Does this indicate the ugly stage is coming to an end!?

[SharkRacer]

I am 8 months in to this tank and for the past few months I’ve been dealing with nasty green hair algae on this rock, however a significant transformation occurred over the last week!

Does this mean the ugly stage is finally coming to an end?! Is there anything else I should be doing to seal the deal?

 

[blaxsun]

Maybe, although the "ugly stage" usually only lasts a week or two and only when you're first cycling the tank.

 

[Jekyl]

Find some coraline on a snail or hermit and scrape it off into a wavemaker.

 

[Chrisv.]

Find some coraline on a snail or hermit and scrape it off into a wavemaker.

+1 to this advice. The coraline algae in a bottle also worked for me. Purple helix I think it's called.

 

[Dan_P]

I am 8 months in to this tank and for the past few months I’ve been dealing with nasty green hair algae on this rock, however a significant transformation occurred over the last week!

Does this mean the ugly stage is finally coming to an end?! Is there anything else I should be doing to seal the deal?

Nice! Did you do anything special to get this result?

 

[jabberwock]

Having a reef tank is like having a kid. No sleep, total chaos for 8 months, then a groove happens. They tie there shoes, the sleep for 8 hours, they stop screaming, for four months, then total chaos again. After about 10 years things start to mellow out, then... puberty. It is a roller coaster, hang on to your hat!

 

[SharkRacer]

Find some coraline on a snail or hermit and scrape it off into a wavemaker.

Yup I’ve already got some growing (slowly but surely)

 

[SharkRacer]

Nice! Did you do anything special to get this result?

Pulled off as much as I could by hand, added a CUC with an emerald crab, added ~20 more lbs of live rock, then did a water change.

All of these things are good but I still feel Iike this is kind of a miracle happening before my eyes!

 

[Tamberav]

Pulled off as much as I could by hand, added a CUC with an emerald crab, added ~20 more lbs of live rock, then did a water change.

All of these things are good but I still feel Iike this is kind of a miracle happening before my eyes!

You did good! I set up a tank with some live rock about a year ago and it had a nice green forest... I just added some standard CUC and waited.. did normal water changes and didn't' stress... rock clean as a whistle now.

 

[Jekyl]

Yup I’ve already got some growing (slowly but surely)
[/QUOTE
On your way then

 

[Jekyl]

Yup I’ve already got some growing (slowly but surely)

On your way then

 

[SharkRacer]

You did good! I set up a tank with some live rock about a year ago and it had a nice green forest... I just added some standard CUC and waited.. did normal water changes and didn't' stress... rock clean as a whistle now.

Why does the green algae die out? Seems like it was super lush and I couldn’t imagine it disappearing but it’s happening!

 

[Tamberav]

Why does the green algae die out? Seems like it was super lush and I couldn’t imagine it disappearing but it’s happening!

combination of CUC eating/picking at it and other organisms gaining ground and using resources whether that be space or nutrients and so on.

This was mine... the brown lightbulb nem to the top right and a nice green/brown forest

Same tank a month later... can see the lightbulb nem to the right again and a sparkly clean rock.

I did nothing but add a few snails (trochus), 1 emerald crab, and a tiny ORA tuxedo urchin. Better then a $30 bottle of vibrant any day.

 

[SharkRacer]

combination of CUC eating/picking at it and other organisms gaining ground and using resources whether that be space or nutrients and so on.

This was mine... the brown lightbulb nem to the top right and a nice green/brown forest

Same tank a month later... can see the lightbulb nem to the right again and a sparkly clean rock.

I did nothing but add a few snails (trochus), 1 emerald crab, and a tiny ORA tuxedo urchin. Better then a $30 bottle of vibrant any day.

Impressive for just one month!

 

[b breef]

Nice! Did you do anything special to get this result?

That’s about the age of my tank. Mines few months ahead but I dealt with gha and others up till only a month ago. Crazy amounts of manual maintenance and after adding a bottle of corline,- many age of tank- I finally have clean rocks. Stay the corse and you’ll be fine.
i dont know if coralline helps that much but I certainly see a huge difference in only a few month of growth!

 

[Dan_P]

That’s about the age of my tank. Mines few months ahead but I dealt with gha and others up till only a month ago. Crazy amounts of manual maintenance and after adding a bottle of corline,- many age of tank- I finally have clean rocks. Stay the corse and you’ll be fine.
i dont know if coralline helps that much but I certainly see a huge difference in only a few month of growth!

That’s interesting and encouraging! Good luck.

 

[SharkRacer]

Update: miracles DO happen. At 8 months in, my tank is now (for the moment) practically algae free!

patience does work (and water changes every 3-4 weeks helps too!)