CUC dying GHA growing

[sawdavis]

That's barely a crew. I'd recommend the 55g package from reefcleaners.org and dosing live phyto. All natural method.

I know. As I said I can't keep a larger one alive. What is live phyto?

 

[Jekyl]

I know. As I said I can't keep a larger one alive. What is live phyto?

OceanMagik

OceanMagik is a nutritious mixture of four Live Phytoplankton strains (Nano, Iso, Tet, and Thal) that is great for feeding copepods, corals, clams, and other filter-feeding inverts. OceanMagik is a hand-selected blend of the most nutritious Live Phytoplankton strains available.

www.algaebarn.com

 

[sixty_reefer]

I always do a drip acclimation for at least an hour before adding any CUC. I do continue to dose AB+ and directly feed my corals with it. I usually do regular 20% water changes every two weeks. Do you think upping the Magnesium might have affected my urchin? I have taken a picture of my display tank.

My advice would be to stop dosing ab+ as the algae is getting all the nutrients instead of the coral, allow for nitrates and phosphates to raise, test for potassium and iodine and dose if necessary as they can limit your chaeto from growing and compete with the display algaes. High Mg can affect cuc as is often recommended to be removed prior to raise it.
To finish it of I would add a small maintenance dose off dissolved organic carbon to raise bacteria that can compete with algae for nutrients.

 

[Sump Crab]

I would try another urchin or two, they are great algae eaters. Also a Refugium would do you a lot of good. Chaeto can be notoriously difficult in sone tanks. Try caulerpa prolifera or another similar species. Good luck!

 

[sawdavis]

My advice would be to stop dosing ab+ as the algae is getting all the nutrients instead of the coral, allow for nitrates and phosphates to raise, test for potassium and iodine and dose if necessary as they can limit your chaeto from growing and compete with the display algaes. High Mg can affect cuc as is often recommended to be removed prior to raise it.
To finish it of I would add a small maintenance dose off dissolved organic carbon to raise bacteria that can compete with algae for nutrients.

But if I stop dosing ab+, won't my corals starve along with my GHA?

 

[sixty_reefer]

But if I stop dosing ab+, won't my corals starve along with my GHA?

No, as long as you got residual nitrates and phosphates your coral will be fine, your goal will be reducing the organic nutrients in your system.

 

[sawdavis]

No, as long as you got residual nitrates and phosphates your coral will be fine, your goal will be reducing the organic nutrients in your system.

For how long would you advise that I stop feeding my corals AB+

 

[sawdavis]

For how long would you advise that I stop feeding my corals AB+

Also, if high Magnesium levels detrimentally affect CUC, which is more effective for combatting GHA over the long term? High Mag levels and low CUC or high CUC and low Magnesium?

 

[sixty_reefer]

For how long would you advise that I stop feeding my corals AB+

Until you can eradicate your algae, most coral foods will also feed the algae ideally you will always want to eradicate algae first and then concentrate on feeding corals

 

[sixty_reefer]

Also, if high Magnesium levels detrimentally affect CUC, which is more effective for combatting GHA over the long term? High Mag levels and low CUC or high CUC and low Magnesium?

Cuc will always be my choice as high Mg is normally it and miss and it may only work with some algae species. I believe some folks had some success eradicating bryopsis with it.

 

[paintman]

Any link to post describing what/how you handled this (for those who might be interested)?

It's not going to get done overnight. But it will be alot cheaper than wasting money on a cleanup crew. And hopefully you will feel alot better about ourself knowing your not killing a bunch of inverts.

YOU NEED TO DEDICATE SPENDING TIME WITH YOUR TANK NOT JUST DUMPING SOMETHING IN AND WALKING AWAY HOPING FOR THE BEST! AGAIN THE CURRENT CULTURE OF THIS HOBBY IS TO RELY ON GADGETS THAT BLINK, AND BOTTLES OF CRAP, THAT WE THINK WILL ALLOW US TO JUST WALK AWAY FROM OUR TANKS AND NOT DO ANY KIND OF MANUAL WORK.

Here it goes.............
First you will need
Dedication
Turkey baster
Tooth brushes
Air stone/line and pump
Power filter (I use a Sicce 2.0) In my case I used 2 since I have a large tank. If you don't know what a power filter is just look on youtube.

Every day...............I usually did my tank just before lights out.
1.Turn all your pumps and power heads up so you have maximum flow through and around the tank. And I mean twist the $%@^ out of the tank to keep everything suspended!

2. Place power filter in tank and turn on. Then scrub the livin P@#$$ out of the rocks with your tooth brush and get all the crap into the water column. I always worked from one side of the tank to the other and then started over. Sometimes I did as many as 3-4 passes across my tank.

3. At the same time use your turkey baster and blow the rocks off. And I don't mean just the surfaces. Take the dang thing and point it directly into the pours of the rocks, and blow! You will be amazed at what junk comes out from inside the rocks.

4. You can also stir up a portion of your sand each time. I typicaly did about 25% each day.

5. When your done turn on your air stone and bubble scrub the tank all night until the following morning. Most importantly keep the tank twisting to allow all the junk to stay in suspension so that the power filter, and your sock or rollermat can grab it.

The next morning remove power filter/socks and slow the tank back down to normal.

At first I was doing this every day for the first week or so. It's frustrating because at first you will scrub a rock and think you have it clean, only to have the stuff grow back the next day. It will be frustrating but you will win. Eventually you will notice a recession and the rocks will start to stay clean. Thats not when you stop. Keep going until nothing is growing back. I had to do my tank for about 6-8 weeks but now I can say I have been GHA, bryopsis,lynbya, or (whatever you want to call it) free! Most importantly......Stay on top of your tank, and don't let it get away from you. I still brush my rocks every Sunday afternoon while watching NASCAR or now the NFL.
Heres some more befor and after pics

 

[EricR]

So, manual labor? Yikes -- just kidding.

Mine's not that bad (yet) and I'm lucky enough to have a smaller tank where I can pull out a good chunk of my affected rock and scrub in separate bin of old water change water,,, but it's still WORK.

I completely agree with your previous sentiment about not just dumping stuff (chemicals) into the tank hoping for a quick fix.

I recently caused myself grief by not doing any water changes (and no rock cleaning) for over a month -- mainly by choice to try to bring up nutrients but also vacation, work, and,,, uhhh,,, well,,, laziness.

 

[sawdavis]

Thank you for your suggestions. I have been doing a lot of what you suggested, but maybe not as intensely. Every time I do a water change, I take out the rocks that I can and scrub them with a tooth brush. I also brush the rocks that I cannot remove while my vacuum is removing water. Daily, I have been blowing off my rocks with a turkey baster and picking off algae by hand that has grown back. I then use a large fish net and sweep it across the water with the pumps on to get as much debris out as I can.

Let me see if I completely understand your process. You put a filter pump into the display tank in order to keep the water moving so that debris cannot settle while you scrub algae off your rocks? Do you then turn it off and use the air stone and high water flow at night to keep the debris from settling? I have a sump so the water goes down and flows across a filter tray. Would I also need to put a filter sock in the display tank?

The only concern I have about your method is that I have a few corals and fish that do not like high water flow. Did you have any of these types in your tank? If so, how did they respond?

Thanks again for your input.