Algae Question
 

I never went through any algae cycles when I set my newest tank up about I guess 4 months ago but seem to be now. I am getting some very long stringy brown stuff. Kind of slimy almost. Covering quite a lot of rocks and corals even. Never had this before...anyone know what it may be and what the cause usually is?

like matts? dinoflaggelates? pictures in this thread

Same problem here for last monthe.
 

just finishing that now. i have a good timer for my light and only have it it on for 4 one hour periods. in about 2-3 days most will show sgns of dying. in anohter 4-5 days you should be good.

im not sure but i think the seperate running times interfears with the photosynthisis progress. i keep a standing lamp on and nearby most of the day.

i have used no chemicals at all and it seem to be fine. the reason it took so long is because i turned lights on too soon and didnt notice te new growth for a couple of days.

I have also added a nano korialia for more flow and this has helped. i might have some pics of this algae in my link.

Yeah so its definitely dinoflaggelates. Not too bad at the moment but I don't want it to get out of control.

My PH always seems to be a bit high and that one article says that could be part of the cause. Problem is, I have no idea why my PH is always on the higher side and since everything seems to be thriving, I have always left it.

It ranges from 8.4 to about 8.8

mine was related to phos.

Actually I guess the article uses elevated PH as part of a solution, not a cause.

not PH phosphorus. it was only up to .3 adn this was enough.

Holy wowzers! Your pH gets up to 8.8??? Try doing a search on Reef Central for "high pH"...there was a really good thread about it some time ago.

For the record, Phosphate at 0.3 is high.

Yeah I may have been part of that thread :)

I need to check the calibration of my probe but since it has not caused any problems, Im not too concerned right now.

ya i know its high i was saying its high enouge to spur algae growth. picking up ro unit tom. hopfully this helps.

I knew you meant phos. not PH but I was saying that some people have used PH as a solution to Dyno. I have undetectable phosphates but most likely only because I have so much macro algae in the tank.

I just calibrated my PH probe and it was way off. My PH is actually settling around 8.16 as of now but I think it may end up a bit lower...so my PH is actually on the low side, not high.

well im pretty new at the marine thing but the lights out thing worked good for me now the turbos and sea hare are working clean up whats left. nothing really likes the stringy stuff thou. hoping the hare will get to it.

i would prefer to not use chimicals at this point.

I am going to reduce the photoperiod I think for a bit and see if that helps. Since my PH is actually a lot lower than I thought, I will try the higher PH as well and see if that works. Maybe run a phosban reactor I have laying around. Feed less...Any other Suggestions?

There really is not enough to manually pull out and its so thin that its hard to even try. I guess it may be good to use my turkey baster to blow it off rock? Or maybe not a good idea?

Maybe add more flow? It doesn't seem to be growing well in high flow areas...

Its way too early to tell but after doubling the flow last night in the tank, adding a phosban reactor and only running MH lighting today with none of the T5's, the tank is 90% free of the dyno. It was not bad to begin with but now you can't see it anywhere unless you get real close and look hard. Maybe it will come back but it really seems to hate the high flow...my puffers are having a hard time adjusting too. Its pretty funny watching them get blown around! They are such poor swimmers.

I am going to raise the ph a little too and see if that helps as some people have done with success. Hopefully I can get rid of it before it ever gets out of control.

Any other ideas would be great.

On a side note, originally when I had set up this tank, I was only going to use one 250watt MH on the left side and pointed diagonally across the tank instead of down. To give the tank a natural sunlight look with lots of shadows. The right side was going to just have very little to no light as it just kind of fades away. I never followed through with this but today by only having the MH on I am getting that effect and it looks wicked so i may just keep this lighting. I will have to move a few corals to the lighted side but otherwise I think it will work nicely and keep the tank way cooler as I have really not found T5's to be cool.