Nuisance algae ID and treatment recommendations please

[jason the filter freak]

 

 

 

 

This started about the 2 month mark and is aggressive. It grows on everything including on and directly in front of the Vortech MP 10 running at 60-70% and worse yet it grows on top of the Macros!

 

Dud water tests and ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and phosphate are all undetectable.

 

I feed sparingly 3 x a week. Skim moderate to wet, and have a CUC consisting of 10ish various snails, including turbo and olive snails, and 15-20 ish hermits.

 

I do a 20% water change every 2 weeks right now with reef crystals and RO water.

 

The only major error was up until 3 weeks ago I had been running the tank around 1.019 or so specific gravity due to a miscalibrated refractometer.

 

I am planning on starting to run bio pellets soon (dumping into the intake area of the Tunze DOC 9004 skimmer I run). The tank does have a fuge that's lit 24/7 and a sicce 1.5 return pump. Top off water is also RO.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'VE been reefing for 15-ish years and don't remember encountering this algae before.

[Bruleyii]

Im sure youve already looking into it, but is there a chance it could be getting contaminated by aerosols? 

[jason the filter freak]

Thanks for the reply. I'm almost 100% sure thats a no. We don't have any aerosol products in the house that I can think of and the tank is well away from the kitchen and garage where paint and sovents may be used.

[sen5241b]

Did your light change in anyway?

[jason the filter freak]

Maybe? I think I changed it from a custom setting to the "natural" spectrum sunrise - sunset provided by the ecotech radion software.

[AlanM]

Could it be dinoflagellates or a green kind of cyano? The top pic makes it look kind of fuzzy and slimy.

[jason the filter freak]

It is fuzzy but not too slimy no bubbles trapped within so I don't think it's dino, from my couple hours of research on the subject. Also my snails seem to be doing "fine".

[zygote2k]

take all the rock out and scrub it by hand.

thoroughly clean all the sand

clean all the chambers of the tank

do a 3-day blackout

test your source water.

[Reefn]

Jason – two words… Hydrogen Peroxide.  …A Lot more than you think.  Do a water change, hit hard, hit it soon and hit it again, then do another water change.

 

I’ve just finished treating a recurrence of Dinoflagellate and nuisance algae.  The tanks are doing great.  The fish, coral and inverts are all well.  I just did a big water change (30 gal/25% of my 120g) and still things are well several weeks later as of this writing.  Over the counter, drugstore 3% H2O2 is cheap and even cheaper at Costco.  When all else failed, this worked.

 

Generally, try 1ml to 2ml H2O2 per gallon for dino or algae problems. The worse the problem, the more you use. I started with 1ml/gal for three days with lights out and had some effect on the dino.  It came back within a week.  1.5ml/gal was better, but still not enough effect over another three days... it came back.  Then, the big gun… 2ml/gal over 4 days… kicked its cellular-arse.

 

Some of you may be screaming – That 10-40 TIMES What you’ve read Elsewhere!  That was my reaction when I went looking for just how high an H2O2 dosage I could try, and found ONE – Only ONE article that reported using up to 2ml/gal for algae removal, fish wounds and oxygenating water for transporting fish.  I found only a couple of articles that went up to 1ml/gal specifically for dinoflagellates, bryopsis and other nuisance algaes and for coral dips. So I decided to risk 1ml/gal for sure and ramp up to 2ml/gal if needed.

 

I spent about 5 months trying to beat this in late 2015 into early 16 and lost nearly everything in 2 tanks (cross contamination from trying to save some corals) using the dosing levels you’ve all read about, .5ml to 1ml/10g.  I wasn’t about to spend months fighting this again.  Since I lost everything last time – what did I have to lose…  As soon as I saw the dino again, I decided it was time for some Darwinian level of action.  I went looking for a better solution, found the one article mentioned above indicating potential safety at up to 2ml/gal and a couple others at 1ml/gal.  I decided to jump on it hard.

 

This well reported Reco is for .5-1ml/10gal: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1955204

This is what I used in 2015.  I cautiously ramped up to 4ml/10gal over the months of dark, light, dose, try again.  All without any lasting effect - dino tookover and killed all. Ultimately 35% H2O2 did the job, you can believe that!

 

This Reco is 1ml/1gal: http://www.o-r-c-a.org/forum/showthread.php?t=21735

This was my floor this time around and there are a few more references if you want to go looking.

 

I only found 1 reference to using up to 2ml/gal (or 2ml/4L in the post) and it was the ticket that worked for me:

Hydrogen Peroxide and Its Utility

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/hydrogen-peroxide-and-its-utility-130482.html

Once the 1ml/g didn’t kill every living thing in the tank, my confidence grew for 2ml/g as my ceiling.

 

I did lose a lot of snails, but I think many were dying from the dino toxins first.  I didn’t change the water before I started treating – I should have.  Turned off the lights for 3-days, then used just blue for a week, then added low-white ramping up aver a week.  If there’s a next time, I’ll do a massive water change, and then start H2O2 @ 1ml/gal and ramp quickly to 2ml/gal over 4 days. (1ml/g, 1.5ml/g, 2ml/g & 2ml/g, lights on to check for living dino, either enough or hit it again!)

 

The snails that survived at the start of the treatment are still here and the amphipod population is still strong.

 

H2O2 is my new best friend for reef’n.

[zygote2k]

Aqua-Maid is a strong h202 product. Readily available from living color.  It will turn your skin white- be careful.

Potassium Permanganate is another algacide. Kent used to sell it for algae issues in reef tanks.

[Reefn]

Just tried to find a source for Aqua-Maid but was not successful.  I did find a couple of references - one says it's 10%, another says it's 35% (but I think this later reference is actually AquaAid, a penetrating wetting agent for soil.

 

I purchased Pure Health Discounts Hydrogen Peroxide 35%, 1 gal for $44.12 + $11.50 S/H from Amazon.  The single gallon treated my 120g aquarium rock, sand and equipment - killed everything dead, dead, dead.

 

My recent bout is probably from cross contamination with my 30g, which I did not nuke since I thought I had it under control last year.  I recently moved two corals from the 30g to the 120g after several months of restart and noticed Dino again, first in 30g, then the 120g.  That's when I started the 2ml/g regimen.