BIG problem with algae

[kam]

Well.. Ive been reading and learning a whole lot on Canreef and have never really needed to post much as I didnt have a lot to say... until now.

I have been working a terrible amount lately and have neglected my tank. I have had a cousin looking after it as ive been in and out of town. Well im back now and all hell has broken loose.

I have a mass algae growth which i believe is diatoms and cyno.
Its almost like short bushy hair algae. I am in the middle of switching my FOWLR over to a reef tank. My skimmer has been down for a couple weeks as it was overflowing on my cousin and she didnt want it to flood my bedroom.

Im rather embarassed to show pictures but I will tonight when im home from work. I desperately need help to correct this and am going to be purchasing the right equipment needed as I can. Im thinking a phosban reactor is probably close to the top of the list at this point.

I will try and take pics at lunch from my phone and post them when I return.
My fish, leather, kenyii and GSPs seem to be doing fine.. but man it looks ugly.

Thanks!

[Gripenfelter]

Lawnmower blenny will eat hair algae.

I run a refugium with chaeto algae breaking the surface of the water. Greatly cuts down on the amount of algae I see.

[kam]

My lawnmower blenny is quite obese from eating a lot of it. Hes probably in heaven. Im thinking that I obviously have a lot of excess nutrients in the water feeding all this. I did a 30 gal water change a week ago. will do another one this week.

I have a 6ft 125gal tank btw

[Gripenfelter]

Originally Posted by kam

My lawnmower blenny is quite obese from eating a lot of it. Hes probably in heaven. Im thinking that I obviously have a lot of excess nutrients in the water feeding all this. I did a 30 gal water change a week ago. will do another one this week.

I have a 6ft 125gal tank btw

What sort of fish do you have?

I have a container in my tank in which I'm growing certain corals that my keyhole angel would normally chomp down on. The container has some hair algae on the inside because the tangs can't get at it. Otherwise even regular tangs will eat the hair algae. I have a ton of crabs and conch snails that eat the rest of the algae off the glass.

firstly try alarger water change remove as much as you can when taking water out of your tank vacume your sand you will be amased at how much chap is in it. your cousin may have been over feeding, what I do is use a auto feeder that way that way I know how much they are getting. also clean as much off your rock as you can. What you can do is take 1 piece out and scrub it and using boiling water slowly poor it over the bad area but not the whole rock this will kill the root but keep most of the rock alive. Do not do this to all your rock at one time just one piece every day or 2. and do lots of water changes and vacume the gravel every time. get a sand sifting star they work wonders as long as they have food. I nolonger have to vacume most of my gravel. I do the areas the sand star does not like to go.

Bill

[i have crabs]

are you using tap water or ro/di? a uv sterilizer might be a option to get it back under control and you really should get the skimmer up and running in a way that it wont flood things