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Old 08-17-2013, 05:50 AM
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I have a little saying - you can't have a problem with problem algae, unless you have a problem algae.

Have you added anything new to your system recently? new corals, new frags, new fish? A single spore that hitchhiked in 2 months ago could have been quietly building to critical mass before it exploded and you noticed it. People seem to think that 100% of every kind of algae can potentially be in their tanks at any one moment, but that's not really true. Just like an un-planted garden will never magically sprout a tomato plant even though the soil is probably just fine for one, it's very possible that this particular species of algae is a problem for no other reason than it was recently introduced. If that's the case, your water parameters don't need to have changed for it to cause an issue. Think of all the cases of invasive algaes destroying reefs in places like Hawaii - the water was always capable of growing it, it's the fact that it's a recently introduced invasive species with no predators that explains why it's out of control now.

Some people think this is a controversial idea, but if you don't have the ability to get a natural predator for it, and you don't want to completely starve your water while devoting hours to manual removal, I would consider something like AlgaeFix Marine (you'll have to order it on eBay as I'm pretty sure it's still not available in Canada), or Fauna Marin's Ultra Algae X. knowing what kind of algae it is for sure though will definitely help you trouble shoot how to fix it.
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