Algae Problem...Problem?

kevin310 said:

Hello Everyone,
I have a 90 gallon fowlr. I have 80lbs of live rock. The tank has been up and running for over two years now. All my water parameters are good. In the last few weeks I have seen green fizzy algae growing on some of my rocks. My question is if this is bad and what caused it to start after 2 years? I do use Ro water. Any ideas would be great.:dance::help:
Thanks,
Kevin

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My guess is detritus material settled in cracks and provided a food source for it to grow... Its really unavoidable to have completely algae free environment with our lighting.

I think that if its not bursting in growth and all over the place the best thing to do is pull out the rock and scrub it off...it may grow back some...but its like hair on our head just gota keep at it ...

I run a Phosphate reactor and I change out the media every 2 months...I use Rophos in it... I even change water weekly and keep my readings at 0 for nitrate ..its up to 10 by the time change comes... phosphate never registers .....I keep up on that ..and I do what you do RoDI

I have old rocks from a old tank that used to have hair algae on them the fuzzy stuff..and now its reappearing in crevices ...I have the same problem.
Though its taken 2 weeks to be even long enough to pull by finger...its very very slow growing..and thats exactly what I want to do.

The only thing I can think of is using a UV sterilizer to kill algae spores in the water column...thats how it spreads ....the only other route is I have to purchase more things to add a seperate Fuge due to stand size....

I think you are in the same boat as me when it comes to algae like that...its already in our tanks...spores can lay dormant in the rocks... and really all we can do is keep those readings low and pull it out so it doesnt spread...

Currently I am ignoring a few pieces since its not growing fast...I figure I can starve it out since I recently change out my Rophos... I may up my water change to.

It may be time I use one of my power heads to blow off my rocks because like mentioned ...detritus settling in the cracks is just promoting it a spot to build on...pain in the rear I tell yah...

Combo of good maintenance like we do...uv sterilizer... and competing nutrients source like Fuge probably would be the only way to really ensure that crap doesn't grow at all...

I may have to purchase a sea hair for my tank...they eat it..if there isn't alternative algae to eat ....ive had one do it in my old tank..till the thing died.

If anyone else can chime in here with more ideas do let us know.

Update: I got sick of looking at it....

I pulled all my rocks out and scrubbed them...bought a sea hair and he immediately chomped on a batch I didnt pull out...then sat in the corner sleeping and pooping for the last 24 hours...(lazy fat arse).

It seems that my old rocks from a previous tank still had roots in those rocks...just dormant and finally growing....I had to blow off all my rocks and to my surprise lots of junk blew off... bah..seems I am going to have to blow off rocks every water change to ensure it gets mixed into my water column.... I am about to break down and replace my Korilia 4's well maybe not replace but add #5's...and hide the others within the rocks...to stir up lots of flow behind them ...The only concern is cleaning them will require moving rocks every few months..yay =(


Anyway... I am going to put the infected rocks in my sump...im gona call it infected cause its like a disease that wont go away on them... Keep those LR in the dark and let the algae die... simply go buy more LR =)


any luck with yours? Mine seem to be growing on (forgot the name of rock) the rocks with the most Pits and crevices on them.....the smooth rocks..not at all...so It seems its my detritus being stuck in those cracks making it a prime spot to grow.

Something that has helped me quite a bit is just a simple turkey baster. I use it in my routine daily maintainence to blow off the rocks, which seems to help it get sucked into the skimmer. I have seen a great improvement in the amount of the short fuzzy green algae since I started using it. Also every 2 weeks when I do my water change I use a soft bristle tooth brush to scrub off the powerheads, skimmer intake etc. and the more fuzzy of the rocks to get all that into the water column prior to watrer removal which really gets a lot of gunk out of the tank. I know it all sounds simplistic but it has really helped significantly
Ladygwen