Mixed Reef Jar—big changes

[NatureGuy]

The algae still seems to be unaffected. I may try a more aggressive amount of H2O2 next week

[NatureGuy]

Just noticed a small striped snail

[mcarroll]

I don't normally comment on Journal threads since you can never tell when someone really wants suggestions, so apologies in advance if they are called for....

 

Having at least one [astrea|trochus|turbo] along with at least a few more small herbivores such as Ceriths, is a good idea.  Otherwise algae eventually moves in like this.

 

Even though you'll be adding snails now, once the algae is in the condition where you have it now, it's beyond snails...they can't eat algae that has grown big enough to see.  It's tricky to do in such a small tank, but you need to remove as much of that algae by hand (tweezer-fingers!) as possible.....THEN spot treat the remainder (if any).

 

FYI, I haven't really seen many (any?) folks have luck with grocery store peroxide....the concentration is LOW, in addition to the preservatives it needs (technically just a stabilizer, but it's not very reefy).   Without preservatives, you're just dosing a bottle of water....H2O2 really wants to be H2O.   This is also why health food store peroxide tends to be 30% concentration....that's the concentration at bottling time....it won't still be 30% when it gets used.  BUT....get it fresh, and it seems to work WAY BETTER for the folks who've used it.  Use it directly on the algae, no paper towels or anything.  If you can do it outside the tank, even better, but that's not strictly necessary....just advantageous in such a small tank.   Work in small areas at a time, just like you will do for finger-tweezer-ing!  😉 

[NatureGuy]

The peroxide has taken effect. The algae to which it was applied has whitened. There does still seem to be a bit of green at the base of the stalks though, so I will attempt applying it with a heavier hand next time. If that doesn't work, I'll consider food grade 35% peroxide. This is a late update, the photos are from yesterday.   

[NatureGuy]

2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I don't normally comment on Journal threads since you can never tell when someone really wants suggestions, so apologies in advance if they are called for....

 

Having at least one [astrea|trochus|turbo] along with at least a few more small herbivores such as Ceriths, is a good idea.  Otherwise algae eventually moves in like this.

 

Even though you'll be adding snails now, once the algae is in the condition where you have it now, it's beyond snails...they can't eat algae that has grown big enough to see.  It's tricky to do in such a small tank, but you need to remove as much of that algae by hand (tweezer-fingers!) as possible.....THEN spot treat the remainder (if any).

 

FYI, I haven't really seen many (any?) folks have luck with grocery store peroxide....the concentration is LOW, in addition to the preservatives it needs (technically just a stabilizer, but it's not very reefy).   Without preservatives, you're just dosing a bottle of water....H2O2 really wants to be H2O.   This is also why health food store peroxide tends to be 30% concentration....that's the concentration at bottling time....it won't still be 30% when it gets used.  BUT....get it fresh, and it seems to work WAY BETTER for the folks who've used it.  Use it directly on the algae, no paper towels or anything.  If you can do it outside the tank, even better, but that's not strictly necessary....just advantageous in such a small tank.   Work in small areas at a time, just like you will do for finger-tweezer-ing!  😉 

I appreciate the advice! I do make use of manual removal but not with bear hands/tweezers. The algae is attached to the rock such that it takes the rock with it when I attepet to rip it off. Because of this, I've been used aquascaping scissors to cut it off. Due to the texture of the rock, I've not been able to get a very close cut, but I will try next time. 

 

I'll try the food grade peroxide if it comes to that, but I'm going to give 3% peroxide another chance first. When you say to apply directly, do you mean to drip/quirt it on? 

[NatureGuy]

I’ve just repeated my previous steps. I still used the paper towel, but this time I made sure it was entirely saturated with peroxide such that it could be “wrung out” against the rock. I accidentally knocked down the coral skeleton and couldn’t get it to stay up, so I took it out. I’ll probably put it back it eventually. 

[mcarroll]

17 hours ago, NatureGuy said:

The algae is attached to the rock such that it takes the rock with it when I attepet to rip it off.

This is pretty typical – it basically has roots.  

 

Depending on the rock, you might have to brace it with something (a pencil?) while you pull, but also make sure you're only grabbing one (or very few) strands of algae on each "pinch" to minimize the amount of "pull" the algae can have on the rock.  This is also why it's important to work in small areas about 1 or 2 sq in until each area is TOTALLY clean.  It can be tedious, but you CAN make progress if you hit it every day.  (And add CUC to prevent regrowth.)

 

Honestly, in this case I'd save up 5 gallons of used water change water (or make 5 gallons fresh, to be sacrificed) and move each rock over and work on the cleaning in a 5 gallon bucket (or similar) where you can easily use two hands and see what you're doing.  Not ideal since you're disturbing the rock and any attached corals (again)...but the time exposed to air can be minimized (maybe even eliminated) with some clever handling in between the tank and the bucket....and importantly you get a much more legitimate shot at defeating this algae vs attempting to handling it in that tiny jar, without using anything (eg peroxide) that will further disturb the rock.  We don't like the algae, but we DO like the rest of the microbial life around them (periphyton). 😉 (Yes, you can still ALSO use peroxide....just saying you might not *have to* in the scenario I outlined above.)

[NatureGuy]

I’m trying to fix my hair cuticles rn and it’s reminding me of reefing. Chemistry I guess -|_(.-.)_|-

 

 

[Elizabeth94]

Back when I used peroxide I would do it during a water change. Drain the tank to whatever level you want, use a pipette put a few drops in the algae. Let it sit for a few mins and then refill tank with new water. I wonder if doing it with drops would let it get into the pores of the rock/roots of the algae. 
 

Peroxide is relatively safe however your water volume is so much lower I am not sure how much peroxide would be considered too much. 

[NatureGuy]

On 9/27/2023 at 12:21 PM, Elizabeth94 said:

Back when I used peroxide I would do it during a water change. Drain the tank to whatever level you want, use a pipette put a few drops in the algae. Let it sit for a few mins and then refill tank with new water. I wonder if doing it with drops would let it get into the pores of the rock/roots of the algae. 
 

Peroxide is relatively safe however your water volume is so much lower I am not sure how much peroxide would be considered too much. 

I'll have to try that. I'm definitely scared of putting in to much. So far it seems harmless enough though

[NatureGuy]

I think the peroxide may have taken the planaria with it. Either that or the population is just naturally fluctuating. First pic is now and second is an old one. There's definitely still a few though 

[NatureGuy]

The great divide 

[mcarroll]

Looks like h2o2 had an impact there?

[NatureGuy]

2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Looks like h2o2 had an impact there?

It has! I mean to update after the second use of it, looks like I forgot though… I’ll take some pics later 

[NatureGuy]

Um… did this mushroom just vomit up its organs? 
 

Edit: looks like it was just something that fell atop the coral 

[NatureGuy]

These lil fluffly things aren’t the spawn of Cthulhu by any chance are they?  

[natalia_la_loca]

8 minutes ago, NatureGuy said:

These lil fluffly things aren’t the spawn of Cthulhu by any chance are they?  

 

could be. Are they hundreds of feet tall and demanding you worship them? Could also be hydroids.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

it looks like sw hydra

 

not very helpful i know seeing as they are just more cnidarians too but......anyhoo. Hydra get an undeserved bad rap in FW

 

Pest anemone?

[mcarroll]

Hydroids?   Seems like they are non-colonial though which is a little odd, but probably not impossible.  🤷‍♂️

 

I'm going with Chthulu....keep an eye on em!

[NatureGuy]

Things are going down

[NatureGuy]

On 1/5/2023 at 11:18 AM, growsomething said:

Rock on the left looks great, on the right looks algae covered?

Think you could glue it all together to form an irregular cylinder covered in softies all the way around, or do you want one side of the jar covered to hide lines?

 

Well, this tank has been up for over a year now. It could be grown in and thriving, but, admittedly, a year up as been a year of neglect. 

 

I started this tank out with a few easy coral: two zoa frags, clove polyps, a red rodactis shroom, and a green rodactis shroom. Since this time I've lost one zoa frag because I let the water line drop bellow where the frag was placed. The other zoa and the clove polyps are getting choked out by algae and have both been closed and receding for months now. 

 

The only success I've expiranced was in the early days, when the green rodactis split. Asside from this, there has been no growth which is my fault for rarely doing matenance. 

 

Fast forward to now and hopefully a new start for the jar. I've found myself with a renewed interest, and a resolve to reapply myself to the jar which will hopefully last longer this time. 

 

In the last week I've begun fixing the problems I've had with the jar and changing the things I hate about it. 

 

The first change was the aquascape. Originally, It was jsut a precariously places pile of rocks. This sucked because, I couldn't clean the entirety of the glass, and they often shifted slightly when I attempted to remove algae or glue frags down. So, I removed all the coral from the rocks, took them all out of the tank, put the big one in a ziplock, then smashed it to bits on concrete. I've made a more asthetical and practical aquascape, held together with epoxy (pic bellow). I'm not quite happy with it yet, it kinds looks like half an aquascape to me. I may add another rock on the left, but I think I'm gonna wait a few days and see how I feel about it. 

 

The second change is to the water parameters. So far I've been using premixed salt water from one of my LFS; however, they only mix it to 1.021 and it has nitrate in it right of the bat. For this reason, I've began mixing my own salt water with Instant Ocean reef crystals. I don't have a source of RO water yet, and have been using distilled water from a grocery store. I don't want to have to bother with an RO system, so I hope to be able to get RO water from a fishstore, but not my old LFS because of the afforementioned nitrate situation. Everything went well with my first expirance mixing salt. I mixed it in a five gallon bucket with a pump and a heater, then let it sit for twenty-four hours before changing out the water. After fourty-eight hours, however, I did notice a ring of brown stuff far above the water line in the bucket. I'm a little worried it's precipitate that I hadn't noticed before. I did at the salt gradually. 

 

All the algae is gone via spot treating peroxide. I simply cut the bulk of it out with scissors, then spot treat with a paper towel that is dripping wet with peroxide. The only algae left is on the frag plugs of the remaining zoa and the cloves. I've been to scared to spot treat it because this would mean exposing those coral directly to peroxide. Coral Rx says it aids in the treatment of hair algae so I may try dipping them; however, I'm not sure if what I have is hair algae at all—It is in strands, but they seem to be much thicker then what I usually see called hair algae. I'm leaning toward dipping the coral in a one part peroxide and  parts  water solution. They may not survive, but, so long as the algae lives, they're never open anyway. I'm open to advice. I do have an emerald crab, he's been in there for a while so he's definately eating something, but he's never had a visible efect on the algae. 

 

Welp that sums up the changes! In conclusion, I should've taken peoples adivce early on specifically that @growsomething who advised me against using an algae covered rock, and suggested that I do a hardscape that avoids the walls of the jar. I'm sorry I ignored you, and definitely payed the price. (I've quoted him above) In the future, I will pay more attention to advice. 

 

Also, I got a new coral! It is a duncan of the austrailian long branch variety (aquacultured). I do intend to only purchase aquacultured coral going forward, but I will no longer be keeping the Jar softie only

 

[NatureGuy]

I’m now leaning toward keeping the slightly lop sided scape so that I can fit in a frag rack—I couldn’t find a pico sized one that didn’t use suction cups 

[NatureGuy]

Does it look like I could remove this frag plug with a razor blade? 

[natalia_la_loca]

looking good!!

 

fyi Oceanbox Designs has an assortment of pico sized frag racks with magnet mounts. Available on their website and also on Amazon. Pretty sure they’re smaller than the one(s) you’re holding in that pic.

 

yes you can remove that frag plug with a razor blade.

[NatureGuy]

On 3/15/2024 at 6:56 PM, natalia_la_loca said:

fyi Oceanbox Designs has an assortment of pico sized frag racks with magnet mounts. Available on their website and also on Amazon. Pretty sure they’re smaller than the one(s) you’re holding in that pic.

Those are just what I was looking for! Thirty dollars each seems kinda steep though. . . I’ll see how the cheap Amazon one works 

 

New coral acclimating!