another algae question

[lostcreekreefer]

Charlie suggested I post this here-

I have owned my reef aquarium for 14 months. During that time I seem to have gone through a progression of various algae in the tank. First I had hair algae, so I limited feeding & light (photo period) and set up my refugium on an alternate day-night cycle from the display. The algae went away except for the occasional clump. Then I had bubble algae in the tank, the emerald crabs took care of that, I still have a few crabs left. Now I have a dark green slimy algae that can grow in confluent mats on the rock or as wavy fronds to strings out in the water. Any suggestions on what to do? a new fish, get another clean up crew (snails & crabs) or just pick it occasionally (like I do now) It is a sort of nutrient export.

[charlie]

It looks alot like cyano Kevin. Have you cleaned your skimmer lately, make sure it is operating at full speed!!!! We need to find the source of the excess nutrients!!! What is the TDS on your RO/DI? Have you changed the filters lately?
Have you taken a turkey baster or a powerhead and blown off the rocks recently?

[lostcreekreefer]

Hi Charlie-
Skimmer cleaned 2X weekly, took it apart & did as much good in the main body 2 weeks ago. Maybe clean up the impeller pumps next. Skimmer looks to be working great (everybody complains when I clean it).

Excess nutrients? - I feed the fish. I have been target feeding an LPS that was dying (flesh receding) & is growing like mad now for a month maybe 2X weekly (= a bonus feeding for the fish). PO4 & NO3 do not register on tests (last week).

RODI unit - once it is going the TDS in & out = 0

Blowing off the rocks (dare I call it a blow job?) not enough? Maybe every 7-10 days. There is stuff (sand & detritus) beneath the algae that forms mats and those mats seem to be in the lower flow areas (there is the dang FLOW thingy again)...how frequently would you do it/if you used a power head what would you use so as to not stir it up to much & make things worse...?

[charlie]

RODI unit - once it is going the TDS in & out = 0

What does this mean???

[lostcreekreefer]

just that if you watch the TDS meter it will give a 2 digit reading initially as RODI unit starts to work as you first turn it on, then over about 30 seconds both the in & out read 0 TDS...I have it mounted where you & the 'Filter Guys' both told told me to put the TDS meter, pre & after the resin chamber

[charlie]

Oh, I misunderstood and thought you didn't have it up and running!!!

[lostcreekreefer]

no, it works great! and this way I know when to change out the resin.

[zhenya]

I agree with Charlie, Kevin. It is most definitely a cyanobacteria and not an algae.
As far as why it is growing, many causes are prossible. From overfeeding, well not exactly overfeeding but allowing some food to fall on the rocks and remain there uneaten, to poor circulation around those areas.

I usually blow rocks off with powerhead during waterchanges and using 1" hose try to remove as much as possible of that junk. Smaller hoses become clugged quickly with cyano but 1" hose seems to work great.

PS. I restarted ozone again because of the issues I had with cyano when I restarted my 110g tank. Now it is almost completely gone and I have very little film on glass as well.

[lostcreekreefer]

Thanks for the suggestions, I am doing a bit of an experiment in my tank (actually I guess the whole thing is an ongoing ever changing experiment ;) ) Charlie pointed me toward the articles "Water Flow is More Important for Corals Than Light parts 1-5" these are excellent articles (well, I'm on part 4 today, can't say about part 5, just making an assumption there!).

As far as why it is growing, many causes are possible. From overfeeding, well not exactly overfeeding but allowing some food to fall on the rocks and remain there uneaten, to poor circulation around those areas.

So with this in mind, I'm picking a place in the tank known to grow the cyanobacteria well. I am fortunate in that there are several. This one is also nearer to the end where I feed usually (excess food accumulating on the rocks?). SO 2 nights ago I did nutrient export (I picked a bunch of the CB off the rocks) and last nigh I just used the baster to blow off about 1/3 of the tank (just the one end of things). I will do that every 2-3 evenings on just that end & see what happens! Mr. Science strikes again!

Like Charlie I am trying to work on the flow thing...I have that nifty Tunze controller, it can control 4 pumps (well, 8 of them it I went CRAZY) but i can do a short interval where all 4 Tunze power heads are on the same end of the tank & come on sequentially (one at a time) every 1-5 sec for a set period then they all stop, I bet that would move ALL of the water in the tank ALOT! = bulk flow. I'm also wondering if those venturi nozzles that CE talks about would be the thing to put on the outputs for the Ocean-Motion 4-way, again moving a ton of water.....interesting thoughts, all very easy to do, also!

[charlie]

Rob was gonna test one of the flow accelerators for me but I haven't heard from him since last Sunday.