Should I stop or does a solution exists ?

[Eldarin]

Hi Everybody,

I have my reef tank since December 2018, I haven't put any corals in it because I already want to have a bigger one.
I have a Red Sea 130d with 33 lbs of living rock from Australia.
I have 2 debelius and two amphiprion ocellaris right now.

Since few months I experienced growing problems.


My tank is not running so bad but I expect few problems below :
- Lobophora expansion
- Red algae expansion ( pictures below )
- I found few vallonia bubbles on my snails or pumps ( haven't find anything on my rocks )
- I found today that I have colonial hydroids on snails... but haven't seen anything on rocks...


I don't know really what to do, these problems seems to be some of the worst ones in a reef tank...
I want to buy a reefer 425xl to replace my red sea 130d, but I really don't know if I should keep the living population or not ( rocks... ).
It will maybe better to start with dry rocks in order to avoid all that indesirables...

I bought few turbo fluctuosus, they seems to eat the red algae right now, but there is a lot of work.
Regarding the lobophora I will probably try a naso in the future tank, I read that they can eat them...
And regarding the new pest, the colonial hydroids, I really don't know what to do... nothing seems to eat them, I only saw it on my snails right now, but I believe that there is a spot somewhere on the rocks....

It will be probably better to stop or return to freshwater.................

Thank you a lot for all your good advices !!!

 

[Qasimja]

your tank doesnt look bad to me really you just need to get control of the cyano

 

[Eldarin]

your tank doesnt look bad to me really you just need to get control of the cyano

I haven't got any cyano, this is only red algae on many rocks.

 

[Flippers4pups]

your tank doesnt look bad to me really you just need to get control of the cyano

Agreed ^. I've seen much worse, believe me. What's your water parameters?

 

[Tahoe61]

The best reef tanks most likely have at least one of the pest your dealing with if not all at one time or another. Management with a focus at nutrient reduction by not over feeding or introducing small particles of food to the system will assist in keeping the Hydroids in check. Remove that snail and give the shell a brush down with a tooth brush. You can cover exiting Hydroids on the rocks with underwater epoxy, make a pancake and cover the spot.

Your exiting tank looks pretty cool.

You will have to be very diligent to not introduce them if you go with dry rock with the new tank.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Welcome to reef2reef @Eldarin!

Tahoe's advice is soild.

 

[Paul B]

I don't see any problems.

 

[brandon429]

this is the #1 thing you should do

don't mix remediation approaches, pick one sole approach and work it to finish, close the matter then choose another. the best thing is not to cherry pick offers, but take a full tank approach. it prevents introducing a bunch of conflicting variables, making your tank an experiment etc

that you don't have a messy sandbed has just solved about 90% of your future maintenance issues. you have a no lifespan limit reef, in need of simple gardening. I have six dandelions as we speak needing the same

you should simply lift out the rocks, clear off externally, and put back. a nature-help mode. that you've done this much solely through tank balance so far is a testament to bare bottom technique and also your own reef technique. preserve that rock at all costs its coralline gold

your tank is much less likely to ever get dinos with that kind of rock vs the base rock taking 11 yrs to ever look like that. if that's the liferock and its only a year old, well then they've painted it well. still guide it
B

 

[Eldarin]

this is the #1 thing you should do

Thank you a lot for your return, the hard part of the job is that in order to gain stability , after reading many advices i fixed the rocks together with cement, so now it will be very difficult to clean them outside the tank.
With the bigger tank do you believe that it will be possible to keep that live rocks and complete with dry rocks only ? I don't know if it could be possible to put water in the new one and live and dry rock directly together. Thank you for your return.

 

[Eldarin]

Thank you for all your answers

 

[Treasure Coast]

Get some Chemiclean for the red algae.

 

[brandon429]

edit

 

[brandon429]

edit

 

[brandon429]

ps I just noticed.

the red algae above is invasive and can wipe your whole reef, not a joke. I edited the above, be right back. the wiry parts not the cyano part. brb

Is this Lyngbya?

I've been having a heck of a time with some flavor of nuisance algae/cyano. Several months back, it would mat on my sand bed. I could clean it up, vacuum it away, then it would return within 48 hours. I thought removing the sand bed would help, but this stuff just grown on everything. I can get...

www.reef2reef.com

see that work example

 

[brandon429]

ok a bit of slowdown have more time

so the red algae can slowly take over no matter what you do. I didn't see that at first, a light cyano association is no big deal and that's what originally stood out.

upon re scrolling up I noticed the red algae and its ID does not matter, it can take over your tank where nobody's method can fix it, 100000% independent of your water params, lighting quality, I lost the first reefbowl to that in 2003.

if it wasn't for that algae, Id have an 18 yr old pico reef.

we should devise a plan. its some sort of that link above

you can drain your water down and catch it, access the target in the air w the rocks unbroken in the tank, work the spot, and refill.

lysmata cleaner shrimp are the only risky animal in our maneuver