Algae-its causes and remedies

After reading through a lot of the message boards, it appears nuisance algae is the biggest problem facing aquarists today.

So what are the causes?

It all comes down to water quality. Either too many phosphates, too many organics, too much of this, too much of that, etc etc.

Thus, why are we not pro-active instead of re-active in the controlling of algae?

Not being proactive is like setting a reef tank up without lights, then after all your corals die, you think it is time for lights so you can get them to live.

I have never came right out and said this before but it is time to say it.

Water is the most important thing in our aquariums. The first thing a lot of people mention when responding to an algae thread is, "are you using RO/DI water." OK, so that is step one, clean water. What is the next step? Mixing the water with a salt mix.

At this years IMAC I was educated in salt mixes. We actually took a handful of salt and examined it. One could see all the different sized particles and see the exact make up of the raw ingredients that comprised the salt mix. This lead to a very lengthy discussion with MDP, and the guys at SeaChem, additionally two years ago I had a very long talk with Instant Ocean's chemist in charge of their formula at the very first IMAC ever.

Thus, I have talked to three different salt manufacturers. Did you know they use the material in gypsum board as one of the components of some salt mixes?

Anyhow, I do not understand why if one goes to all the expense of getting ro/di water, they just mix it with the cheapest salt they can get?

So the second most important thing for algae control is salt mix.

So now we have appropriate water . . . . . .

Do you change it enough?

Do you overfeed?

How is your maintainence?

Guys, lets start our tanks off right instead of wrong, and maybe we can reduce they amount of nuisance algae!

[chummy]

After talking with three different salt manufacturers what were your findings?

Did all three provide useful info or was it just another sales pitch?

What kinds of specify things did you come away with?

[ghofmann]

I agree with you that prevention is 90% of the cure to problematic algea outbreaks. I also believe that algea outbreaks are an inevitable part of this hobby due to the nature of the closed systems we run. Prevention can come in many forms, good nutrient export, replacing lights when their spectrums start to fade, not overfeeding, and not overstocking just to name a few of the more obvious ones.

The water we start out with is very definantly the first and formost thing we should look at. I have started more than one saltwater aquarium setup with different salt mixes and RO/DI water. Each and every one has started the cycle with a diatom bloom. Diatoms are as you know a form of eukaryotic algea.

Where do the nutrients for this algea bloom come from? I started a tank with nothing but lace rock, sterile sand and about 10 pounds of live rock from my 55 to start the cycle. (which had only been in the 55 for about a month to get a good bacteria population started so the rock was not saturated with detritus) The result was the same as with a tank cycled with live rock: A diatom bloom. The nutrients to fuel their growth were imported to the tank from somewhere. My guess is that it came from the salt mix and the live rock. I may be totaly off base with the reasoning behind this but I can't believe that the nutrients that fuel the initial diatom bloom just magicaly import themselves into my tank. The salt used to start this particular tank was bio sea marine mix. After about a year (using the same salt and doing weekly 25% water changes) I had a hair algea outbreak. The solution to that problem was the addition of a Sallylight foot crab which made short work of the algea and kept it in check for another six months. The tank is about to be torn down and started over again with basicaly the same procedure. This was due to a recent move and an extremely irritating outbreak of aptasia. I will be using all new lace rock and sand and I will try a different salt mix maybe reef crystals just to see if the same thing happens again. My guess is that the outcome will be very similar, a diatom bloom within the first few days.

My intent in this post is not to create a debate about which salt mix is best, it is to share an experience that I have personally had and hopefully shed some light on where nuisance algea comes from and how to get rid of it. My personal favorite way of eleminating unwanted algea is to use natural methods (algea eating fish and or inverts) proper maintinance and good husbandy techniques.

Patrick you said that some salt mixes use gypsum in their mixes. Isn't gypsum calcium sulfate? Is this the main ingredient for the calcium source in the mix? What are some of the other sources for calcium in SSW mixes?

I also would like to hear more of the specifics of what the three salt manufacturers had to say about their products.

[Edd1967]

The link below is a Ron Shimek article about his study on various salts. Best article I have seen and it is scientific as opposed to merely anecdotal.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

[T5PO]

prevention and good tank keeping is key what also helped me alot was very very good but resonable water movement with very little dead spots

[jaw969]

Like ghoffman, every tank I have started also generates a brown diatom bloom within a week or so.
I believe that proper lighting has little to do with this phenomenon, it just seems to be a start up phase that all of my tanks have gone through.
Shortly after, I notice rapid coralline algae forming on the glass, and the brown tapering off.

Turbo snails do wonders on brown diatom.

[jcslcsmi]

being new to the hobby i don't know much about algea. every 3 or 4 days i clean the front of my tank with a scrubber to get brown algea off. it comes off very easy,but it is a thin layer over the entire front. is this normal or do i need to work on water quality or get more snails. the other 3 sides of the tank i let go cuz i was told that my fish would love it. did i get correct info on the 3 sides i don.t clean? will it compromise the health of my corals or anemone? is this algea groth to fast?

[smatter]

My problem is rock quality, not water quality. I have never had a hair algAE bloom of this magnitude in 20 years. The live rock in my current tank I believe is the source of my woes. It arrived from Reefer Madness looking like it was collected in a parking lot without a stitch of coralline algae or other life.

March 8th will be the rocks one year anniversary in my tank. There are no corals or fish, just a few snails. I cured the rock carefully doing frequent water changes. I dunked and swished the rocks each time until they were done sloughing detritus.

The tank is bare bottom and has flow pulsing from 30x to 100x per hour. The skimmer is oversized and operating efficiently at only 25% of its capacity. All the water for make-up and changes goes through a six stage RO/DI which I maintain. My calibrated TDS meter reads 0.

3% water changes with Bio Sea are performed daily with detritus removal. With the exception of some occasional buffer, no additives are added. I will be switching to Marine Environment when I finish this last batch of salt.

My conclusion is that my rock is leaching phosphate. I don't think I could have been more proactive over the past year concerning my water quality. It is the quality of my rock that is the problem. I just can't believe I have been this patient. If it doesn't improve soon the rock will be thrown into a parking lot where it belongs.

[chadd]

This is all quite interesting. When I started my 20 nano I used an uncured LR. It worked very well to start the cycle, but shortly after I had a spike in nitrates which seems to have resulted in a hair algae outbreak. I got some turbo snails, added a nitrate sponge and did some water changes and the hair algae is gone. Very quick and effective cure, however I still seem to be battling a small red slime problem, and I can't get a hold of it. Parameters seem fine, water qualities good, and the talk is barely stocked. Any thoughts on a situations like this?

[olsaltybastard]

Smatter,

You may be correct about LR leaching phosphates. I "cooked" mine for a few months prior to using it. I can't say for sure whether or not this actually worked (very labor intensive), but I never had the new tank algae outbreak that I hear so much about.

I also run a phosban reactor on my setup. Nothing fancy; pretty much used as a preventive measure. Combine that with several tangs and hungry snails, there is absolutely no visible algae in my tank.

Chadd,

I sometimes find red slime to be in low flow areas. Try moving your power heads around and see if this changes things.