Liverock woes/Nuisance algae

[chichimom79]

As some of you know, I was all excited about getting my old liverock back and how much money I was saving, etc.... Well, my sister had been keeping the liverock in a 75 gallon tank in her basement and wasn't really doing much if any water changes for the rock. When I got it the nitrates were through the roof in her water.
I have now seen in the ten: hair algae, cyano, and now Dinos!! :shock:
I have now seen in the 60 cube: bubble algae, cyano, and bryopsis :frustrat:
I have been keeping everything under control. The new dino outbreak is in the ten gallon and can really only be seen when I turn off all water movement and blast the rocks with my baster, the strings start to form in the water and start settling on the substrate. I also have a lot of lethargic/dying nerite snails. I have my nitrates and phosphates reading zero on the test kit. I know that doesn't mean there are none in the system. Those clowns are a heavy load for that tank.
In the cube I've put an astraea snail, two emerald crabs, and about eight teeny tiny nassarius(vibex?) snails. I'm going to go try and find some more astraeas today. They seem to do a great job. And I know the emeralds are doing their job with the bubble algae :D The nassarius were actually meant to be in the ten gallon but I noticed the dinos when I got home with them, so I just put them in the 60. I have fed this tank a few times so they don't starve.
This battle should be short and sweet thanks to this forum and all of the knowledge I have received in reading about people's struggle with these various nuisance algae. However any extra tips or suggestions would be appreciated. Good thing I enjoy doing tank maintenance...:grumble:

 

[Ulta]

If you want my opinion (I would approach this different than others may) but I would look into running GFO and possibly carbon if your not. If its not practical for you to run it in a reactor then simply buying a filter sock putting some in and placing it in a decent flow area.

Also, and this is where I differ from others, but I would start dosing Microbacter7. This is just dosing many types of the best bacteria. This will starve out any bad types of bacteria by dosing daily. You should definitely see cyano recede this way and hopefully clear up other issues you may have. A good skimmer is recommended as well.

I dose Microbacter7 and a drop of Vodka(to fuel bacteria growth) in my 75g tank daily and it works fantastically. ( I also run Carbon/GFO in a reactor for now but plan on eventually not using it very much.)

Just one way to go about it, remember you should still suck out whatever you can access to help the battle :)

And nothing works fast in this hobby but you should def start to see it slow down and start receding in a week or 2.

 

[chichimom79]

Thank you so much for a reply!! LOL Im starting to think I'm being ignored sometimes :ugh:
Actually, I have gotten everything pretty well under control. Both tanks are looking great now. Still, thank you for a reply :mrgreen:

 

[Bifferwine]

Marine SAT (available from Empire Aquatics) worked wonders in my tanks for nuisance algae.