Bryopsis or GHA?

[NYfishies]

No i never had any problems in any of my tanks.

 

Any experience with Urchins and zoas? My frag tank is 100% zoas.

[Anden]

All my tanks have zoa's and no problems but it is Diadema setosum i have just too be sure

[holy carp]

Round 1: ding ding ding

 

OK, so here's how round 1 went down.

 

First I did a partial water change and kept the waste water in a large cooler.

 

Here's the right rock in the tank:

 

I pulled it and picked at the algae with tweezers for 15 minutes. trying to get as much of it as I could easily see. Then I rubbed the affected spots with some 35% h2o2 on a cotton swab.

 

10 minutes in a cooler of tank water occasionally stirred in hopes to remove excess h2o2.

Then I picked off some more visible algae and returned it to the tank:

 

All the algae I plucked went somewhat evenly distributed into 4 plastic cups. One had RODI in it, and the other 3 had tank water. One of those 3 got 1 drop of 35% h2o2, a second got 3 drops of Tech M, and the 3rd was remained just the normal tank water. They're on the window sill to see what happens (along with a sample that can breathe air and suck it!)

 

left to right: RODI, Saltwater, Saltwater with 3 drops Tech M, Saltwater with 1 drop 35%h2o2.

photo taken after 90 minutes on window sill.

[brandon429]

that is fantastic work, 35% is all ill use, 3% is snoozewater now you are playing ball at the ball park for big people heh. this is neat, linked to my r2r p thread

[brandon429]

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/367089-2-gallon-cookie-jar-pico-reef-by-reefjar/page-4

 

 

that right there is the model id choose to show hand guiding, 35% cheating, then none, because all the re imports were controlled and no bad invaders left in the tank, that above is ideal bigtime. look at how densely grown the final product is, algae eradicated, nutrients not a bid deal at all. his coming algae work in the years to be w be 15 mins a year, and it started as a decent challenge.

 

until anchored surfaces are plated over by corals, or algae-excluding coralline, these wars must occur

 

My own tank is literally immune to any invasion other than cyano and diatoms even if I let it go a while w no care...algae have been burned out a while ago. recently I brought in some valonia accidentally on brain frag...rasped it right out in one pass g2g in very high detail pics in our p thread, using 35% of course ive no time to waste on algae.

[holy carp]

Round 1 Results: Algae Wins

 

Summary:

I had first treated the right rock that showed the most growth as described earlier. That was followed a few days later by h2o2 treatment of all other rocks in the tank, but spread into 2 more phases to moderate the amount of h2o2 getting into the system (I had previously had bleaching issues when treating too aggressively with this 35% peroxide)

 

An additional stage involved draining the sump and removing the frag rack along with wiping down the glass with the peroxide. Sump has remained dark since

 

1 week after treating the rocks, I noticed this algae growing on the glass. I attached a razor blade to a siphon hose in an attempt to scrape the glass while sucking out the algae. Probably got most in the siphon, but definitely not all. Also cleaned and treated all frag plugs.

 

[EDIT: Regarding the 4 cups, the algae in the h2o2 cup died quickly, the algae in the other cups remained green for a week before disposal, though RODI appeared slightly lighter in color]

 

Round 2 began last night:

 

I removed the most affected rock (the right one from above) again and re-treated with 3ml of 35% h2o2 dabbed on the algae with a cotton swab after plucking at what I could get with tweezers.

 

The algae grows readily on injured corals, so I scraped the algae off sections of orange setosa, but did not re-treat with peroxide in hopes that the coral tissue can overcome the algae

 

A sizeable (for my tiny tank) acropora had fallen into GSP and had some sections with necrosis or at least bare skeleton. These were hot spots for the algae, so I fragged the coral into two smaller pieces that didn't have injury and discarded the damaged sections. I had tried treating this in round 1, but I think the h2o2 irritated the coral tissue and allowed the algae to repopulate too easily.

 

I rinsed the rock under siphoned tank water and replaced it. Dozens of micro brittle stars were falling off - I'm not sure if they died from the peroxide or were merely stunned. In the past, I've noticed that many do survive and recover.

 

Observations:

• Algae returned to h2o2 treated rock after 2-2.5 weeks.
• Growth took off quickly and was about 3mm long yesterday.
• The holdfasts appear evenly distributed across rock as opposed to some individual spots or clusters that can really be rasped effectively.
• The algae shows a clear preference for high light, with the brightest spots showing the thickest (re)growth. However, it was also discovered on relatively shaded locations.
• Algal growth seemed best on the growth edge of corals, but this is likely due to less aggressive h2o2 treatment in Round 1 in those locations to avoid tissue damage to the corals.
• Algae also grows readily on glass, which can be scraped but is difficult to sterilize without draining the tank (relatively impractical at this point)
• Algae grows on the larger pebbles in the sand bed
• Signs of regrowth on other rocks exist, but will be addressed in Round 2.1 later this week.

 

Perhaps repeated prophylactic re-treatment of affected areas will be required even if algae isn't visible in order to eradicate this.

 

Perhaps eradication isn't possible with spot treatment. Ugh.

 

The good news? I haven't found any valonia in weeks!

[Mariaface]

 

Dozens of micro brittle stars were falling off - I'm not sure if they died from the peroxide or were merely stunned. In the past, I've noticed that many do survive and recover.

 

 

 

Hooray for no valonia! And seriously, good luck with this. You have much more patience than I do. My pest algae (looks really similar to this actually) grows on the bright palys and the clam hammock, but I just scrape/scrub it off and dose Clean or something. The 3% H2O2 did nothing to it.

 

I know this is unrelated, but one: Your purple haze (light blue flesh between polyps) frag is basically ready. I still have your genius frag container, so remind me to put that together next time the fish nerds get together! Two: Where are these micro brittle stars and how do I get my hands on them?

[samnaz]

Where's round 2.1?