Desparate For Advice

[Rickyrooz1]

Hello,
I have a 120 gallon display with a corner overflow. The filtration is in a 30 gallon breeder with a filter sock, ATI PowerCone IS-250 protein skimmer and Vertex RX-Z 1.5 Liter ZEOvit reactor with about 750 mL of ZEOliths. I do run ROX 0.8 carbon and GFO in separate mesh bags in the sump. I also dose lanthanum chloride as needed to lower PO4. I have a Jebao DC 6000 return pump and one Jebao RW-15 powerhead in the display. I originally dried the live rock out for three days and re-cured it for the 14 day initial ZEO cycle with no major issues. The tank has been up and running for 5 months now and the live rocks are completely covered with long strains of green hair algae and now I am beginning to have cyanobacteria growth on the sand bed. I have mix of Tonga, Pukani and Kaelini live rock which is about 100 pounds and 60 pounds of Tropic Eden Reefflakes sand. I was following the ZEO dosing schedule to the T until I started seeing the algae take over and now I have backed off to basically dosing only bacteria. I was dosing ZEObak, ZEOstart3, ZEOfood7, Sponge Power and KZ Coral Snow. I have also tried ZEOzym and mixing up the bacteria sources by using Microbacter7 and Special Blend. I have an assortment of Turbo Snails, Cerith Snails, Queen Conch, Blue Leg Hermit Crabs and now even a Sea Hare to rid the hair algae but nothing will touch it. I have three fairy wrasse's, one tailspot blenny, and two anthias in the tank. Maybe a tang would eat the algae? I feed frozen food twice a week but the fish mostly eat pellet food once or twice a day. I was thinking maybe the live rock is leaching out nutrients which is why only the rocks have green hair algae and not the overflow or glass/substrate. I try to stick with performing 30 gallon water changes with Tropic Marin Pro Reef sea salt and I do use a automatic doser to balance my alkalinity and calcium. My current parameters are as follows:

Salinity: 1.025 (33 ppt)
pH: 8.1
Alkalinity: 8 dKH
Calcium: 420
Magnesium: 1380
Potassium: 380
Nitrate: 2.5
Phosphate: 0.05 ppm

I have stopped dosing ZEOstart3 because I do register nitrates when I test and I don't want to fuel my algae bloom further. I currently run two 250 watt Phoenix 14K metal halides for 5 hours a day (3 month old bulbs) and two 54 watt ATI Pure Actinic T5's for 9 hours a day (3 months old). The first day I added the Sea Hare it ate a good amount of the algae on one portion of live rock but ever since it only hides during the day or berries under the sand, I haven't seen it eat anything. From the lack of ZEO dosing and lowering my nutrients I do seen a lightening in my SPS corals and they seem to really be suffering from all of this, not only from the lack of additives but also the algae stressing the bases of the corals. I try to brush as much of the algae off with a toothbrush but it grows back in two days. I even tried leaving the tank dark for three days but it did not kill the green hair algae just the cyano. Maybe the rocks will take a full year before they are gone leaching into the water column fueling the hair algae? Please help me as I am almost ready to give up out of frustration.

[Auston]

Can you take some pics of your tank?. Buy urchins to eat up that hair algae. If you have a tank full of algae and your still measuring high phosphate then I would look at your source water. Is it rodi and have you tested it before putting it in your tank?. Is an acid bath a possibility for the live rock?.

[deleau]

What is your tank temperature? Has it risen since the algae outbreak?

[Lmax8rn]

There is a really good thread on here somewhere about hair algae and the relationship with keeping higher magnesium levels. I raised mine from 950 to 1300 in about 6weeks, and it's has almost all disappeared. I don't know exactly where that three is, but I think I searched "hair algae" and found it.

[Rickyrooz1]

I do use RO/DI water and changed the filters out in June. My tank temp. is 78 according to a glass thermometer.

[Rickyrooz1]

I will cut back my feeding to feeding pellets once every other day and no frozen food. My main concern is the tank is all SPS and the colors are really pale, usually if the nutrients were too high the corals would be brown (from my past experiences).

[rovster]

Dude your past tank rocked! Sounds like you reset your rocks? If so you may not have cured them enough if you let them completely die off. My rocks were super cured when I started and even then it took a good 6-8 months before the "new tank stuff" wore off. At this point I'd look into sea hares and tangs to assist, up the gfo and waterchanges but sounds like you need to let this play out. If your rocks were loaded may take some time. Helping it along with manual removal woulnt hurt. Good luck!

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally Posted by rovster

Dude your past tank rocked! Sounds like you reset your rocks? If so you may not have cured them enough if you let them completely die off. My rocks were super cured when I started and even then it took a good 6-8 months before the "new tank stuff" wore off. At this point I'd look into sea hares and tangs to assist, up the gfo and waterchanges but sounds like you need to let this play out. If your rocks were loaded may take some time. Helping it along with manual removal woulnt hurt. Good luck!

Thank you for your advice, I did pick up a Sea Hare but it never seems to eat. During the day it hides under rocks or in the sand bed trying to stay away from the light. The first day I put it in the tank it ate algae but ever since I have yet to see it eat. I will continue with the water changes and ride out this "die off" from the live rocks.

[Mache62]

I would actually try a UV sterilizer. It helped another DVRC member who had a similar issue after setting his tank back up.

[Rickyrooz1]

The guys on the ZEOVIT forum are recommending*I continue to use ZEOstart3 and Sponge*Power but I feel that will further fuel the*algae.

[Sk8r]

The standard means of ridding a tank of hair algae is a GFO reactor. With acropora, care should be taken to rinse the GFO medium very thoroughly, as the fine iron dust seems to irritate that class of corals, and probably other things.
Remove as much algae by hand as possible.
GFO binds the phosphate that leaches out of rock and sand (until depleted) and robs the hair algae of the level it needs to survive. Once excess phosphate is gone, you may drop an algaed rock into your tank and find it bald as an egg in a week...granted it has no internal phosphate to contribute.
You should change the medium monthly until you see the algae begin to diminish. You'll be playing catch-up at first, and manual removal of the algae plus efficient skimming will all help.

[rovster]

Sponge Power doesn't seem to fuel anything, if anything it may even be some kind of carbon source. The Zeostart should kick start the bacteria which should outcompete the algae, at least that's how I understand it. No different than just carbon dosing to eliminate excess nutrients. Personally unless you're an expert on Zeovit, I'd pause that and just resort to what sk8r recommended, which is basically what I said earlier, LOL!

[Rickyrooz1]

I do run GFO passively in a mesh bag along with ROX 0.8 carbon and I dose lanthanum chloride, my phosphates read 0.05ppm with a Hanna Checker. I should reduce my lighting for the cyano. I did three days of darkness and the cyano went away but I saw no decrease in green algae growth. I did decrease my lighting from 7 hours metal halides to 5 hours and*11 hours T5's to 9 hours. The guys on the ZEOVIT forum are telling me to keep dosing the ZEO products but that will only fuel the algae. I think it is bound nutrients in the live rock. I did a poor job "cleaning" them. The rocks I have had for 5 years and we're covered with life, sponges, corals, etc. When my tank cracked the corals were cut off the rocks and transferred to my frag tank. During that transition period the rocks dried out for three days before the new tank arrived and started the cycling process all over with 60 pounds of fresh reefflakes sand. I never did scrub the rocks with a toothbrush to get rid of all the old organisms living on the rocks like I probably should have done. Now 4 months later it came back to haunt me.

[rovster]

Yeah, those rocks need time! All that stuff that was living there! It's like when you get Pukani, it's LOADED but with a good wash and cure is great. Not sure how invested you are coral wise at this point. I think the best thing is up the GFO and or lanthanum and ride it out.

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally Posted by rovster

Yeah, those rocks need time! All that stuff that was living there! It's like when you get Pukani, it's LOADED but with a good wash and cure is great. Not sure how invested you are coral wise at this point. I think the best thing is up the GFO and or lanthanum and ride it out.

I really don't want to remove the corals, most were encrusting but the algae is starting to stress the bases and the tissue is receding. I changed out the GFO and I will continue to scrub the rocks with a toothbrush.

[Rickyrooz1]

Please be gentle with the replies to the pictures

[Rickyrooz1]

Update:
Last night I scrubbed the rocks with a toothbrush as best as I could. I also dosed 2 scoops of ZEOzym, 8 mL of KZ Coral Snow, 8 drops of ZEObak, 4 drops of KZ Sponge Power, 0.2 mL of ZEOstart3 and vigorously shook the ZEOlite stones. The rocks look much better and the water clarity is amazing. I think the KZ Coral Snow has a lot to do with the water clarity.

[Hitch08]

Glad to hear that you're seeing progress. After you used the toothbrush, did you try to remove the algae with a net or your hand?

[Rickyrooz1]

I did not, I use a filter sock on the down pipe and a felt pad in the bubble trap to catch the debris.

[dynomight]

Algaefix. Look it up. Stuff is the best. Reef safe and will have it out in a few weeks. Hair algae is tuff. Not even worth manually removing it. Only spreads and gets worse. Lowering nutrients to kill it also kills off bacteria, starves fish and stresses coral in a low nutrient system.

[Rickyrooz1]

I read somewhere on RC that Algaefix is just lanthanum chloride which I currently use. But I like your idea that lowering nutrients does kill off the bacteria, I did start dosing ZEOstart3 and Sponge Power again yesterday.

[GSMclowns]

Hi Rickyrooz1,

sorry I have no advices for you at all. But I was wondering if you can share the process of doing lanthanum chloride?
Which lanthanum chloride did you buy and where?
Where do you dose it? Using sock at all? how many micron?
How often do you dose?

Thanks

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally Posted by GSMclowns

Hi Rickyrooz1,

sorry I have no advices for you at all. But I was wondering if you can share the process of doing lanthanum chloride?
Which lanthanum chloride did you buy and where?
Where do you dose it? Using sock at all? how many micron?
How often do you dose?

Thanks

I use Natural Chemistry Phos Free 3 liter from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Chemis.../dp/B0002IXKS4
I use 15 mL per day to lower my PO4 from 0.08 to 0.03. I have about 100 gallons of water volume. Natural Chemistry's website states for 10,000 gallons, 16 ounces of fluid will lower phosphate by 300 ppb or 0.3ppm. If you do some math you can convert it to fit your tank volume.

http://naturalchemistry.com/en/pool-...tail/phosfree/

I run a felt filter sock from Bulk Reef Supply on my down pipe before my protein skimmer and this is where I add the lanthanum chloride.

[E.Rude]

I'm not one for dosing chemicals when there are natural solutions to a problem, but I had a hair algae situation much like yours a few months ago. I manually removed as much GHA as I could and then used Algaefix as directed. Never had to deal with it again.

[Rickyrooz1]

Originally Posted by dynomight

Algaefix. Look it up. Stuff is the best. Reef safe and will have it out in a few weeks. Hair algae is tuff. Not even worth manually removing it. Only spreads and gets worse. Lowering nutrients to kill it also kills off bacteria, starves fish and stresses coral in a low nutrient system.

Scratch that, it's not lanthanum chloride.

Active Ingredient:
poly (oxyethylene (dimethyliminio) ethylene (dimethyliminio) ethylene dichloride): 4.5%

Inert Ingredients: 95.5%.