Need help with algae growing in a mature reef tank.

[90gallon4me]

I'm going to try and sum this all up as quick as I can. I have a 110 reef with a 40 gallon sump. I've had a diatom/dino/mainly green hair algae problem for awhile now. I've tried everything and nothing has worked to make it quit growing. I've been doing this for 10 years so we can skip all the obvious queations. Since my problem started I have switched from MH/t5 to led/ t5 (mars aqua), all new t5 bulbs, new rodi 4 stage filters, new sump light for chateo, cut back on feeding alot, added more hermit crabs, added more water flow with a total of 4 powerheads in a 110 tall tank. I suck out the algae, take rocks out, do big water changes, black out the tank for a few days and nothing has worked. I'm currently trying bacter clean M but haven't noticed a difference yet. My skimmer is small for my setup but don't think that's an issue because I do alot of water changes with 0tds water. My phosphates and nitrate do not register when I do my water testing. Literally NOTHING has worked! I'm reaching out in hope that someone can save me from getting out of the hobby. I'm tired of brushing off all my live rock weekly just for it to get covered a week later. Is there any products worth a crap? Please, someone help me. Thanks kevin

 

[90gallon4me]

A few other things to mention. I've cut back on lighting to 7 hours a day. I'm using instant ocean reef salt. My tank is on its 10th year on being setup. I have 140+ lbs of live rock that is just about covered in mostly LPS and some sps coral. I don't have any big fish currently I just have about 6 small fish. My sand bed is about 2 inches thick and I put new sand in the system when I upgraded from a 90 to a 110 about 2 years ago. My sump has no sand in it just rock and chateo algae. I'm running a reactor with phosguard(gfo) with good flow but not enough to tumble the gfo and I'm also currently using activated carbon. Both get replaced every 2-3 weeks. It seems Like the more I try the worse it gets. I'm hoping someone can guide me down the right path. I've put all my knowledge gained in the past 10 years into fighting this algae and it seems it's a losing battle.

 

[jvb89]

Research Redfield ratio and nutrient imbalance. Possibly dosing a bit of nitrate could help.

 

[90gallon4me]

Ok I'll look into it. At this point I'm open to all suggestions

 

[marquiseo]

Here's my take on this in which some will agree.

Everyone mentions a having a mature tank is the success to keeping a reef. But what exactly is a mature tank? Some regurgitate that a mature tank is a tank that has been running at least a year and others state it is when the tank is at it best with full of growth an no algae. I will elaborate further on this after we go algae.

Algae needs light, nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus sources), traces like iron, space, and little to no consumption by predators to thrive. If you currently have algae, all the mention are present in your tank.

Light - Extended light periods promote algae growth. Aged bulbs and bulbs with increased red spectrum such as 10,000 K and below will grow algae.
Nutrients - Rocks containing embedded nutrients tend have the most algae attached to it. Even if you have reduced your feeding, your rocks will continue to feed the algae. Also, as other bits of algae die, it is converted back into more nutrients the remaining algae can thrive on so it needs to be sucked out. It is also best to start with dry rock and not live rock.
Trace elements - Iron is essential for algae and plant growth. Most reef salts contain elevated trace elements such as iron which algae will thrive on. Silica is also present in abundance which is why you are experiencing diatoms and will continue to do so until it has all been consumed. Doing water changes only makes the matter worse because you are introducing more iron and silica at your current abundant state with every WC. Because home tests for these two are so unreliable, it is hard to know how much is present in your reef or freshly mixed saltwater.
Space - No competition and lots or room to grow is a must for algae and plants Add more corals to take up room. As corals grow less space will be available for algae.
Little or no predation - even though you have hermits and snails, it is not enough to tackle the growth rate of the algae. Sea Hares and lettuce nudis consume hair algae the fastest and do a very good job at it.

So what has this to with mature tanks. Well think of this way, as a tank ages, traces are consumed. Eventually it gets to an all time low compared to when you first mixed up saltwater to fill the tank. Even if you did 10% WC to replenish traces, it will still not be enough to place you were you started and will more than likely be consumed by your corals and macro algae present. You might say that some hobbyist do 100% WC. Well they usually have diatom blooms days after. You might say that hobbyist who do WC with natural sea water don't have that issue. Well thats because natural see water doesn't have those overly elevated traces like synthetic reef salts.

BLUF take away one of those to rid yourself of the algae. The best one to remove/lower would be iron and keep it low. To rid yourself of diatoms, remove/lower the silica in the aquarium.

Hope this helps.

 

[90gallon4me]

Thanks for the info. May even I need to look into silicates.. I've never tested for them and to tell you the truth I don't know much about silicate.

 

[ralph atl]

it's pretty simple...

you don't need to cut off the light
you don't need to stop feeding (albeit maybe a better food source is warranted)

You are adding more phosphates & nitrates than you are removing! simple. Obviously the test kits that you have do not measure low range phosphates nor trates...

there are many things that you can do...
Large twice a week water changes
add a reactor with GFO
Carbon does
etc

You have to remove the nutrients at the pace of introduction!

 

[torqued]

Ralph ATL;1087337 wrote: it's pretty simple...

you don't need to cut off the light
you don't need to stop feeding (albeit maybe a better food source is warranted)

You are adding more phosphates & nitrates than you are removing! simple. Obviously the test kits that you have do not measure low range phosphates nor trates...

there are many things that you can do...
Large twice a week water changes
add a reactor with GFO
Carbon does
etc

You have to remove the nutrients at the pace of introduction!

I 100% agree with this.

So there are many options for dealing with these. I might suggest building yourself a DIY algae turf scrubber (ATS). Then you grow the Hair Algae in a controlled environment, and reduce your nutrients, and hopefully significantly reduce the growth in your main tank since an ATS is designed to promote ideal conditions for algae to grow (much more so than your tank)

 

[bcavalli]

Great advice from the other posters. Just something to consider with the age of your system. I believe over time your live rock will absorb phosphates and then leech out into your water column. When I started my system I used beautiful coralline encrusted live rock that was atleast 7 years old. Since day one I have had to deal with higher than normal phosphates. After several years of trying to resolve the issue I realized it was the live rock leeching out the phosphates. I really think once you upgraded for whatever reason it began to leech out the phosphates that had been slowly absorbed over the years.

 

[torqued]

Bcavalli;1087368 wrote: Great advice from the other posters. Just something to consider with the age of your system. I believe over time your live rock will absorb phosphates and then leech out into your water column. When I started my system I used beautiful coralline encrusted live rock that was atleast 7 years old. Since day one I have had to deal with higher than normal phosphates. After several years of trying to resolve the issue I realized it was the live rock leeching out the phosphates. I really think once you upgraded for whatever reason it began to leech out the phosphates that had been slowly absorbed over the years.

Agree, but so long as he exports more po4/no3 than is added, eventually it won't matter.

Don't mean to over simplify, but there really are countless ways to deal with algae....

And a cleaning crew isn't one of them btw

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[ralph atl]

Torqued;1087354 wrote: I 100% agree with this.

So there are many options for dealing with these. I might suggest building yourself a DIY algae turf scrubber (ATS). Then you grow the Hair Algae in a controlled environment, and reduce your nutrients, and hopefully significantly reduce the growth in your main tank since an ATS is designed to promote ideal conditions for algae to grow (much more so than your tank)

Bcavalli;1087368 wrote: Great advice from the other posters. Just something to consider with the age of your system. I believe over time your live rock will absorb phosphates and then leech out into your water column. When I started my system I used beautiful coralline encrusted live rock that was atleast 7 years old. Since day one I have had to deal with higher than normal phosphates. After several years of trying to resolve the issue I realized it was the live rock leeching out the phosphates. I really think once you upgraded for whatever reason it began to leech out the phosphates that had been slowly absorbed over the years.

Torqued;1087379 wrote: Agree, but so long as he exports more po4/no3 than is added, eventually it won't matter.

Don't mean to over simplify, but there really are countless ways to deal with algae....

And a cleaning crew isn't one of them btw

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

90GALLON4ME So we apparently all agree! that's a first as usually when someone asks a question such as this, there are so many conflicting answers....

HAVE YOU DONE ANYTHING TO CORRECT HIGH TRATES & PHATES?

 

[jennm]

Old tank doesn't have to equal old tank syndrome if it has been maintained properly.

Do you vacuum the sand? 2" is a bit thick for my liking, but it's manageable if it is vacuumed regularly.

Jenn