DeReef Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 Any ideas about combatting red algae? I do not want to start with chemicals. Link to comment
Xavier Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 Talk to Bryan at http://www.thelogicalreef.com about his queen conchs.. supposedly will eat the stuff.. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 what kind of red algae? fleshy? slimy? leafy? bubble? a pic or better description will help us help you better. Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 If it is Cyano, I will (as of today) say get some Boyd's Chemi-Clean. I had a re-breakout in my 2.5 and just didn't want to scrub, and polyfilter, and bla bla bla natural, bla bla bla etc. I have heard good things and recomended before without trying myself (saw tanks that used it). Anyway, bought some yesterday, cut up the mini mix with a razor, threw it in the 2.5, and this morning the cyano is all but vanished, just remaining decompossing dead chunks from thick area. The rocks even look better because it not only kills the cyano, but it also oxidizes trapped organic sludges and sediments. All coral survived except that a ricordea is not fully opened but I think it will be fine as well. What a relief, cyano is gone, no more, sianora, and the rocks look scrubbed (other gunk gone as well). I would say give it a try. Chemicals can sometimes be bad, but they can also make life a whole lot easier. Link to comment
Xavier Posted January 5, 2003 Share Posted January 5, 2003 Liquid.. did you notice any increase in NH4, NO3, or NO2? I did one dose last night, and it's working really well, but my NO3 is higher then norm... Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted January 5, 2003 Share Posted January 5, 2003 Didn't check, however I fugured that since they say to do the water change after the 48 hour dose it would be because the decomposing mats of bacteria would probably spike up those readings. I just did a 20% change (10 minutes ago) which should bring all levels back to normal shortly (if they were up). I will check in as couple hours to be sure. Link to comment
Xavier Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 Well.. my NO3 spiked to 10ppm.. I've checked my NH4 and NO2, both of which are undetectable... my clowns are stressing, lost a few blue legs, and few of my zoos are opening.. this is a 25g, so I did 10% (2.5g) last night.. and two 20% (5g) water changes today (morning and evening) but the NO3 hasn't dropped.. The test kit should be good because I've been using it to monitor the cycle, and my livestock are showing stress... :*( I had the same idea about the decaying cyano mats, so I've been trying to pick out what I could.. I need to dose again, but I'm going to wait until my NO3 stabilizes... (shows how much cyano I actually have.. *sigh*) Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 I checked my levels and all was fine and the Ricordea is back to normal. I had scooped out the little bit of dieing cyano that was in it so that I would not have such a problem but it was a very little amount to begin with when I dosed it. I just took care of it before it got out of control (which can happen very quickly). I would have to say the spike was due to, don't get mad, but I have to say it, the ungodly amounts of cyano that you have (had now) in your tank. I would have suggested you siphon off as much of it as possible before you dosed. That amount of die-off is sure to send levels through the roof before it stabelizes. I must say this though since I know you are stressing right now and doing the water changes, SIPHON OUT THE DEAD CYANO!, get as much as you can out with the water changes, this is the only way you are going to get things back to normal. Hope all goes well. Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 Oh, and just a suggestion, but I would throw an airstone in it for a little while to get some o2 in the water. The chemi-clean does consume it. Link to comment
Xavier Posted January 6, 2003 Share Posted January 6, 2003 AH! Now THAT may be an issue! I did not realize that... now if only I wasn't stuck at work... oh crap... I can't leave early either, I have a web site stress test tonight .. who wants to go do a water change and stick an airstone in my tank while I'm stuck at work? heh heh... I was trying to think why the NO3 wasn't going down even after water changes.. earlier, in a conversation with a coworker, I kinda related it to a fire (not realizing how close I really was)... a fire burns and consumes all the O2.. when it runs out, it will smolder until a fresh blast of O2 ignites it off again... I was thinking that the chemi-clean works the same way, but couldn't think what it was getting from the new water I was adding.. O2 like you said... maybe it's building up NO3 in the water until there's little O2.. stresses my fish and inverts.. when it runs out of O2.. it smolders until I do a water change at which time it explodes into action again until it runs out... here I was thinking that the lower NO3 immediately following my water change was making my fish look better but start struggling again within minutes with the increase of NO3, but it could be the chemi-clean is just using up the available O2 from my newly added water.... Makes much much more sense... Link to comment
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