Algae Problem

[cjosephson66]

I have had my tank up and running since January 2011 now and everything has been great. My parameters are:

PH: 8.5
Salinity: 1.026
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0
Temp: 73-74

When I top off or do water changes every 2 weeks I use distilled water with Red Sea Salt or I use premixed ocean water from LFS. It works great but I've been having problems with bubble algae for the last 3 weeks. I've tried the Microbe Lift products because they are "all natural" but they don't seem to work. I know you have to get at the route of the problem but I can't imagine what it could be. I noticed it happened about 3 weeks ago but I haven't added any new fish/invertebrates or live rock and nothing has died so I can't imagine what it is.

Is there any other way to get rid of this bubble algae besides what I'm doing now? (scraping it off the back of the tank and glass, sucking up the green algae out of the sand and feeding the fish less).

I also have a cleaner crew and they can't seem to stay on top of it (only on the live rock).

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.

 

[dherrera83]

How long do you leave your lights on?

 

[cjosephson66]

How long do you leave your lights on?

They are on a timer for 12 hours a day. I have a Red Sea Max 130D and it came with the day and night lights with a timer. The manufacturer instructions say to do 12 day and 12 night so I have it set for them to go on at 8am and go out a 8pm.

Thanks.

Claire

 

[wayne]

a little more info needed ..............

1-how often do you feed your fish
2-what kinda circulation & water movement do you have in your tank
3-those light's that you have are they new or were they bought used
4-eight hours should be fine for the daylights if you do not have any corals you can even do less until you find the (root) of your problem
6-do you have any power heads running in the tank id invest in a pair of nano power heads to get the water moving in the tank.it could even be in some live rock that you recently put into the tank , do some reading.....................

http://www.ehow.com/list_7635252_causes-bubble-algae.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_7839871_cures-bubble-algae-saltwater-aquarium.html

 

[dherrera83]

To start try leaving your lights on for 8 hours or a ilttle less. What kind of water are you using? Dont use tap, i did that mistake once.

Also do you have a uv sterilizer?

 

[batt600]

The water he is using has P04. And what are you testing the P04 with test kits are never accurate for P04

 

[wayne]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeqtPe3XukM

 

[cjosephson66]

a little more info needed ..............

1-how often do you feed your fish
2-what kinda circulation & water movement do you have in your tank
3-those light's that you have are they new or were they bought used
4-eight hours should be fine for the daylights if you do not have any corals you can even do less until you find the (root) of your problem
6-do you have any power heads running in the tank id invest in a pair of nano power heads to get the water moving in the tank.it could even be in some live rock that you recently put into the tank , do some reading.....................

http://www.ehow.com/list_7635252_causes-bubble-algae.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_7839871_cures-bubble-algae-saltwater-aquarium.html

1. I usually feed them 2x a day and only what they can consume in 5 minutes.

2. I have a brand new Red Sea Max 130D tank that I purchased in December for my son for Christmas. I set it up the first week of January.
I have 2 x 550 lph (2 x 146 gph) Circulation pumps and A skimmer that has an air flow of 120lph.

Here's the link for the specs on the tank (since I'm new I have no idea).
http://www.redseamax.com/redseamax/250Temp/redseamax/Red_Sea_MAX_specs130D.html

3. Everything came with the tank brand new. It is a plug and play (not pray) system.

4. I have no corals, just live rock that was purchased to cycle the tank in January and some Gracilaria that was purchased in February because I have starfish and cannot have coral.

I haven't added anything new in my tank since last month so that is why I'm so confused. The bubbles seem to show up after I do a water change. I use natural sea water that I get from my LFS or distilled water and Red Sea Max salt.

I'm going to try and change the timer on my lights to run for 8 hours instead of 12 and see if that works.

Thanks for your help and the websites. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[cjosephson66]

To start try leaving your lights on for 8 hours or a ilttle less. What kind of water are you using? Dont use tap, i did that mistake once.

Also do you have a uv sterilizer?

I started with distilled water and Red Sea Max Salt but then I found natural sea water at my LFS so I started using that to do my water changes with.

I'm going to change the timer to stay on for 8 hours instead of 12 and see it that works.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Donewiththisplace]

Any pics of the tank and the algae..?

 

[cjosephson66]

To start try leaving your lights on for 8 hours or a ilttle less. What kind of water are you using? Dont use tap, i did that mistake once.

Also do you have a uv sterilizer?

I started to turn the lights off after 8 hours last night so I'll see what happens. I don't have a UV Serilizer but I am going to buy one today from my LFS.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[cjosephson66]

The water he is using has P04. And what are you testing the P04 with test kits are never accurate for P04

I used distilled water to top off and natural sea water from my LFS for water changes. I test the PO4 with a Red Sea Kit that came with my tank and it shows up as 0.

 

[cjosephson66]

Any pics of the tank and the algae..?

Here are some pics. The 2 emerald crabs and the snails seem to be helping a little but I want to remove all of it.

 

[wayne]

holy shnikeys that's really bad man..........................................................
i don't think that the lights or the water you use caused that i think that stuff came on a rock you got ....................................

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Looks more like Dino flagellates.That stuff is a tank killer.Try to use RO/DI water instead.

 

[cjosephson66]

holy shnikeys that's really bad man..........................................................
i don't think that the lights or the water you use caused that i think that stuff came on a rock you got ....................................

But I've had the rock since January and this just started 3 weeks ago.

 

[cjosephson66]

Looks more like Dino flagellates.That stuff is a tank killer.Try to use RO/DI water instead.

Do they sell it at the local fish store?

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Not sure but it's best to get your own filtration unit to make this water.I have the same tank and finally took off the hood and now using Metal Halide.That crap they call T5 is overrated.I see that stuff is growing everywhere and bubble algae doesn't grow that fast so that's why I say dino flagellates.I hope you're not using the stock skimmer.

 

[cjosephson66]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeqtPe3XukM

Thanks for the info. It seemed to work. I sucked up as much of it off of the rocks and I scraped it off of the back of the tank. Then I did a 30% water change but used the old water to scrub the rocks. So far so good. Plus I removed the Gracilaria because that had the algae on it too.

I guess I just have to play the waiting game now.

Thank you EVERYONE for all of the help it really is appreciated.

 

[cjosephson66]

Not sure but it's best to get your own filtration unit to make this water.I have the same tank and finally took off the hood and now using Metal Halide.That crap they call T5 is overrated.I see that stuff is growing everywhere and bubble algae doesn't grow that fast so that's why I say dino flagellates.I hope you're not using the stock skimmer.

The reason I got this tank is because it had everything you need so I wouldn't have to buy anything. They even gave me the substrate, chemicals and salt. I even got a $75 gift certificate for Live Aquaria so that is where I bought the live rock from. Everything was fine until 3 weeks ago. I haven't added anything new since February so I don't know what could have caused it. I'm thinking about installing an RO/DI device in my house so I can do this myself and not have to use distilled water.

I am using the stock skimmer but I clean it twice a day, just to be on the safe side. I've been cleaning it twice a day since I set it up in January and I haven't had a problem until 3 weeks ago.

I guess only time will tell.

Thanks for your help.