Lighting Times ~ ! ? = Algea Blooms

[Mrbojengles333]

I have had my 24 G aquapod for about 4 months now.... I was just wondering how much light from day to day are you putting on these. When I was doing 10 hours I would get HUGE algea blooms of green slime algea. I've now worked my way down decreasing it to 7.5 hours but I still have large amounts of red slime algea and green slime algea. All my water parameters are within range of what they are suposed to be. I've tried: Pruning, Phosphate Remover, water changes, clean up crew ..... But its still overtaking my corals and EVERYTHING.... Help anyone!!! .... What are your guy's lighting times and solutions???

 

[SkiFletch]

4 months old and you're still getting cyanobacteria huh? Whats your water input source? RO, distilled, tap?

Light alone wont cause cyano blooms, you need a little extra nutrient of some sort. If using RO water, USUALLY the cyano blooms slow or stop around 2-4 months of the tank as the initial silicates are removed from the water. A few more questions:

What are your stocking levels in the tank for livestock (fish and corals)?
What are you feeding?
What corals is it overtaking?
What cleanup crew?
Chemistry, pH, salinity (or sg), temp, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate?
How often do you do water changes?
How much LR?
Any protein skimming?

 

[steelhealr]

Agree with above...my lights are on 12 hours a day. SH

 

[Mrbojengles333]

I use R.O. Water (14 times RO'd) from the water store down my street as well as sparklets delivered water in the big 5G bottles, I have been sucking all the algea when doin water changes trying to get rid of it. My tank looks like a big SWAMP with corals Peaking through

What are your stocking levels in the tank for livestock (fish and corals)? ----- FLOWERPOT, BUBBLE, 6 Mushrooms, Star Polyps, Yellow Polyps, Torch Coral, Coral Banded (which I think has killed 3 of my fish so far, Don't think its a good idea to have one of these in a nano, only spares the larger fish ) , and a Royal Gramma


What are you feeding? ----------- Brine Shrimp, 1/4 a cube every day to every other day


What corals is it overtaking? ---- None so far, am having very slow reproduction rates


What cleanup crew? ------ 3 hermits, the coral banded, 4/5 snails (margarita)/tubo


Chemistry, pH, salinity (or sg), temp, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate? ------ All within normal parameters, I don't have a phospate test kit, but someone suggested too much phosphates can cause these blooms, So i added a phosphate remover bag in the back sump along with bag of activated carbon


How often do you do water changes? ----- Thought this might be the problem, so i started a 25% water change every week for the last 3 weeks with minimal results

How much LR? --------- 24 lbs ( I think....) I bought the wieghts a long time ago

Any protein skimming? ----- If the skimmer included in the 24G aquapod counts as one than yes, Otherwise i've looked at those nano skimmers and everyone i've talked to says that they break VERY easily and to hold off untill they come out with the new model

I am adding MARC WEISS Coral Vital DNA to my tank everyday. I just stopped today. I figured this MIGHT be the cause of these blooms; but highly doubt it since it says on the bottle (causes growth of coraline algea and that overtakes red and green slime algea)

 

[SkiFletch]

I use R.O. Water (14 times RO'd) from the water store down my street as well as sparklets delivered water in the big 5G bottles

14 times RO'd? That sounds VERY fishy to me. A properly functioning reverse osmosis membrane will remove all but less than 10ppm of total dissolved solutes (TDS) from water after ONE pass through the filter. Furthermore, to properly operate an RO unit, one needs a very high pressure to apply to the unit (60psig and higher). USUALLY this is achieved by attaching the RO membrane directly to straight cold tapwater which is 40-100psig in most households. Water coming out of the RO unit is a mere 1psig and if you wanted to run the water through a second membrane, you would have to Bump the pressure back up with a gear pump each time. Doing this 14 times would make the water VERY VERY VERY VERY expensive. Like $5 per gallon or more. Unless you're actually paying that much for "14 times RO'd" water, chances are you're getting ripped off by the store you're purchasing it from... I would never buy RO water from somebody that claims they have 14 times RO'd water, since that person is lying to my face and doesn't understand the phsyics behind reverse osmosis membranes.

That being said, given the info you have stated here in your post, I would be most worried about an RO unit. Thats pretty much your last source of the cyano problem. Chances are you're just getting conditioned tapwater from the store which will fuel cyano outbreaks with no problem.

Just my $0.02

 

[Homburger]

Just a side note.

I am on my 8th month with a 24gNano and I noticed that my outbreak of cynobacteria has decreased ever since I stopped feeding my corals Phyto Feast and other coral foods like phytoplankton. Once I start feeding them (I always stay below the bottle's recommended dosage), I notice an outbreak with a few days. Could there be a correlation?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, probably a nutrient in the phyto type foods that leads to the bloom. Definitely not out of the question