Algae ?

[Brad15]

If I'm running 0 nitrates and phosphates continuously with the presence of hair, cyanobacteria, and bubble algae, will carbon dosing such as vodka help my cause? And my cause being nutrient export to coral growth and color instead of feeding algae.

 

[pauliwalnuts]

If your phosphate and nitrate are 0, wich I doubt it, then most likely its the lighting. What type of light fixture do you have? When was the last time you changed the bulbs? How long is your light cycle? What brand of test kit are you using for phosphate and nitrate? Is this a reef set-up or FOWLR? Do you dose alk+cal+mag, and where are those levels at?

 

[Brad15]

Reef tank. Ati powermodule. Change bulbs every 8-9 months. Actinics on for 9 hrs. Daylights on for 6. Salifert nitrates kit. Hanna phos. Dose alk and cal. Supplement mag when needed. Alk 8.3. Calc 440. Mag 1300.

 

[pauliwalnuts]

When was the last time you changed your bulbs? When did you start noticing this issue?

 

[Brad15]

Daylights last month. Actinics are due to be changed in December. Tank is almost 2 years old. Issue? For quite some time. Pale coral colors. No zoa growth.

 

[pauliwalnuts]

What are the tank's dimensions? How many bulbs and what bulbs are they (color and brand)? Are you running gfo and if you're are is it in a reactor or in a bag and when was the last time you changed it? What is your fish stock list? How many times do you feed your fish, what do you feed them and how much, and what time do you feed them?

 

[Brad15]

65 gallon. 6 ati bulbs. 3 blue plus. 2 coral. 1 purple. Gfo in a phosban. Change 1x a month. Alternate pellets and mysis. 1x a day. Sometimes on weekend 2x. 9 fish.

 

[pauliwalnuts]

What's the fish list and quantity of the fish food fed? Do you have a refugium?

 

[Brad15]

Yes refugium with chaeto. Quantity? Either a cube of mysis cuz I'll feed some corals too or a pinch or two of pellets. Sometimes a couple will reach the bottom. Fish? 1 clown. 2 chromis. 2 firefish. 1 watchmen goby. 1 tomini tang. 1 mccoskers. 1 lubbocks. 1 cardinal.

 

[pauliwalnuts]

I leaning towards the lighting is what is causing your issue. Try raising your light fixture about six inches and lowering your total light cycle by one hour. Also, feed the fish an hour/half-hour before the lights go out. Another thing you can do is raising your alk+cal+mag levels. This will help aid in rapid coraline growth so it can cover up the dead algae look. Do this for a week and a half without making any other changes. If the coral start to color up and you see the algae going away, then you will know what it was. Btw, what is the distance from the water surface to the bottom of the light fixture?

 

[Dan_P]

If I'm running 0 nitrates and phosphates continuously with the presence of hair, cyanobacteria, and bubble algae, will carbon dosing such as vodka help my cause? And my cause being nutrient export to coral growth and color instead of feeding algae.

Just read all the posts. Sounds like you have an ideal setup and pay attention to your maintenance schedule.! I certainly would not have predicted you would have a problem. So, do you have a cosmetic problem or ecological disaster on your hands.

You did not mention how bad the cyanobacteria (I assume reddish slime), hair and bubble algae are. How bad are things on the scale from "small scattered areas of growth" to "masses of growth encroaching everywhere"? Pictures would help too. It would help forum members to come up with ideas.

By the way, I am going to include your data in the Cyano Survey. Thanks. Dan

 

[Brad15]

Small patches "waving in the flow" on the chaeto in my refugium. Now what bothers me the most is what seems to be like kitty litter patches in the display tank. Hardened sand patches of cyano. Flow is good.

 

[Brad15]

Small scattered areas of growth for your survey.

 

[Brad15]

Bubble algae is getting more and more. Picked up an emerald crab and he's done nothing.

 

[Dan_P]

Small patches "waving in the flow" on the chaeto in my refugium. Now what bothers me the most is what seems to be like kitty litter patches in the display tank. Hardened sand patches of cyano. Flow is good.

OK, this does not sound like an ecological disaster requiring a major effort at this time. Also, I forgot to mention that you have three different algae growths to consider dealing with.

The bubble algae is a common problem and I have read that forum members handled it with crabs and physically removing the bubbles.

"Small patches in the refugium" I assume you mean cyano. Maybe ignore that for now. My new tank is going through a phase of near cyano free display tank and nasty looking sump. I am riding this out and taking no action other than cleaning the surface of the macro algae in the sump if it becomes grossly covered with slime.

If you have hair algae in the sump...I don't have an opinion at this point. Maybe ignore it for now? Let's see what other forum members advise.

The "hardened patches of sand and cyano" is interesting. I presume you mean there are clumps of substrate and cyano is growing on it or in it. This is a combination of things. Hard sand clumps I think only come from chemical precipitation like calcium carbonate or calcium phosphate. Softer clumps maybe from organic glue like bacteria slime.

If the cyanobacteria are growing on these clumps you could hypothesize that there are nutrients in those clumps that the cyanobacteria find useful or that the clump surface ecology is such that it is allowing cyanobacteria growth to out compete whatever colorless bacteria grow on the rest of the sand. You could elect to ride it out or screen them like you do with cat litter (although would this disturb the biological filter too much? Just a paranoid thought).

 

[Brad15]

Ok thanks. What is chemical precipitation and how or why do I get it? It always happens and find myself removing these clumps when doing maintenance. Would hate to keep throwing away sand.

 

[Dan_P]

Ok thanks. What is chemical precipitation and how or why do I get it? It always happens and find myself removing these clumps when doing maintenance. Would hate to keep throwing away sand.

High calcium levels, high pH, and high alkalinity come to mind as causes. Normal reef levels of calcium and carbonate are near or above saturation level for calcium carbonate. Magnesium ion helps prevents this precipitation from occurring. If your magnesium level was very low that might be a cause. If you are not dosing anything, I suppose high phosphate levels could be precipitating calcium phosphate.

Other forum members will have additional ideas. You could post this question under the Chemistry forum for further discussion.