Help, bad algae overtaking my tank

[RoboChicken]

I am getting this nasty algae in the past few weeks and its overtaking my corals. Any idea what this is and how to get rid of it.

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[adalius]

It's a little hard to make out from that angle, is that just a slime across things or does it appear to be a hair algae? From the back side a lot of filamentous algaes (hair algaes) looks just like a slime, but obviously different when viewed from the other side.

Also, can you give us your tank parameters as well? Salinity, phosphate, nitrate, ammonia, etc?

[Chelle's Ocean]

I agree, a better photo will help. AND.......if it is hair algae...I may have found a solution!
I am ordering chitons and turbograzers - apparently these are the bomb in devouring gha!

[Mike]

order the high capacity GFO from Bulk Reef supply. Took out a nasty outbreak in my 270 in a little under 3 days. If you need something to run in it I have an extra phosban reactor you can use.

[rmalone]

You definately need to roll with some GFO. That sure looks like some bubbles in the mat of algae, I doubt hair algae. But the root of the problem is nutrients. GFO and water changes will go a long way to helping.

[Mike]

I will give you the phosban reactor if that helps.

[weimers75]

Although I don't have ann id, algae almost always thrives in poor quality water (I know of only one type that loves high water quality and its red turf). What are you using for water changes and how often are you doing them?

[RoboChicken]

i haven't done a water change in a while, but i am going to plan on one this upcoming weekend. there is bubbles in there, is acts like a carpet of algae and my lawnmower blenny loves the stuff, but it has taken a few of my smaller corals as a sacrifice.

so GFO? gonna see if i can grab some at my LFS. thanks for the help.

[weimers75]

There's the problem! Not doing water changes or doing water changes with tap water lead to excess nutrients which feed the algae. It will take several water changes of at least 20% for several weeks to see a reduction in the algae.

[adalius]

Yea, you need to do water changes. I don't do them weekly like some but I still shoot for monthly. Sometimes if I'm really time-bitten, I'll wait until a see a nitrate buildup or something else missing that I can't dose, but I still try to do monthlys.

Also, do you run a skimmer? That would pull alot of the DOC out of the water that could be feeding this. If you are running one, how often is it filling a cup and is it a nice thick skimmate?

[RoboChicken]

I run a reef octopus skimmed and it fills up with some pretty thick stuff about once a week.

So 20%? Will plan on it.

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[adalius]

Hrm, you might be skimming a little light. It's a mixture of how long it takes and how thick the skim is. I used to shoot for a fairly thick skimmate to fill the cup about every 3 days, so roughly twice as much as you are now. But if you find you can't do that without getting a really wet skimmate, then prune it back until you do. You might only be able to get once a week with your system combined with that particular skimmer. They all run a little bit different to begin with, and the vast differences between two aquariums makes them run even more different.

[rmalone]

Sorry guys I just got my threads confused, **** I even confused the two forums. So just disregard the post below. Again sorry!!







Keep in mind that the testing before dosing involves ALK and CALC. You simply must know how much alk or calc to dose or you will likely do more harm than good, especially with sps.

I know of a whole bunch of awesome sps tanks that don't dose any of the micro-nutrients, even iodine. Unless you have a tank full of big colonies of sps, there is no reason to dose anything but alk, calc and perhaps mag (some salts are low in mag to start with), but again only if you know where the values are and where you want to go.

Adding mag to battle algae only works with certain algaes, most notably bryopsis sp.

[RoboChicken]

The lfs didn't have gfo, so i got phosgard instead. How long should i run that in a 90 gallon tank without it hurting my corals?

Thanks.

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