Algae

[Bobothegreat]

hello everyone,
So I had a sea slug die in my tank and it’s been a bad fight ever since only thing that survived was a damsel and a clown fish. Even my coral I believe has almost died. I just got everything back somewhat under control and straight. Now I am wanting some advice on how to attack the rest of this tank and get it looking better. I just replaced the cleaning crew I now have 12 snails and 3 shrimp.

 

[Bobothegreat]

 

[downloadking2006]

Do you have a sump work more live rock, because that's not enough in the display tank?
You need at least a pound per gallon if your gonna want proper biological filtration.

 

[Subsea]

Do you have a sump work more live rock, because that's not enough in the display tank?
You need at least a pound per gallon if your gonna want proper biological filtration.

That is not true about needing live rock for biofiltration. Reef grade aroggonite at .1-1.0 mm diameter has 100 fold more surface area per pound than internal porosity of liverock.

@Bobothegreat ,

You have a maintenance problem. Vacuum your sandbed. Remove rocks covered with algae and scrub off hair algae. Before putting rock back in tank, dip it in a 10% solution of hydrogen peroxide for 10 minutes. I do this with coral on rock. If corals are delicate, then reduce to 5 minute soak.

Get a bunch of snails for janitors. Leave hermits out of cuc, they will eat snails and wear the shells for a hat. If possible, grow seaweed on an opposite light cycle in an algae filter.

PS: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/15-steps-to-starting-a-saltwater-aquarium-the-lasse-method.556865/

I suggest, as much as possible, you integrate your reef methods with the Lasse Method

 

[Billldg]

First thing, we need your parameters, if they are elevated that could be one cause for the algae.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

scrub the rock and vac the sand bed. I scrub my rock in a container of old tank water. You may have to do this weekly for a while. The h2o2 dip will help also.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I forgot to ask are you using RO/DI water?

 

[Subsea]

hello everyone,
So I had a sea slug die in my tank and it’s been a bad fight ever since only thing that survived was a damsel and a clown fish. Even my coral I believe has almost died. I just got everything back somewhat under control and straight. Now I am wanting some advice on how to attack the rest of this tank and get it looking better. I just replaced the cleaning crew I now have 12 snails and 3 shrimp.

What branch of military are you in? Are you still in Japan? I looked at your build thread and was impressed with cabinet/stand build. The natural wood grain of pallet material looks very stylish, especial the sea drift handles.

If you read the Lassie Method, you will see where he recommends no testing for 6 months.

While your sea slug would contribute organic nutrients when it died, if your tank was properly cycled, it would have made little differrence. I have had a large Sea Appe die & dissolve in tank with no problems. I suggest you use granulated activated carbon and get a better handle on your DOC. In tanks that are underfed with low nutrients, undesirable algae has the advantage.

Feed your tank and get algae grazers.

 

[Bobothegreat]

First thing, we need your parameters, if they are elevated that could be one cause for the algae.

PH 8.1
Nitrate and nitrite and ammonia 0

I forgot to ask are you using RO/DI water?

Yes

What branch of military are you in? Are you still in Japan? I looked at your build thread and was impressed with cabinet/stand build. The natural wood grain of pallet material looks very stylish, especial the sea drift handles.

If you read the Lassie Method, you will see where he recomeds no testing for 6 months.

While your sea slug would contribute organic nutrients when it died, if your tank was properly cycled, it would have made little differrence. I have had a large Sea Appe die & dissolve in tank with no problems. I suggest you use granulated activated carbon and get a better handle on your DOC. In tanks that are underfed with low nutrients, undesirable algae has the advantage.

Feed your tank and get algae grazers.

Navy and still currently in japan. And thank you for the compliments. I need to find a different vacuum I have one that was battery operated but it kept giving me issues

 

[Subsea]

A gravel vac is simply a siphon hose of small diameter with a larger diameter for the gravelvac portion. Because the ratio of the two areas, the velocity of water in gravel vac is less than the velocity in hose. This reduces the amount of sand picked up but is sufficient to pick up less dense algae & detritus. When aggressive algae clings to sand, I remove gravel vac portion and siphon straight from smaller diameter hose. When using this technique, you must coordinate distance of sand to hose end very well, otherwise you will suck out more sand than necessary.

 

[Subsea]

@Bobothegreat

Considering that your tank is < 1 yr old and will not be permanent as your duty station changes, I suggest you rip clean your substrate. Get a bunch of 5G buckets and syphon out all water from display. Remove all live rock. Catch all fish and janitors and put in bucket. Remove all wet sand and bring outside in 5G buckets. Never put 1/2 full of sand. Salt water weighs 8.4 lbs per gallon, so a 5G bucket of water is 40 lbs. Wet sand is twice the density of salt water. I have broken handles with the weight of 50 pounds.

Wash wet sand with municipal supply water. Allow bucket to overflow carrying away detritus and organic build up. Don’t fret about bacteria on & in sand. You will not wash all away.

You also have many bacteria in your live rock, unfortunately you have excessive nuisance algae & the wrong bacteria.

The most important thing you don’t have is higher life forms to absorb those nutrients in your tank, so they accumulate. What you now have is a sluge pit going downhill. How much time left in Japan?

 

[Bobothegreat]

@Bobothegreat

Considering that your tank is < 1 yr old and will not be permanent as your duty station changes, I suggest you rip clean your substrate. Get a bunch of 5G buckets and syphon out all water from display. Remove all live rock. Catch all fish and janitors and put in bucket. Remove all wet sand and bring outside in 5G buckets. Never put 1/2 full of sand. Salt water weighs 8.4 lbs per gallon, so a 5G bucket of water is 40 lbs. Wet sand is twice the density of salt water. I have broken handles with the weight of 50 pounds.

Wash wet sand with municipal supply water. Allow bucket to overflow carrying away detritus and organic build up. Don’t fret about bacteria on & in sand. You will not wash all away.

You also have many bacteria in your live rock, unfortunately you have excessive nuisance algae & the wrong bacteria.

The most important thing you don’t have is higher life forms to absorb those nutrients in your tank, so they accumulate. What you now have is a sluge pit going downhill. How much time left in Japan?

I have 2 years left here

 

[Subsea]

I have 2 years left here

Rip clean your substrate. Max time 4 hours. If you are organized, it could be easily done in 2 hours.

 

[Bobothegreat]

Rip clean your substrate. Max time 4 hours. If you are organized, it could be easily done in 2 hours.

Ok I am working next two days but Wednesday I plan to do some more work to it I will be pulling rock and scrubbing them. I am waiting for my new DI cartridge to get here before I can really make more water so I’m going to clean the sand the best I can. As far as the rock with the coral. What is the best way to clean of the coral it was attacked by algae and I believe it has killed a lot of it. Also it has started growing what seems to be like free like algae next to and started to mix in with the coral

 

[Subsea]

@Brandon

Ok I am working next two days but Wednesday I plan to do some more work to it I will be pulling rock and scrubbing them. I am waiting for my new DI cartridge to get here before I can really make more water so I’m going to clean the sand the best I can. As far as the rock with the coral. What is the best way to clean of the coral it was attacked by algae and I believe it has killed a lot of it. Also it has started growing what seems to be like free like algae next to and started to mix in with the coral

Treatment is the same for all rock in your tank. Soak rock for 10 minutes in 10% solution of hydrogen peroxide. Add 10oml of 3.5% hydrogen peroxide to bath for every 1000ml of water from tank. Flush off rock with tap water and put back in in display tank. In effect, you will take every rock out and bath it in peroxide. Your substrate is flushed out with tap water and returned to tank.

 

[Bobothegreat]

So started cleaning rock today and on first one I’ve found a ton of bristle worms and then a couple of these little white things but I don’t know what they are.

 

[Bobothegreat]

I also found these they looked like gel balls or something kind of reminded me of fish eggs and this algae that seemed more plant or tree like

 

[Tastee]

Bubble algae, Valonia Ventricosa (according to Dr Google!).

I had a little in my tank but was able to physically remove it all - took about 2 months keeping a close eye out and removing it once or twice a week. I only popped a couple and didn’t see an outbreak - popping the bubbles causes them to release spores.

From what I have read Emerald crabs can help with bigger infestations.