My NIGHTMARE!

[seabass]

2 hours ago, JcSH2o said:

Just wondering about something regarding that Coraline... 

 

If you follow the advice of @seabass, could you not treat the existing rock for GHA outside of the tank while saving the Coraline? Then once all is good, replace each rock back into your tank over time if that were your desire. 

 

Don't know if that's even feesible....

I believe it's possible.  It would be much easier to rid the rock of algae without livestock and no source of ammonia, nutrients, or wastes.  You could manually remove the algae with tweezers and brushes, rearrange the rocks as needed, and perform water changes.  The tank/container would still require flow, light, and water changes to replenish consumed elements (from the coralline) and removal of nutrients released from dead algae.  You might even consider dosing Purple Up (something I wouldn't normally recommend in a display tank).  Eventually, the rock will be cured (hopefully with the coralline algae intact).

[Mark1313]

10 hours ago, brandon429 said:

 

 

I view changing out live rock like I would changing out my dog for a buddy that is a little less messy. whatever the ailment, we can meet it dynamically and consistently going back to some core basics well covered so far

 

on second thought that's some rare coralline, looks like its lived under power compacts a good while, wanna trade for my dog

Gotta read the whole thread cause I just pulled a big live rock yesterday. Prolly wasn't a good idea. My dog isn't up for trade though, she's kinda cool 

 

5 hours ago, 1891Bro said:

Crabs are bad. In the tank, or the pubes, just bad news. 

Way way to much information. As my daughter would say..  TMI ty anyway.

She is polite. 

[Oldsalt01]

Digesting all this information I've been thinking about it and I think part of my problem is lack of flow. With my turkey baster, I blew out a fair amount of gunk from under the rocks which gets under there because there's no sand, so I'm getting dead spots, which my be feeding my algae. Anyone have a suggestion for a small alternative pump I can use to up the flow? I tried an old mj750 but all that did was blow the sand around. At this point I'm ready to say screw the Acans (pretty sure they're done anyway), up the flow, and see what I can do the fix this tank. I'm not going to do anything for a while as I'll be out of town and my other (better) half will be taking care of the tank. Lord knows what I'll come home to.

[Flexin]

A thought, get rid of the toadstool.  When mine would shed it was a roll of the dice, and if the material landed on another coral, it was over.  Lost a hammer and one head of my purple tipped frogspawns.    It took a bit for me to figure it out.  No more toadstool, no more problems and this was in a 32 gal tank.  In your tank you have twice the chance (in general) of it hitting something when it sheds.  Now I have Zoa and Palys working their way around the tank even with the variety of corals I have.  Hope this helps.

 

Also, bubble algae, I keep the emerald crabs fed, only have two, but they clean it up.  A recommendation given to me was have it take care of itself via tank inhabitants and find the balance.  If the emerald gets two big, take it back and get a small one again.

[seabass]

There are lots of options.  You need to pick one and give it a try.  It's hard to determine what your frustration level really is, or how much work you want to put into it.  You can learn a lot by fighting through these problems, but they can also beat you down and make you want to give it up.

 

Lake Malawi Cichlids for the win!

[brandon429]

Due to recent discovery there is no sandbed   edited to:

 

lets just burn the algae out of the rock then

[Tamberav]

He doesn't have a sandbed.

 

Rock is beautiful though, I would keep it. I would just go full murder on that algae and remove the rock, clean it out in old tank water, remove all the debris, ect. I am confused on why we are starting over unless we suspect the rock was treated with something like copper? Do a 100% waterchange, ect.

 

What is in the back chambers?

 

Are the frags all from the same source?

[Oldsalt01]

11 hours ago, Tamberav said:

He doesn't have a sandbed.

 

Rock is beautiful though, I would keep it. I would just go full murder on that algae and remove the rock, clean it out in old tank water, remove all the debris, ect. I am confused on why we are starting over unless we suspect the rock was treated with something like copper? Do a 100% waterchange, ect.

 

What is in the back chambers?

 

Are the frags all from the same source?

All frags from same source. In review: 14g Biocube, chamber 1: stock carbon insert with floss pre-filter, chamber 2: floss, over floss, over 3 ceramic balls, reticulated foam block, mj900 return pump. Lights: old Hydra 26 with controller. Lights on 6 hrs w/1.5 hr ramp up/down. No skimmer, no reactors, no top (was keeping my temps up in low 80's with stock CFL's). 15% water changes weekly with floss replacement. 3 fish, 4 hermits, 2 Trochus, a few dwarf cerith's, 1 Florida cerith.

[brandon429]

perfect balance. any algae that gets through that doesn't reflect bad things, it reflects total balance. nature controls algae solely by grazing, not by starvation. Once an aquarist sets up a reasonable cuc, any that still gets by we can cheat out. lift the rocks out, use a steak knife first to score out all algae like a dentist would do. then, apply peroxide only to the clean areas you've forced clean. let soak a couple mins outside the tank, in air, rinse and put back in. full tank water change, remove any detritus at all. reacclimate fish/done/enjoy

[Tamberav]

I would get rid of the ceramic and foam and replace the carbon with high quality stuff like bulk reef supplys carbon and do a good cleaning. 

 

You use rodi for water source? 

[Oldsalt01]

43 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I would get rid of the ceramic and foam and replace the carbon with high quality stuff like bulk reef supplys carbon and do a good cleaning. 

 

You use rodi for water source? 

Agreed! Spot clean the rock too. Plan on going to a media basket to increase filter efficiency. Ya, rodi. My tester sez 0 TDS and I gotta believe it. One thing I've never done is check the nutrient levels of the saltwater I get from my LFS. Hmmmmmmm.

[Tamberav]

Oh you buy pre-mixed salt? If so, its hard to say their source water would be good enough, sometimes they are lazy about changing the filters. Why not mix your own?

[Oldsalt01]

No rodi system. Florida well water sux.

[Tamberav]

Oh thought you meant you bought already mixed salt. My bad.

 

The back chambers are dated, I would start there and update that equipment, and peroxide the turf algae, manually remove the bubble algae, do the big cleaning and go from there. Hop to it!

[Oldsalt01]

My LFS is pretty trusted. They're display crals look good although the Acan frags I got recently had some GHA on one frag. Unfortunately I have no idea where they came from. They were stressed out when I got them and then my Peppermint's attacked and wiped one out. The shrimp are gone now but they tore the centers out and that frag didn't make it. For some reason the other one melted in about a week. The plan is to clean my rocks well, add sand again, put my fish back in, update the back chambers and go from there. If that doesn't work out I may consider cat neutering. Seems simpler and cheaper!

[brandon429]

also wanted to remark from something stated above, the sand doesn't help with the algae and lack thereof didn't cause the brush algae part you mentioned. It becomes an extra cleaning hassle, its of no benefit unless you have burrowing animals or are removing massive amnts of live rock and want the surface area back (not applicable here). I use sand solely bc I like the way it looks, and am willing to keep it clean so that it doesn't fuel algae.

[Oldsalt01]

On 8/27/2017 at 0:32 AM, samnaz said:

The best way to get rid of bubble algae is manually. Do it yourself, don't rely on a mithrax crab.

 

While you have been waiting for your crab to eat that algae, it's begun to spread big time. The longer you wait, the worse it gets, and the more difficult manual removal will be.

 

When I first spotted a tiny bubble algae in my tank, I removed it immediately instead of relying on my emerald crab to eat it. That was months ago, and I haven't had another bubble algae since. 

 

If you can take out the piece of rock with bubble algae on it, and remove the algae outside of the tank, that is the safest method. After removal, use a Qtip to apply some H202 to the area, and you're good to go. 

Mine is out of control. I'll have to pull all the rock and give it a good scrub. How much damage to the non-nuisance algae and Coralline, would I do to the bioload of the rock if I scrubbed it first and then a quick rinse in freshwater? Keep in mind I have Florida well water, high in sulphur and iron that's run thru a softening system with rock salt as a softening agent. Should I dump my Toadstool?

[brandon429]

take no extra steps w the live rock unprescribed in my opinion, no fw rinsing. remove, knife blade remove, peroxide on the cleaned areas, then sw rinse

 

there are already threads that show how to turn around rocks from algae growth, they only use sw and a knife and peroxide. the old ones didn't use a knife, we found out it works better pre scraping even before peroxide as the methods developed.

[seabass]

You can definitely follow Brandon's advice.  It's good.  But personally, keeping the coralline algae isn't worth it to me.  Plus, you could always try to save the rock and coralline in another container, after you switch out the rocks.  Either way.  These are both go big or go home methods.  Fighting it only with with nutrient reduction will drive you bonkers.  Although, nutrient reduction is important in preventing it from coming back.

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Oldsalt01 said:

Keep in mind I have Florida well water, high in sulphur and iron

Iron grows algae very well.

 

So I forget, do you use treated tap water (well water), RO/DI, or distilled?

[Oldsalt01]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

Iron grows algae very well.

 

So I forget, do you use treated tap water (well water), RO/DI, or distilled?

Strictly RO/DI from LFS. 0 TDS the last time I checked. We don't even drink it from the tap. I don't know how often they change their filters. Considering distilled. What do you think?

[seabass]

It depends on the price and how convenient getting water from the LFS is.  I'd check my LFS water with a hand held TDS meter every time.  It only cost about a nickel to make a gallon of RO/DI.  What does your LFS charge for it?  Really, either 0 TDS RO/DI from your LFS, or distilled should be equally good.

 

It is possible to make your own RO/DI water, even if your water pressure is low.  So that's another option.

[Oldsalt01]

Round trip to/from LFS about an hour. They charge $.35/gallon, but as I don't go anywhere else, and am in there every week for one gallon, they give it to me free.

If I'm gonna dump the Toadstool, the time to do it will be when the rocks are out of the tank as I'll have to Dremel it off the biggest rock in there. If it's causing trouble I'd rather have it gone, even though I kinda like it. It IS getting a little big for the size of the tank.

[Tamberav]

I have several leathers and toadys with acans and zoas without issue. I run BRS ROX carbon. I would say get better carbon and keep the toad since you like that coral anyways. Basically try fixing the simple stuff first before drastic measures.

55 minutes ago, Oldsalt01 said:

Round trip to/from LFS about an hour. They charge $.35/gallon, but as I don't go anywhere else, and am in there every week for one gallon, they give it to me free.

If I'm gonna dump the Toadstool, the time to do it will be when the rocks are out of the tank as I'll have to Dremel it off the biggest rock in there. If it's causing trouble I'd rather have it gone, even though I kinda like it. It IS getting a little big for the size of the tank.

 

[Oldsalt01]

25 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I have several leathers and toadys with acans and zoas without issue. I run BRS ROX carbon. I would say get better carbon and keep the toad since you like that coral anyways. Basically try fixing the simple stuff first before drastic measures.

 

SURE! Rub it in ?. BRS it is!! Bt the time I get back at the end of next week the BA will have taken over. It's EVERYWHERE!!!!!! I'll have to scrub the tank to make sure it's not contaminated.