Anyone Have Good Link For Recovering From Algae Outbreak?

[Nemo22]

I have a small mixed reef system that has an ongoing algae issue. I am tiring of the continuous maintenance time that is required to simply keep the algae at bay...spindle weed (inherited through original tank purchase), some bryopsis and now hair algae is starting to become unmanageable.

24g with 10g sump- I run twin a160 kessils, small media reactor with carbon and GFO, small Tunze skimmer, and pretty heavy flow from an MP10 and a Jaboa 8.

Does anyone know of a link that guides through a process for a tank reboot?

 

[Josh]

Im by no means a kessil guy but that seems like a lot of light for a 24g, what % are the kessels running at?

 

[Nemo22]

Im by no means a kessil guy but that seems like a lot of light for a 24g, what % are the kessels running at?

Great point Josh thanks for the reply. I will get my light schedule as soon as I can but for now all I know is that for a couple peak hours I run 60% intensity. I have immediately changed that to 40% until I can take a closer look at the entire schedule I’m running. I may even try running a single Kessil for a few weeks to see if it slows down some of the growth.

 

[jeffopentax]

How much gfo are you running? Doesn’t matter... use more! Change it every month. Miss a month (like I did), and you’ll be back to square one. Pull out the algae that you can with aquatongs. I’ve battled gha for years. After 4 months of keeping up on the gfo all I have left is one “tuft” that my cleaner shrimp is always picking through, so I’m leaving it. My tank is 115g, and I run 3 filter bags in a canister filter with a cup of gfo in each, replacing one each month.


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[Salty Cracker]

Hi cap gfo changed every 3 weeks until HA is gone, then every 4 weeks indefinitely. As stated, if you miss or forget it can shock the system and HA can come back.
Also, 26g is tough, in that even a little feeding can fill the system with phosphate. Do you have a sand bed and good amount of liverock?

 

[Nemo22]

I have been pulling spindle weed (from day one) and hair algae for months now.
Yes I run a 1-1.5” aragonite sandbed. I have a large ratio of liverock, enough that I was concerned about dead spots from flow. I don’t think I can figure out a way to incorporate filter socks with my little sump setup but will keep thinking .
I run a mini reactor with a mix of carbon and Rowa Phos. I am planning on a new tank upgrade to a 50 or 60g cube but won’t be this year again. May need to upgrade to larger reactor?

 

[TORX]

GFO will do nothing for spindle and byprosis. You will need to look at chemical warfare for those 2. I believe @shooter00 was successfully at killing off byprosis. There is also a medication that @BIGSHOW carries that will kill off all that algae.

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[Nemo22]

If I was to do a start over but save as much Coral as possible, would I have to basically begin to frag and quarantine frags with new start up? New liverock, new substrate, new cycle? What would I do with encrusted coral? My biggest problem by far is the spindle weed.

 

[Shooter000]

Fluconizole for Bryopsis and GHA

Have you tried spot dosing h2o2
On the spindle weed, or kalk paste works wonders for frying unwanted pests, but may need multiple treatments

 

[Nemo22]

Fluconizole for Bryopsis and GHA

Have you tried spot dosing h2o2
On the spindle weed, or kalk paste works wonders for frying unwanted pests, but may need multiple treatments

I'll have to look into the process for those treatments. They are worth a try before I get too drastic. Thank-you for the suggestions.

 

[Nemo22]

Im by no means a kessil guy but that seems like a lot of light for a 24g, what % are the kessels running at?

Current light schedule;
1245pm- color 15% intensity 5%
250pm- colour 15% intensity 25%
4pm- colour 20% intensity 40%
430pm- colour 15% intensity 35%
635pm- colour 5% intensity 15%
10pm- lights out

 

[Nemo22]

 

[Nemo22]

I’ve tried peroxide 3% dips (50peroxide/50saltwater) on Corals I am still able to remove. I have never tried dosing the tank. The larger rocks with encrusted coral I am unable to remove for direct application of peroxide but have tried direct, with pumps off, in concentrated areas of spindle weed. Spindle weed would be affected by direct application (rocks out of water and peroxide applied directly), but it only slows it down. I didn’t notice any affect with direct application under water.

I’m going to look into kalk paste next.

 

[kapelan]

Current light schedule;
1245pm- color 15% intensity 5%
250pm- colour 15% intensity 25%
4pm- colour 20% intensity 40%
430pm- colour 15% intensity 35%
635pm- colour 5% intensity 15%
10pm- lights out

Your day light: 9 hours
And you have 80W light for 24g tank - that should be enough.
Simple algae very sensitive for light:
- it need long day light (that you provided)
- it needs white spectrum (it is provided by kessil)
So we have all condition to successful algae in this system.
How to remove good conditions for algae?
- turn of the light - in 1 week we will have crystal clear water, but some corals will dye as well. So, it should be a golden point where corals will do well but algae have trouble.
I'm doing 5h of day light with 100% of power. 4-5h of high light is enough for corals but it will put algae in surviving condition.
- changing the spectrum to Royal Blue will also make trouble for algae but not so attractive for human.

 

[Kman]

Most fish will not eat this as they contain a mixture of terpene in the tips and are not very palatable to fish. Parrot fish would probably eat it due to the calcium core but that doesn't do you much good. Sea urchins like Diadema setosum and Mespilia globulus should eat it but they might not. Some don't like it. Constant manual removal and control of nutrients is important as well. You need to hammer it with manual removal and slowly over time it will go away. You need to limit the available nutrients to limit growth while you hammer it with removal.