Problem with algae

[bronxer]

My son gave me his 75 gallon setup with live rock, coral, fish, MH's, etc.
He had a problem a few months ago in which his fluval wasn't working properly and caused reduced oxygen in the tank -- his yellow tang died. So he repaired the fluval. A few weeks later he developed a ton of algae.

I read an article (no longer have the mag) in which someone had a similar situation and was told the name of the growth he had and that there was no way of killing off the algae short of taking the tank down completely and starting over.

What is the name of that life form and where can I find a picture of it to compare to what is growing in my tank?

Thanks in advance for any input on this dilemma.

 

[WLDSHARK]

There are a few solutions if what you have is GREEN HAIR ALGIE GHA.
One is to follow this link:
http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html
the other option will be to make sure you are using clean top off water RO/DI water. buy at least 30 turbo snails to clean your rock and glass, make sure you have enough water circulation and buy a couple dwarf sea hair...they will do an amazing job cutting your grass..or GHA.

good luck
if you need more infor please feel to shoot me an email [email protected]? i had that problem in the past and i could help you out...
your light bulbs might be on too long or they might be too old....

 

[OctaviousMonk]

Do you have any pictures of the algae, or a better description of what it looks like? Also what are your water parameters? What other type of filtration are you using, skimmer refugium, etc? Do you use RO/DI water or tap water?
Canister filters like fluvals can become nitrate factories because of trapped detritus and food breaking down which results in what can be simply put as algae food.

 

[DevIouS]

Bryopsis?

If a pic can not be supplied.....what color?
A better description will help.

 

[bronxer]

This is the problem algae I have. I'm not sure how good this picture will be, but it's all over my tank. I have MH's on for about 6 hours, with actinic T5's on for 8 hours. My water parameters are not good - having problem with nitrates - always too high - exact level I'm not sure of but it's >100. I'm using Deionized water. I've been using it for years on my old tank and never had any problem with algae, unless the deionizer was used up, and then I'd see some red algae start to show, which is not happening. I did buy an RO/DI, but the amount of wasted water was unbelievable. I have to pay for that water and it's outlandish how much of it goes down the toilet. ( I know. It's not a cheap hobby, but I work really hard and it hurts to see all that water literally going down the toilet).
I do not overfeed my fish. I have only 4 fish - 2 engineer gobies, tomato clown and a cardinal fish.
I also have a refugium with chaetomorpha. I also have a deep sand bed in both the tank and the refugium.

 

[Deanos]

Looks like cyanobacteria overgrowing hair algae.

I'd focus on lowering phosphates via aggressive water changes and a phosphate removing media in a media chamber of your liking.

 

[bronxer]

I've been using Kent phosphate sponge but sporadically. I knew that water changes would help, but is there any chance of actually getting rid of it without taking down the entire tank?

 

[OctaviousMonk]

Yes, but it isn't an over night fix. First start with lowering the phosphates and nitrates, which are feeding the algae. Nitrates can be lowered by slowly removing the media in your fluval which is just creating more nitrates. You can still use the fluval w/ carbon though. Also consistent large water changes w/ ro/di water,a doing tons of manual removal when doing changes. You should also begin consistenly running a phosphate remover like rowaphos or phosban in a reactor as this will do tons more then sporadic uses of a sponge which doesn't work well to begin with. Also a heavy clean up crew will help by eating the stuff. The article listed earlier is a good one read it again:
http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html

 

[bronxer]

Thank you all for your informative assistance. I especially liked the link to melevsreef. It gives me hope.

 

[tunicata]

I noticed that my hair algae problem stopped (as in spreading to new rocks) when I bought new lights. I needed to change my MH.
Now I just have some cleaners taking their sweet time to remove the algae. I'm going to help them out with some phospure or phosban, don't think I'm going to get a reactor just yet unless I see one at a 'steal'.