The Aglae Cycle. What has changed?

[Pigpen17]

When I first got into saltwater things were pretty cut and dry. You went through algae phases. Your tank was going to get ugly for a while and there was nothing you could do about it but ride it out, but after a while, you would start to grow coralline algae and things would change. It was a superior algae, so it would dominate your system and starve out the other algae. This worked perfectly in my first tank. But now I am growing coralline in my new tank, and my GHA is still just out of control. Worse than ever. So what happened? Is this just not the case anymore? Why would it change? Any old schoolers know what I’m talking about?

[Bluetangclan]

My guess is something in the water or something changed in your system you haven't noticed.
-skimmer not functioning as well as it was
-phosphate in the water
-RODI not functioning as well as it was
-Light coming in from elsewhere
-Clean up crew on vacation

[Pigpen17]

The only real difference between my old tank (10 years ago) and my new tank (Less than a year old) is I ran a HOB filter with carbon and used tap water. In my new tank I am using distilled water, but have no HOB filter.

Now I know where my GHA is coming from. I overfeed, and my rocks were soaking in tap water for about 10 years in my old tank and in a 30g storage tank. They are phosphate factories. I still am at a loss though why coralline has not beat it down like it did before. My old tank was 100% tap water at the time and once coralline started to grow, all other algae died off.

[GT350pwns]

Those rocks are probably going to release phosphates for awhile. Not a whole lot that could really be done about it.

My suggestion would be to look into a brs reactor and run gfo. Will soak up some of those nasties and help starve out the ha.

[Pigpen17]

Those rocks are probably going to release phosphates for awhile. Not a whole lot that could really be done about it.

My suggestion would be to look into a brs reactor and run gfo. Will soak up some of those nasties and help starve out the ha.

It's my next purchase. That and a better skimmer. It's just that I went into the ugly phase of this tank thinking that once coralline started to grow, it would keep down the other algae. Not the case. In fact, I think I am getting Bryopsis now as well. A little fern has started to grow on one of my rocks. But I am growing coralline on my glass, pumps and rocks, but limited. It actaully seems like the GHA is keeping down the coralline!