Adventures in keeping a SPS reef

[mcarroll]

On 2/19/2023 at 3:11 PM, Llorgon said:

Came back from the week long vacation in Hawaii to the tank looking like this...

 

I bet it was NICE in Hawaii!!!

 

Of course, algae never sleeps....

 

Can you tell if your 10 new snails are still trekking around in there?  If so, then it could have been a lot worse!  (Also seems like you could probably use 10 more.)

 

I know it's been a lot of work and not much fun, but you're just starting to get it turned around....and this setback is only temporary!   (No more Hawaii vacations for YOU!!! 😉 )

 

Seriously tho....your reef survived an extended vacation.  Give it AND YOU some credit for that.   Vacations have eaten MANY a reef tank over the years in this hobby.

 

11 hours ago, rimga123 said:

On the bright side corals seem to be looking healthy!

It looks worse than it is, at least as far as the fish and corals are concerned.

 

 

[PJPS]

I'd add 20 minimum (but that's just details).  Manual removal once you have your new snails in hand.  If  it still comes back, repeat the first step with 10 not 20.

 

It’s unfortunate there’s so much misinformation about CuC.  Load that shit up, but feed them.  The idea of minimal CuC and heavy nutrient control makes reefing frustratingly hard, because that can’t work.  Big systems have fish that destroy algae, smaller tanks need a good snail load.  Anything long enough for you to pinch is already too long for critters.

 

Then remember to keep feeding so your PO4 grows algae, if you keep them alive, they eat the algae.  You will get algae were they can't reach, just remove it.

 

E: but if you restart, do a rip clean, but then do your biology properly.  That's all avoidable, but so frustrating and disheartening that I get it.  Please seek me out when you're back up and running after ripping.  Sad to see you go if you go that route :(.

[Llorgon]

On 2/20/2023 at 10:13 AM, PJPS said:

H202 kills algae, paint it on the plug only with a qtip (or cut the plug off).  Your coral lives off the algae inside it, keep that in mind when you read into peroxide dips and tank treatments.  If you're killing algae, you're killing what keeps the coral alive too.  Many recover just fine, but I can break your leg every 8 weeks, you'll be fine, but you won't be thriving 🙂

 

I think Dong gives  amaster class in dipping on this livestream.  He's an S-tier coral keeper if you're not familiar.  

 

What timestamp does he talk about dipping? I had it on as I was working today, but I didn't hear anything about dips.

 

On 2/20/2023 at 2:24 PM, mcarroll said:

I bet it was NICE in Hawaii!!!

 

Of course, algae never sleeps....

 

Can you tell if your 10 new snails are still trekking around in there?  If so, then it could have been a lot worse!  (Also seems like you could probably use 10 more.)

 

I know it's been a lot of work and not much fun, but you're just starting to get it turned around....and this setback is only temporary!   (No more Hawaii vacations for YOU!!! 😉 )

 

Seriously tho....your reef survived an extended vacation.  Give it AND YOU some credit for that.   Vacations have eaten MANY a reef tank over the years in this hobby.

 

It looks worse than it is, at least as far as the fish and corals are concerned.

 

 

Hawaii was nice, but incredibly expensive!

 

Last night, after lights out I counted 6 trochus. So at least some are still alive.

On 2/20/2023 at 2:35 PM, PJPS said:

I'd add 20 minimum (but that's just details).  Manual removal once you have your new snails in hand.  If  it still comes back, repeat the first step with 10 not 20.

 

It’s unfortunate there’s so much misinformation about CuC.  Load that shit up, but feed them.  The idea of minimal CuC and heavy nutrient control makes reefing frustratingly hard, because that can’t work.  Big systems have fish that destroy algae, smaller tanks need a good snail load.  Anything long enough for you to pinch is already too long for critters.

 

Then remember to keep feeding so your PO4 grows algae, if you keep them alive, they eat the algae.  You will get algae were they can't reach, just remove it.

 

E: but if you restart, do a rip clean, but then do your biology properly.  That's all avoidable, but so frustrating and disheartening that I get it.  Please seek me out when you're back up and running after ripping.  Sad to see you go if you go that route :(.

ya, I will probably order a few more snails. Once I did my water change yesterday the tank wasn't looking as bad.

 

The rip clean is definitely a possibility. I might try it out on the 25g and see how that goes before making any decisions.

 

so, a bit of an update on how the tank has done post vacation and last nights water change.

The tank actually cleaned up pretty well. I pulled out a few cups of algae and the rocks cleaned off decently well. Still lots of algae, but not as bad as it originally looked. I am starting to see more purple/pink on the rocks as well. I can also see lots of pods in the algae on the rocks and sand... which I guess a lot get removed during water changes, but I think it's still a good sign.

 

Corals: The last remaining euphylia is looking worse than when I left and the small one I moved from the 25g died. So the tank still can't seem to support euphylia at all. The encrusting corals I got before going on vacation have all lost 50-100% of their colour over the week, hopefully they bounce back a bit. The montipora I moved from the 25g is doing alright and looks like it has encrusted on the rock. The space invaders continues to be plagues with algae on the tips where the skeleton is. I try and remove it, but it seems to be a losing battle. The acans are doing alright, but there is so much algae on them.

 

Fish: Fish all survived and seem to be doing well. 

 

Aiptasia: So the tank has some aiptasia, but they never look happy. They are all kind of shrivelled up. But during last week they all seem to have died off... which is odd.

 

The annoying part of being away for a week was that the algae accumulated on the weirs of the overflow completely blocking it to the point the water was going over the weird into the overflow. This caused the ATO to go more than normal and even with a 5g refil the container went dry. When I refilled it and tried to turn the ATO on again, the pump won't run so I am pretty sure it's fried and I will need a new one. The salinity is still at 1.025 so that didn't change.

 

I went to a LFS in the next town over that I always hear good things about. I have been a few times and they always have pretty limited stock, but yesterday I got there before it was picked over. I picked up some salt, testing reagents and 2 mexican turbos for a real good price. I also got to talk to the owner and got some free chaeto. They had a ton of dry rock and I asked if they sold liverock and he said he would if I see pieces I liked. So I might try and pick up a few pieces in the coming weeks to see if that helps things any.

 

I really need to find a good way of getting algae off of the acans and space invaders. My big fingers can only pull so much off.

[Llorgon]

Post last night's water change

[PJPS]

1 minute ago, Llorgon said:

What timestamp does he talk about dipping? I had it on as I was working today, but I didn't hear anything about dips.

 

Hawaii was nice, but incredibly expensive!

 

Last night, after lights out I counted 6 trochus. So at least some are still alive.

ya, I will probably order a few more snails. Once I did my water change yesterday the tank wasn't looking as bad.

 

The rip clean is definitely a possibility. I might try it out on the 25g and see how that goes before making any decisions.

 

so, a bit of an update on how the tank has done post vacation and last nights water change.

The tank actually cleaned up pretty well. I pulled out a few cups of algae and the rocks cleaned off decently well. Still lots of algae, but not as bad as it originally looked. I am starting to see more purple/pink on the rocks as well. I can also see lots of pods in the algae on the rocks and sand... which I guess a lot get removed during water changes, but I think it's still a good sign.

 

Corals: The last remaining euphylia is looking worse than when I left and the small one I moved from the 25g died. So the tank still can't seem to support euphylia at all. The encrusting corals I got before going on vacation have all lost 50-100% of their colour over the week, hopefully they bounce back a bit. The montipora I moved from the 25g is doing alright and looks like it has encrusted on the rock. The space invaders continues to be plagues with algae on the tips where the skeleton is. I try and remove it, but it seems to be a losing battle. The acans are doing alright, but there is so much algae on them.

 

Fish: Fish all survived and seem to be doing well. 

 

Aiptasia: So the tank has some aiptasia, but they never look happy. They are all kind of shrivelled up. But during last week they all seem to have died off... which is odd.

 

The annoying part of being away for a week was that the algae accumulated on the weirs of the overflow completely blocking it to the point the water was going over the weird into the overflow. This caused the ATO to go more than normal and even with a 5g refil the container went dry. When I refilled it and tried to turn the ATO on again, the pump won't run so I am pretty sure it's fried and I will need a new one. The salinity is still at 1.025 so that didn't change.

 

I went to a LFS in the next town over that I always hear good things about. I have been a few times and they always have pretty limited stock, but yesterday I got there before it was picked over. I picked up some salt, testing reagents and 2 mexican turbos for a real good price. I also got to talk to the owner and got some free chaeto. They had a ton of dry rock and I asked if they sold liverock and he said he would if I see pieces I liked. So I might try and pick up a few pieces in the coming weeks to see if that helps things any.

 

I really need to find a good way of getting algae off of the acans and space invaders. My big fingers can only pull so much off.

Sorry, I rewatched that, I don’t think he ever goes into hydrogen peroxide, it’s all about iodine dips, I misremembered.  He gets into it in one of these live streams with Keith.

2 minutes ago, Llorgon said:

Post last night's water change

Looks WAY better 😊

[mcarroll]

There are journal articles talking about peroxide killing algae, but in a tank it doesn't usually work.....almost never.  

 

I think it's hard to duplicate the same exposure levels in a reef tank that they get in lab experiments.

 

Also, most articles I've seen are not about controlling/killing green algae – they are about cyano.

 

Another thing is that some (all?) algae apparently PRODUCE peroxide as a self-defense measure/anti-fouling agent.....and they have related enzymes to be able to process h2o2 at a rapid rate.

 

I think those factors combine to make h2o2 less ideal for us.

 

Just anecdotally, in the past I have been unable to kill hair algae in situ with peroxide no matter the volume used or time exposed without flow.

 

You might get different results with h2o2 from a health food store if it's fresh, as it's packaged at about 5-10 times the strength of grocery store peroxide.....but also be careful with it.  Peroxide that strong is no joke for people AND algae.  (They pack it that strong since it doesn't have stabilizers like the drug store stuff.....so it loses potency in the bottle pretty fast by comparison.  Higher starting concentration means longer shelf life.)

 

If you can get the piece out of water, then you may also get different results vs treating in the tank.

 

FWIW, there are actual algaecides that DO kill hair algae pretty well...worth considering if you're desperate....but do your research on what's safe and how it's used.  Some are even considered reef safe.  I wouldn't trust them that far, but maybe as a dip where only trace amounts would be getting back into the tank.

 

IMO a scrub brush and/or tweezers are more effective than peroxide/dips....ands safer.

[Llorgon]

On 2/21/2023 at 3:28 PM, PJPS said:

Sorry, I rewatched that, I don’t think he ever goes into hydrogen peroxide, it’s all about iodine dips, I misremembered.  He gets into it in one of these live streams with Keith.

Looks WAY better 😊

ok. I will see if I can find it.

 

On 2/22/2023 at 12:41 AM, mcarroll said:

There are journal articles talking about peroxide killing algae, but in a tank it doesn't usually work.....almost never.  

 

I think it's hard to duplicate the same exposure levels in a reef tank that they get in lab experiments.

 

Also, most articles I've seen are not about controlling/killing green algae – they are about cyano.

 

Another thing is that some (all?) algae apparently PRODUCE peroxide as a self-defense measure/anti-fouling agent.....and they have related enzymes to be able to process h2o2 at a rapid rate.

 

I think those factors combine to make h2o2 less ideal for us.

 

Just anecdotally, in the past I have been unable to kill hair algae in situ with peroxide no matter the volume used or time exposed without flow.

 

You might get different results with h2o2 from a health food store if it's fresh, as it's packaged at about 5-10 times the strength of grocery store peroxide.....but also be careful with it.  Peroxide that strong is no joke for people AND algae.  (They pack it that strong since it doesn't have stabilizers like the drug store stuff.....so it loses potency in the bottle pretty fast by comparison.  Higher starting concentration means longer shelf life.)

 

If you can get the piece out of water, then you may also get different results vs treating in the tank.

 

FWIW, there are actual algaecides that DO kill hair algae pretty well...worth considering if you're desperate....but do your research on what's safe and how it's used.  Some are even considered reef safe.  I wouldn't trust them that far, but maybe as a dip where only trace amounts would be getting back into the tank.

 

IMO a scrub brush and/or tweezers are more effective than peroxide/dips....ands safer.

So, I tried a peroxide dip last night on one of the pieces of space invaders that I had to cut off in an attempt to remove the algae from the main colony a few months ago. I did 50/50 peroxide and tank water for 2 mins. It got rid of a good chunk of algae, but not all, at least not yet. The space invaders seems to be fine as well.

 

I also ordered a dental cleaning kit off Amazon. Hopefully that will help get into those small places my hands and toothbrush can't.

 

@mcarroll Before I left for vacation, I added your recommended higher N and P dosing. I had a ton of algae growth when I got back, but once the long pieces were removed, it doesn't look like it got much worse, that is except for the back wall it grew back pretty well.

 

When I got home, all of the new encrusting frags I bought before going away were pretty unhappy with colour loss. I did my regular water change on Monday night and by last night I could see some colour returning to all the frags. I haven't got around to testing my water yet since getting back, but I wonder what the difference would be? Maybe the water change helped or just getting rid of a bunch of algae?

[Llorgon]

I took some lights out pictures this morning. You can see more colour starting to show up on the rocks.

[PJPS]

2 minutes ago, Llorgon said:

ok. I will see if I can find it.

 

So, I tried a peroxide dip last night on one of the pieces of space invaders that I had to cut off in an attempt to remove the algae from the main colony a few months ago. I did 50/50 peroxide and tank water for 2 mins. It got rid of a good chunk of algae, but not all, at least not yet. The space invaders seems to be fine as well.

 

I also ordered a dental cleaning kit off Amazon. Hopefully that will help get into those small places my hands and toothbrush can't.

 

@mcarroll Before I left for vacation, I added your recommended higher N and P dosing. I had a ton of algae growth when I got back, but once the long pieces were removed, it doesn't look like it got much worse, that is except for the back wall it grew back pretty well.

 

When I got home, all of the new encrusting frags I bought before going away were pretty unhappy with colour loss. I did my regular water change on Monday night and by last night I could see some colour returning to all the frags. I haven't got around to testing my water yet since getting back, but I wonder what the difference would be? Maybe the water change helped or just getting rid of a bunch of algae?

My vote is for fresh water perking things up :).  My tanks cosistently look hapier after a water change.  The "tricky" part is finding the sweet spot as far as volume and frequency.  I'm a big proponent of water changes.  But they aren't a solution to every single problem.

[PJPS]

Not what I was thinking of, but some Dong brilliance on H2O2 in tank treatments (it's all about water volume)

 

 

[mcarroll]

6 hours ago, Llorgon said:

I took some lights out pictures this morning. You can see more colour starting to show up on the rocks.

That's WA-A-AY better than before vacation.

 

You gotta get more CUC asap so that stays nice and clean!

 

Before...

On 2/4/2023 at 7:30 PM, Llorgon said:

 

Keep up the good work!!

[Llorgon]

On 2/23/2023 at 9:27 AM, PJPS said:

My vote is for fresh water perking things up :).  My tanks cosistently look hapier after a water change.  The "tricky" part is finding the sweet spot as far as volume and frequency.  I'm a big proponent of water changes.  But they aren't a solution to every single problem.

It was probably the water change. It usually is always the water change. I try and do 10-15g weekly. Seems to work out.

 

On 2/23/2023 at 12:54 PM, PJPS said:

Not what I was thinking of, but some Dong brilliance on H2O2 in tank treatments (it's all about water volume)

 

 

Watched and interesting. The piece of space invaders I tried the dip on seems to be doing well and the algae has died off. I could see how it would be very harsh though.

 

20 hours ago, mcarroll said:

That's WA-A-AY better than before vacation.

 

You gotta get more CUC asap so that stays nice and clean!

 

Before...

 

Keep up the good work!!

I put in an order for more ceriths. The price of each went from $2.45 to $3.45 though.... we'll see if the order is accepted or not.... I was hoping the 2 turbos I got would help things, but I haven't seen one since I put it in and the other won't leave the glass no matter how many times I put it on the rocks

 

[PJPS]

Myh two turbos go in fits  and starts... nothing for days, then a big mow.  Rinse and repeat weekly.  2 days on, 5 off (roughly)

[Llorgon]

On 2/24/2023 at 1:25 PM, PJPS said:

Myh two turbos go in fits  and starts... nothing for days, then a big mow.  Rinse and repeat weekly.  2 days on, 5 off (roughly)

Darn lazy snails! I keep thinking mine are dead since they only seem to move every few days.

 

Tank is looking a bit better, the dental kit I ordered came and while slow, the scraping off the algae works great.

 

I'm still struggling with algae on corals/frag plugs. I tried pulling it off and scraping it, but not with a ton of luck. The small pieces of space invaders I tried the 50/50 peroxide dip on last week are looking good and all the algae has died off.

 

Annoyingly the gha is now growing in the sump and on the chaeto. It seems like turning the chaeto every week will help since the gha is only growing on the top part, but I'll have to keep an eye on it.

 

My snail ordered got cancelled. Still working with the LFS to see how many ceriths they have available.

 

[mcarroll]

13 hours ago, Llorgon said:

Annoyingly the gha is now growing in the sump and on the chaeto.

I would have removed the chaeto a long time back.   (If I knew about its presence, I'd forgotten....if so, sorry for not pointing it out more/again.)

 

Unless you're growing it for another reason than "filtering"...

 

But then you should be feeding your chaeto just like a houseplant.  It's a rapid grower, so you'd probably be dosing a lot more N and P than you already are, probably some other stuff (eg ESV Transition Elements) as well....or maybe even just a pre-formulated basic plant food, like F2 solution.

 

Anyway....doubt that's where you're heading, so I'd disable the macro algae section, at least for the time being.  The hair algae growing there just puts a little more emphasis on making the change sooner than later.  (ie NOW)

 

👍The best your macro could be doing right now is complicating your nutrient balancing efforts..  Hair algae won't grow (either) if it's dark down there.  👍

 

13 hours ago, Llorgon said:

I'm still struggling with algae on corals/frag plugs.

That can be the worst.   I lost a basketball sized birds nest colony when I had a hair algae outbreak....it was growing thick ALL OVER the inside of the skeleton where it was 100% impossible for me to do anything about.   Saved a few frags, so not all was lost.  And I have a nice showpiece birdsnest skeleton now...with algae still attached. 

 

🤷‍♂️

 

Sh*t happens I guess....they say even in the wild most reefs only last 7 years, on average.  But it's even a bit worse when sh*t happens at the beginning since you haven't had a chance to grow the frag into a coral yet.

 

Hopefully the frags you're talking about aren't hopeless!  

 

Post some specific closeup pics and there might be some other guidance folks could offer.  

 

As has been mentioned in other posts, removing the frag plug where possible is a good idea.  

 

And in bad spots, fragging away the algae-ridden parts is a good move.  If the algae-coral battle is clearly going the wrong way, save what you can!

[Llorgon]

23 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I would have removed the chaeto a long time back.   (If I knew about its presence, I'd forgotten....if so, sorry for not pointing it out more/again.)

 

Unless you're growing it for another reason than "filtering"...

 

But then you should be feeding your chaeto just like a houseplant.  It's a rapid grower, so you'd probably be dosing a lot more N and P than you already are, probably some other stuff (eg ESV Transition Elements) as well....or maybe even just a pre-formulated basic plant food, like F2 solution.

 

Anyway....doubt that's where you're heading, so I'd disable the macro algae section, at least for the time being.  The hair algae growing there just puts a little more emphasis on making the change sooner than later.  (ie NOW)

 

👍The best your macro could be doing right now is complicating your nutrient balancing efforts..  Hair algae won't grow (either) if it's dark down there.  👍

The chaeto is recent. I got it as a freebie from the LFS after I got back from vacation. I'll see how it goes in terms of algae growth in the display and nutrients.

23 hours ago, mcarroll said:

That can be the worst.   I lost a basketball sized birds nest colony when I had a hair algae outbreak....it was growing thick ALL OVER the inside of the skeleton where it was 100% impossible for me to do anything about.   Saved a few frags, so not all was lost.  And I have a nice showpiece birdsnest skeleton now...with algae still attached. 

 

🤷‍♂️

 

Sh*t happens I guess....they say even in the wild most reefs only last 7 years, on average.  But it's even a bit worse when sh*t happens at the beginning since you haven't had a chance to grow the frag into a coral yet.

That's rough about the birdsnest! I haven't lost anything that big yet, but corals are unhappy.

23 hours ago, mcarroll said:

 

Hopefully the frags you're talking about aren't hopeless!  

 

Post some specific closeup pics and there might be some other guidance folks could offer.  

 

As has been mentioned in other posts, removing the frag plug where possible is a good idea.  

 

And in bad spots, fragging away the algae-ridden parts is a good move.  If the algae-coral battle is clearly going the wrong way, save what you can!

I don't think any of the frags are hopeless. Just some slightly annoyed corals right now. I've removed plugs where I can for the most part. 

 

Here is what I am dealing with. I took some lights off pictures to better see the algae 

 

And here is the acan I did a test dip of. It hasn't been doing well for awhile so pretty closed up. After dipping, the cuc swarmed it and it seems pretty algae free now.

[Llorgon]

Finally got around to testing my water last night. Nitrate was at 1ppm and phosphate was 0.14ppm. I dosed a good amount of nitrate and I will test again tonight. 

 

My order of 20 ceriths snails was cancelled since they don't have enough. Most I can order is 9. With the cost of snails, tax and shipping it comes to $65 which seems like a lot for 9 snails. 

 

Since I had a good chat with one LFS owner the other week, I'm going to reach out to them and see if they can order me in some for any better of a price.

 

I took some more lights out shots of the tank. The dental tools seem to work great on the rocks. Is it noticeable the spot I've done?

[mcarroll]

I love cerith snails, but that's too much $.

 

Keep up the good work – you can definitely tell!!

[Llorgon]

I've been continuing with my nightly cleaning with the dental tools and it's been going well. I can actually see a difference in the amount of algae on the rocks. I have also noticed more of the cuc on the rocks at night.

 

I have noticed that all the gha on the overflow is gone. Not sure how or why, but both corals would get covered in it each week and now it's just gone.

 

I still need to figure out a way of getting the acans and space invaders cleaned up of the algae. Lots of suggestions on doing the peroxide dips, but I'm not sure I really want to do that.

 

Still working on my snail situation. I might have to bite the bullet and pay entirely too much for snails.

 

I might look into picking up a few more cheap corals and see how they do. I'll stay away from the encrusting corals since they didn't seem to like my tank.

 

I also need to do another water test tonight to see how my nutrients are holding up.

[Llorgon]

And one full tank shot to go with it.

[mcarroll]

6 hours ago, Llorgon said:

I might look into picking up a few more cheap corals and see how they do. I'll stay away from the encrusting corals since they didn't seem to like my tank.

In general, encrusting corals aren't the fastest growing....(I forget what you had specifically).

 

If you like em, try corals like Monti cap's that are fast.  

[Llorgon]

On 3/3/2023 at 7:33 PM, mcarroll said:

In general, encrusting corals aren't the fastest growing....(I forget what you had specifically).

 

If you like em, try corals like Monti cap's that are fast.  

ya, the ones I got were my options of $20 or less. Most of which aren't doing so well or have died. I do have a couple of monti's they are growing pretty well.

 

I have another order of snails on the way. 10 cerith and a few trochus. I also ordered a candy cane and elkhorn coral. I had an elkhorn before the tank went south. It was a good grower and a good canary since it was the first to be affected by the low nutrients or whatever happened to the tank. I'm hoping putting the frag in the same spot will get it growing pretty quickly.

 

The algae doesn't seem to be coming back on the rocks I have scrapped with the dental tools. It's still growing where I haven't scrapped and on the sand and walls. But there is some progress. Tonight is water testing night so I will see where I am at nutrient wise. Should be interesting since I didn't get around to my weekly water change on the weekend.

[mcarroll]

7 hours ago, Llorgon said:

I do have a couple of monti's they are growing pretty well.

When there's enough new growth for you to chip some off – do it (if you want) and start some pieces in other places.  Once it's growing it's usually very receptive (weed-like) to fragging.   Of course don't fill up ALL your good corals spots with it.... 😉 

[Llorgon]

23 hours ago, mcarroll said:

When there's enough new growth for you to chip some off – do it (if you want) and start some pieces in other places.  Once it's growing it's usually very receptive (weed-like) to fragging.   Of course don't fill up ALL your good corals spots with it.... 😉 

They aren't growing that much...yet.

 

Water test from last night

N - 15ppm

P04 - 0.14ppm

 

Dosed nitrates a bit high, but phosphate has stayed pretty consistent.

 

My wife and I got tattoos on the weekend to celebrate getting our diving certification so this week is going to be lots of awkward left handed algae removal from the tank while the tattoo heals.

 

Snails and corals came today. I got a candy cane and Elkhorn. Both came with some dying algae on them which is pretty out of place for this shop. I did get 11 cerith snails when I ordered 10... So that's something.

 

Chaeto in the refugium is growing. There is also some gha growing in the chaeto. Rotating it once a week seems to work well so far. Gha on the bottom dies off or just moves to the top. I have the second tunze refugium light I still need to setup.

[Llorgon]

Elkhorn isn't looking great today. It's lost a lot of colour and I clearly didn't get all the algae off it before it went into the tank.  Colour seems to be going from the centre out which is what happened to the original one in that place over the summer. The candy cane isn't looking much better.

 

This weekend will be a big algae cleaning day. I'm going to take all the algae covered corals and scrub them as best I can to try and get the algae under control on them.

 

I can tell the xenia and gsp have been growing. This might turn into a soft coral tank at the rate I am going. 

 

This algae stuff is never ending...