Seabass's Caribbean 40 Gallon

[billygoat]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

I've noticed a bunch of flatworms lately.  However, I have no plans to try to get rid of them at this time:

 

Hmm... that little guy looks familiar! Back when my 'fuge was running I had a bunch of similar flatworms cruising around back there. Do they move quite quickly? If so they may be predatory; I think the variety that I had were feeding on pods in my refugium. I used to suck them out with a pipette and kill them with RO water, but they're probably harmless unless they get completely out of control.

[seabass]

1 minute ago, billygoat said:

Do they move quite quickly?

Not really.

[seabass]

This tank had a bit a cyano, so I decided to dose Chemiclean.  While it took care of the cyano, it also created an undesirable imbalance.  My thought is that while Chemiclean seems to be a viable option for newer tanks, it may pose a threat to the delicate microbial balance of some more mature tanks.

 

Here are the resulting pics.  This photosynthetic slime grows as the light cycle continues (much like dinos do).  I've tried to verify dinos with a microscope (I'll post some video below).  My current thought is that this is not dinos.

 

 

 

 

 

My current plan is to treat the bloom very similar to dinos.  I'm going to follow DrTim's dino regiment.

 

I'm going to do a 3 day blackout while dosing Re-Fresh.  Then I'll resume the lights (maybe shortening the light cycle slightly), and start dosing Waste-Away.  I anticipate that I may have to dose nutrients to keep levels up.  I know it sounds strange to try to fix a problem with a "fix" caused by dosing a "fix" gone bad, but I'm hoping for the best.

[Sharbuckle]

Ugh, just went through a similar problem. Best of luck! 

[seabass]

This sample was taken from areas high in slime at the end of the light cycle.

 

This sample was taken from the water column before the lights came on.

[seabass]

Day 3 of the blackout, and the 3rd day of dosing 20ml of Re-Fresh.

 

 

The above skimmate was collected over the last 10 hours.

 

Tomorrow I end the blackout and start dosing Waste-Away.

[debbeach13]

Looks like a urine sample. So better out then in.

[seabass]

The plastic wrap is off, and the lights are back on, and I started dosing Waste-Away.  Here are the pics:

 

 

Supposedly Re-Fresh can be hard on snail.  But I see strings of snail eggs throughout the tank.

 

 

The corals seem alright.

 

 

The fish finally got fed.  I could sure tell they were hungry.  And the skimmate was so nasty smelling; think of raw fish placed in an outside garbage can on a 90 degree day (the smell hung on for awhile).

 

[seabass]

I didn't do any cleanup prior to dosing (although it was recommended), mostly because I wanted to see the results of dosing versus the results of my cleaning.  That said, I feel that I must do some cleanup during this stage of dosing Waste-Away.

 

Also, I failed to check parameters prior to starting.  Hopefully I can take a few minutes to get a few numbers together today (especially alkalinity, phosphate, and nitrate).

[debbeach13]

I would be scrubbing the equipment ASAP. Probably also to to pick at or suck up any thing I could. 

[seabass]

5 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I would be scrubbing the equipment ASAP. Probably also to to pick at or suck up any thing I could. 

Just for reference, I had cleaned the equipment maybe three weeks ago.

 

I also wanted to let people know the extent of the problem.  Some people don't like to post pics of their tanks in disarray.  And while I'd rather post pics of a pristine tank full of thriving life, I'm not above showing some ugly pics.  Hopefully I will be able to post some better looking pictures in the future.

[debbeach13]

I appreciate the honesty of the dirty pictures. I just wouldn't be able to refrain from cleaning it up now that the black out is complete. 

[seabass]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

 dirty pictures

[billygoat]

23 hours ago, seabass said:

Supposedly Re-Fresh can be hard on snail.  But I see strings of snail eggs throughout the tank.

This mass egg-laying could be a stress response (or of course it could also just be because it was dark for 3 days or something like that; you never know with snails).

 

9 hours ago, seabass said:

I also wanted to let people know the extent of the problem.  Some people don't like to post pics of their tanks in disarray.  And while I'd rather post pics of a pristine tank full of thriving life, I'm not above showing some ugly pics.  Hopefully I will be able to post some better looking pictures in the future.

I've been following along with your process and also appreciate the candid (dirty 😉) pictures. It's always cool to see an experienced reefer tackle a nasty problem like that, but it's not often that you get a play-by-play of the whole procedure. Thanks for documenting all that!

 

What all do you have in the tank these days in terms of livestock?

[seabass]

Thanks billygoat

 

4 minutes ago, billygoat said:

What all do you have in the tank these days in terms of livestock?

• likely more than a hundred rock flower anemones (which have been breeding for more than a decade)
• a banggai cardinalfish that escaped a HOB fuge as a day old baby (now an adult), quite the survival story
• a one-eyed chalk bass that lost his eye to an infection
• some random corals on a frag rack (intended to be moved to my 100 gallon tank)
• some decorative macroalgae
• various snails and hermit crabs

 

 

 

[seabass]

I did a bit of cleaning today:

 

 

 

Even after soaking in vinegar for a half an hour, the calcification just wouldn't dissolve.  I'll have to work on it some more.

 

 

 

One of the baby RFAs on some Caulerpa prolifera, and more on the rock behind it.

 

I did another 10ml dose of Waste-Away today.  The skimmer gets shut down for several hours after dosing.

 

I didn't have time for testing today.  Maybe tomorrow I'll break out the kits (hope they aren't all expired).

[seabass]

DAY 7

FTS: 9/21/20

 

Eddie the Banggai cardinal

 

 

 

The sand bed is full of snail shells covered in turf algae.

 

I removed some of the random algae covered shells.  It's tough, because so many have baby RFAs on them.

 

My 100 gallon tank could use a similar treatment program.

 

Here's the program:

• Day 1: Wrap tank in black plastic. Turn off lights.  Dose Re-Fresh.
• Day 2: Dose Re-Fresh.
• Day 3: Dose Re-Fresh.
• Day 4: Remove black plastic.  Restart light cycle.  Remove organic material.  Add a 1/4 dose of Waste-Away.
• Day 5: Add a 1/4 dose of Waste-Away.
• Day 6: Add a 1/4 dose (or more) of Waste-Away.
• Day 7: Add a 1/4 dose (or more) of Waste-Away.
• Day 8: Add a 1/4 dose (or more) of Waste-Away.
• Day 9: Partial water change.

[Pjanssen]

baby RFA explosion!

[seabass]

One thing that I didn't really highlight, but prior to using Re-Fresh, there was a film developing on the surface of the water.  It was bad enough that I was getting concerned about gas exchange.  However, ever since Re-Fresh, the film is gone.  At this point, none of the films or slime has returned.

 

I have to add one more dose of Waste-Away tomorrow before I'm done, but I consider this a fairly big win.  With everything looking cleaner, I'm half tempted to try Vibrant for the turf algae.

[seabass]

I've decided to start dosing Vibrant into this tank.  You can follow along here: 

 

I'll also try to post occasional updates here too.

 

Next, on a particularly sad note, my one eyed chalk bass damaged his other eye late last week.  It was pretty bad, and I could tell that he couldn't hardly see well enough to eat.  Anyway, I had to put him down this last weekend.

 

In addition, I plan on moving the Banggai cardinalfish to my 100 gallon tank.  That will leave this tank fishless; and leaves me wondering what I want to do with this tank in the long-term.  It still has over a hundred RFAs.  I'm possibly even considering selling them off, but I'm not sure about that.

[debbeach13]

Absolutely following your product review thread . Good luck with the treatment.

 

7 hours ago, seabass said:

  It still has over a burn RFAs,

???

[seabass]

8 hours ago, seabass said:

It still has over a burn RFAs

It sill has over a hundred RFAs.  Gots to luv autocorrect.

[seabass]

I removed most of the macroalgae in prep for the Vibrant:

 

I saved a few of the pieces to reintroduce after I'm done:

 

[seabass]

Random shot from today:

[seabass]

A look around the tank: