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Red Sea in the Mojave...the Final Hours


vegasgundog

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I saw the title and I was just like *gasp*.

 

That sucks, though. I didn't think they were aggressive.

Unfortunately I didn't either. The fiji all ways has round suction cup marks on his sides, the watchman goby looks beat to he'll and my parents (staying until spring thaw back home) watched it kill the fire fish. He is a really cool fish with lots of personality but a complete A hole.

what is he?

 

He's a starry blenny.

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Finally found a glass vase for my auto top off water\that is not too tall and fits with the Ikia shelf for all my reef supplies. I had to run the line up to the back of the red sea just over the emergency overflow, allowing the ato water to go directly to the sump. The vase is just tall enough that when the pump stops the water continues in siphon to the sump.

 

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My wife volunteered to watch baby Wyatt this weekend, our daughters boyfriends nephew. It's been 20 years since a little one has been around....and this became his favorite spot. Crossfit kettle bells have nothing on holding a baby for hours.

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Vase dosnt hold as much water as I hoped, I was hoping 10g but it will do for a weekly fill. Moved water line up top to the emergency overflowin the back so the ato water goes directly to the sump and won't syphon from the vase. Trying to hide it with flowers for my wife.

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On Sunday February 19th, I added Flucanazole to my tank in the hopes it will end my algae troubles. Short of tearing the tank apart and scrubbing the lr, I have tried everything. I have tried peroxide directly to the algae and dipping smaller rocks and corral colonies outside. I've spent entire afternoons harvesting. I tried vibrant.......

All has been for naught. Since my finger injury on my dominant hand, harvesting has been a bit harder. Following threads on Flucanazole treatments has shown negligible side effects and great outcomes for most algae pests. Most has been the dreaded byprosis with excellent results, if not slower, in gha. I'm not positive but i think i have a combination of both, mostly a turf gha. With nothing to lose I'm trying this treatment. So far after 36hrs I have seen no adverse effects  to the tank inhabitants. I will be taking daily photos to reference any changes,  most reports seem that 5-8 days is the average turning point. Keeping my fingers crossed. This is what it looked like sunday......

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Four full days since I added the fluconazole and I see no adverse effects. The filter socks seem to be clogging faster but I have the skimmer drain hose dumping into it, so that may or may not be it. Keeping the skimmer going for aeration during med treatment. The top photos on each are today. Not sure how it transfer to pictures, but I think I can see thinning and a color change. The main patch seems more choppy. Both of these spots were treated directly with a syringe. 

 

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1 hour ago, vegasgundog said:

Four full days since I added the fluconazole and I see no adverse effects. The filter socks seem to be clogging faster but I have the skimmer drain hose dumping into it, so that may or may not be it. Keeping the skimmer going for aeration during med treatment. The top photos on each are today. Not sure how it transfer to pictures, but I think I can see thinning and a color change. The main patch seems more choppy. Both of these spots were treated directly with a syringe. 

 

 

Following along too. I just dosed fluconazole into my pico yesterday. I have been manually tweezing them out of my sand bed and injecting peroxide right at the patch. I even tried some algaecide and it did nothing. Having had the carbon+phosguard out for a couple of weeks during the algaecide treatment only made things worse.... Realizing I am losing the battle I went ahead and dosed the hopeful silver-bullet. 

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I could not get a good picture today, for some reason the dam phone wanted to lock in on the blue today. Algae everywhere is definatley washing out to a grey color. Im seeing more rock surface through the mat in places. The Fiji foxface, tail spot blenny and blue eyed tang are tearing into it constantly today. One  effect of fluconazole is it breaks down a substance in cell structure that is in both fungus and apparently some algae. In algae this acts as a deterrent to predation and when it is destroyed fish and inverts that previously found it inedible will find it very appetizing. Before I left for work I changed the filter sock because there seemed to be a large volume of matter loose in the water column.

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31 minutes ago, vegasgundog said:

I could not get a good picture today, for some reason the dam phone wanted to lock in on the blue today. Algae everywhere is definatley washing out to a grey color. Im seeing more rock surface through the mat in places. The Fiji foxface, tail spot blenny and blue eyed tang are tearing into it constantly today. One  effect of fluconazole is it breaks down a substance in cell structure that is in both fungus and apparently some algae. In algae this acts as a deterrent to predation and when it is destroyed fish and inverts that previously found it inedible will find it very appetizing. Before I left for work I changed the filter sock because there seemed to be a large volume of matter loose in the water column.

Won't really work for me if that's the case.... I only have 3 Astrea snails in my tank and certainly no one will let me put a tang in my 6.25 gallon....?

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11 minutes ago, dandelion said:

Won't really work for me if that's the case.... I only have 3 Astrea snails in my tank and certainly no one will let me put a tang in my 6.25 gallon....?

 

My trochus and nano conch snails are actually thinning it out! It's only been a week, but I see zero regrowth and the patches are much thinner, plus I catch them nibbling at the edges of the patches from time to time :)

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54 minutes ago, dandelion said:

Won't really work for me if that's the case.... I only have 3 Astrea snails in my tank and certainly no one will let me put a tang in my 6.25 gallon....?

It will hopefully break down on its own. just very helpful if someone will it the stuff they are supposed to be eating because each of those fish including the starry blenny were bought to specifically eat that stuff which annoyed me when they didn't but they are cool fish even if they didn't eat the stuff they were supposed to eat. Sorry. that's my rant I regularly give to my aquarium residents. :D

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1 hour ago, vegasgundog said:

It will hopefully break down on its own. just very helpful if someone will it the stuff they are supposed to be eating because each of those fish including the starry blenny were bought to specifically eat that stuff which annoyed me when they didn't but they are cool fish even if they didn't eat the stuff they were supposed to eat. Sorry. that's my rant I regularly give to my aquarium residents. :D

It's only been three days so I haven't noticed much.... Tried manually tweeze out some from rocks but they're anchored pretty tight. Hopefully once they're loose I can suck them out with a small siphon or something.

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I just got home from work exhausted. Crawling into shower then bed. I can't wait to wake up and sready the changes in the full light. Just what I can see, there is so much more rock showing through and my zoa colonies look clear of algae.:D

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Day 7. It's not a sudden magic bullet, but I am seeing steady decline in the algae. I'm very tempted to do a large harvest of bio mass and reef dose, leaving less algae thus allowing the fluconazole to be absorbed at higher concentration in what's left. Can't decide if I should wait to treat the vibrant cyano in the sump with chemi clean yet or wait until this treatment is done. I know people are doing both at the same time.

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The glass is covered in a huge pod population explosion. I guess that's a good thing. I've been dosing nopox to keep nitrate levels down and last I checked it was around 2.5. Everything is doing awesome and no signs of stress. Zoas are the happiest I've seen them in a long time. Whether it's low nitrates, the meds or not algae in thier midst, who knows but it is good.

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After 11 long days, I think I may be seeing signs of progress on my gha in my 30g tank. And it's funny you mention the pods, I noticed pods in the algae on my test frag a few days ago for the first time, and they're exploding all over the tank now.

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vegasgundog

 

Some day one and day nine (today) comparisons.

 

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12 hours ago, dandelion said:

Last night was the 7th day of my fluconazole dosing. GHA only looked stronger. :(

It appears hit or miss with gha, or that it at least take longer. I pretty sure at 14 days I will be redosing after a large wc. with no adverse effects, I don't see any reason not to if it will continue the demise of my algae. hang in there!

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  • vegasgundog changed the title to Red Sea in the Mojave

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