Nualgi additive review and testing...

[MikeTR]

I think bulkrate hit the nail on the head with it being marketed as a fix all. They even told me it would replace my alk/calc dosing when in actuality if it's helping your corals grow, calcification would increase thereby amplifying the need to dose more.

[jedimasterben]

I think bulkrate hit the nail on the head with it being marketed as a fix all. They even told me it would replace my alk/calc dosing when in actuality if it's helping your corals grow, calcification would increase thereby amplifying the need to dose more.

Which shows that they don't really understand what they're selling or how any of it works.

[MikeTR]

You could bottle RO/DI water and set a dosing schedule of every 2-3 days w/bi-monthly water change requirement and people's tanks would do better just because they are paying more attention to them.

[Islandoftiki]

You could bottle RO/DI water and set a dosing schedule of every 2-3 days w/bi-monthly water change requirement and people's tanks would do better just because they are paying more attention to them.

 

One of their more common recommendations is to cut back the amount of food being fed. Well, duh, that's obviously going to reduce nutrient import. So, if you start dosing Nualgi, cut back feeding, and start doing regular water changes, I suspect you're likely to see improvements.

 

That said, my 25 gallon tank is looking a lot better, but again, now that the phosphates are back down to .02, everything is looking better. Also, while I was in Hawaii for 7 days, I only had the tank sitter feed every other day since tank sitters ALWAYS overfeed.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think anything terribly scientific is going to come from most of the testing as there are just too many variables that add up healthy tank. Two identical tanks would need to be set up side by side and receive identical care; one with nualgi dosing and one without for it to be a very good comparison.

[BulkRate]

I think about as much science has been done here as likely without someone like Albert Thiel spinning up a couple of dedicated tanks to do exactly as IslandofTiki's describing... enough people with different kinds of tanks and husbandry practices have used the same sample to determine that it doesn't fix every problem it reports to as easily as it claims to. That's pretty good consistency in a hobby like ours with as many variables between cause and effect.

 

I imaging the Nualgi site's posted results only are attainable on tanks that have a nutrient pathway being heavily used by a nuisance algae outbreak which could be disrupted by inducing a diatom bloom to starve it out. Much more of a niche case. Mind you, if I was looking down the barrels of a HA/byropsis or dinoflagellate outbreak bad enough to make me want to throw in the towel and break down a tank then swapping those for a persistent diatom bloom would be WELL worth it.

 

Hmmm... maybe the testing should be done more with "almost-too-far-gone" tanks rather than "almost OK" ones?

[Islandoftiki]

Hmmm... maybe the testing should be done more with "almost-too-far-gone" tanks rather than "almost OK" ones?

 

Well, there's my friend's tank... He's trying Nualgi. I'll post my opinion next time I see his tank. His tank would be a total loss to me, but it doesn't seem to phase him.

[metrokat]

My caulerpa in the DT is on a warpath to take over everything, even palys with toxins. I'm beating it away with a stick but in the 1+ year I've had the stupid macro HH on something, it has always been controllable. But something is fueling the growth. Also seeing more bryopsis. I'm about to get a lettuce nudlbranch or two and a sea hare.

[markalot]

My caulerpa in the DT is on a warpath to take over everything, even palys with toxins. I'm beating it away with a stick but in the 1+ year I've had the stupid macro HH on something, it has always been controllable. But something is fueling the growth. Also seeing more bryopsis. I'm about to get a lettuce nudlbranch or two and a sea hare.

 

Remember when mine did that in my 40? Tank was over a year old and it had been in the tank for the entire time, then over a 2 week period it went absolutely nuts and I ended up doing peroxide dips to kill it back. It was soon after I got a yellow tang. I'd love to know what it likes.

[BulkRate]

Remember when mine did that in my 40? Tank was over a year old and it had been in the tank for the entire time, then over a 2 week period it went absolutely nuts and I ended up doing peroxide dips to kill it back. It was soon after I got a yellow tang. I'd love to know what it likes.

 

Poop and pruning, and your tang provides both.

 

Just about every caulerpa I've tried has been a ho-hum grower until either the bioload went up, or I pruned back old growth/divided runners. Then it practically grows at rate measurable hourly.

[Nanofreak79]

On my second treatment in my 34 gallon. Cyano seems unaffected, and I'm getting brown algae on the glass and sand. Third treatment will be this weekend.

[BulkRate]

Incidentally, nanofeak... have any corals in the tank responded as if they're suddenly getting more food, or have you seen an increase in copepod population?

[Islandoftiki]

Incidentally, nanofeak... have any corals in the tank responded as if they're suddenly getting more food, or have you seen an increase in copepod population?

 

Speaking of copepods, I have seen a large copepod increase. I'm also seeing about triple the population of asterina stars. They seem to love the diatoms on the glass.

[markalot]

Poop and pruning, and your tang provides both.

 

Just about every caulerpa I've tried has been a ho-hum grower until either the bioload went up, or I pruned back old growth/divided runners. Then it practically grows at rate measurable hourly.

 

There were no changes to the tank until after the explosion, then I added a tang. That's what puzzles me. Matter of fact, I believe I moved my clown out of my 40 and into my 46, which means bioload decreased prior to the growth explosion. Perhaps some trimming of it triggered the explosion. Hell, maybe I changed my light cycle or did any number of other changes that it likes.

 

But yes, now the tang makes sure it doesn't happen again.

[jedimasterben]

There were no changes to the tank until after the explosion, then I added a tang. That's what puzzles me. Matter of fact, I believe I moved my clown out of my 40 and into my 46, which means bioload decreased prior to the growth explosion. Perhaps some trimming of it triggered the explosion. Hell, maybe I changed my light cycle or did any number of other changes that it likes.

 

But yes, now the tang makes sure it doesn't happen again.

Trimming it would put little strands of it into the tank, and it'll spread to anywhere that one tiny fragment would stick to. In addition, adding the tang was a bad way to help lol - tangs (and pretty much any herbivorous fish and animals) relatively poorly absorb any nutrients from the algae they eat, and most of it comes right out the back rather intact. I relatively see strands of algae sticking out of the butts of tangs lol. This helps to spread it around, which is actually good for the tang, as it will have significantly more food in time as it grows more and more areas which all grow. good for them, but bad for us Although once it becomes under control, they continue to keep it at bay.

[metrokat]

The pico went all nasty with a huge diatom bloom. added a couple of snail and a day or so later it is as if nothing ever happened. I'm not sure if the snails ate it all but it's shiny in there.

[Nanofreak79]

Incidentally, nanofeak... have any corals in the tank responded as if they're suddenly getting more food, or have you seen an increase in copepod population?

 

Have not seen an increase in copepods. I do have a melanarus wrasse and a Mandy though. My corals seem to look the same. I just recently switched lighting, so that would affect my corals some. I really need another week and treatment to get a better idea of what's going on. My coral should be acclimated by then. I'll keep everyone updated on progress.

[markalot]

Trimming it would put little strands of it into the tank, and it'll spread to anywhere that one tiny fragment would stick to. In addition, adding the tang was a bad way to help lol - tangs (and pretty much any herbivorous fish and animals) relatively poorly absorb any nutrients from the algae they eat, and most of it comes right out the back rather intact. I relatively see strands of algae sticking out of the butts of tangs lol. This helps to spread it around, which is actually good for the tang, as it will have significantly more food in time as it grows more and more areas which all grow. good for them, but bad for us Although once it becomes under control, they continue to keep it at bay.

 

Ha, except my thin striped hermits love tang poop, which is really just compacted algae wafers in a convenient turd package. Gravel vac does most of the work in that tank.

[rolyat113]

After like 5 doses I'm not seeing any radical improvement of anything. At first I noticed more pods, but never had an issue with low pod numbers anyway... I do have more bryopsis and hair algae now... This could be due to the addition of my clown fish, the second of which I added two weeks after the first. I think I'm going to stop dosing this, get an intank media basket and begin running floss and purigen. I need to step up my tank care. All my frags on the bottom are out of place. Every time I get everything where I want it and think my tank looks awesome, my pistol bull dozes it overnight and buries half my coral... I hate that guy.

[metrokat]

I have more bryopsis as well. And to be honest I've been better with my water changes than before. And I've been away from the tank so it has been fed less. I pruned everything so it looks much better.

[tibbsy07]

Back from a long work trip and decided to check out this thread again - seems the nualgi really isn't doing all that much that basic husbandry wouldn't take care of anyways.

 

Everything they have shown or other folks have shown has been anecdotal evidence - completely uncontrolled and with numbers of variables.

 

To do this scientifically, we'd need a number of tanks, not just 2. I'd say 6, maybe 8. Half with nualgi, half without. You'd have to use the same lights, same water with water changes made all in one batch and then split, same equipment, same feeding. Even the coral would have had to have been cut from the same initial mother colony.

 

I haven't seen anything that makes me think this will actually work the wonders they claim. Oh well. Another thing in the hobby that I won't be buying I'll stick with the basic, simple stuff.

[Formula462]

I just remove old/add new live sand every 6 months or so if I have a tank that won't shake nuisance algae otherwise. I notice diatom blooms afterwards (lots of silica in the sand) a decrease in nuisance algae (diatoms out compete and detritus is removed with sand) and an increase in alk stability (arragonite) .

 

I never heard of the stuff until some idiot on fb talking about it yesterday. He had no idea how it "works" but swore by it lol. I understand the concept of diatoms being easier to deal with than most other algae, but until they can back the nano particle dosing replacement crap with actual scientific explanation, I'm not going near it or carrying it in my store.

 

I also really don't like the idea of telling people to stop feeding their tanks except once every other day. That's bs blanket advice really. I have butterflies, blennies, dragonettes and other critters kept in very clean tanks with sky high metabolic rates that really wouldn't appreciate the big drop in nutrition. Zooplankton is not going to feed a butterfly lol.

[jedimasterben]

I just remove old/add new live sand every 6 months or so if I have a tank that won't shake nuisance algae otherwise. I notice diatom blooms afterwards (lots of silica in the sand) a decrease in nuisance algae (diatoms out compete and detritus is removed with sand) and an increase in alk stability (arragonite) .

 

I never heard of the stuff until some idiot on fb talking about it yesterday. He had no idea how it "works" but swore by it lol. I understand the concept of diatoms being easier to deal with than most other algae, but until they can back the nano particle dosing replacement crap with actual scientific explanation, I'm not going near it or carrying it in my store.

BUT NANOPARTICLES

I also really don't like the idea of telling people to stop feeding their tanks except once every other day. That's bs blanket advice really. I have butterflies, blennies, dragonettes and other critters kept in very clean tanks with sky high metabolic rates that really wouldn't appreciate the big drop in nutrition. Zooplankton is not going to feed a butterfly lol.

Yup, they seem to have no clue what they're doing or recommending. They're going to kill a lot of peoples' tanks by telling them to stop feeding and to stop dosing cal and alk(!!!!).

[wowser]

I am on week 5 and have noticed a big improvement. I was having to clean my glass every few days but now can go a week or more without cleaning. Also noticed a big increase in astrea stars and my corals coloring up more. On one tank I did a bunch of improvements like add chaeto, GFO and a Kessil light but on the other nothing changed but the Nualgea and noticed a pretty big improvement in glass staying clean. I'm happy and at $15 for a year's worth of treatment I think it's a no-brainer.

[Nanofreak79]

I'm discontinuing my treatment. I now have cyano all over my rocks and a few corals. Before the treatment I had cyano in one spot, just in one corner of the tank on the sandbed. My sandbed looks like total poop now, with cyano and diatoms everywhere. Just for reference, this was my third treatment before things started to look this way. This is just my take, but I'm thinking this is total BS and I never should have started treatment. Good luck to those of you sticking it out.

[MikeTR]

Lights out for 3 days, water change on either side of it. Fresh GFO.