Help! Black algea
 

Hi Folks,

I've had my tank running for a few months now, and lately I have had an explosion of black cyanobacteria. No matter how many water changes I do, it doesn't seem to go away. Itll die down for a bit, only to flare back up a few weeks later. Im at the end of my rope with this, and am almost considering shutting the tank down.

Please Help.

Thanks

Vince

are you removing it manually when it flares up??

running a skimmer??

find out what is starting it.
check if your skimmer is doing its job, are you running carbon,phosphates remover adequate water flow, type of lighting, over feeding and what are you testing for.
I am sure more folks will chime in on this as we all hate seeing someone quits like that.

you could do six million water changes but unless you find the source and cause ur just going to keep feeding the problem, have you been keeping ur lights on for full 12 hrs,is the spectrum of ur bulbs off, do u have a defective skimmer, try reamoving the rocks affected to a qt tank, or take them right out of ur tank and place them in a clean dry bucket for a week this will kill it off, and have you brought water samples to ur local lfs, when in doubt i always go to a store i deal exclusivly with most of the time the staff are extreamly knowledgble and can help better then most posts. hopefully you work it out.

The tank is a 4ft 55g with a eshopps 75 hang on back skimmer, a 4ft HOT5 with a 10,000k and kz 14,000k bulbs on 6 hours a day. It has 2 koralia 1060 gph pumps, one per side aiming up for air exchange. It has 75lbs of live rock, and 40 lbs of live sand. I've been mostly testing for nitrates, which always register at zero, and I'm assuming that its becasue they various algeas are using it up.

what you need to be working on is nutrients, lights are only a very small factor compared to nutrients mainly phosphates. to keep them in check use ro water, when feeding frozen food let thaw and blotch the juices as almost all foodcontain phosphates just not in really high enough amounts that the basic cheaper test kits can detect.use a high powered skimmer rated for much larger than your system.run carbon aggressively.consider running phosphate removal media and change it when needed.nitrates are a factor as well but not nearly as much as phosphates,nitrates more affect coral growth and color, your testing zero for nitrates because of the water changes , you can get rid of nitrates easily with massive water changes as they dont build up that fast and with good liverock they get converted pretty quickly,plus reduced feedings.any dieing or decaying matter like corals dieing or fish/inverts and anything that changes rapidly lkike spawning or sudden light changes can also trigger these blooms.increase flow in areas where it collects.if your liverock is old it can trap phosphates and leach them out in time


the steps to a algae free system are basically(but not limited to) this:


use ro water for water changes and top ups
feed only what you need to(fish dont need frozen food 3 times a day)
avoid liquid foods and if using frozen carefully thaw and blotch out juices
run carbon and phosphate media like gfo(ferris oxide)
regular water changes and lots of flow
avoid very high bio loads unless equipped to handle them( ie.good skimmer,lots of lr,nutrient reduction systems like zeovit,prodibio or bio pellets)
discard any cloth like materials or wash frequently if using them and avoid bio balls
consider growing macro algae
regular tank husbandry like wiping off glass,manual removal,ditrius removal/cleanup crew


(think i got most of em in there lol it sounds like alot but its really not:) goodluck :):)

When did you cycle end? What kind and how many fish do you have now? Are you testing nitrites or nitrates?

I have 2 clown fish, 2 firefish, 1 shrimp goby, 1 pistol shrimp, 1 peppermint shrimp, 3 emerald crabs, a few blue legged hermit crabs.

I've been using RO water the whole entire time I've had this tank for top ups as well as mixing replacement salt water. I don't feed a lot of frozen, but I do feed freshly hatched BBS.

I've been thinking about growing macro algea, but I haven't really looked to hard for it TBH. Is it better to grow in a refugium rather than in the tank itself? Do in-tank refugium work? I've seen hang on tank and as well as in-tank refugiums, would you recomend one over the other?

The last question was in regards to flow. Should I keep the circulation pumps aimed upwards for air exchange or is there a better way of doing it?

are you testing for phosphates if so what test kit brand??
any other algae in the tank? film algae much?
like naesco was getting at how old is the tank?



basically there could be one cause there could be several best thing to do to get an idea of where it comes from is to post your complete water parameters and everything you test for.feeding schedules and what food.tank size,age,inhabitants and equipmentetc.

its hard for another reef to give you a solid answer on whats the cause of algae unless you post the smallest little details, sometimes you may miss or overlook something that someone else will pick up on:):)

cheers:)


****edit****

not saying you never posted any info like size and equipment just need more info;)