Getting rid of algae

[juanmanuelsanchez]

hi all ! So. To make the story short, I have an ICH outbreak, some fish died. Because of that I had high phosphates and nitrates (no ammonia whatsoever) the tank its established, almost 2 years old.

At the moment Im growing chaeto under red light and Im dosing red sea algae control.

My question would be...how long would it take me once I get to desired levels to see a clean tank again, atm the tank is overrun by algae, corals are fine...

I also have some sea hares around eating like crazy.

Phosphates are around 0.5 using API which I dont trust, getting a hanna by next week. Nitrates are over 10 (were 20 a few days ago)

THanks for the help.

 

[Diesel]

Po4 is to high as you already said you don't trust the API.


With lots of algae your readings should be opposite as in very low on nutrients as the algae consumes a lot and for that keeps it low.
If your readings are this high you'll be in for a real tough task but not impossible.
Sea hares are great to have but once algae is gone they will be gone too.
Doing a lot of water changes will help with your nutrients control and manual removal of algae (which we all hate) is necessary to get a hand on it.
Any pics you can show us?

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

Here are some pics. Well if the nutrients are low then why the algae it's not starving? If there not enough to keep the ammount of algae that it's in the tank it should die isn't?

And yes I'm working on the aitapsia, sadly non of the LFS are selling peppermint shrimp. Im not able to find any since many months now...

 

[Diesel]

Dude, you have a problem here.
Any smart person will nuke this tank and start all over, it cost you less money and are quicker back on track.

Oh and it's just a fact that your algae get to the nutrients faster than you can.
Many times if not all a tank with that kind of algae will test low in nutrients, if not you have a BIG nutrient import in your tank from either over feeding, high TDS in RODI water, Po4 leaching out your rock, or over dosing.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

I'm not going to nuke anything for now. As I said the algae came because of dying fish. It's not overfeeding (the tank its empty while fish are in quarantine), it's not the rodi water, leaching... Maybe.

I have time while the fallow period its in place. So I need to know the necessary or best steps to recover the tank.

Thanks.

 

[drawman]

Here are some pics. Well if the nutrients are low then why the algae it's not starving? If there not enough to keep the ammount of algae that it's in the tank it should die isn't?

And yes I'm working on the aitapsia, sadly non of the LFS are selling peppermint shrimp. Im not able to find any since many months now...

What he was saying is that typically in situations where you have a lot of algae (like yourself) phosphates will read low because the algae consumes it so fast. So your measurement would be low because the algae it taking it out of the water before it accumulates. In your case, you still have a high reading (if accurate) which means that you have a truly very very high level of phosphate (even moreso than most).

He was saying that this is very difficult to come back from (although not impossible but changes will need to be made). You will likely have to follow a multi pronged approach with large, regular water changes using high quality, pure RODI water, manually trimming/scrubbing of algae to remove it, an improved cleanup crew, potentially using a PO4 remover such as GFO, Phosphate Rx, Vibrant, etc., blowing of rocks and removing detritus, and using chaeto, high quality skimming, an ATS, etc. I think a combination of some of these elements will get you back on track but it will not happen overnight unfortunately.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I'm not sure how big the tank is but the coral population looks low compared to the amount of invasive species in that tank. In fact you might still have ich in the tank. So any future stress related issues will result in more stress on you. I would just start over. Clean everything and get some good quality live rock or let a dry rock setup cure, cycle, and mature for 6 months to a year.

 

[reeferfoxx]

What he was saying is that typically in situations where you have a lot of algae (like yourself) phosphates will read low because the algae consumes it so fast. So your measurement would be low because the algae it taking it out of the water before it accumulates. In your case, you still have a high reading (if accurate) which means that you have a truly very very high level of phosphate (even moreso than most).

He was saying that this is very difficult to come back from (although not impossible but changes will need to be made). You will likely have to follow a multi pronged approach with large, regular water changes using high quality, pure RODI water, manually trimming/scrubbing of algae to remove it, an improved cleanup crew, potentially using a PO4 remover such as GFO, Phosphate Rx, Vibrant, etc., blowing of rocks and removing detritus, and using chaeto, high quality skimming, an ATS, etc. I think a combination of some of these elements will get you back on track but it will not happen overnight unfortunately.

Not to mention a couple hundred $$$ in berghia nudis.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

I have a couple of nudibranch to get rid of the aitapsia. I don't plan to buy more. There are more effective ways to get rid of it. Peppermint shrimp is one and a lot cheaper. I just need to wait until they are available again.

My main concern it's not the aitapsia but the algae.

I don't know what fueling it jaja.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Here is some food for thought.

Here is my tank back in september. It was covered with hair algae and dinoflagellates.



I literally gave up on this tank. By doing so, I started a 10g to keep fish while rebooting the tank. What ended up happening is, I left the tank alone. I didn't dose calcium, alk, nitrates, or phosphates. I stopped doing water changes. Only thing I did was feed fish to keep them alive. After while, fish health started showing some concerning signs. So, I did a small water change after maybe 2 months or more of no water changes. After that smalll wc, I noticed the hair algae falling off the rocks. So, still not dosing, I took a tooth brush to the rocks for a little help.

After a couple weeks, I took this picture just to share my confusion to others of how well the tank is doing. Here is a picture from last monday or 6 days ago. Oh and I did an alk test to see where I was at. Alk was 6.6dkh.


Now, fast forward to yesterday. I had time to to sort of reward the tank for doing so well. I did a little nip/tuck or kind of a face lift the tank to see how it will progress from now on. Is a picture I just took about 15 minutes ago. I did take a turkey baster to the rock to clean detritus, so stuff is floating around. Oh and coral color looks like poop but that is to be expected for what this tank has gone through.



Sometimes, sometimes, doing less is more. Letting a tank cycle through it's uglies is more beneficial than us dumping stuff in the tank to fix the issue. This tank isn't back to where it needs to be. It still has dinos but I think it might recover with limited intervention.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

Well the only thing in dosing it's the red Sea algae control. Basically it's alcohol to increase bacteria, so nitrates and phosphates should go down.

After 3 days I'm starting to see some improvement. But I want wondering how long could it take.

As I said I'm not in a hurry, there are no fish in the tank. All corals look happy to be honest.

The aitapsia it's not an issue. Either I inyect a solution to kill them or buy some peppermint shrimp once available here in Costa Rica.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

I'm starting to see some improvement. My question it's still, what fueling the algae? It shouldn't be phosphates, they are reading zero and nitrates and in 5 and going lower by the day.

Any ideas?

 

[reeferfoxx]

I'm starting to see some improvement. My question it's still, what fueling the algae? It shouldn't be phosphates, they are reading zero and nitrates and in 5 and going lower by the day.

Any ideas?

Its hard to say. You keep doing stuff to the tank lol. Fwiw my tank that I posted above turns 2 in February. So its not uncommon for it to go through an ugly phase. But the more you keep dosing things to fix the issue, the more of a mystery things become. However, consider that algae consumes nutrients to grow so if once algae gets to a point were nutrients become the limiting factor, it will eventually starve itself out.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

Well that's the whole point isn't? Hahaha

 

[reeferfoxx]

Well that's the whole point isn't? Hahaha

The point im making is, you dont need to dose anything. The algae will eventually go away on its own as long as you aren't over saturating nutrients.

 

[juanmanuelsanchez]

Well yes true. But it was getting out of hand. I also have some new frags that I need to place so the cleaner and the better it's the tank its a win for me.

Thanks for the help BTW

 

[Bella Smith]

Many people use this as a way to kill algae because it does work. If you aren't already, you could dose with excel daily before the blackout for better results. Then turn off the lights for 2-3 days. You can look at your plants every now and then to see how they're doing, and if the aren't doing so great just turn the lights on.

I'm used to use black out

I do it to "weaker" the algae after that it's easier to remove it and to clean the aquarium but generally it doesn't kill the algae

I do black out during 5 days. There is absolutely no issue for your plants. obviously it depend of your plant requirements
in my case for eleocharis mini there is no issues. Do not forget to shut down your CO2 and your liquid fertilizer if you do a black out
you cannot use CO2 and liquid fertilizer without light during the day.

This is how to get rid of Algae naturally