TJ's Planted Adventure - Transfers & New Plans

[ZephNYC]

 

That is one big acro; very nice colony you have there... way to put my jaw on the floor!

 

As for the clams, they won't go in for a couple of months still; my bud has no issues with holding them for me long term if necessary. I will wait until the SPS are holding well before I introduce the clams.

 

This is a crummy low quality cell photo, but I circled the two that belong to me from his collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super nice clams !!!! Good luck on the Physio ( by the way Im a personal trainer ).

[TJ_Burton]

Tank is looking pretty stable and the algae is becoming manageable. Going to throw in a few easier SPS to test the waters for now; may not keep them in the long run, but they will do the trick for getting things started. Post pics when I put them in tomorrow.

[TJ_Burton]

Get back from my weekend away at the gal's place to find an outbreak of green algae; go figure!
Going to delay pics for a bit, but the corals are currently scattered in the tank. I will be grabbing some mollies today to help the snails take care of things until it is completely under control.

Side note: I very quickly acclimated (a half hour drip) some freshwater mollies into my 20 gallon SPS reef at the office and they took to it amazingly well. They are tough as nails and can go full fresh to full salt with very little effort. They also LOVE algae!

[TJ_Burton]

Check out this ugly stuff! (and also a couple crappy pics of my chalk bass)

 

 

[metrokat]

Very cute fish

[ZephNYC]

Check out this ugly stuff! (and also a couple crappy pics of my chalk bass)

 

 

 

Anthony Calfo is now breeding these in captivity.

Is that hair algea ??? I just broke all the rules and put a tiny yellow tang in my 40B, and Ive never been happier.

[TJ_Burton]

I am currently in war with a bacterial algae called Lynbya (if the identification is correct). It is fast growing, and after first appearing in my tank, only took 3 days to reach the level shown in the photos below. I am posting this info up do document it and potentially help others who may run into this issue; it is not nearly as common as Bryopsis, Valonia, or other marine algae infestations that are often posted about on the boards. After doing as much reading as I possibly could regarding the removal of this rapidly blooming cyano-like algae, I have decided to attempt a natural removal via a ridiculously over-sized CUC rather then the alternative of systemic 2(HO) dosing.

The CUC I have purchase is as follows:

• 1 Abalone
• 3 Nassarius Snails
• 3 Trochus Snails
• 5 Cerith Snails
• 5 Turbo Snails
• 6 Nerite Snails
• 12 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs

Quite large for a 25 gallon reef... I will be removing the excess CUC once the issue is under control, leaving only what is necessary to manage the occurring algae and prevent further outbreaks.









I am hoping by the time I get back home after the weekend, the algae will have left as quickly as it came. Wishful thinking I am sure, but I would be happy to see a good dent in it!

[basser1]

I hope you get a handle on it TJ....

 

It looks like the algae has infiltrated your frag rack!

[TJ_Burton]

I hope you get a handle on it TJ....

 

It looks like the algae has infiltrated your frag rack!

 

It has infiltrated everything in the tank; it breaks apart easily and has a lot of buoyancy so it takes little effort for it to spread like wildfire. I am not terribly worried about it, especially since this tank is really not very far out of its cycle anyways. If this happened in a mature reef, I'd probably pull my hair out.

[HiImSean]

I'm not saying I had the same algae but it looked almost identical to that. I threw a good bit of Matrix and Purigen in the sump. That along with manual removal, it was managed pretty easily. I also noticed it only grew in a few places that had crap built up so blowing off the rock helped a lot.

[TJ_Burton]

I'm not saying I had the same algae but it looked almost identical to that. I threw a good bit of Matrix and Purigen in the sump. That along with manual removal, it was managed pretty easily.

 

I run chemical media currently (prior to the outbreak actually) and did a massive manual removal a couple days ago. Came back like nothing happened...

 

I wish it was that easy!

[metrokat]

How about lights out - does that help? Does it make a dent so that the CUC can deal with the remainder?

 

Is it possible to remove the rocks and dip in peroxide instead of a systemic treatment?

 

Alternatively drain the tank halfway and dribble peroxide on the exposed rocks and fill back up after 5 minutes. See if that works on the rocks that were treated.

[HiImSean]

 

I run chemical media currently (prior to the outbreak actually) and did a massive manual removal a couple days ago. Came back like nothing happened...

 

I wish it was that easy!

 

Yeah its a PITA. It does grow back pretty quickly. I'd pull a ton out on the weekend, travel for the week for work and it'd look worse than before I have a few pieces of rock with some still growing on it that looks dead and just needs a plucking. Also turbo snails seemed to help at first. They ate the shorter stuff on the glass.

[TJ_Burton]

How about lights out - does that help? Does it make a dent so that the CUC can deal with the remainder?

 

Is it possible to remove the rocks and dip in peroxide instead of a systemic treatment?

 

Alternatively drain the tank halfway and dribble peroxide on the exposed rocks and fill back up after 5 minutes. See if that works on the rocks that were treated.

 

All valid ideas; lights out for a couple days is the next step if I get back to a still-messy aquarium on Monday.

As for the peroxide, because my system has very little livestock at the moment, a systemic treatment is easy enough to do with very little risk. I'd rather take out the livestock, treat the system, then reintroduce it, if that is what it came down to.

 

I am really hoping it doesn't get to that point, simply because it is annoying work.

[frags]

I has something similar and it seemed if it was to long the snails could not be bothered so I would scrub it before night so it was short and the snails would attack at night!

[bpounds1991]

Love the idea you have going with this tank! Just sifted through the 5 pages and I know I'm late but hope all went well with the accident. I'm a certified athletic trainer so I understand what it's like to have to deal with sternocleidomastoid/back spasms, hope all goes well. On a less reef related suggestion performing foam rolling/rolling out on a tennis or lacrosse ball will do absolute wonders for your back/neck pain! Following this thread and can't wait to see what else you have in store.

[TJ_Burton]

I got a better pic of the clams my tank is preparing for; figured now is a great time to post them and get some eye candy in this thread again! Can't let the algae take over everything, now can we?

[TJ_Burton]

Quick update: I did a 5gal water change and a bunch of manual removal. The CUC wasn't really touching the seriously long stuff; they did however do a good job cleaning up the sand bed. I also purchased another 5 mollies (total of 6 now) for the tank and acclimated them prior to the water change.

Tank is looking much less ugly but still needs some work. Hopefully the algae retards from this point forward rather than regenerate what has been removed by hand.

[TJ_Burton]

Another quick update: Algae is about 60% eradicated and did a quick test of my parameters which are "stable" less the fact that my alk is through the roof from a dosing pump error which has since been corrected.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
PH - 8.3

Calcium - 350
Alkalinity - 14dkh
Magnesium - 1240

I have modified the dosing schedule to compensate for the lack of Cal and Mag and overabundance of Alk.

[TJ_Burton]

A little bit of humor for the day...

 

Most of us out there have had nerite snails in our aquariums, freshwater or saltwater. In keeping these snails, you'll make the observation that they periodically make their way to the surface of the water, and hang out at the top of the tank above the water line. This is commonplace for the species kept in freshwater and those kept in saltwater. Well, it turns out the only thing keeping them in your tank when they decide to come to the surface to rest, is your tank trim...

I have 6 nerites in my 25 gallon rimless tank, and every day I pick up anywhere from 2, to all 6 of them, and toss them back into the aquarium. Luckily they are a species capable of creating a waxy layer at the shell door/entry to trap remaining moisture in their shell, and thus are capable of surviving water free for days. It surprises me how far they get sometimes; mostly when they are on the floor and a few feet away from the tank stand (assuming they fell and bounced - they are usually on their backs). Many times I find them stuck to the outside of the tank in random spots on the glass. Sometimes at the top, sometimes at the bottom, sometimes alone, sometimes in a pile all together.

This morning I found one on the floor, and then did another quick check around the outside of the tank. I was surprised to see that one was stuck to the aquarium stand. I finally decided I should take a picture and post it up for others to enjoy. I wish I started taking pics of this much earlier on; I'd have an album by now!

Anyways, this is what I woke up to today:

[metrokat]

I had 2 chitons that climbed out and stayed there for 7 days. Couldn't move them back in the tank. At least Nerities are easier.

[TJ_Burton]

I had 2 chitons that climbed out and stayed there for 7 days. Couldn't move them back in the tank. At least Nerities are easier.

 

Good old intertidal species...

[metrokat]

TJ, how do you think you got your algae problem. You started this tank with dry rock and sand right?

[TJ_Burton]

TJ, how do you think you got your algae problem. You started this tank with dry rock and sand right?

 

I am unsure,

 

I started with dry Marco's Rock and CaribSea Aragonite, new saltwater, and added a bottle of ATM Colony to kick things off. I did utilize a few pieces of base rock (former live rock) in the refugium area a couple weeks in, but that stuff had been dry for months. I am not familiar enough with Lyngbya to know if it is capable of being dormant that long.

 

I suppose it is possible it hitched on the few coral frags I started off the tank with early on, but the tank those frags came from never had that sort of algae in the two years it has been running. Of all the possibilities, hitching a ride on frags from another system is the most likely cause.

 

Edit:

I want to mention that even though having to deal with this algae has been frustrating (especially on a new setup), I am really not that upset about it. I am glad I had an opportunity to combat an algae that is completely new to me, since it is a learning process I can add to my repertoire of experience in this hobby. The fact that I had to deal with it during a tank start up makes it a lot easier to deal with and learn about, because the stakes are very low. I don't have to worry about crashing an established reef, or how badly the algae will harm the corals. Now that I know how to deal with it, if it were to happen in a more established tank, I have the knowledge to deal with it swiftly before it would be able to get out of hand.

 

There is always a silver lining to every situation; even if it is simply learning from your mistakes.

 

 

 

 

 

[TJ_Burton]

If all goes well, come Monday, my tank will be Lyngbya free and I can finally start gluing corals in place. When I left my place Friday night, I did one last bout of manual removal, and the tank looked nearly spotless. The snails have only a little work left to do and the tank will be immaculate!

Monday night I am hoping to post pictures of a beautifully clean aquarium.