Friar's Pico

[friar1]

The snail spent most of two hours on Hermie, just cleaning his shell. Hermie appeared to be freaked out, he hardly even moved his antenna during that time. But the snail finally got off Hermie's back and now Hermie can roam freely.

 

I am going to try target feeding the rics and the duncan next weekend, see if that helps them at all.

 

Want to get some algae cleaners that will eat long Green Hair Algae. I tried pulling it out, but did not have much luck. Not really concerned about it er say, just don't like the look of it in the front of the tank.

 

I was thinking about a small red mithrax crab, but don't want to deal with it when it gets too big, since I have no other place to banish it to if it causes problems (don't want to kill an animal I am keeping)

 

Any suggestions? I would rather not resort to the nuclear options.

[.Newman.]

can you trade him in for a smaller one once he outgrows your tank? i am thinking of doing that with my emerald mythrax...

[friar1]

can you trade him in for a smaller one once he outgrows your tank? i am thinking of doing that with my emerald mythrax...

 

Well, I don't have a local fish store that sells anything like this, only salt water supplies. i would have to get a crab mail order.

 

Friar

[.Newman.]

[friar1]

Anyone have any ideas? For removing GHA? other than nuking the tank?

[badfish816]

tail spot blenny. but your tank might be too small

[ParanoidObseshun]

Anyone have any ideas? For removing GHA? other than nuking the tank?

You can try to syphon out any GHA that will easily come out of the tank, and then maybe somehow try to alter the flow to keep it from coming back.

[.Newman.]

if its bryopsis youll have one hell of a time. it can grow deep into your rock and unless you can yank out the very base, it will keep coming back and spreading with dichotomous rhizome structures x_x I hate this stuff.

[brandon429]

hey friar buddy I didn't check the forum for a while started a new yob...

 

 

that is classic green hair algae, its okay to have a spot pop up in a pico reef, its a natural citizen to the reef we are just lacking the clean up crews to counterbalance it so theres an easy way.

 

you never, ever tolerate one sprig of it in your pico, you burn it out or remove the item it came in on. eventually your tank will reach a steady state if you are consistent with those water changes where it won't come back unless you really neglect it...

 

you can not imagine the helpfulness of a bernzomatic jet grill lighter, that model specifically, must be the bernz.

 

you could do a water change down all the way, burn out that algae in 40 seconds and fill the tanks back up, repeat next week and no more algae. then just use some sort of universal exclusion policy and it will never get the best of you. that tank isn't that bad yet, don't give up. the only thing that went wrong was allowing the natural early blooms to go unchecked.

 

two months ago a small beard of gha started on the side of my acan, just like yours above. I took out the acan with tweezers, zapped the edges careful not to burn tissue but enough to hit the algae and let it self conduct the heat inward to its base, and now the acan is in my tank fattening up algae free.

 

bernzomatics solve:

algae outbreaks

bryopsis outbreaks

outbreaks of any living organism

xenia outbreaks

cyano outbreaks.

 

 

almost nothing you touch in a reefscape with the jet flame will be affected for a short burst, its all too wet and cold upon emersion. try it man, its a must have in my arsenal. if you aren't feeding during the week and only timing your feedings with full water changes (where if you want to feed during the week to fatten corals or support more inverts you still do a 100% change) then that's enough export to restrict a great portion of algae fuel/waste held in the tank

 

doing the coupled water change export trick will eliminate feeding of any practical amount being the fuel source at least thats what I do...

 

the number one trick I use to avoid any bad algae from hair algae or cyano (airborne vectored) is to never find an excuse not to do a 100% water change. I store the water uncapped under the sink, siphon out, refill, in 3 mins Ive done it 3x per week when I had that much will to jack with it and fatten up the corals as heavy as possibly. being psychotic with water changes w universal exclusion of algae is one method that works for algae control among many. other ways deal with the nitrate and phosphate through refugiums or pad binding, all a means to an end.

 

in our smaller tanks I have yet to find anything faster or more effective than just water changes as common as the morning sun. usually its all I can do to convince someone to do it weekly lol in micro picos...since that wasn't a big deal for you try doubling it for a while with flame joust removal since you are battling a foe.

B

[friar1]

Well,

I am going to go with Brandon's method of 100 % water change (Yes it is easy to do on a 1.5 Gallon) twice weekly. I have been only doing it once a week. I am convinced that over feeding is the cause, so although I want the corals to reproduce, I will probably stop feeding completely or else I need to buy tweezers and just feed them some bits of mysis shrimp, I have been unable to succeed in siphoning out all the extra food when I use cyclopeze. I would go to Just one shrimp per polyp. I only have a total of 6 mouths to feed so it should not be hard. but if I can't get to that kind of feeding I will just stop completely

 

I also might try the Lighter Brandon, if I can find one! Thanks for the advice! No, the GHA seems to not be spreading too fast, but the longer it gets the less interested the cleanup crew is in it.

 

Might even try a turbo snail , but one of those might be too big for my tiny tank!

 

Will keep an eye on this.

 

I think I will go pray about it now.

 

Friar

[.Newman.]

we will pray with you

[friar1]

Changed a bulb in my Catalina 2x13watt fixture. Catalina has a 450nm bulb they said has a better blue, 9it really does!

 

WC today and picking at GHA.

 

Moving to 100% changes, twice weekly to get rid of GHA.

No more feeding will be done until GHA is on the way out.

 

Put some new snail shells in for Hermie, but he looked and didn't like any of them. I have to find something smaller for him I guess.

 

Friar.

[.Newman.]

pics with new light!

[RedMan25xl]

my hermits are real picky too.. they never use what i drop in

[friar1]

pics with new light!

 

 

Soon.

[friar1]

Full FTS:

 

 

FTS with Both bulbs on, 10000K and 450nm:

 

 

FTS with 450nm only:

 

 

450nm Ric:

 

450nm RPE:

 

 

 

I know the pics aren't great, but there it is.

[Mr. Microscope]

Cool! Nice build there.

Ouch on the algae though. I'm sure it will go away in time.

[.Newman.]

yes from what i hear the hair algae stage is something that hits all SW reefs

[friar1]

Well,

It's time to stop feeding and start twice weekly 100% Water Changes.

 

And I'll just go from there. The corals love the new 450nm PC 13watt bulb.

Friar

[friar1]

Oh and also, I tried pulling soe of the Algae out (can't find one of those lighters, Brandon!) It was very tedious, but got some of it.

 

Will try starving it of nutrients, since no fish in there, hopefully this will work.

 

Question for those of you who have refugiums, does cheato help reduce nitrates? Because i think my in tank filter, which I am just using as a aerator right now, would make a good refugium/ I could stick some cheato in it, it already has live sand in the bottom of it cause it got sucked up into it during the last two months, there is a small layer at the bottom of the filter. Not filter media in it right now, but I was thinking about adding cheato in that space and seeing if that would help reduce my GHA.

 

Opinions Welcome, appreciated.

 

Friar

[Mr. Microscope]

Sounds like a good plan. Manual removal and WCs. I don't think you need 100% 2/week though. Seems a bit excessive. I imagine no more than 50% would be fine (though I have no experience with 1 gallon aquariums (you're hardcore! )). Yes chaeto will definitely help you reduce the GHA. It feeds on the same stuff that GHA does and can eventually starve it out. That in addition to the rest of your strategy will likely get rid of it within a month or so.

[.Newman.]

Yes, Chaeto macro will reduce your nitrates, in most cases to 0ppm if you keep up water changes. though you cant know in your pico if the chaeto is the one responsible for 0 nitrates or your GHA. GHA is generally more efficient at nutrient uptake than cheato which is why its so hard to get rid of..

[friar1]

Hmm.

Good info Newman, Mr Micro.

 

By the way, the light bulb change seems to have done the corals a world of good. They are opening up a lot more now, spreading out much bigger than before.

 

Friar

[badfish816]

^^^^^yeah what they said

[friar1]

Fiddled with the camera a little, Here's the Zoa Again under the new blue light. 13 watt PC