Sometime I blackout and do stupid things

[New&no clue]

I'm in full panic mood right now.

Sometimes I get really excited about things and literal have no common sense anymore. I just act and then after the rush of excitement has gone I'm left thinking what the heck. I just bought a bunch of new corals from all over the place

(3) zoas
(2) xenias
Mandarin Orange Cloves
Neon Green Frilly
Fuzzy Pulsing Sinularia

Three of these are sitting on my desk at work as I picked them up from someone local, the rest I ordered and will be delivered on Friday. Why am I panicking you ask? Mostly because I'm dramatic, but also because I have diatom algae on my rocks and I'm worried about putting corals on them.

Let me start from the beginning. 5 months ago I started a 55 gallon, last month I upgraded to a red sea reefer 350. I transferred over everything except the sand which I bought new and added to my existing rock another 20/30pounds of dry rock. Everything has been fine, but I had algae starting to show up on my new dry rocks. I just ignored it as this happened last time and after some time it cleared on its own. My plan was to wait until it cleared to start adding corals. I have this nice live rock from my first tank and I wanted to start a zoa garden on it, so I thought "whats the big deal, I can add some zoas here, this rock doesn't have any bad algae on it." Then I started look for some pulsing xenia as well... and then somehow I blacked out and bought 5 other corals instead of the couple of zoas I wanted to start with.

My Questions Are

Can I put the corals on the rock with the diatom algae or will it kill the corals?

Is there a way to get the algae off the rocks before Friday?

Am I being way to dramatic and everything will be just fine?

 

[MrWheelock]

Id just bolster up my Clean Up Crew a bit and maybe put the stuff on a little frag rack until things clear up.

 

[W1ngz]

Make sure you isolate the xenia and the cloves on their own rocks, otherwise you'll have a xenia problem after the diatom problem.

 

[New&no clue]

Id just bolster up my Clean Up Crew

I have snails and hermits, which is better for algae on rock and I’ll go buy some more?

 

[New&no clue]

Make sure you isolate the xenia and the cloves on their own rocks, otherwise you'll have a xenia problem after the diatom problem.

Hahaha agreed. I thought of that when building by my scape and made towers of rocks so the zoas and Xenia’s are quarantined from the rest

 

[LBReefer]

I have snails and hermits, which is better for algae on rock and I’ll go buy some more?

I'd just wait for the new rock to cycle and put the drags on a frack for a month or two.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

When I started my tank i didn’t know any better and had couple corals while tank was undergoing the ugly phase not 1 died so you should be ok! if you want a little extra peace of mind pick up a frag rack

 

[MrWheelock]

I have snails and hermits, which is better for algae on rock and I’ll go buy some more?

I saw a cleanup pack on one of the sites ill try and find it, they had a specific snail for diatoms but i cant for the life of me remember the name. But really keeping them on a frag rack should do just fine. You can always pull and brush off during water changes.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Get a frag rack

Everyone is blacking out lately....

I blacked out and bought too many corals

So between all the recent live shows and ebay, i think i have something like 35 frags coming to my 125 gallon mixed reef tomorrow. This is a very busy week for work for me and im worried i wont be able to weather the alkalinity storm that could be headed my way. I have no idea why i thought it...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[New&no clue]

I think the frag rack is a great idea, I can easily go grab one tonight and not worry about it. However, I should still probably up my game on the CUC. I have a very aggressive cleaner shrimp who eats whatever he can catch. I just order a crew of nassarius snails with some of my corals but I think those are only for sand. My hermits are on the rocks all the time maybe I should just get some more of them.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Get an urchin or 2. They mow over stuff

 

[MrWheelock]

I do love my urchin, he eats everything! Sometimes in the morning i will have a 4" patch of rock thats white as dry rock where he's spent the night grazing.

 

[New&no clue]

Get an urchin or 2. They mow over stuff

I do love my urchin

Where would be a good place to buy one. I know my lfs doesn’t have any

 

[MrWheelock]

Where would be a good place to buy one. I know my lfs doesn’t have any

I dont have any experience purchasing livestock online, my lfs usually has them sorry

 

[Jay Z]

Emerald crabs work wonders for me. They usually have everything cleaned up by morning. They usually start on the rock work and finish on the substrate.

You could also clean off the areas where you want to put your frags and continue to clean around them if needed.

I’ve had some dying coral in the past get the algae on them. Never had a healthy one get consumed yet.

 

[New&no clue]

I dont have any experience purchasing livestock online,

What type of urchin do you have, I’ve notice they have several different types online

 

[melanotaenia]

I think the frag rack is a great idea, I can easily go grab one tonight and not worry about it. However, I should still probably up my game on the CUC. I have a very aggressive cleaner shrimp who eats whatever he can catch. I just order a crew of nassarius snails with some of my corals but I think those are only for sand. My hermits are on the rocks all the time maybe I should just get some more of them.

Hermits do a great job, and they work fast, but yes, they definitely do not cover large amounts of area, so good to have a large number of them!

I know what you mean on the coral purchasing: I have 11 frags to pick up later this week.

 

[Sako338]

I have snails and hermits, which is better for algae on rock and I’ll go buy some more?

Go to reefcleaners.org, buy a quick pack for your tank size and diatoms. I did this two weeks ago, and I can’t say enough about the experience. 99.97 diatom free now after a pretty bad case. Hope I could help.

 

[ScottR]

I didn’t see it mentioned here, but I don’t know of a CUC that goes for diatoms. Usually they are part of the cycle and disappear after a few months or so. If the corals are not on the sand, I wouldn’t worry at all. The corals you’ve got are pretty hardy ones as well.

 

[Sako338]

I didn’t see it mentioned here, but I don’t know of a CUC that goes for diatoms. Usually they are part of the cycle and disappear after a few months or so. If the corals are not on the sand, I wouldn’t worry at all. The corals you’ve got are pretty hardy ones as well.

Here’s what I bought, within two weeks the tank looked great.