JerseyChick Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Good Morning all, sorry Its been so long between work, family, the tank, as well as my daughters new pair of male rats, the cat, and the typical cleaning and laundry as well as the joys of tank cleaning... I have sadly experienced a large GHA outbreak in my 29 bio cube, like to the point it looked like it was a baseball field of green and two semi snow clowns dancing while the pink pencil urchin slowly bobbled around the green rocks. I attempted to relieve it by removing the Godzilla rock and scrubbing off all the algae with a toothbrush and a denture brush (denture brushes are awesome especially the two sided ones). I then removed the affected substrate, which was approximately one third, followed by scraping down all the walls via razor blade. I then vacuumed a strangely massive amount of detritus from the tank and added a water change, a new bag of chemipure elite, thoroughly rinsed out the sponge and cleaned the return pumps valves and switched my skimmers wooden airstone. During my adventure I was shocked to find only TWO of my original gigantic CUC (one nassarius and one blue leg hermit) I then went to the LFS and picked up a blue tuxedo urchin (he/she is no larger than a quarter) 3 turbo snails, 5 astrea snails, 2 nassarius, and a blood shrimp, and one margherite. Hopefully the new crew will remove and assist me with the hopefully minimum remnants from the cleaning, but I cant but help to ask myself... where the heck did my CUC go? For goodness sake it's an open style tank with a glass top so they couldn't have jumped ship? Tomorrow I am going to do another decent sized water change to keep conditions ideal... I feel so ashamed of myself and as soon as I am able to I will post up the water parameters. Link to comment
Maniu Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Urchins are great for cuc. My is about 2.5" big and she works her butt off. In the same time, she is pita as she knocks frags around and destroyed my precious macro algae. Try some chemi-pure or and phos-guard. Just be careful as it is quite easy to shock the system if used in excess. Good luck Link to comment
JerseyChick Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 Thank you, it is an older tank, with now two urchins a small pink pencil and a teeny blue tuxedo. I have always used chemipure elite, but was at the point it was about 4 months old and a new bag was in order. I am currently coral-less and the rock is one GIANT 20 pound piece so, my lil urchins are in a great home where nothing can get banged around or dropped or create a fall hazard. Link to comment
Maniu Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 If you have no corals in your tank, than peroxide treatment could work for you a lot better then manual removal. But your inverts got to be move to temp. tank or large container for that treatment. Ttyl8r gtg Link to comment
Orangutran Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 How old is your tank? If you have no corals, then might be easier to start over and just get new rocks and sand. I am sure there are tons of nasties locked up in your LR/LS, that's feeding the GHA. And then you can get excited about a "new" tank again! My biocube was 5 years old, and I battled GHA for a good year, and in the end, it just crashed. I shoulda pulled the plug sooner! Link to comment
JerseyChick Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Mine is a solid three years... I'd kinda like to see it pull thru, with minimal chemical intervention (I won't peroxide dip) I just got to get my levels to optimal again... Shift work makes regular schedules difficult. I just mixed up some water for a change tomorrow it's circulating and heating up. I realized the RODI I was using tested in at 21ppm but the store brand distilled is 0ppm so that is one change I am hoping to continue. Link to comment
Maniu Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I had bad algae bloom about a month and a half ago. It happened while I was on vacation and care taker left the lights on 24/7 for the entire week. Eyesore to say the least. I was tempted to use peroxide due to amount of crap that covered just about everything but decided on chemi-pure and cuc instead. After two weeks, most of it was gone. Not sure if you're going to be that "lucky" since there might be more than meets the eye in tank 3yo. Hope you get your tank where it needs to be soon. Link to comment
evanski Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Might recommend a emerald crab or two...in my experience they are huge GHA feeders. As others have mentioned, bloom might have been due in part to stored nutrients in sand and rock. Something we all have to deal with. Is your sand shallow enough to vacuum and stir? I spend a LOT of time turkey bastering my rock to purge detritus. E Link to comment
JerseyChick Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Yes as a matter of fact the sand bed is a little under an inch deep, I vacuumed it with a broad tip vacuum to remove the major detritus and it was nearly all grey (from what I cleaned out) what I removed (that was on Monday or Tuesday) about 4 gallons. That's the day I did the manual scrub and work described in the original post, today I turkey baster blasted the rocks and did another 4 gallon water change. My blood shrimp also molted today, and from past experience they usually molt in decent conditions. Tonight's vacuuming with a smaller tip vacuum in the more *narrow/back/secluded* parts yielded a much lighter colored detritus removal, which I am interpreting as a sign the s#!t is almost fully gone and should have my parameters at a much healthier level. I have several teeny hitch crabs within the rock, they have been there since I got the tank and are super teeny, and amazing scavengers, been there three years, why rid them now, I am not an Emerald Crab fan, had them in the past and usually when they get over an inch and a half they try and pinch my clown fishes fins. Also spotted two beautiful white tube sponges growing from under the rock upwards that were not there last week... Folks I may be slowly getting somewhere but hopes aren't up yet. Again water change was less than an hour ago, so morning test will show me accurately-ish where I stand on my recovery. Also forget moonlights in any form...I rid them fully no white, no blue, no UV... Link to comment
evanski Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Think you might be turning the corner, but likely stuck with heavy maintenance and water changes while you purge nutrients leeching out of the system. Looking forward to seeing how it goes. Please keep us posted, as this should be instructive for many. Link to comment
JerseyChick Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 I am waiting till next Wedn or Thursday for the next 4 gallon water change, I do need it to stabilize on it's own (I do adore my inhabitants) so in a 29 gallon tank 4 gallons won't shock it too much. Slow and steady... all good things come in time, but seeing the molt in the tank, honestly put a grin on my face Link to comment
JerseyChick Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 As of 04-04-14 @10am my parameters are at the following (definitely showing improvement, but it's gonna be a slow process) Nitrate - 10ppm Nitrites - 0ppm Ammonia - 0ppm Phosphates - under.25ppm (the color is exactly in between 0ppm and 0.25ppm) Calcium - 380 PH - 8.2 Salinity - 1.026 If I knew how to upload pictures from my iPhone - I'd show you all a current FTS of the tank, I kinda wish I had a before picture, but it was horrible and something I wish not to remember, and am kicking myself for not taking (if that makes and sense :/ ) Link to comment
Maniu Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Download Photobucket app (it is free), then upload all your photos to it. Then you can share pics on here by copy/paste "img" link of selected picture. Link to comment
pugmommie Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Hair Algae hate high magnesium. Test your mag. levels. Link to comment
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