Penny's Lane-A BC29 Journey. Retired

[seabass]

7 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

I noticed this  slimy but definitely mat growth on the rock that my Acans are on. Any ideas?

Not entirely sure.  Looks bacterial.  I might try taking a turkey baster to it, or try to siphon it out (staying away from the coral's flesh).

[Pjanssen]

2 minutes ago, seabass said:

Not entirely sure.  Looks bacterial.  I might try taking a turkey baster to it, or try to siphon it out (staying away from the coral's flesh).

I thought bacterial too, but it is definitely matted and gripping the rock. Does not budge with a baster, either trying to blow it off or suck it up.

[seabass]

Maybe Vibrant's bacteria will work on it, or out compete it.

 

You could try a toothbrush, but be careful around the coral's flesh.  But I might be inclined to leave it alone for now.

[Pjanssen]

3 minutes ago, seabass said:

But I might be inclined to leave it alone for now

That's the plan for now. Hoping the vibrant does something and I can just pull it off. I'll be really upset if I lose the Acans though

[Pjanssen]

Not sure what to do with the macros while treating the tank. Initial thought was to just put them in the Caribbean tank, but I'm a little concerned that there may be nuisance algae mixed in with them at this point and I don't want to introduce another problem into that tank(it has enough of it's own!!). Also considering dosing the Vibrant in that tank.

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Pjanssen said:

Not sure what to do with the macros while treating the tank. Initial thought was to just put them in the Caribbean tank, but I'm a little concerned that there may be nuisance algae mixed in with them at this point and I don't want to introduce another problem into that tank(it has enough of it's own!!). Also considering dosing the Vibrant in that tank.

I was in the exact same boat.

 

I put them in yet another tank, with the intention of keeping them alive there, and reintroducing them back once the display was clear of algae.  I planned on dosing nitrate and phosphate to help them survive during this quarantine.  But, unfortunately, I needed that tank for another cardinalfish nursery, so that plan was ruined.

 

Now I'm thinking that given my history with algae, I might try to make my displays algae free (might be a nice change).  I might even continue with maintenance doses of Vibrant just to keep things in check.  But if I change my mind, I could always reintroduce more macro later on if I choose.

[Pjanssen]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

I was in the exact same boat.

 

I put them in yet another tank, with the intention of keeping them alive there, and reintroducing them back once the display was clear of algae.  I planned on dosing nitrate and phosphate to help them survive during this quarantine.  But, unfortunately, I needed that tank for another cardinalfish nursery, so that plan was ruined.

 

Now I'm thinking that given my history with algae, I might try to make my displays algae free (might be a nice change).  I might even continue with maintenance doses of Vibrant just to keep things in check.  But if I change my mind, I could always reintroduce more macro later on if I choose.

Did you just throw them away?

 

another problem that I just realized is that some of them are calciferous so I will need to dose calcium as well. 🙄

[seabass]

8 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Did you just throw them away?

Unfortunately, yes.  I probably should have asked my LFS if they wanted it.  But it's algae, and wasn't that expensive, so I didn't feel that bad about it.

[Pjanssen]

Good news already. I noticed that the bubble algae that was trying to join the LA Lakers, even though they couldn't even do a simple lay up, have picked up their roots and vacated the arena! Now I'm not going to give the vibrant all of the credit here, but I think it may have weakened it enough to make it easier for the crabs to finish off.

 

Also, the clowns are happier, I moved the torch back over to the side it was on. They pretty much haven't left it except to eat.

[Pjanssen]

More good news. Looks like the slime that was growing on the Acan rock is receding and thinned out

[Pjanssen]

Also not all doom and gloom. 
baby Rhodactis ‘shroom

[seabass]

To me, (as long as nutrients stay stable in a good range) it seems that corals react very positively to Vibrant.

[Pjanssen]

It's been 1 week since the 1st dose of Vibrant. The bubble algae is completely gone, whether from the Vibrant or the crabs, IDK. 

Changed out the filter floss mid week.

Did a regular water change today. Pulled off some of the turf algae. I expected it to be easier to pull off, but it really wasn't (maybe a little). 

Changed the filter floss again.

Added 1 more ML Vibrant.

 

 

 

[seabass]

11 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

The bubble algae is completely gone, whether from the Vibrant or the crabs, IDK.

Maybe both.  Herbivores seem to like the algae which Vibrant is breaking down.

 

I've found that with just crabs, they pop the bubbles and it spreads.  So they eat it, but in doing so, they help ensure the continued existence of more bubble algae.  By dosing Vibrant, hopefully it won't spread.

 

15 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Pulled off some of the turf algae. I expected it to be easier to pull off, but it really wasn't (maybe a little).

It's still a little early.  I expect that it might take several more doses (and weeks of treatment).  It's actually good that it doesn't happen all at once.

[Pjanssen]

In other news:

The RBTA seems to be happy and has settled in one spot.

However, the Maxi Mini is constantly moving, and today I found it floating upside down on the sand. So I placed it on a small flat rock and put a cover over it to protect it from too much flow. I am concerned that it's now not gettin any flow, so in a little while I will cut some holes in the bottle to allow some flow through. Hopefully it will attach and settle down.

Terrible picture, but you get the idea

[Sharbuckle]

On 10/18/2020 at 4:11 PM, Pjanssen said:

I don't remember what the purple and green ones are called, but they were looking particularly fresh, and I had the camera out anyway so here they are

 

And Utter Chaos

Jokers! 

47 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

It's been 1 week since the 1st dose of Vibrant. The bubble algae is completely gone, whether from the Vibrant or the crabs, IDK. 

Changed out the filter floss mid week.

Did a regular water change today. Pulled off some of the turf algae. I expected it to be easier to pull off, but it really wasn't (maybe a little). 

Changed the filter floss again.

Added 1 more ML Vibrant.

 

 

 

Well that’s good news! I’ve got a bit in my refugium right now I’m hoping my emerald gets rid of it. 

[Pjanssen]

Hmmm. I don't remember ever buying Jokers, but...🤷‍♀️

[Pjanssen]

12 minutes ago, Sharbuckle said:

Jokers! 

I think they are Purple Death Palys. I have a receipt for them from 4 1/2 years ago

Although looking at images of Jokers, they do look just like them.

[Pjanssen]

17 minutes ago, Sharbuckle said:

Jokers! 

 

5 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

I think they are Purple Death Palys. I have a receipt for them from 4 1/2 years ago

Although looking at images of Jokers, they do look just like them.

Actually, further research tells me that with the bright green mouth that they are Purple People Eaters. Anyway, I like them!

[Pjanssen]

The maxi mini is not doing so well. Looking for help in the invertebrate thread.

[farkwar]

Yikes

 

If that were mine

 

I would take it out

[Pjanssen]

Maxi mini didn't make it. Fortunately I did remove it from the tank before it died completely

[Pjanssen]

5 gallon water change today. New filter pad. Took the rock with most of the algae on it out and scrubbed quite a bit of the algae off. Didn't get to all of it, but it looks a lot better. There is a rock behind it that I didn't realize has as much algae on it as it does. Manually removed what I could, but because of the location, and a pissed of clown that kept going after the back of my hand, I didn't get much off. The rock on the other side of the tank that didn't have a lot of algae on it is pretty much clean. No sign of bubble algae.

 

I either have a diatom bloom going on, or some Cyano. Leaning towards Diatoms.

 

Dosed my 2 ml of Vibrant. We'll see how it looks next week. I may just keep with the 2 ml once a week rather than go to 2 times a week

 

[seabass]

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

I either have a diatom bloom going on, or some Cyano.

Could be diatoms, but cyano is very common when dosing Vibrant.

[Pjanssen]

Brief update, I know it's been awhile. Algae remains to be a nuisance on just one rock, but it is slowly getting better.  I missed a couple of weekly water changes, but continued dosing the 2 ml of Vibrant weekly-I never did up the dose as planned because I thought it was getting better.

 

yesterday I did an unexpected huge water change. I had planned on changing out 7 gallons, 2 more than the usual. I pulled the pumps out to clean and noticed the back chambers had quite a bit of gunk growing there so decided to clean them out. I thought it would be a gallon or 2, but 6 gallons later I was finally done-I could not see the bottom of the bucket, That's how gross it was!!

 

Took the algae rock out and scrubbed it and rinsed it with fresh salt water.

 

Pissed everything off, so running a bit of carbon for a day or 2

 

Everything looks pretty good this morning.