Jcrissey's Fluval Edge Office Build

[frags4life]

How's it goin, everythin better now?

[Jcrissey]

How's it goin, everythin better now?

Been doing lights out for more than two weeks. The outbreak is much better but there are still some clumps hanging on though they are mostly white now from lack of photosynthesis.

I placed an order today for a clean-up crew from Reefcleaners.org-- quick NR sponsor plug-- John at RC was awesome in helping me identify what form of algae I actually was dealing with. After a couple days and emails he determined it was indeed bryopsis. Great guy and I'm glad to send him what little business I can with only a 6-gal. tank.

I think I'll spot-treat the remaining bryopsis with peroxide and then turn the lights back on. If that fails, a lettuce sea slug is definitely in my future.

[frags4life]

Hope all is well for ur tank....

[Jcrissey]

Hope all is well for ur tank....

I think I have the bryopsis problem at bay after dripping affected rocks with peroxide and doing one systemic dose to the tank followed by a couple heavy water changes.

Last week I received my CUC order from ReefCleaners.org and added them toy tank- nerites, dwarf and Florida ceriths and nassarius snails. Waiting til after the holidays to add my first fish.

[CarterNichols]

How's the tank?

[Jcrissey]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on here. My tank has been doing great in the time since I last posted up until about a month and a half ago when I started experiencing an outbreak of bryopsis algae.

Inhabitants include clown fish, fire shrimp and an assortment of zoas, shrooms and green star polyps as well as a trumpet coral and frogspawn.

 

As to what set off the bryopsis outbreak, I'm not sure, but my cleanup crew had all but expired so I'm guessing that probably had something to do with a nutrient spike that fed the bryopsis outbreak.

 

I tested water parameters and all was good, but I'm guessing much of the nitrate was bound up within the algae. I added a new cleanup crew as well as a lettuce sea slug (supposed to feast on bryopsis). I didn't do good enough job of acclimation and my sea slug died within several hours of adding it to the tank, but the new cleanup crew survived.

 

I decided last night to tackle the problem head-on with the often-discussed hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) method. I will chronicle it below in this post and in subsequent posts in this thread:

 

Day 0 (2/13/14)

Tested all water parameters, including pH (8.2-8.4), ammonia (trace), nitrite (0), nitrate (0), as well as carbonate hardness, phosphates and calcium, and all were zero or within recommended tolerance.

I removed all live rock from the tank (only 8 lbs) and gave each piece a healthy mist of 3% H2O2 from a spray bottle. Let them sit in the open air for a few minutes then put them in a bucket with some tank water from a water change.

 

Then I created a 8:1 solution of fresh-mix saltwater and 3% H2O2 in a bucket and dipped all my corals that had bryopsis for about 5 minutes.

 

I replaced the live rock about as well as I could to the original layout and then placed the coral back in the tank.

 

Day 1 (2/14/14)

Came back to my office this morning to a strong sulfur-like smell. Not a bad smell like rotten eggs, more like the smell of the ocean when swimming.

Tank is a little cloudy and bryopsis has turned white on most live rock and corals that were treated. The stuff on the back wall is still green.

 

Corals look pissed- frogspawn and zoas are barely open and shrooms are contracted, but this is to be expected as I've read from previous posts on H2O2. Clownfish showing no ill effects. A bristle worm is curled up on the sandbed, I'm assuming it's dead (not losing any sleep over that one).

Water parameters: Ammonia (0.5 ppm-too high!), phosphate, nitrite and nitrate all 0, and pH has dipped down to 7.8. I'm going to assume the ammonia spike is a result of the dying bryopsis, but I thought it would have released nitrate rather than ammonia into the tank. It could also be that I stressed the beneficial bacteria and they aren't able to break down ammonia right now. I figure the residual H2O2 from the previous day has lowered my pH.

My current plan is to allow the bryopsis to die off over the next couple days and allow the corals to recover a little, then dose 0.5 ml H2O2/day for the next 7 days to eradicate surviving bryopsis on the sandbed and back glass. I would begin a 72-hour blackout but am worried about further stressing the corals while they are recovering from the H2O2 dip.

[Jcrissey]

Day 2

"Oceanish" smell in my office has completely dissipated. Tank water looks much clearer and clownfish is unaffected by any residual H2O2 introduced to the tank from Day 0 treatment (above).

Frogspawn opened up a little more today than yesterday, but the zoas remain pi$$ed (but still have their color).


Hard to tell from this iPhone pic, but no change in treated live rock- bryopsis still white but not falling off.


Parameters (no water change since Day 0):
S.G.: 1.024
Ammonia: 0.5 ppm
Nitrate: 0.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
pH: 7.8-8.0 (too close to tell, I think it is rising back up though)
Phosphate: 0.0 ppm
Calcium: 380 ppm
Carbonate hardness: 8 dKH


So today, I performed a 20% water change and took all the live rock back out of the tank and scrubbed the bryopsis off the rocks as best I could. Then I drained the tank water down and squirted 1 mL of 3% H2O2 onto the heater/back glass and let it sit for a couple minutes before wiping the area with a paper towel. This will result in a tank dosing of roughly 0.5-1 mL in what is about a 5-gallon total water volume.

I am taking the opportunity to rearrange my live rock into more of an amphitheater look because the AI Nano in the Fluval Edge hood just doesn't reach the corners of the tank well enough to grow any coral. I hope this is the last time I have to take the rocks out of the tank.

Tank before new arrangement:


Tank now after scrubbing and rearranging live rock:

Will update again tomorrow. Mainly concerned about the Ammonia level at this point but I hope today's water change will lessen that. We'll see...

[Jcrissey]

Day 3

Water parameters the same, still 0.5 ppm ammonia.

Did a 20% water change.

And I've decided against doing any tank dosing of H2O2 until I see my corals recover and let the cleanup crew do its work on clearing the rest of the dead/dying bryopsis. If it comes back, I'll dose the tank for a couple days followed by a 72-hour lights-off to stress the bryopsis even more.

If that fails, I'll look into the Mg method of bryopsis reduction.

 

Day 4

Water parameters largely the same, although ammonia is down to 0.25 ppm and pH has locked in on 8.0.

Did a 20% water change.

Frogspawn opening up more today, as is my green star polyp colony. Zoas at the top of the tank still don't appear happy (too close to the light?), and mushrooms are coming around as well.

[Jcrissey]

Day 6

Bryopsis starting to return on live rocks directly underneath light.

All water parameters unchanged, did a 20% water change.

 

Day 7

I took my zoo colony, green star polyp colony and one large piece of live rock and dipped them in a 1:1 solution of tank water/3%H2O2 for five minutes, then rinsed them in clean tank water and put them back in the tank. I thought for sure this would kill the corals but they seem to be recovering fine, though they are obviously in "recovery" mode.

[Jcrissey]

I think I have it mostly under control. 20% water changes just about every day for the last 10 days to export as much nitrate/phosphate buildup as I can to try and starve the bryopsis. There are now a few small tufts of it in three spots around the tank, but something I can control with spot treatments of H2O2.

I purchased a lettuce sea slug last week and added him to the tank, he seems to be cruising around pretty happy (but slowly) though I haven't yet seen him mow down any bryopsis yet. As I type this he's working his way across my zoa colony, presumably eating some bryopsis as he goes.

Water conditions are perfect, yet the bryopsis is still evident. My next step after the lettuce sea slug experiment is to add some chaeto and a small light to my AC50 InTank basket (currently only filtration is filter floss- all other filtration is biological-Live Rock).

If the chaeto doesn't starve out the bryopsis, I will try a 72-hour lights out period followed by the elevated magnesium method. I just want to make sure my new lettuce sea slug, duncan and fungia plate coral get a chance to acclimate before I try that.

Any advice you all have (including mechanical filtration suggestions) would be appreciated.