algae has me ready to pack it in!!!

Melonbob

Melonbob

Reef enthusiast
Honest, I'm almost ready to give up. My tank looks like shit. Cyano everywhere. Green hair everywhere. I have dozens of snails, a couple of hermits, a giant emerald, I use only ro/di water, I've been running phosguard for 2 mths now, did a bottle of Marine SAT, can't get more in canada. Change filters, phosguard and carbon weekly. 10% change every other week, did a 25% change this week. I've battled this algae since day one, I had a nice spotless tank for about 3 weeks and it came back, now worse than ever.......I'm really fed up....

On the upside, I picked up a gold head sleeper goby.....he keeps the bottom well sifted anyways
 
If excess nutrients are the problem, reducing fish load, lighting, and feedings will help. I hate to hear you struggling so much. I had a time when my cyano was so bad, I shut off my lights for 5 days and covered my tank with a thick blanket to keep all light out and all the algae died off. It was a temp fix, but it allowed my normal parameters to keep solid. I wish I had more for you.

-Doc
 
If phosphates are let go and reach as high as 3.00ppm it can really cause problems. Your rocks absorb the phosphates at those levels and continue to leach it back into the water no matter what you do for upwards of 6 months. Continue doing what your doing and also make sure your keeping your skimmer clean and don't use flake food. Im kinda in the same boat i dont know if my phosphates ever got as high as 3.00ppm, you never really can tell if you've got algea growing cause it's a false reading other than to say "yep, you've got phosphates". I am also fighting cyano, I ordered some Chemi-clean which i have heard nothing but good about and that it's completely reef safe, it is gonna be a last resort. If phosban doesn't take care of the cyano...chemi-clean will.
 
chemi-clean is good stuff. It works best when you clean out as much cyano as you can with a siphon first. One thing to remember about it, the cyanobacteria will develop a resistance to it over time. Which means that with each subsequent use of chemi-clean, there is a greater and greater chance it will not work. The first time will work, but I noticed a big difference in the success of it with the second time and third time. Make sure you turn off your skimmer when you use it or you will have a nice big puddle of foam!!!

-Doc
 
yeah i've heard it does crazy stuff with skimmers, and also your suppose to do a good water change after the 48 hour mark before you turn your skimmer on i believe
 
I think 10% water change every other week is not enough especially if you have a lot of algae already in the tank. I recommend doing water changes twice per week for a few weeks and watch the algae disappear. It has worked great for me.
 
just like cthegame said try doing water changes at least once per week like 15% or do two 10% changes per week it will help a lot.
 
I do not use a canister filter, but I do have a hob, I clean the filter weekly, and change it about every three weeks. I basically use in only to run carbon and phosguard, the wheels are out. I feed every other day, about 3/4 of a cube of frozen to 5 fish. I have the lights on about 8 hrs a day
 
Your definetely not overfeeding, I would just pick up the water changes. Do 8 gallons a week, how many are you doing now? Have a protein skimmer?
 
I will up the water changes for the time being, I was doing 5 gal every other week in a 46g, I'll up it to at least 5 gal a week. I did 10 gal last week. I am running an Aqua C Remora Pro, getting about 1 cup of black crud weekly
 
How much circulation do you have? You can not remove what is not kept in suspension. If it settles out on the substrate or in nooks and crannies it just becomes algae nutrients. Cyano is a good sign of putrefaction going on. Which means stuff is laying around long enough to putrefy. You would not want to know how low your dissolved oxygen and reflux levels are at this time in your tank. I would suggest you use a power head and move it all around the tank pointing it in every nook, crack, corner and cranny. A filter can mechanically remove it if you get it in suspension so that it makes it to the filter. Either you have poor circulation or you are feeding too heavily or both. It takes little food to over feed a tank considering very little of what a captive fish eats does much but run through it. Your water changes at even 10 percent is probably not even keeping up with the problem yet alone doing anything to make it go away. Try a couple water changes of 25 to 50 percent. If you have actinic lights run them only for a week. Actinic lights do not support the lighting needs of cyano bacteria. Do not feed dry foods of any type (freeze dried, flake or pellet) and if you feed frozen, thaw it first and feed only the particles and not the fluid. Do not feed frozen brine shrimp at all. The fish get no nutrition from it at all so it is just algae food. I would only feed 1/4 of a cube of thawed food every day until you have a handle on the problem. The fish will not starve on this reduction of food. You do have sufficient live rock and/or a deep sandbed don't you? How much?
 
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We all know how you feel Melon.We've all been there.
And I'm gonna agree with Fatman on the possible solution.

It might also be a good time to look at your RO filters(if you have you own unit).The cartridges may need to be replaced.
 
No RO/DI unit, I buy RO/DI water locally, and I'm sure thats not it cause virtually every local reefer uses this water. I never knew about thawing the food first, I usually throw it in frozen, I'll thaw it from now. Also going to run actinics only from this point for a week. I am running 50lbs of LR in a 46 g tank, very light porous stuff, look in my build thread to give you an idea. my SB is about 1" deep. I am running two powerheads, a maxi 900 and a koralia 1, but it does seem like there are dead spots, I'm not sure what else to do with them, they are both at the back facing out. Thanks for all the input guys, I'm going to start with a few of your ideas immediately!
 
I also ordered new bulbs for my nova, a pair of UV actinic white 12k, and a pair of UV super actinic. I'm thinking of ditching my 36" coralife t5, as it adds a little yellow tinge, and I can't get bulbs other than coralife for it as it is a 36" 21W
 
I had a horrible layer of red cyano on my sand and I used chemiclean once. Be patient it might take a few days to work. The cyano has come a little since then. Nothing was for the worse after using it but I haver no corals in my tank at this time.
 
It might seem like a lot of flow but I would recommend either replacing the Maxi-Jet with a Koralia #3 (total 23.5 X) or adding a Koralia #2 (26.7 X). Adding the additional Koralia #2 would be better but then you would have to put up with the appearance of three power heads. With three power heads I would (from the back of the tank) point the Maxi-Jet at the surface of the water just in front of the front glass. I would point the two Koralia's at each other from opposite sides of the tank to a point half way down the tanks depth and just in front of your live rock. Adjust from those points as needed. With out a skimmer your nutrients and nitrates will build up quickly so water changes will need to be pretty large and frequent to not have an algae problem. A one inch sand bed will be negligible in its bio contribution and live rock is not that good at denitriication so nitrates will climb easily.
 
ummm....I have a skimmer......aqua c remora pro.....

about more power, does anyone know much about the maxi-jet mods? I agree that the koralia does not seem to move alot of water
 
Ok, here's the plan. I'm gonna dump the biowheel 350, I have a 25 gallon I want to set up with a lionfish, I'll use it in there. That will clear up the clutter, I'll add a second koralia and point them together at the back. I'll get a #2 this time. I'm also going to buy the skimmer box for the remora pro to help a bit more with skimming. Thats my start for now
 

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