10 Gallon Rock Wall

[Jakesaw]

1 hour ago, growsomething said:

. 

What is your plan for it? 

Cheers!

So far, I've found it on a few frags.  When I see it, I remove frag and manually remove the balls trying not to pop them.  If one pops, I'm rinsing it thoroughly with clean saltwater before placing back in tank.

 

Still a small issue for me, but recurring a bit

[growsomething]

Tank is still going through some adjusting from excess dosing earlier in the year with reef roids.   Lots of valonia everywhere.  Funny thing is, the silver brush gorg I was dosing rr for has done better since I stopped dosing and have done a number of water changes.

 

Silver bush:

 

 

Also the Candalabra is growing well and has ridiculous polyps.

 

 

The golden plume is the only one not doing so great.

 

And a pic of the little red macro bubbles that have popped up since the emerald crab was traded in to the lfs:

 

 

Whatever they are, they haven't grown at all.

 

The galauxia has almost dissolved,  while the grapeless red grape and dictyota have grown exponentially.

 

[growsomething]

New algae for the New Year!  

This pink, bryopsis looking stuff has just popped up.  It's kind of pretty, whatever it is.  Much pinker than in the pics.

 

 

 

The starfish has put in an appearance after a month of absence,  and it seems he has grown new legs.

 

 

Xenia has grown back halfway to plague proportions since I tried scraping it all out.  Will try Aiptasia X or something next time.

 

 

A lone mermaids cup has put in an appearance after 1+ ys absence.  It had all been eaten by the emerald crab.  I am so pleased to see it, it is ridiculous! 😁

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, growsomething said:

New algae for the New Year!  

This pink, bryopsis looking stuff has just popped up.  It's kind of pretty, whatever it is.  Much pinker than in the pics.

 

 

 

The starfish has put in an appearance after a month of absence,  and it seems he has grown new legs.

 

 

Xenia has grown back halfway to plague proportions since I tried scraping it all out.  Will try Aiptasia X or something next time.

 

 

A lone mermaids cup has put in an appearance after 1+ ys absence.  It had all been eaten by the emerald crab.  I am so pleased to see it, it is ridiculous! 😁

 

Is that a chocolate banded serpent star? Looks so cool! I miss mine. Thinking of picking up a new one in the future *if I can get a hold of a small specimen at the LFS.

[growsomething]

21 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Is that a chocolate banded serpent star? Looks so cool! I miss mine. Thinking of picking up a new one in the future *if I can get a hold of a small specimen at the LFS.

It was called a serpent star, from the FL Keys, was supposed to be red, but came brown.  Chocolate sounds better 👍

Ravenous for leftover food.

[growsomething]

Well today I took in a bakers dozen Endlers and a handful of dictyota to the LFS.  They said they now know the dictyota is not the plating red macro they thought they were getting from their supplier. Got Aiptasia X for free to kill my xenia which keep popping up.  Peppermint shrimp seem to have eaten all the aiptasia, but I have never seen the shrimp since I put it in the tank.

Here's the Dictyota in a sandwich bag:

 

 

And a shot of some they have in a 6' long red sea reefer:

 

 

Also, I had to get rid of my 3 purple blade gorgs as they haven't opened since I added the silver bush, candelabra, and golden brush gorgs, which are doing great.  The 3 purple blade have been colonized by Valonia.  Let this pic bless your heart.

 

[Jakesaw]

2 minutes ago, growsomething said:

Well today I took in a bakers dozen Endlers and a handful of dictyota to the LFS.  They said they now know the dictyota is not the plating red macro they thought they were getting from their supplier. Got Aiptasia X for free to kill my xenia which keep popping up.  Peppermint shrimp seem to have eaten all the aiptasia, but I have never seen the shrimp since I put it in the tank.

Here's the Dictyota in a sandwich bag:

 

 

And a shot of some they have in a 6' long red sea reefer:

 

 

Also, I had to get rid of my 3 purple blade gorgs as they haven't opened since I added the silver bush, candelabra, and golden brush gorgs, which are doing great.  The 3 purple blade have been colonized by Valonia.  Let this pic bless your heart.

 

Bubble Algae - YUK

 

It's my current tank battle nuissance in 10 gallon tank.  Went from DINO to GHA to now Bubble Algae Pulled a rock out of tank today and am going to nuke it with Hydrogen Peroxide tomorrow when I figure out what I'm doing there.  

 

It's a PITA for first tank newbie but always learning

[A.m.P]

Damn, I was kind of hoping to be wrong about that dictyota. It looks great in their display though, yours too for that matter.

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, Jakesaw said:

Bubble Algae - YUK

 

It's my current tank battle nuissance in 10 gallon tank.  Went from DINO to GHA to now Bubble Algae Pulled a rock out of tank today and am going to nuke it with Hydrogen Peroxide tomorrow when I figure out what I'm doing there.  

 

It's a PITA for first tank newbie but always learning

Bubble algae is just tasty food for good emeralds… the ones from Reef Cleaners are guaranteed to eat it and I've had 100% success rate so far, much better than getting them from an LFS. 

[growsomething]

6 hours ago, banasophia said:

Bubble algae is just tasty food for good emeralds… the ones from Reef Cleaners are guaranteed to eat it and I've had 100% success rate so far, much better than getting them from an LFS. 

True, and I've had 100% success rate with them eating both valonia and all of my decorative macro, which I love watching pop up on my live rock.  Still have some new stuff pop up 2 ys in, but my emerald cleared all of it and my bought macro before I got rid of him.

So far every technique, animal, or product that takes out Valonia or Bryopsis also takes out desirable macro.  I asked @Tigahboy how he treats undesirable macro in his macro tanks, and it sounds like a problem for him, too.  I think he manually removes it, which is what @mcarroll recommends,  but that is impossible with the level of Valonia I now have on most exposed rock, encrusting corals, or plastic surface.  Even the silicone seems have them.  Here's a pic from the top of the rock wall.

 

 

Strangely, I still don't have to clean my glass more than  every other month or so. Guess the Valonia is acting as a nutrient sink!  

My LFS recommends Vibrant, but I'd rather try MBclean  or MB7 as it doesn't contain antibiotics or unnamed ingredients. 

This outbreak got out of control when I decided to feed reefroids 2x/wk last year after the LFS said the silver bush gorg was nps (it's fine with no feedings for months now).  During this whole time Nitrates are 5 or under, and Phosphates were undetected with API.  I have only tested once or twice this winter since things seem out of balance, and I think that is the only time I can remember testing.  I don't intend to do regular testing, so I'm not spending for better kits.

I'm just riding it out for now, taking the long approach with 10% weekly nsw changes, no reef roids, and occasionally removing the Valonia crusts when they get 3-4 bubbles thick.

[growsomething]

12 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Damn, I was kind of hoping to be wrong about that dictyota. It looks great in their display though, yours too for that matter.

I like it, and so does the lfs.  It feels like cartilage and removes in large intact pieces easily, but grows like crazy.  

[banasophia]

Oh that’s interesting, I never had any issues with my emeralds eating dragons breath or ulva, but makes sense they would do that. John Maloney at Reef Cleaners said that how he gets his emeralds to eat bubble algae is that he only feeds them algae. 

[growsomething]

Froze my toes off at the beach at sunrise.  There were thousands of fighting conch (I think) shells washed up.  Strange, with all the fishing and snorkling I've done I've never seen one alive.

 

[growsomething]

Well, I've given up on having macro algae.  The Valonia have overtaken the tank, so I bought an emerald crab today.  Saved some of the dictyota in the rear chamber that gets some spill-over light, and wished the rest of the algae best of luck.  Within 5 min of being in the tank he was munching on what's left of the Galaxaura, ignoring the bubble algae around it.

 

 

Even though I cleaned the pump a month ago or so it didn't startup after feeding, and while tapping it with a long-handled screwdriver a peppermint shrimp came to the surface of that chamber.  It has the section that goes underneath all the others on the nuvo 10, (so the pump has less of a chance of running dry) so I think it may be there for good.  I wondered why I had started seeing aiptasia again in the dt. 👎

[growsomething]

Went to a bayfront pass this morning.  A negative low tide and stiff, post-cold front East wind drained bay water West into the Gulf.  Lots of stuff exposed.  Took some pics till I couldn't feel my fingers.  It was 33°f when I left home.  No way the exposed stony coral survived.

Not sure what these 1st pics are of.  Is it sponge, coral, some kind of bryozoan, or tunicate?  

 

Some is red:

 

 

 

 

Some is tan, and large areas meters wide are white:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[growsomething]

 

[growsomething]

 

 

 

 

 

[growsomething]

 

 

 

Well that's all folks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[growsomething]

It is amazing how one of the purple ribbon gorgs is making a comeback after being covered by Valonia and some red turf-looking algae for months.  While I pitched the others, I cleaned one of the 3 gorgs on a whim and reset it in the tank on a whim, never expecting it to still be alive.

 

 

 

[growsomething]

Left the pump off for 24 hs 😛

[Christopher Marks]

Whoopsy! Everything was fine, I bet?

 

Has the emerald crab taken to the bubble algae? How’s that battle going?

[growsomething]

24 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Whoopsy! Everything was fine, I bet?

 

Has the emerald crab taken to the bubble algae? How’s that battle going?

Everything seemed fine but the plating porites, none of its tiny polyps were out, and they usually are.

No visible reduction in bubble algae, but the Galaxaura and desirable macro are gone.

[growsomething]

It's not looking great for the porites following the 24 no circulation incident.   Kind of bleaching and no polyps in sight.

 

 

Will do a 10% w/c tomorrow and add carbon in case something released toxins in response to my mistake.  

We'll see what it's like a month from now.

[growsomething]

The porites polyps finally put in an appearance  🤟

 

[Jakesaw]

Curious about the Emerald Crab too.  I've got a recurrent bubble algae problem that is driving me nuts.  I've been manually removing it from frags, successfully, but it's finally gotten a hold of my main rocks.  Everything in the tank is thriving but these darned Bubble Algae.  

 

Probably should have cleaned all my frags with hydrogen peroxide before entering my tank, but hey - Newbie mistakes right. 

 

Anyway, willing to try an Emerald Crab and have read that the Females are the ones that eat BA more than the males.  You can ID them by looking at underbelly.  

 

 

Is yours Male or Female?

 

How is it working on beating back BA?

 

Thanks