algae growth bloom in 9 month old reef tank - ideas please?

[C J Rodders]

An orange / brown fine layer that is meshed together with a fine lace has appeared over the lower rocks in the reef tank. The tank is 85 g with LR and 7 small fish. The tests show the water quality to be perfect. I changed the lighting 3 weeks ago to MH. the problem was in the tank before the change but the 'lace' seemed to be more white in color than now. Also, I believe the problem has increased considerably since the change to 2 x 250w MH. I make water changes (20%) every 2 weeks. As I syphon off the water, I try to suck up as much of the 'mesh' as possible. I have recently taken to using a turkey baister to swoosh off the algae from the rocks every day. I wonder if this is doing any harm or any good? I feel I might just be spreading the algae bloom further around the tank. Two weeks ago, my beloved flame angel went missing, I suppose it ended up as a tasty meal for the green brittle star. This week, I lost the cleaner wrasse in the same way. Please, please help. What action do I need to take? Should I introduce more critters? There are 6 or so hermit crabs and a dozen snails.
Thanks,
CJ

 

[ReefLion]

This may be dinoflagellates (sorry no time to look up that spelling). Water movement (including turkey baster) should help. Try searching on that word (dino...) with various spellings and you should get some hits that might be of use.

Tim

 

[danmhippo]

Dinoflagellate should have nothing to do with your fish's death.

(Fish is singular or plural?)

 

[ReefLion]

I understood that some dinoflagellates are toxic, especially if nibbled on. A couple years ago I had some problem with dinoflagellates, and a number of mysterious fish deaths. Purely anecdotal, but the correlation between the two was high for that small sample size (I think I lost 3-4 fishes during that period -- by far the largest number of deaths for any given period of time).

I believe D&S vol 1 has something on them, with a picture.

Tim

 

[ldaiga]

How many hours do you have your MH on for? I've had a similar problem after changing to MH (175) because I didn't cut the on-time back far enough. You need to have the MH lights on only for about 6 hours max. per day.
Hope this helps.
Liga

 

[Anonymous]

You need to have the MH lights on only for about 6 hours max. per day.

Interesting. Why do you say this?

po

 

[Anonymous]

An algae bloom at 9 months is actually common. It also depends on the lighting and water used(RO/DI). The turkey baster is a good idea IMO. The new lights make the bloom that much easier. Many times upgrading lights will do this. A fighting conch or two will make mincemeat out of the diatoms and cyano.

 

[DK]

I second Anemonebuff's opinion. Perhaps you could siphon out the algae (using airline tubing) reducing the algae and removing whatever nutrients that they are feeding on. The whole thing will probably pass in a month or two anyway... when those nutrients are finally used up.

good luck