Major aiptasia and bubble algae issue

[anthonygf]

Update.
I ended up removing pounds and pounds of bubble algae and xenia. I was originally going to go after the Ap. initially, but just found out most the Ap. was connected to the BA. So I went after the xenia, BA, and Ap. After the removal I used F aiptasia to kill as many as I could find. I did a water change at the end of the removal process. I didn’t take any rocks out to try and deep clean but may need to do that soon. Took me all day but was worth the hard work.
My berghia are in coming today so I hope they are healthy and ready to eat.
(Some progress photos too.)

Good job! Yes it is necessary to manually remove what you can, then let nature take over. I hope the berghia work for you. When you get them don't forget to turn all the pumps off until they settle in your rocks. You may also want to wrap your wave pumps with a screen of some sort to prevent them from getting sucked in, if they ever get that high.

 

[FlowGod]

Good job! Yes it is necessary to manually remove what you can, then let nature take over. I hope the berghia work for you. When you get them don't forget to turn all the pumps off until they settle in your rocks. You may also want to wrap your wave pumps with a screen of some sort to prevent them from getting sucked in, if they ever get that high.

Oh man, thank you for telling me. I need to get those covered asap. Yeah it was a bit of a job, but super happy to get all that junk out

 

[FlowGod]

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*some more pictures

 

[anthonygf]

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*some more pictures

Very nice close-up shots. I need to learn and practice my photography skills.

 

[anthonygf]

Berghia and peppermint shrimp have both been effective for me dealing with aptasia.

I remember reading somewhere on here that Peppermint Shrimp will eat Berghias.

 

[FlowGod]

I remember reading somewhere on here that Peppermint Shrimp will eat Berghias.

Luckily no peppermint shrimp in my system. I found them to go crazy on my lps and ends up killing it (also didnt touch any aiptasia)
Berghia's were put in a few days ago and some already layed eggs! Pretty cool to see 30 mins after you put them in. I haven't seen any of them since, hopefully they are cruising around eating ap at night.

 

[anthonygf]

Luckily no peppermint shrimp in my system. I found them to go crazy on my lps and ends up killing it (also didnt touch any aiptasia)
Berghia's were put in a few days ago and some already layed eggs! Pretty cool to see 30 mins after you put them in. I haven't seen any of them since, hopefully they are cruising around eating ap at night.

Hope your Berghia's do well. Now after my aiptasia has mostly gone away, I have a nasty algae taking over my tank. I blow off the rocks and sand almost daily, it is affecting my corals now. I need to get a sample under scope to determine what I have. The chemicals have little effect. I haven't been able to maintain my reef as much the past year due to my arthritis gets bad. Had to quit my job of 20 years 2 years ago. I was a bus mechanic for public transit. I just might need to sell everything and just have fish.

 

[anthonygf]

Hope your Berghia's do well. Now after my aiptasia has mostly gone away, I have a nasty algae taking over my tank. I blow off the rocks and sand almost daily, it is affecting my corals now. I need to get a sample under scope to determine what I have. The chemicals have little effect. I haven't been able to maintain my reef as much the past year due to my arthritis gets bad. Had to quit my job of 20 years 2 years ago. I was a bus mechanic for public transit. I just might need to sell everything and just have fish.

Well I am happy to say my algae is slowly receding, I am still trying to figure what the cause is. My parameters are okay, nitrate and phosphate could be a little lower but this is what my tank wants to stabilize at, nitrate 25ppm +/-3, phosphate varies 0.21 - 0.14. When I started to lower phosphate a little it seemed to get worse, so I will just let it ride for now.

I have a mixed reef and I am surprised I have a couple sps corals that are doing well and growing. For a couple years now my duncans refuse to come out, they come out a little and I guess they don't like the water and go back in. Was doing weekly water changes of 10 gallons, then for several months I tried one WC every 6-8 weeks. I have to go back to weekly water changes because of the algae and some corals dying.

 

[FlowGod]

Well I am happy to say my algae is slowly receding, I am still trying to figure what the cause is. My parameters are okay, nitrate and phosphate could be a little lower but this is what my tank wants to stabilize at, nitrate 25ppm +/-3, phosphate varies 0.21 - 0.14. When I started to lower phosphate a little it seemed to get worse, so I will just let it ride for now.

I have a mixed reef and I am surprised I have a couple sps corals that are doing well and growing. For a couple years now my duncans refuse to come out, they come out a little and I guess they don't like the water and go back in. Was doing weekly water changes of 10 gallons, then for several months I tried one WC every 6-8 weeks. I have to go back to weekly water changes because of the algae and some corals dying.

That is awesome to hear, glad you are making headway with the algae. I feel the same way. I didn't do any water changes last year and the bubble algae took hold pretty hard. After my water change and tank cleaning it feels more manageable. Luckily I had a few corals that did good last year and many that survived but will come back if I can keep this dang algae out.
(…and aiptasia)

 

[anthonygf]

That is awesome to hear, glad you are making headway with the algae. I feel the same way. I didn't do any water changes last year and the bubble algae took hold pretty hard. After my water change and tank cleaning it feels more manageable. Luckily I had a few corals that did good last year and many that survived but will come back if I can keep this dang algae out.
(…and aiptasia)

Glad you are getting ahead of your aiptasia problem. Nice looking coral. What camera are you using? I have a Canon PowerShot SX530 HS that I haven't used in awhile, I will try and get some close-ups of a few of mine.

 

[FlowGod]

Glad you are getting ahead of your aiptasia problem. Nice looking coral. What camera are you using? I have a Canon PowerShot SX530 HS that I haven't used in awhile, I will try and get some close-ups of a few of mine.

Thanks! I have a Sony a7III and used a pretty cheap manual lens to take those. Get that camera out and take some pics! It motivates me to make my tank look cleaner too, haha

 

[damsels are not mean]

Well I am happy to say my algae is slowly receding, I am still trying to figure what the cause is. My parameters are okay, nitrate and phosphate could be a little lower but this is what my tank wants to stabilize at, nitrate 25ppm +/-3, phosphate varies 0.21 - 0.14. When I started to lower phosphate a little it seemed to get worse, so I will just let it ride for now.

I have a mixed reef and I am surprised I have a couple sps corals that are doing well and growing. For a couple years now my duncans refuse to come out, they come out a little and I guess they don't like the water and go back in. Was doing weekly water changes of 10 gallons, then for several months I tried one WC every 6-8 weeks. I have to go back to weekly water changes because of the algae and some corals dying.

The cause, as with any alge problem, is that rocks were bare. Something will grow everywhere that anything can. The more algae grows, the faster it can reproduce. It has nothing to do with water chemistry or lighting.

 

[anthonygf]

The cause, as with any alge problem, is that rocks were bare. Something will grow everywhere that anything can. The more algae grows, the faster it can reproduce. It has nothing to do with water chemistry or lighting.

So are you saying I need to buy more corals? Ha Ha, I don't want to spend any more money on my reef, I will just keep blowing off the rocks until my corals grow over the bare spots.