Best way to keep rocks clean

[spinycheek]

So I have a 25 gallon nano reef. I bought purple colored live rock (covered in coralline) when I set it up around a year ago. Since then, the coralline has been overgrown by a mixture of Halimeda, Neomeris annulata, stringy diatom goop, red hair algae, cualerpa, bubble algae, and a randomly appearing patch of red slime cyano. It just looks ugly to me, too much furriness instead of pretty rock.

any idea what to do to control it? The ones that bother me the most are the diatom goobers primarily, but the cualerpa is obnoxious as well as it sends runners over my flatter corals. Once upon a time I had a turbo snail that mowed that stuff down, but every subsequent turbo won't touch it.

I am running a phosguard/carbon filter and protein skimmer. If I keep up with water changes and occasionally scrub the rocks, it stays down, but I miss my previous tanks where coralline was dominant and I never had this issue of ugly algal growth.

 

[xxHLTxx]

What bulbs are being run?

 

[spinycheek]

2 AquaIllumination Sol Blues at 50% power-ish

 

[Smiley]

trochus snails and an algae blennie. As well as water changes with manual removal...

 

[High Plains Reefer]

what are your water params are you using rodi water?

 

[ReefCheif]

SOunds like you have high phosphates to me with all that junk growing in your display.

 

[High Plains Reefer]

SOunds like you have high phosphates to me with all that junk growing in your display.

right where I was heading

 

[spinycheek]

I'll have to get back on water params, haven't done them this week except for salinity and temp. Salinity is 35 ppt (1.026-7). Temp is 74-78 F

i don't test for phosphates, but always run Phosguard assuming there are phosphates. The caulerpa is pretty stunted. Normally nitrates are undetectable, but I'll check again when I get a chance.

 

[spinycheek]

Ok:

NH3= 0
NO2= 0
NO3= 0
pH= 8.14
PO4= ???
SG= 1.026
KH= 4.9 dKH
Calcium= 420 ppm
Mg= 1410 ppm

 

[spinycheek]

So the blenny and/or trochus will munch on the goopy diatoms?? I was thinking of a seahare to take out the red hair. I know nothing will touch the Neomeris or halimeda, but I'm ok with them.

 

[High Plains Reefer]

how old are your rodi filters are there any tds in you water before you add your salt it may be as simple as a di membrane that is saturated

 

[spinycheek]

I actually get my DI from work where the filters are changed every month (work in lab).

 

[jda123]

Don't be shocked if the PO4 comes back 0... it is being used up by the algae. Get a few emerald crabs, take out as much as you can by hand, change more water and watch what you feed. Most importantly, have patience - any kind of change will take a month or two to see good results... but I imagine that the tank did not get like over night either so it will take at least as long to turn it around.

 

[cremer9]

I lowered my flow and more cuc's It helped my 12 gallon alot,plus weekly small water changes

 

[sethsolomon]

Check your lights to make sure they are not old. pc's need to changed once every 6 months, t5's need to be replaced every 7-8 months, and MH's need to be replaced every 6-10 months.

 

[jda123]

While any of those bulbs will not be ideal over time, those time frames are too short. There are many, many people who are now using MH bulbs for 2 years without any adverse effects. I have no idea about PCs, but VHO and T5 can go 2 years with good results (after 1 year with great). Although all will shift spectrum over time, it will be more like 3 or 4 years before they are the ONLY cause of nasty algae - look to the nutrients and lack of cleaners first since that is more likely to be your issue.

 

[spinycheek]

I ditched my MH lights a couple years ago, i was getting tired of spending $300 a year on light bulbs not including the extra energy. I'm running LEDs, should be good for several more years until the diodes start to degrade.

The main things I know I'm lacking are cleaners and regular water changes. There are no fish or anything that needs fed. Occasionally I'll add some coral food. After reading up on lawnmower blennies, I think that may knock out a bunch of my diatom goobers. So I just need some more snails and crabs perhaps, plus get back on a water change schedule. Does anything eat caulerpa that can fit in a small aquarium? My ultimate goal is to make manual removal as infrequent as possible.

 

[jda123]

Don't sweat the lights - even spectrum that degraded 20% won't cause all of this.

Emerald crabs will eat nearly every kind of algae, but they start with the "easy" kinds first. They will eat macro. Any of these creatures that you are adding will not be happy to starve once the algae is gone... they will take to coral rather than starving to death. ...so go slow, let them do their work and export by hand for a while. It will eventually get to an equilibrium, but it could take months.

 

[sethsolomon]

I ditched my MH lights a couple years ago, i was getting tired of spending $300 a year on light bulbs not including the extra energy. I'm running LEDs, should be good for several more years until the diodes start to degrade.

The main things I know I'm lacking are cleaners and regular water changes. There are no fish or anything that needs fed. Occasionally I'll add some coral food. After reading up on lawnmower blennies, I think that may knock out a bunch of my diatom goobers. So I just need some more snails and crabs perhaps, plus get back on a water change schedule. Does anything eat caulerpa that can fit in a small aquarium? My ultimate goal is to make manual removal as infrequent as possible.

What kind of LED's? Chinese made white LEDs have a tendency to diminish just the same as bulbs. Crees and Philips LED's only start to diminish after about 5 years.

As for cleaner crew, I would get the entire spectrum of snails.

Snail Name Ratio per gallon
Trochus Snails .5/g
Astrea Snails .25/g
Cerith Snails 1/g
Nerite Snails .5/g
Nassarius Snails .10/g


If you have problems with cyano algae get a sand sifting star, tiger conch, and a sea cucumber

 

[spinycheek]

The LEDs are fan cooled CREEs in an AI sol unit.

I have a tiger tail cuc, but I've been told sand stars usually starve to death after they go through all your sand. Might be worth a shot though, my sand can get gross. Will definitely pursue a snail and crab crew as well. The only things in there besides corals are a cucumber, 1 scarlet hermit, 1 trochus and 2 peppermint shrimp. The cucumber used to mow through the sand, but he's slowed down a lot.