekly since day one. The problem took about 2-1/2 years to get bad enough to the point that I’m writing this.
Make sure you use GOOD salt mix. Using nothing but Tropic Marin Pro Reef I’m pretty convinced my salt is perfect. Ironically, my tank looked better with NSW I used to harvest myself until it became a concern in the winter what with road salt runoff concerns etc plus the PITA factor of going out on a cold day to get it.
This is caused by overstocking. Look at what I have. Even if it IS overstocked with fish, why was the tank good for 2-1/2 years?
Your lights are bad! As mentioned earlier, I change my lights every 6 months.
Your nitrates are high. My nitrates have never been above 10ppm and are usually around 5ppm, going way back to a few months after my tank was established.
Honestly, these are all amateurish, newbie suggestions that I am sure are fine for someone whose tank has perhaps just cycled, but I believe I have checked all the basics and still have a problem. Not poking fun at these comments, but this is pretty much all I ever see on the subject. Isn't it obvious that people with this problem have already tried the obvious (newbies aside)? On the other hand, I’m perfectly willing to accept some advice and constructive criticism; I can always learn from others more well-versed in this subject!! What I believe is wrong is SOMETHING has changed DRASTICALLY but I can’t identify it. Is it possible the tank is getting “old” (I have heard of something called “old tank syndrome” but I’d be hard-pressed to believe that that can happened to 2-1/2 year old reef – still…)
I truly appreciate any advice you can offer.