Serious Algae Issue

[Tru2nr]

agree about the lfs selling bad ro/di i've seen it before from personally working in a LFS and they had two diff. systems one that wasn't really taken care of for customer tanks and another that was for stores tank that was always checked

[AnotherLousy1]

Well gang - after about a week, here's what we have now:





Here's how it went down ... 4/14 of course, the beginning of hades and panic. LOL

4/15 - pulled as much HA out by hand as possible. Real messy situation even if you do pull the rocks out. When I put the rock back in the tank, I still had little HA pieces floating around the tank coming off the rock.

4/17 - powered down lights on tank, still had ambient light, but by end of first day HA already looked to be discoloring some. Also put seagel, chemipure, and purigen in the sump (helps with phos, nitrates, and clarity of water)

4/19 - bought 5 turbo snails that seemed to start to work on some of the HA

4/20 - HA very yellowish in color after 4 days of lights being turned off. Not to mention my poor cheato turned into a mess of lightweight thread. (Good thing I had an abundance in my other tank)

4/21 - turned lights back on and watched tank over the next 24 hours.

4/22 - today, I scrubbed down the rock with the most of the HA left on it in R/O water in a bucket and placed back in tank, will continue to monitor. Also added some fresh cheato from my other tank to assist in soaking up nitrates before the HA can get to them again.

Seems it may have been my dry rock which wreaked havoc on everything, even my skimmer went ballistic for a bit when I first put it in. Took some tests today and water quality seems to be leveling out pretty well:

Phos: .25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
PH: between 8.0 - 8.3

I think, at least I hope the worst is over, will probably wait a couple more days and start putting in some purple up again. I believe it was the dry rock, but if the HA begins to grow again when putting the purple up in, then I'll know it's that instead.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the help, hopefully my time line can help someone else down the road.

[Frankie]

Good work so far! Now you need to get coralline to grow all over that rock. It will help keep future out breaks from occurring. Whats the calcium testing at?

[AnotherLousy1]

Just measured Calcium ...

CA: 260

I have some argamilk that will help with that situation, will probably start dosing tomorrow to see if it helps out as well along with the purple up.

[Frankie]

Ok lets not blow it now that you have something to work with. Araga milk and purple up are not good products. I don't want to start into why but try to by pass all that and get you using stuff that will actually work without tossing your whole tank int the drain.
Stuff like Turbo-Calcium
and Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium or if you want to try liquids there is Alkalinity & Calcium Marine Supplements: Two Little Fishies C-Balance
I have used both the top two in the past with great results (prefer the Seachem) and have heard good things about the C balance.

[AnotherLousy1]

Really? I had read decent things about purple up (more good than bad) and I use argamilk in my 29 Gallon and the calcium is around 440 ppm.

Thanks in adavance

[Varga]

Thats looking much better now.

[bigfish]

marc weiss makes a miracle product called algae magic. it really works within a week all that algae will be gone i swear by it! not very much either and it is safe with all corals and fish~ let me know how it goes

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by AnotherLousy1

Really? I had read decent things about purple up (more good than bad) and I use argamilk in my 29 Gallon and the calcium is around 440 ppm.

Thanks in adavance

first you need to understand why you are adding stuff to your tank A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Then you can go from there. I have seen some poor results with purple up usage. I know this personally because i too looked for the easy way out. After battling nuisance algae and water parameters for quiet some time I finally had to stop ad learn from articles like this what i was doing wrong.
Here is a list of stuff you can sink your teath into. Reefkeeping Online Magazine - Chemistry
Have fun!

[johnmaloney]

Strong CUC + competition (macro algae or mangroves)+ trimming from you = no more hair algae. real easy to get rid of if you work at it a little bit. You got the chaeto...good.. you got 4 turbos...okay, but weak... you are putting in the time...awesome...you can afford to keep the lights off for extended periods...will make it so easy.

Keep us posted!

[dianezoo]

What do you call an extended period of time to keep the lights off and
at what point will it adversly affect the corals?

Ive just ond water change took the rock s out and picked Hair algea off and scrubbed them with a baby brush and did a water change and put them back but not im learly about turning off the lights and having the coral go south. sure about turning off the lightsmaj.

[lcstorc]

If you are afraid of turning out the lights, then reduce the photoperiod. That would be a compromize between the two.
I absolutely agree about the purple up. It will throw your chemistry way out of wack. t messes with not only the calcium but the alk and can cause major problems. Stick with separate supplements as your tests indicate. Increasing your light on the cheato can help some as well. It will grow faster and allow it to remover more nutrients. Remember the root of the problem is excess untrients usually from overfeeding. Re-consider your feeding routine and cut back a bit. Also keep any sponges etc very clean.

[cracker]

Looking much better! I think your right on the base rock! I also had big HA problems with some dry base.

[johnmaloney]

If you have corals, keep the same lighting schedule, algae is easy to get rid of with the right cleaner crew and competition, corals is expensive.

[dianezoo]

I think I'll try without making the corals mad Iagree there. I Got an emerald crab yesterday. He just didnt want to get of the the bag so when I grabbed him and dropped in in he landed on a clump of algea and has been happy chewing away. I should add more snails, Im confused by the many different varieties are the turbos the most effective? or not?
Regards