LOSING IT! All opinions welcome!

[specialk]

Hey All - So I have about had it, and am about to lose my mind -- I know you all have been there. Many many times ..

SO ... here's the starter info you all need to see before offering any advice or opinions.

Before I left for work (I work for FEMA and was all over the country the last 2.5 months -- GF took basic, bare minimum care of the tank as best she could while away) here were my parameters as well as some notes about the system:

* 125 gallon, 6 ft long tank. Fuge, and 145 gallons of total water. Chaeto in the fuge
* was doing relatively consistent, every 2 week 10-15% water changes
* run ocean revive LEDs. 9 hours a day. Blues at about 90%
* Protein skimmer of course
* was running roxx carbon (but at the time I left it no doubt was maxxed out/drained)
* had some issues with bubble algae and some minor turf algae here and there
* Dosing alk, and Calcium and I will admit, I had a hard time getting #'s to stay exactly steady
* Po4 - jumped between 0.01 - 0.07 (hanna ULR)
* No3 - 10-15 (salifert)
* Cal - 450
* Alk - 8.2

Again, had some issues with bubble algae and I can say my rocks were never 100% free and clear looking like they should .. always seemed to have some gunk on them.

NOW .. I leave for 2.5 months. Come back

* Serious swings in parameters. Calcium was low (350), Alk was high (10.2) and obviously I did not have my dosing ump dialed in exactly right witht he right ml per day.

* Water temp dropped for about 5 days to 73/74 degrees as my heater controller that controls all 3 broke. Was like this for about 5 days at this temp (is now back to 80)

* nasty turf algae all over my rocks. Several frags that were just put into the tank 5-6 days ago, are bleaching. Nasty brown weird stringy algae on some of the sps and lps.

* LPS were stressed and totally receded.

* Testing for P04 - is getting 0.00 / Did not test for nitrate as I need a new test kit but with simple API test kit it is showing 0.

My dilema:

I have aabout had it with this bubble algae and what ever else this crap is. To the point I am about to scrap the tank, take everything out and do a TOTAL re-boot. However, I am looking into and been reading threads on some things such as:

* Algaefix
* Vibrant (not so sure about)
* Fluconazole

My main 2 concerns are this bubble algae and this redish turf algae. I need this crap out of the tank and I am willing to do anything. I am not sure what will work (and yes I have read up on many the threads on each) ... and if I should try the algaefix for the bubble, rid myself of that then go on from there ... or will water changes, getting my export methods in check, the "normal" routines if you will .. will this work?

I also do not feed a lot at all as I only have like 5 fish in there.

Could it be the swings in #'s that is causing this, should I just get things stable again and things will bounce back, should I use one of the 3 chemicals that others have had success with ....? And if so which one???

Lost all all opinions welcome ... sorry for long thread but wannted to pain an accurate picture as best I could.

Pics to follow below ...

 

[specialk]

 

[rtparty]

Couple things I'd do.

3 30% water changes spread out over a week or so. If your parameters are out of whack, best to do some massive water changes to get them back in line. Might need to manually scrub the rocks and blow them all off with a power head. Get any and all gunk out manually first.

I find 80° is too high for me. It leaves very little room for error. I prefer 77-78 so I have wiggle room in both directions.

How is your clean up crew?

I would look into getting your nitrates and phosphates up a little bit if you are seeing bleaching. I would dose them instead of just feeding more.

Do you have any tangs? Having a grazer could help fight some other algae issues.

Get all your test kits double checked. A faulty kit can really mess things up.

 

[JoshH]

I would say stability is key to start with. Getting everything stable again should be first priority and once stable, tackle the nasties. I personally don't have experience dealing with algae just yet, still going through the first bout of it on my tank but I'm just waiting it out (New tank). So someone else will have to chime in on the best way of removing it.

 

[specialk]

Couple things I'd do.

3 30% water changes spread out over a week or so. If your parameters are out of whack, best to do some massive water changes to get them back in line. Might need to manually scrub the rocks and blow them all off with a power head. Get any and all gunk out manually first.

I find 80° is too high for me. It leaves very little room for error. I prefer 77-78 so I have wiggle room in both directions.

How is your clean up crew?

I would look into getting your nitrates and phosphates up a little bit if you are seeing bleaching. I would dose them instead of just feeding more.

Do you have any tangs? Having a grazer could help fight some other algae issues.

Noted! I was wondering if the water changes would help.

I have 1 powder blue tang. Wanted to get more but he is a MAJOR bully and runs the tank. Always wanted to get another one but afraid it would not work.

Clean up crew -- have some snails, conchs, .. about 1 dozen when all added up.

Dosing .. I have been consistently testing the last 4 days (gonna order red sea nitrate test kit as that seems to get the best reviews from BRS) and yes am prepared to dose Brightwell NeoPhos and Sprectraside stump remover when I do have to get levels up. In fact just dosed NeoPhos yesterday to get levels up and am going to test every single day here on out until I get this resolved.

 

[specialk]

I would say stability is key to start with. Getting everything stable again should be first priority and once stable, tackle the nasties. I personally don't have experience dealing with algae just yet, still going through the first bout of it on my tank but I'm just waiting it out (New tank). So someone else will have to chime in on the best way of removing it.

Stability soooo sooo important with this hobby and I know this .. this is whyI am hoping stability will solve muh. Hoping!

 

[rtparty]

Noted! I was wondering if the water changes would help.

I have 1 powder blue tang. Wanted to get more but he is a MAJOR bully and runs the tank. Always wanted to get another one but afraid it would not work.

Clean up crew -- have some snails, conchs, .. about 1 dozen when all added up.

Dosing .. I have been consistently testing the last 4 days (gonna order red sea nitrate test kit as that seems to get the best reviews from BRS) and yes am prepared to dose Brightwell NeoPhos and Sprectraside stump remover when I do have to get levels up. In fact just dosed NeoPhos yesterday to get levels up and am going to test every single day here on out until I get this resolved.

You need to seriously boost your clean up crew. Get your water changes going and parameters back in line and boost it big time. Majority snails, no crabs unless emerald. Astraea, cerith and Mexican turbo. Maybe even a short spine urchin.

If you manually scrub the rocks, it will give the snails a chance to get a head start on the stuff growing

 

[DeniseAndy]

IF you truly have the red turf algae, hard to tell in pics, the only guy I found to eat it was a red tuxedo urchin. Not the blue, the red. I had a severe case of it for a long time till I added one. It went to town. No issues that bad since (with red turf that is)

 

[Gareth elliott]

For the bubble algae, emerald crab does eat it but their effect on controlling it ive found iffy and its a crab lol.
The stuff is not very responsive to normal algae control. Will survive in low light and low nutrients and reproduces by spores
I was able to get mine in a manageable state. By scrubbing outside the tank and treating each rock with peroxide. I still get a bubble here or there but nothing i cant control with a razor on a small siphon every now and then.
For the peroxide i soaked any rock without corals for a few minutes.
Any rock work with coral i applied by hand avoiding the corals.

Think the advice above on the series of water changes is the best starting point though.

 

[specialk]

You need to seriously boost your clean up crew. Get your water changes going and parameters back in line and boost it big time. Majority snails, no crabs unless emerald. Astraea, cerith and Mexican turbo. Maybe even a short spine urchin.

If you manually scrub the rocks, it will give the snails a chance to get a head start on the stuff growing

Noted and done! I will get some!

Also, mannually scrubbing the rocks... I am assuming Ineed to take the rocks out, as scrubbing them, ... wont that make things spread?

 

[specialk]

IF you truly have the red turf algae, hard to tell in pics, the only guy I found to eat it was a red tuxedo urchin. Not the blue, the red. I had a severe case of it for a long time till I added one. It went to town. No issues that bad since (with red turf that is)

GF always wanted one .. she likes them for whatever reason ... so I will also look into that

 

[specialk]

For the bubble algae, emerald crab does eat it but their effect on controlling it ive found iffy and its a crab lol.
The stuff is not very responsive to normal algae control. Will survive in low light and low nutrients and reproduces by spores
I was able to get mine in a manageable state. By scrubbing outside the tank and treating each rock with peroxide. I still get a bubble here or there but nothing i cant control with a razor on a small siphon every now and then.
For the peroxide i soaked any rock without corals for a few minutes.
Any rock work with coral i applied by hand avoiding the corals.

Think the advice above on the series of water changes is the best starting point though.

Ok... so as this would be my first experience with the soaking of live rock and in this case scrubbing ... I am going to be taking the rock out of the main display obviously and scrubbing with hydrogen peroxide? Then for the rocks without any coral on them... which there are many ... I also can un frag the sps on many of the rocks and simply glue them back on ... but I soak them for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide, then dip them back into normal salt water to rinse any of the peroxide off, then simply put back in the tank?

 

[rtparty]

Noted and done! I will get some!

Also, mannually scrubbing the rocks... I am assuming Ineed to take the rocks out, as scrubbing them, ... wont that make things spread?

It depends and there are different ways to go about it.

I think it's @brandon429 that empties the water down and sprays all the rocks with peroxide to kill the algae? Maybe he'll chime in on that technique more.

@saltyfilmfolks is also a great resource with this stuff

 

[specialk]

Also this will be good as I am assuming the peroxide is also going to kill any and all of the annoying softies that spread like weeds and I dont want as well ... ?

 

[specialk]

It depends and there are different ways to go about it.

I think it's @brandon429 that empties the water down and sprays all the rocks with peroxide to kill the algae? Maybe he'll chime in on that technique more.

@saltyfilmfolks is also a great resource with this stuff

Yah I was PM'ing with @Big E earlier today and he was telling me he uses an eye dropper to treat areas where corals are close to the rock ... thought that was a great idea

 

[themcnertney]

Just needs some routine maintenance, a little consistency, some TLC, & a few water changes.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Ok... so as this would be my first experience with the soaking of live rock and in this case scrubbing ... I am going to be taking the rock out of the main display obviously and scrubbing with hydrogen peroxide? Then for the rocks without any coral on them... which there are many ... I also can un frag the sps on many of the rocks and simply glue them back on ... but I soak them for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide, then dip them back into normal salt water to rinse any of the peroxide off, then simply put back in the tank?

I scrubbed with with a hard bristle tooth brush before the hydrogen peroxide. Rinsed in waste water from a water change i did at the same time. Then did the peroxide soak. After 2-3 minutes of soaking i rinsed again in a different bucket of waste water. Then returned to the tank. Was trying to ensure as few spores as possible went back in.

 

[themcnertney]

Also, I'm not too far from you as I live in Akron if you ever need any help.

 

[drawman]

First off I think it's tough to keep an SPS tank going for 2.5 months without a seasoned reefer present to check Ca and Alk at the very least. Your girlfriend did a good job with what she could I would say. One thing goes wrong and alkalinity/calcium demand changes and things go sideways pretty quickly. You may be better off buying an alkalinity monitor or having a seasoned reefer check on things every once in a while.

At this point I would get PO4 down with GFO or phosphate Rx for the turf algae and use vibrant eventually for bubble algae. I would also get a pump and blow off detritus with every water change and make sure you have heavy flow in the tank. Alternatively you could cook your rock by placing it in a covered trash can with NSW and a pump for a month or two (without the coral obviously).

 

[Tahoe61]

Just needs some routine maintenance, a little consistency, some TLC, & a few water changes.

Also, I'm not too far from you as I live in Akron if you ever need any help.

^Your awesome!


With regard to Emerald crabs, mine is a beast. If it's algae it's gone. An urchin would be beneficial as well. Go back to routine water changes and let the chemistry stablize. Jm2C.