Vacation woes (1 Viewer)

[Woodyth]

Came back from a mini vacation and apparently my feeder ( person) overfed, and now I have a algae bloom like no other. Long brown/reddish growing all over everything. I was gonna cheat and go the Algeafix route to fix, tried one dose per directions to a t, and corals are all pissed off. Doing 5 gal water change, every other day from 35 gallon tank, and sucking as much of it up as I can., but seems to be still growing actively. In my three years of having the tank, nothing like this ever. Any suggestions? Any additives that won't piss corals off? I'm hate it looking like this!

Thanks,
Thomas.
PS: I'll add some pics when I get home.

 

[Woodyth]

 

[SuperJay]

Manual removal would go a long way. It will give some instant gratification and the alge that you remove will also remove whatever is making it grow

 

[MistakesWereMade]

I am more curious as to what duration of time a mini vacation is.

I agree with @SuperJay as the removal will go a long way. Since I have no idea the duration it took to get to this stage, I would also recommend trimming back your light schedule. This should slow the growth down. Are there any rocks you can pull out and scrub. Even if they have corals on them, 15 minutes out of the water while you scrape with a brush won't hurt them. As you get this under control you can slowly increase your lighting schedule back to normal. It may take a few weeks.

What kind of clean-up crew do you have? Might be time to add a few things to help out, even if they are only temporary residences.

 

[Varig]

I recognize the old adage that “to a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” so take this rookie observation with a grain of salt. BUT those strands look very similar to my coral QT tank when I had ostreopsis Dinos. I thought it was all gha, but when I put it under a microscope it was very obviously not. The only good news is if it is ostreopsis, a properly sized uv will clear it up in a few days. Something to consider.

 

[Woodyth]

Manual removal would go a long way. It will give some instant gratification and the alge that you remove will also remove whatever is making it grow

This is after 3 days of water changes and sucking what I can from surfaces.

I am more curious as to what duration of time a mini vacation is.

I agree with @SuperJay as the removal will go a long way. Since I have no idea the duration it took to get to this stage, I would also recommend trimming back your light schedule. This should slow the growth down. Are there any rocks you can pull out and scrub. Even if they have corals on them, 15 minutes out of the water while you scrape with a brush won't hurt them. As you get this under control you can slowly increase your lighting schedule back to normal. It may take a few weeks.

What kind of clean-up crew do you have? Might be time to add a few things to help out, even if they are only temporary residences.

Mini vacation "10 days" but ends up lights were on 24/7 since he thought that something was wrong. Best friend trying to do too much and I was in a land of no cell service to call. I cut back lights now to 4.5 hours with bank up and down total of 6. Will be working on the brush technique tonight/this weekend of what I CAN remove. I have 2 urchins working diligently along with hermits and snails. I usually get the snail only kit for a 50 gallon from reef cleaners so should be still in there somewhere lol. I hear good things about sea hares, but also some scary things. Thoughts?

I recognize the old adage that “to a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” so take this rookie observation with a grain of salt. BUT those strands look very similar to my coral QT tank when I had ostreopsis Dinos. I thought it was all gha, but when I put it under a microscope it was very obviously not. The only good news is if it is ostreopsis, a properly sized uv will clear it up in a few days. Something to consider.

I ordered a 15 watt advantage 2000 in hopes that it would help also. finding it hard to put a uv in a tank with no sump, but seem to have ordered a pump with suction cups also, that should work.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[zoolan70]

ends up lights were on 24/7

There is your issue. I don't think it was the feeding. Not that it helps now, but if you are paranoid in the future, I had my lights in my old system controlled by the Apex, but also had the power for the lights plugged into a controlled outlet so that there were two controls preventing the lights from being left on like that. Very much like the heater controls we all do...right?

 

[Woodyth]

yeah

There is your issue. I don't think it was the feeding. Not that it helps now, but if you are paranoid in the future, I had my lights in my old system controlled by the Apex, but also had the power for the lights plugged into a controlled outlet so that there were two controls preventing the lights from being left on like that. Very much like the heater controls we all do...right?

yeah. I had set it, and shortened times but forgot to tell him that. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is, when he reset them, he thought they would just shut off. lol. If he wasn't my best friend I'd be mad, but I can't. Uv will be here Monday, will be doing a couple water changes tonight and Sunday along with scrubbing what I can. I've never saw anything take over a tank this bad before. It was far from perfect, but this is bad.....

 

[Woodyth]

Little update. Water changes and sucking what I can and picking off the rocks has left me this. Just need to keep telling meself the golden rule, "Nothing in saltwater happens fast". Thanks for the help!