Adventures in keeping a SPS reef

[Llorgon]

18 hours ago, mcarroll said:

That far up on the glass it might be getting a peculiar quality of light.....like low-PAR/high-red or something.

You might be right. I'll try moving it down the wall when I do my water change this weekend.

 

The green cabbage I got yesterday came with a hole in it. I can't tell if it's splitting or something to be concerned about.

[mcarroll]

Almost looks like it had a frag plug stuck in it.  Hm.

[PJPS]

softies are pretty good at healing, I’d ignore it until it’s anything more than a hole (rotting etc).
 

1:15:15 Claude from Fauna explains dinos and tank packing.

 

 

[Llorgon]

On 3/31/2023 at 2:19 PM, mcarroll said:

Almost looks like it had a frag plug stuck in it.  Hm.

It does seem too round to be a natural thing doesn't it. I'll keep an eye on it.

On 3/31/2023 at 5:02 PM, PJPS said:

softies are pretty good at healing, I’d ignore it until it’s anything more than a hole (rotting etc).
 

1:15:15 Claude from Fauna explains dinos and tank packing.

 

 

The tank packing makes sense. I'll start reaching out to coral shops in the next week or two. When I had a planted tank, I tried adding a bunch of plants right away. They all slowly died, so I'm always afraid of the same thing happening with the corals.

 

I did another water change this weekend. Algae is definitely getting better. The last 2 weeks I have been pretty hands off in the tank during the week and then doing a bunch of algae removal on water change day. I've also been turkey basting the sand. Still dirty in some spots, but it's getting way better. Maybe that was the issue all along.

 

I have noticed some cyano returning to the sand bed in places and around the octopulse, so that's something to keep an eye on.

 

Fish and corals are doing well, still working on getting and keeping algae off of acans and the space invaders. I moved the gsp off of the back glass and onto the sandbed. Once the green comes back I will try it on a lower part of the back glass.

[rimga123]

Corals look good! acans nice and puffy!

seems like you're doing a lot of water changes while struggling to keep the nutrients up. could you cut back on them or is there a specific reason that i might have missed to why you are changing water so often?

love to see your tank improving with every post

[Llorgon]

10 hours ago, rimga123 said:

Corals look good! acans nice and puffy!

seems like you're doing a lot of water changes while struggling to keep the nutrients up. could you cut back on them or is there a specific reason that i might have missed to why you are changing water so often?

love to see your tank improving with every post

Yes, things seem to be doing better. Slowly getting ahead of the algae on the rocks, not so much on the corals though.

 

Water changes are pretty much me sucking out large amounts of algae.

[mcarroll]

6 hours ago, Llorgon said:

Water changes are pretty much me sucking out large amounts of algae.

I've wondered before, does this mean that there's a lot of loose algae that just a siphon hose can remove?  (A little weird for hair algae if so.)

 

 

[Llorgon]

On 4/5/2023 at 5:29 PM, mcarroll said:

I've wondered before, does this mean that there's a lot of loose algae that just a siphon hose can remove?  (A little weird for hair algae if so.)

 

 

When it was really bad, I would see a few small pieces that would float around every so often, but most of it came when I would be pulling it out and some would always get away from me.

[Llorgon]

ok. It's been awhile. Life has been pretty busy the last little while. We have decided to sell our townhouse to get a house, so all our time has been focused on that lately. The tank has taken a back seat, unfortunately. Which also means algae has got a bit worse again.

 

With a pending move, I'm not sure what to do with the tank. I'm leaning towards selling it and restarting at a latter time or seeing if an aquarium service company can help move it then it's one less moving day stress for me.

[mcarroll]

Life happens!!  🙂  Good luck with the move!

[Llorgon]

Well after a couple weeks of being hands off in the tank while getting the townhouse ready to sell. The tank is back to looking like crap... Algae is once again taking over the tank and floating around a bit as well. It seems to be slowly killing the acans and space invaders. I removed a bunch of algae from the acans last night and a good chunk is back on them today.

 

The snail population seems to be steady, even got some eggs on the glass. My fighting conch did die though.

 

My Coraline seems to be having some issues lately and has been dying off. Most of it has white spots on it. 

 

On the plus side, or what little plus side I can find, I have had to raise the amount of all and cal I dose. And the Elkhorn I thought had completely died long ago seems to still be alive in very small areas!

 

Water test was tonight. Of course nitrate would be at 0... Dosed a bunch of neo nitrate to bring it back up...

Alk: 7.7
Cal: 450
Mag: 1310
N: 0
P04: 0.312

 

the algae and tank issues seem to be never ending.

[mcarroll]

Still not pretty, and can tell you've had some time off......but ALSO STILL looks better than it did at the beginning of the thread.

 

 

Snail eggs are a good sign they are eating – the algae could definitely be worse!

 

On the other hand, it also probably means there is more than enough algae for the CUC you have......probably still room for more snails.

 

Obviously there's always room for pulling out more algae by hand....  🤷‍♂️

 

Speaking of that, how much are you able to focus on cleaning the corals specifically?  To the extent possible, those should be the first places you focus on.

 

[Llorgon]

9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Still not pretty, and can tell you've had some time off......but ALSO STILL looks better than it did at the beginning of the thread.

I'm starting to think it will never be pretty, but yes it has been worse.

9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

 

Snail eggs are a good sign they are eating – the algae could definitely be worse!

 

On the other hand, it also probably means there is more than enough algae for the CUC you have......probably still room for more snails.

 

Obviously there's always room for pulling out more algae by hand....  🤷‍♂️

Last 2 weeks I haven't touched the tank. I'm back into my daily algae removal. I get about a cup or so out a day the last couple of days. Definitely have room for more snails. Maybe I will try an urchin again.

9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

 

Speaking of that, how much are you able to focus on cleaning the corals specifically?  To the extent possible, those should be the first places you focus on.

 

I pull off as much as I can, but it doesn't seem to do much. A day or two later and they are covered again. A few of the acans have the algae growing between the polyps which makes it harder.

 

It's also been a month or two of moving the gsp onto the sandbed from the back glass. The green in the polyps still hasn't returned so I am not sure what is going on there.

[Llorgon]

I finally got time to do a water change on Sunday. Removed as much crap and algae as I could.

 

The tank has been hit with lots of cyano in the last week so I got as much of that out as I could.

 

The algae grows back fast. I removed the nori holder and scrubbed it in vinegar and hot water to remove all the algae and on Monday it looked like this. 

 

🥲🤔Other than that, still debating on what to do with this tank. We have an accepted offer on a new house that is subject to the sale of our current house. We would have an extra room in the house maybe I turn it into a giant fish room.🤔

Im posting this from my phone and it wouldn't allow me to delete the emojis...

[mcarroll]

Made a BIG dent!!

 

Sounds like there are going to be some big changes coming one way or another!  🙂 👍

[Llorgon]

Dealing with some gross thick cyano. This is the tank a week after the last cleaning and water change.

[mcarroll]

I'm not sure this is a prediction, but IMO that looks like a sign that the green algae is finally receding/dying back.  Cyano, being the opportunist that it is, would naturally be drawn to the scene.  

 

[Llorgon]

21 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I'm not sure this is a prediction, but IMO that looks like a sign that the green algae is finally receding/dying back.  Cyano, being the opportunist that it is, would naturally be drawn to the scene.  

 

I hope so. I'll see what it looks like after my next water change. It would be fitting that the algae would start to go away as I get ready to move the tank....

[Llorgon]

Cyano is still coming back hard! Really taking over corals especially the acans. I was away this weekend so I wasn't able to do my regular water change. I'm going to try and get it done tomorrow or Thursday and remove as much cyano as I can. 

 

I'm also going to be in the process of switching from dosing red sea foundations to ESV bionic alk and cal. 

 

I'm seeing some growth in the montipora again which is nice. The xenia has spread which isn't as nice, but also not expected.

[mcarroll]

....from when I tagged you earlier....

 

If you have a syringe (or similar) I think spot treating with hydrogen peroxide would at least be a worthy test.  Especially since you have many areas that are proving to be almost impossible to remove algae from by hand.  (Don't waste your time using it in areas you can reach, just remove the algae from those places directly.)

 

Use health store H2O2 preferably....it has a higher concentration than drug store H2O2, assuming it's fresh.

 

Some knucklehead wrote up a post on it so long ago that it was forgot about it until now.  Read the comments too of course:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/algae-cure-spot-treating-algae-with-peroxide.359887/

 

Keep your expectations low and you might be impressed with how it works.  (It's not a miracle.)

[Llorgon]

6 hours ago, mcarroll said:

....from when I tagged you earlier....

 

If you have a syringe (or similar) I think spot treating with hydrogen peroxide would at least be a worthy test.  Especially since you have many areas that are proving to be almost impossible to remove algae from by hand.  (Don't waste your time using it in areas you can reach, just remove the algae from those places directly.)

 

Use health store H2O2 preferably....it has a higher concentration than drug store H2O2, assuming it's fresh.

 

Some knucklehead wrote up a post on it so long ago that it was forgot about it until now.  Read the comments too of course:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/algae-cure-spot-treating-algae-with-peroxide.359887/

 

Keep your expectations low and you might be impressed with how it works.  (It's not a miracle.)

I was just reading through it. 

 

I've tried spot treating algae with peroxide. I've had mixed results. Really seems to work better on small patches in the rocks. I do wonder if it would work close/ on the corals. I will have to give that a try.

 

I also have had good luck spot treating algae with boiling ro/di water. If you microwave it for a few mins, suck it up with a syringe and spray it on the algae it turns white and the cuc go crazy for it. Not very practical though since you have to keep heating the water.

[mcarroll]

Were you using grocery store peroxide, or health food store peroxide?  I think it's pretty hard to get the concentration needed with grocery store peroxide.  Not to mention the stabilizers they add...

 

IMO see if you can locate a health food store and get some peroxide there and give it another round of tests.  (Freshness really counts with peroxide, so ideally there will be some kind of freshness date on it.)

[Lebowski_]

On 5/24/2023 at 4:41 PM, mcarroll said:

....from when I tagged you earlier....

 

If you have a syringe (or similar) I think spot treating with hydrogen peroxide would at least be a worthy test.  Especially since you have many areas that are proving to be almost impossible to remove algae from by hand.  (Don't waste your time using it in areas you can reach, just remove the algae from those places directly.)

 

Use health store H2O2 preferably....it has a higher concentration than drug store H2O2, assuming it's fresh.

 

Some knucklehead wrote up a post on it so long ago that it was forgot about it until now.  Read the comments too of course:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/algae-cure-spot-treating-algae-with-peroxide.359887/

 

Keep your expectations low and you might be impressed with how it works.  (It's not a miracle.)

Im currently in the middle of a 5 day regimen to bust the Cyano cycle and it includes 1ml/10g of 3% hydrogen peroxide nightly. I’ve noticed a big improvement, especially in the thickness of the Cyano mats. Today there was very little and only on the sand.

 

I’ve never had to deal with Cyano in the past, I’m guessing it’s because I went with LifeRock and barely seeded it with real LR. 
 

Good luck OP. We see you grinding. You got this.

[mcarroll]

49 minutes ago, Lebowski_ said:

the thickness of the Cyano mats

You should probably remove any thick patches by hand IMO.   How thick is "thick" though?  It's a relative term.  Cyano can get really really thick in some instances.

[Llorgon]

On 5/25/2023 at 11:57 AM, mcarroll said:

Were you using grocery store peroxide, or health food store peroxide?  I think it's pretty hard to get the concentration needed with grocery store peroxide.  Not to mention the stabilizers they add...

 

IMO see if you can locate a health food store and get some peroxide there and give it another round of tests.  (Freshness really counts with peroxide, so ideally there will be some kind of freshness date on it.)

Using the regular 3%. I'll see if I can find something stronger. I have an unopened bottle of the 3% stuff I can try it out again.

19 hours ago, Lebowski_ said:

Im currently in the middle of a 5 day regimen to bust the Cyano cycle and it includes 1ml/10g of 3% hydrogen peroxide nightly. I’ve noticed a big improvement, especially in the thickness of the Cyano mats. Today there was very little and only on the sand.

 

I’ve never had to deal with Cyano in the past, I’m guessing it’s because I went with LifeRock and barely seeded it with real LR. 
 

Good luck OP. We see you grinding. You got this.

Thanks. Fingers crossed this tank starts to turn around at some point. I haven't tried just dosing hydrogen peroxide to the tank. I usually just suck the cyano out during water changes.

 

I'm going to do a water change tonight and try and get as much of the cyano out as I can. I'm still not sure what to do about the constantly being smothered acans. Do I move them out and risk bringing the algae over to the other tank? Setup the QT tank as a coral Quarantine?

 

Apart from the cyano, the algae is still there. I'm really starting to suspect it's not gha. I have one snail that stays on the middle rock that eats around the algae but that's it. I recently added some more snails to my restarted 25g and I can see where they have eaten the algae on the back wall. The algae on the back wall is this length

 

I even moved the smallest astrea snail in that tank onto the back wall and I am watching it slowly leave a trail of clean glass behind it.

 

Now for my very unscientific approach. I removed all the cyano from the algae on the centre rock of the 75g, took some scissors and cut it down as close to the rock as I could. Which left it at around the same length as the back wall of the 25g pictured above. I then took the snail and placed it directly on the small patch of algae. That was last night, this morning the snail is still on the rock, but it never ate any of the algae. Again, could be lots of reasons why, but I have never seen any snails/crabs in the 75g make any sort of visible dent in any of the algae. The urchin I tried did make a small patch clear then died.

 

I might play around with my crappy microscope again tonight and see if I can get some good photos of both for comparison.

 

Since the cyano started coming in I have also noticed a huge increase in aiptasia in the tank. The aiptasia are also looking a lot healthier than before. For a very long time I had a few in the tank, but they would either die off when the algae first started or always looked shrivelled up. Now they look big and tentaclely... Either way, another pest I am losing to...