Algae in main tank

[Mav]

What the heck! Been battling this for months. Finally pulled all of my rock 2 weeks ago and scrubbed with a toothbrush. Looked great for a week. Stepped up to 30% WC every 2 weeks and 15% on opposing weeks. Running recommended dosages of purigen, chemipure, phosguard and carbon. Skimmer running and cleaning foam filter every few days. Running in tank media tower and fuge basket in a 29 gal biocube. Cube has rapid led lights running 9am-8 pm blues and 10am-6pm whites on about 30% power if not less. Sand sifting sea star, serpent sea star and various CUC. And a very lazy lawnmower blenny. Feeding flake food to 2 clowns and lawnmower lightly every day- every other day.

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[Mav]

I also pulled about 1/3 of the rock that was in there, I have heard algae can be from too much... I will do tests tomorrow to see what params are

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[jda123]

Where is your crew? Any tank will grow algae if it can grow coral. You gotta have a crew to keep it in check.

 

[Mav]

I probably need to restock crew a bit. It's freaking hilarious some of the hermits and snails look like they have stocking hats on with the algae growing off their shells..


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[ReefCheif]

Whats your mag level at? I beat hair algea by raising my mag.

 

[Mav]

I have never tested mag or calc. Never had high enough corals to worry too much. Ill try to find a test kit

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[sethsolomon]

Stop feeding flake food. It has pure phosphorus in it (phosphates). Shift to pellet food and frozen food.

also +1 to reef chief's mag levels. a magnesium level of 1400+ inhibits algae growth some(What I have been told by several people. I still need to find a source on this).

and +1 to JDA's more cleaner crew. I am a fan of the 1 snail per gallon, 1 emerald crab per 10 gallons, 1 sally light foot per 15g, and 1 tiger sand conch per 30g.

My preferred snails are in this order: Trocus > Ceriths > Nasarius > Astrae > Nerites > margaritas > turbos.

 

[Mav]

I hate emerald crabs lol

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[sethsolomon]

Why do you hate emerald crabs?

 

[Mav]

Have had 2 that eat my corals

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[sethsolomon]

then make up for them with sally light foots

 

[jda123]

All food is full of phosphorus. Any now-dead ex-living animal/plant is as such. Pellets have the same amount of P as a good flake (cheap flake can be bad). However, flake is messy. If you take the water out of frozen food and dry it out, then you will have the same thing as a good flake food. Frozen food is messy too. Pellets can be clean if you feed the right amount.

I love emeralds, but I get ones from the keys. If you ordered them from who-knows-where, or got them from the LFS, then they could be from anywhere in the gulf and could be a nightmares that don't eat algae, eat coral and attack fish.

Some of those snails above are not algae eaters. I like Mexican Turbos and Trocus if you have algae issues.

I would get an emerald crab (from the Florida Keys, not some unknown source), 5 Trocus and 2 Mexican Turbos, remove as much of it as you can pull off and let them go to work.

 

[kmcmurtry]

Pertaining to the suggestion about emeralds, will they starve if he runs out of algae? I know my turbo snails are monsters on film algae and likely they keep any hair algae from growing hence why i dont see any, but should the crew be as recommended only until the hair algae is under control and then not so large?

 

[sethsolomon]

Pertaining to the suggestion about emeralds, will they starve if he runs out of algae? I know my turbo snails are monsters on film algae and likely they keep any hair algae from growing hence why i dont see any, but should the crew be as recommended only until the hair algae is under control and then not so large?

They will sift to fish poo and anything they can find after the algae is gone. I have a few emeralds that like the taste of hermits

 

[jda123]

There is a fine line that you have to walk... too little and they can starve. To few, and you can get algae again. This is where I like emeralds since they can scavenge some too. The algae eating snails typically won't live on detritus like your nass, cerith, etc. can/will.

What I shoot for is some tubros, astreas or trocus for film and emeralds to eat the macro and hair.

 

[01M5PWR]

I have 3 turbos in my 120 and they do a good job. They sometimes bulldoze my coral, but otherwise they are good. I have some cerith but my copperband picks on them so they stay in the sand a lot. I'm thinking about getting a crab. Most of my fined inhabitants with exception of my copperband graze the algae too.

 

[Mav]

Any way this could be bryopsis?

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[aztecdreams]

I'm not positive but that's what it looks like. I think I read to raise your mag and it will help stunt growth then you can do manual removal

 

[Vance]

Stalking from a central point, looks like bryopsis to me rather than turf. +1 on mag, make sure to use tech M though, if I remember correctly its an impurity in the formula that kicks it rather than the mag itself.

Keep picking it, mag and exposed rock will help your coralline growth and block it from anchoring back on the rock. Patience and diligence, you have to find what works for you, every tank is different.

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[jda123]

Looks like hair to me, but I cannot really tell. Does it look like feathers with a central stalk?

You should be able to grab lots of that and pull it out.