An algae bloom..

SuperScro

SuperScro

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Sep 3, 2006
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I went away for the weekend to go down the shore, and I come home late last night to see a lot of brown, stringy algae all over the place which I assume is brown hair algae. I wouldn't say it is infested, but it is surely on its way. I noticed some before I left but now it is pretty bad. It is growning on certain areas of my rocks, the back glass, and in my sand. My sand was very white last week, and is now full of bubbles (air bubbles), algae, and brown coloring. I am not sure what caused the outbreak. I realized my lights were not on when I came home, maybe my timer didn't work? I don't have anything in the tank besides snails, and was wondering what is going on. My tank isn't even just established, it was set up back in december, unless I ahve gone through a few mini-cycles. I run the skimmer 24/7 now. My parameters were like so. Temp 79, Ph. 8.3, Calcium 400, Nitrates <15, Phosphate 0, no ammonia or nitrite. Dkh 7.

What could have been the problem? How can I rid of this? It is very annoying to look at. I willl get pictures up soon.
 
Anyone know of an efficient way to get rid of this? Its starting to get bad. The brown hair algae I assume is growing all over the place and my sand is covered in bubbles. I might classify this as an emergency soon. Going to try and clean it up. Help needed.
 
Well, there is nothing ta face value that stikes me as being out of whack. My first instinct would of been phosphates, however, yours are Zero so it rules that side out. Flow i notice is around 18 x in the tank, so that is ample for the system as a whole.

If you were experiencing a mini-cycle you would expect to see a rise in ammonia...

As you only have snails in the tank, a possible addition should be some hermits crabs as they will actively feed on the diatom. A good way to introduce, or rather quickly enhance the microfauna of the substrate is to get a small ammount from an algae free tank and put this onto your own substrate. Another possibility would be to run a UV and or activated acrbon.

I hope someone can maybe suggest more than what i have, but, i cant think of much more at the moment..

Niko
 
What is the lowest reading on your phosphate test kit? If it's 0.1 ppm or 0.5 ppm, the test kit isn't sensitive enough to detect phosphate levels that may lead to algal growth. I've seen articles stating phosphate levels in the 0.05 ppm range can cause unwanted algae to grow.

If your algae problems are mainly on the sand, you might also consider adding in a handful of nassarius snails. They will consume some of it, as well as help stir the sand bed for you.
 
Get yourself a turkey blaster and free the bubbles and algae.

I don't know where you're located (since you chose not to fill out the location section of your profile), but this weekend was HOT here. My tank climbed to 84 degrees, which, from what i understand, algae really likes.

But, I've been vigilant with maintanance so my own little hair algae outbreak didn't seem to get too bad...
 
I am going to consider getting a better phosphate kit. I use the aquarium pharmaceuticals tester. Everytime I test my water the tube turns out green when there should be a tint of green going past .25 I ahve tested my phosphate at least 20 times and it has been grey every single time.

Apparantly it was very hot in South Jersey, so says my neighbors, since I was down the shore and it was even hot there. It could have been that my tank had heated up, since I left it a little below 80 degrees.

I have nassarius snails, but only 3 of them. Was planning on getting larger ones. For hermits I don't want to risk becaue I don't wan't to risk anything in my reef (when I get these problems solved). I guess adding a few small hermits couldn't do any harm tho.

When I get a new tester of phosphates and do some maintenance I will get back in touch.

Thank you.
 
I had a mini-cycle after moving my tank and experienced a brown algae growth. Periods of lights off have actually helped reduce it. I've also done the turkey baster (blasting it off the rocks) and water changes. The hermit crabs (I have a reef system) and snails have done an amazing job of cleaning this up, as has the one emerald crab I have--he's a huge eater! I also added a sea hare this weekend, with the understanding that I will have to feed him if the tank gets cleaned of algae (he eats nori, like my tang, so that's not a problem). But I would say the hermit crabs, snails and emerald crab combined with the cleaning myself have really done a great job. I've seen a dramatic increase in the algae growth since adding the clean up crew! Good luck, I know how frustrating it is to see that. Made me want to cry.
 
Here are several pictures. First one is hte corner of my tank where a lot of bubbles and the brown algae is growing. Second picture is green hair algae on my one rock. Third is another rock with red stuff growing all over it.

Tonight i plan on buying a new phosphate test kits, a larger clean-up crew, and possibly some live macro algaes.

Should I keep the lights off? Keep actinics on and 10ks off? Or keep both off? How much help will water changes do? it seems like everytime I make one my tank gets dirtier

Also, anyone know why so many bubbles appear in my substrate? The appear so quickly

algae 1.jpg algae 2.jpg algae 3.jpg
 
When I turned up my flow and added some carbon to my reef tank (no fish right now), it really did a # on the hair algae.

Mine looked a lot like yours, actually, in that the hair wasn't too bad yet, but bad enough to really annoy me.

I put on my old emporer freshwater filter, but removed the spray bars and bio wheels and just installed hoses that put the water where I wanted it.

I then started daily using my turkey baster and just spraying that stuff off the rocks so it would get in the water channel and be grabbed by the filter and my skimmer.

It seems to be really helping.
 
Subliminal said:
When I turned up my flow and added some carbon to my reef tank (no fish right now), it really did a # on the hair algae.
Click to expand...

I'll ditto this. I added two Koralia pumps in addition to my clean up crew and that also seemed to make a huge difference.
 
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