Hog3xx can't get going. Please help.

[Iamchadster]

Hi,

I purchased a Hog3xx about 3 or 4 months ago at least and have had no luck getting it to grow algae. I have been battling a brown fuzzy like algae that looks mostly like diatoms, but I can't be sure. The tank is a 105 that I completely rebuilt about a year ago and have had this brownish, almost copper colored algae that covers the rock and surface of my aragonite gravel. I have two maxspect gyre xf250 pumps opposing at 40% random with lots of flow, and fortunately thriving SPS and various softies.

I have tried Algaefix in the past which knocked it down, but it keeps coming back. I can physically toothbrush the algae off the rocks and spend a few hours cleaning it up to only have it return in a couple days to almost an 1/8 " thick layer with small bubbles in it. I am quite certain it's not dino's as well. Tank parameters all check out fine, of course I know the answer which is that the algae in the tank is consuming the NO3 and PO4, etc.

I turned to a more natural way of battling the issue after reading Santa Monica Filt's info, but am having trouble overcoming the issue in the tank to date. Specifically I can't get the Hog3xx to produce anything besides a light green film and that is with the shade cloth on and only one set of LED's going. If I remove the shade cloth or move it half way up the green algae that started turns to clear slime. I have also tried leaving the shade cloth in place for a couple weeks cleaning every 7 days or so and get nothing but a very light layer of green. I am running the scrubber with the recommended size air pump and running the lights off of an apex for 18 hours, again only running one set of the led's as so far when I hit the green grabber surface without the shade cloth it appears to burn out the algae.

Any ideas or input would be great as I can't get this thing to take off. I feed 3 days a week with about 1.5 cubes and the other with a flake type food that my LFS buys.

thanks,

Chad

[SantaMonica]

Welcome,

A pic would help greatly.

[Iamchadster]

I just cleaned the clear "jelly" looking stuff out last night and have the hog going 18 hours with the shade cloth in place as this has been the only way to get anything to grow. I guess part of my surprise is how strong the LED's are. I will post a pic in seven days of progress to see what I can get growing.

Do you think I should give the tank any kind of lights out period to help more of the algae get going in the scrubber?

[SantaMonica]

No don't change anything before pics. A pic of it now is still helpful

[Iamchadster]

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Here is a pic 2 days post a light cleaning. I still have the shade cloth on and only one set of LED's going 18 hours. I have the Fusion 700 pump going full blast and the HOG inner body fully submerged hoping for best water flow.

[SantaMonica]

Ok it looks pretty good. Let it fill in again a few days, then plug in both lights.

[Iamchadster]

The shade cloth is currently installed, shall I remove the shade cloth or leave it and when I turn on both sets of LED's?

[SantaMonica]

After the white is coated with some growth, remove the shades.

[Iamchadster]

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Updated photo, still with only one set of LED's on and the shade cloth still in place. I also am running a short (2 days now) lights out in the display to see if I can help get it going. The algae looks very shiny, almost like a very thin lime green jello color. Any changes at this point or wait some more?

thanks again.

[SantaMonica]

Is the cloth on the top or bottom?

[Iamchadster]

It's covering the entire thing. when I was first setting this up months ago, I recall that if the cloth was moved one way or another I didn't get great growth, almost like the lights were a bit too strong. So the simple answer is that the cloth is impeding the entire "Dry Side"

[SantaMonica]

Ok remove the whole cloth. And run only 1 set of lights. Run 18 hours and do not clean until all the surfaces are covered.

[Iamchadster]

Ok, cloth has been removed I will update with a new pic in a couple days.

[Iamchadster]

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Looks like the green faded to more brown. I can't tell if this is good or bad, but seems like what I've seen for months now when I try to remove the shade cloth.

[SantaMonica]

And a pic of the tank too.

What other filtering are you doing? And still lights out?

[Iamchadster]

Other filtration consists of a filter sock, 2 Marinepure Biocubes, a protein skimmer that I want to remove once the AS gets going and just the live rock that's in the tank. When first setting up the tank I used Red Sea reef care with their bacteria dosing to get the cycle going and since then it's been downhill. Not saying it's related, but I've never had an issue like this in any of my 10 years or so doing this hobby.
I tested with separate kits and my NO3's and PO4's are almost unmeasurable. Of course I know it's due to them being sucked up by the growing stuff in the tank.

BTW this tank is probably 8 months old or so and was rebuilt using Pukani dry rock that I "boiled" from BRS. I have been dealing with this algae for months. A little over a month ago I tried some algae-fix marine and it did respond to that. It's been over a month since the tank has seen any of the algae-fix.

Lights got turned back to normal 8 hour schedule on Thursday following the SPS-ABx schedule that Ecotech released in their Coral Labs study for G3 lighting.

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[SantaMonica]

Ok then let's try the opposite. Increase feeding 4x and try to get nitrate to 10 and phosphate to 0.2 or so. Fish will love it.

If there is any remaining effect from the algaefix, the extra nutrients might help overcome it.

[Iamchadster]

Ok then let's try the opposite. Increase feeding 4x and try to get nitrate to 10 and phosphate to 0.2 or so. Fish will love it.

If there is any remaining effect from the algaefix, the extra nutrients might help overcome it.ok that makes sense. I see what you're doing there. I will and I will have nice fat fish and happy hermits lol. I'll start today as I have a Neptune AFS so that'll help.

[Iamchadster]

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Here are todays pics. The color reminds me of that color around standing ground water that you see once in awhile, it's really got kind of a golden color to it. Also, when I came in yesterday a.m. the airline had plugged a little and my airflow wasn't good, so I pulled it out and gave it a light cleaning in the sink tonight. It's back on.

BTW, I took these photos outside at about 8:00 pm.

[SantaMonica]

Ok after reviewing the rock pics on the forum again, and your new pics, what I'm seeing is rocks that are still cycling. And bryopsis is growing as a result. The dinos/etc on the sand are secondary.

Note that you don't have growth on the walls; just on the rock. The top of the rocks that are near the light. The corals are doing good because as far as they can see, the water is well filtered. I've seen rocks cycling-in-tank several times, and for whatever reason your two-month trash can treatment looks like it did not complete. This would explain everything. And even a strong scrubber is going to have a hard time against cycling rocks coated with a powerful scrubber.

The good news is that it can only last so long, and eventually the fuel will run out. That's why it holds so well to the rocks; bryopsis has "roots" which go deep into the rock to get those nutrients, and therefore is unaffected by low nutrients in the water. The lights-out, and peroxide that you did slowed down this process by weakening the rock algae. Instead you want more rock algae, to burn up the nutrients in the rock faster. And don't worry about the sand for now; it's just the end result.

So do this: increase display lighting intensity and hours as much as possible; this will increase the photosynthesis of the rock algae and periphyton on your rocks, which will pull nutrients out of the rock faster. Continue water changes and any other nutrient-reduction method (like vodka) also. And feed less if you can. But no peroxide or algaefix or lights-out; you want more rock algae, not less. You won't be able to measure the nutrients, but they will indeed be flowing from the rocks to the bryopsis.

This scrubber will have a hard time through this, but watching it weekly and comparing it to the status of the rock algae will be a good learning step.

[Iamchadster]

Amazing information! I have been fighting this for so long now and not helping obviously lol. I will start on the process as you describe and update as we go. Thanks again for the info!!