75gal sw questions

[pete]

I have a 75gal SW that has been running for 3 years thow I bought it about a month ago.  I brought all of the water home so that I could add it and just keep on going right away.  I have been killing aptasia for a month now and now that they are under controll I now have a red hair algy problem(just bought a lawnmower blenny) green hair algy and some other kinda hair/slime growing on my live rock!  Bubble algy has just started to show its face in the tank now as well.  I don't know what to do to get this gone.  PLEASE HELP!

[NjOyRiD]

cyano my friend...check your phosphat
do you have a lot of circulation in the tank?
you do your water change regulary to remove nitrrate?
i know a product call red slime remover...but this is the last option to take..honnetly...

[QueensU]

I have a 75gal SW that has been running for 3 years thow I bought it about a month ago.  I brought all of the water home so that I could add it and just keep on going right away. 

Do you mean you brought the water from where the tank was set up before? What type of water are you using for mixing SW? RO/DI?  If you don't have any corals or anything in the tank, you can cut out the lighting for a few days, and do more water changes. If you do have corals and fish, you can cut your light back a bit. This will slow down the photosynthetic algae (hair and bubble). Some people say it doesnt really affect cyano growth though.

As Njoyrid said, you might want to check phosphate (I'm assuming you checked everything else? What are your parameters for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate?) Even though the tank has been setup for 3 years, if you disturb the sand bed during the move, you can release all kinds of sequestered waste, and end up causing a cycle (or supplying algae with the newly liberated nutrients). When the tank was setup before did it have an algae problem? Or did it just start when you set the tank up at your place?
 

[mikerobart]

I have been reading a lot lately about "cooking" live rock and think could be a drastic but necessary solution to your problem.

When I move my current rock to a different tank I would probably do this myself. Time consuming but will remove the phosphate locked up inside the rock.

Essentially you would be removing all the rock to rubbermaids with powerheads and saltwater and blasting them for weeks, continually doing 100% water changes in the bins until phosphate and nitrate read zero.

Sand bed replacement, and tons of water changes in the display may be something you want to consider also .... but without drastic measures to fix the problem you might just be trying to play catchup with a massive amount of PO4 absorbed into the rock or sand.

[Hookup]

How's the tank been looking/running for the past 3 years?

Obviously there is a nutrient load in the tank that is enabling the algae to grow.  Find the source, fix the problem.

[Severum]

Some may not agree but I'd vac the sand and cook the rock that has no corals on it. 3 years of crud in a sandbed is not something I'd want in my tank.

[mikerobart]

Well Vafa I WOULD agree 100%. Cook the rock, replace the sandbed, 100% water change. After that any nitrate or phosphate that shows up is because it's been added in food or water.

Stuff like this is why I am honestly thinking of going barebottom.

It just seems way better ( maybe not for everyone.. but for me and my husbandry style ) to be able to remove the detritus before it decays and produces nitrate and phosphate rather than hope the rock and sandbed will absorb and "process" all of it. As we see it doesn't always happen they way it's supposed to.

Just rambling but this is how I hope to achieve very low nitrate and phosphate easily, and have a spotless tank ( want to go sps dominant in future.) Hope this is not thread jacking too bad !

1. Cook all rock first.
2. Barebottom tank, rock only NO sand
3. Obscene flow keeps detritus suspended  (and sps happy)
4. Filter socks... 25 micron if I am around to change them very very fast, 100 micron to change every few days, 200 micron for say a weeks vacation away.
5. Blow off the rocks and bottom as frequently as possible with powerhead
6. Heavy skimming
7. 24/7 Carbon & GFO
8. WC's
9. If necessary carbon dosing

I can't imagine following these very simple tasks and not having a very very clean tank. For me those tasks are not bad. Getting my head under my stand while I shop vac and scrub detritus out of the sump, or vacumming sand trying to find every last bit of detritus just sucks.

[albert alligator]

i also just set up a salt water tank and every thing i got was used from another up and going tank they had a major red alge problem there reason for giving me all of there stuff (live sand live rock fish hermit crabs) i let my tank run for 24 hours befor moving in all of the sand rocks ect ive now had the tank set up for 2 months have done none of this crazy water testing stuff and the alge is almost gone ( 85%) i have all of the same stuff they had only difference im using  two tetra whisper 60 filters for my 30 gallon and my heater is set at 78d....maybe the 1 hour drive with the rocks coverd in 25% water helped i dont know and my h/m reads .0025  i have another tank that is also set up a 90g that has the same rock in it (got alot of free live rock) and i  use two tetra whispers on it and its also doing great 75%-80% of the alge is gone and i dont run the lights very often only when im looking at the fish or they get the light from when we are in that room watching t.v

[cokelon]

yeah red slime is tough.. I have used the red slime remover it works if you have lets say 30-40% so not really much algae growth. if your tank is full of red algae then is too late. It happened in my 75g. I had to empty the tank, pick by hand from the substrate what you can, hose down with hot water your rock and clean the tank the best you can. and use RO water !!!! when you start your tank.

that worked for me I can send you pics of before and after I did that. I used same rock same substrate etc.. and now my tank looks awesome.

good luck

[Hookup]

I have a 75gal SW that has been running for 3 years thow I bought it about a month ago.  I brought all of the water home so that I could add it and just keep on going right away.  I have been killing aptasia for a month now and now that they are under controll I now have a red hair algy problem(just bought a lawnmower blenny) green hair algy and some other kinda hair/slime growing on my live rock!  Bubble algy has just started to show its face in the tank now as well.  I don't know what to do to get this gone.  PLEASE HELP!

Pete, where'd ya go? What did you do, if anyhting?  How are things now?

[pete]

hey there everyone,  sorry about being so long.  So I have cut my lighting down alot and slowed down on the amount of food!  There seams to be a big slow down on the growth of algy.  I also bough a sea hair and more crabs and snails as well as a much bigger skimmer.  So far so good.  I will keep you all posted

[Bob P]

Ladder goby and nassarus snails for the substrate
and an urchin, the ultimate algae vaccum
Ease up on feeding
Oh and 10-15% a week water change religiously
Give it some time, don't panic and scrub
everything