What Would Reefers Do?

[wr3ckl3ss]

So my 10G nano tank is now about 5 months old. It was my first tank and of course have learned a ton from it.

I have 3 types of coral in it that I bought on frags from my LFS about 4 months ago. Of course I had no idea what types they were at the time just got what I liked

Zoa
Xenia
Goniopora

The other livestock in the tank are 2 clowns, and a Reef Cleaners standard 10 gallon cleanup crew with hermits

Mostly I have two issues. The first is that I have constantly been battling algae issues (see pics). I do weekly 30% water changes and only top off with RODI. During the water change I scrub off algae as best I can with a toothbrush but by the next water change it’s pretty much all come back. The other issue is that after 4 months or so I haven’t seen any growth of my corals. They seem mostly happy and open but never have spread or grown new polyps from what I can tell.

Wondering what you, the experienced reefer, would do at this point to control the algae and get these corals to actually grow?

 

[El_Guapo13]

If you can somehow add either a mini refugium, a protein skimmer, or heck, even just a bag of really good carbon, it should help reduce phospate levels which would keep the algae growth down. I plan to either add a HOB protein skimmer or HOB refugium to my 10 gallon in the future, but as I am still cycling I don't have to worry about algae at the moment. My 16 gallon gets some algae, which probably has less to do with my tank naturally having high phosphate levels, and more to do with me broadcast feeding alot lol. So I might add a proteing skimmer to my 16 gallon at some point as well.

 

[El_Guapo13]

Forgot to ask, what are your water parameters like, what is your lighting schedule, and what all makes up your CUC, as I can't remember off the top of my head what is in the 10 gallon pack from Reef Cleaners?

 

[wr3ckl3ss]

Forgot to ask, what are your water parameters like, what is your lighting schedule, and what all makes up your CUC, as I can't remember off the top of my head what is in the 10 gallon pack from Reef Cleaners?

Hey thanks for the response!

I haven’t been doing any water testing... With the high amount of water changes I’ve been doing I didn’t really bother but I know I should bust out the kit and see where everything is at.

My lighting schedule (Kessil A80 w/ controller)

Time Color Intensity
10:00 0% 15%
12:00 20% 40%
13:00 40% 65%
16:00 55% 85%
19:00 35% 50%
22:00 0% 0%

For filtration I have a media shelf with the IM “purity pack” which has fiber balls, HC GFO and ROX 0.8 carbon bags. In addition to that I add a couple chemipure media bags to the shelf as well.

The cleanup crew I have consists of

10 dwarf ceriths
3 Nassarius
3 Florida ceriths
2 Nerites
6 dwarf hermits (mostly blueleg)

and I just added 2 little mithrax crabs because I heard they like to eat this type of algae

 

[El_Guapo13]

Hey thanks for the response!

I haven’t been doing any water testing... With the high amount of water changes I’ve been doing I didn’t really bother but I know I should bust out the kit and see where everything is at.

My lighting schedule (Kessil A80 w/ controller)

Time Color Intensity
10:00 0% 15%
12:00 20% 40%
13:00 40% 65%
16:00 55% 85%
19:00 35% 50%
22:00 0% 0%

For filtration I have a media shelf with the IM “purity pack” which has fiber balls, HC GFO and ROX 0.8 carbon bags. In addition to that I add a couple chemipure media bags to the shelf as well.

The cleanup crew I have consists of

10 dwarf ceriths
3 Nassarius
3 Florida ceriths
2 Nerites
6 dwarf hermits (mostly blueleg)

and I just added 2 little mithrax crabs because I heard they like to eat this type of algae

Watch the two Mithrax crabs. Some will nip at corals. From what I have heard (which is somewhat proven by my own experience with my Emerald crab), it is mostly males that will nip at corals, whereas females are usually perfect little CUC members. My female has given me zero problems, and is really fun to look for as she sometimes blends in perfectly with my rocks and some of my corals' skeletons, particularly my Hammers and Frogspawn corals.

Also 2 Mithraxes might be a little much for one tank.

Maybe get a few Throchus snails.

 

[El_Guapo13]

Also let's get some opinions from #reefsquad members on this.

 

[sixty_reefer]

First don’t worry about growth for the first year, move your attention to keep the tank stable. Regarding your algae look at methods to outcompete, refugium or siporax works well for most.

 

[wr3ckl3ss]

First don’t worry about growth for the first year, move your attention to keep the tank stable. Regarding your algae look at methods to outcompete, refugium or siporax works well for most.

Thanks! Looking into the refugium now

 

[Samina]

Is it possible for you to test your water or take it to a LFS for testing? How much do you feed? And what are you using as filtration?

 

[tripdad]

Try swapping in some astrea snails or turbos. They actually eat a lot of algae and make a tank cleaner in my experience.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I like the trochus and turbo snail recommendations. I also like the refugium idea but they can be bulky and big, especially on a nano tank. If you can do it, it is worth it.

As for dosing or running gfo, my rule is if you are not testing for it, you shouldn’t use it. It is a hard lesson to learn (as I learn most things the hard way), but testing is a critical component while your tank matures and changes. You can slack on ita bit more once the tank is a few years old..

hope this helps!

 

[Idoc]

Some good advice given so far! Don't worry about the coral growth... the fact they are open showed they are happy. Keep parameters stable! Also, beef up the cuc to help with your algae issues...I really like astraea snails and trochus snails for being aggressive eaters.

 

[saltyhog]

Continue your efforts at manual removal and strive for stability as noted above. You do need to get test kits so you can monitor your tank and try to keep levels stable. Don't worry too much right now if your corals are happy. What you are experiencing is the norm in new tanks not something you've done wrong.

Feed only what your fish can eat in about a minute and feed 2-3 times a day rather than one big feeding.

The snails that you have are not much at eating hair algae, they seem to eat more film algae in my tank. Turbos are great but they get huge and could turn in to bull dozers in a tank the size of yours. Trochus are great for eating algae off of the rocks.

 

[ScottB]

Hi and welcome to R2R!

That is some pretty good algae growth for 5 months. But don’t worry it is early. Your biome is young and things will change. A few questions:
A what was your source for rock and sand?
B describe your daily feeding amount and food type
C do you vacuum or stir the sandbed during water change?
D has your LFS told you what kind of algae this is? It looks a little different than the usual green hair.

to simplify: algae needs nutrient that you add (Or has been stored in your rock) plus light which you control. Don’t get hasty but you can dial these back a little bit at a time and just watch how your corals are adjusting. Go slow.
It is also safe to consider the lazy way IMO which is to dose fluconazole that will kill the algae. Unless that is bryopsis algae, it will NOT stop it from returning.

 

[wr3ckl3ss]

Is it possible for you to test your water or take it to a LFS for testing? How much do you feed? And what are you using as filtration?

I have test kits and such just been lazy about it to be honest. I was hoping to find something a little less tedious Do those digital testers I’ve seen work pretty well?

For filtration I have a media shelf with the IM “purity pack” which has fiber balls, HC GFO and ROX 0.8 carbon bags. In addition to that I add a couple chemipure media bags to the shelf as well.

Feeding I do once a day just one small pinch of a flake / dried shrimp combo made by my LFS. Seems like plenty for the 2 clowns and all the crabs come out to try and catch food at that time as well.

 

[wr3ckl3ss]

I like the trochus and turbo snail recommendations. I also like the refugium idea but they can be bulky and big, especially on a nano tank. If you can do it, it is worth it.

As for dosing or running gfo, my rule is if you are not testing for it, you shouldn’t use it. It is a hard lesson to learn (as I learn most things the hard way), but testing is a critical component while your tank matures and changes. You can slack on ita bit more once the tank is a few years old..

hope this helps!

Thanks!

The refugium is probably doable, and good practice. Definitely going to get some of the recommended snails also.

I don’t plan on dosing in this little tank but I’m going to start in my larger one (Biocube 32). I was reading the instructions on the mag test for example though and it looked crazy like 10 steps. I’m a network engineer and can handle complex procedures lol but I don’t want to have to go through all that every time. Wondering what the easiest / quickest test methods there are or if I’m stuck with the whole... add two drops, wait two minutes, add two different drops, click your heels three times, wait 10 minutes, add different drops haha

If it is what it is, I‘ll just suck it up and do it but it seems like technology should have made testing these levels less of a manual tedious process

 

[wr3ckl3ss]

Hi and welcome to R2R!

That is some pretty good algae growth for 5 months. But don’t worry it is early. Your biome is young and things will change. A few questions:
A what was your source for rock and sand?
B describe your daily feeding amount and food type
C do you vacuum or stir the sandbed during water change?
D has your LFS told you what kind of algae this is? It looks a little different than the usual green hair.

to simplify: algae needs nutrient that you add (Or has been stored in your rock) plus light which you control. Don’t get hasty but you can dial these back a little bit at a time and just watch how your corals are adjusting. Go slow.
It is also safe to consider the lazy way IMO which is to dose fluconazole that will kill the algae. Unless that is bryopsis algae, it will NOT stop it from returning.

Thanks for the response

I bought the rock and the live sand bag from my LFS.

I feed a flake and dried shrimp combo mix that is made by my LFS. The fish don’t seem to care for the shrimps actually (hmm come to think of it maybe there are tiny dried mealworms in it too, it’s hard to tell). The crabs like those things though when they sink to the bottom

I feed a small pinch a day but maybe it’s not small enough?

I don’t vacuum the sand every time but maybe every other time I take a crack at it. It’s really fine sand so the vacuum tends to suck up almost as much of the actual sand as any crap/algae which is annoying.

Haven’t talked to the LFS about the algae but now that you mention it, the zoa frag I bought from them had a bunch of the same kind on it. It was my first coral and I didn’t know any better when I bought it.

Does fluconazole hurt the corals or other livestock?

 

[Braves Fan]

I will leave giving you advice to help with your problems to the experts does't mean I don't have some advice for you though

You said the 10g Nano was your first tank ,, so I am guessing you have another tank also ,, I am hoping so ,, my point here is ,,, getting into this hobby and learning all the stuff you need to know is tough enough ,, starting out with a 10g Nano ,, you have a better than average chance of failing ,, when things go wrong ,, they go wrong quick ,, an experienced reefer will know what he / she is looking at and can fix things before it gets to a point where it really becomes a problem ,, a new reefer ,, not so much ,,

My point here is ,, I could see where being newish to the hobby ,, having a 10g tank with problems ,, could maybe make you leave the hobby ,, don't let that happen ,, a larger water volume system is easier to maintain and to learn the hobby ,,

 

[ScottB]

As @Braves Fan suggests, it is real easy to dirty up 10 gallons. Ideally, your direct feeding should not reach your CUC, just your fish. Clean up crew should process fish waste only. I think you can lighten up feeding a bit. Frozen foods are also generally considered "cleaner" food sources than dry. Consider frozen Mysis; high in protein, lower in phosphates.

Many here may consider fluconazole as a cop out on solid tank husbandry and I won't argue that point. But it is a safe and effective "reset" on an algae outbreak, and pretty much the only way to beat bryopsis algae. I don't know that you have bryopsis (would need some macro pictures to confirm). If the algae has a "fern-like" look to the branches, both you and your LFS need to dose fluconazole. It happens.

As to tank husbandry, I consider @brandon429 the gospel leader on that front. In a tank your size, his protocol would be effective and not a total PITA like it is on a large system.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Thanks!

The refugium is probably doable, and good practice. Definitely going to get some of the recommended snails also.

I don’t plan on dosing in this little tank but I’m going to start in my larger one (Biocube 32). I was reading the instructions on the mag test for example though and it looked crazy like 10 steps. I’m a network engineer and can handle complex procedures lol but I don’t want to have to go through all that every time. Wondering what the easiest / quickest test methods there are or if I’m stuck with the whole... add two drops, wait two minutes, add two different drops, click your heels three times, wait 10 minutes, add different drops haha

If it is what it is, I‘ll just suck it up and do it but it seems like technology should have made testing these levels less of a manual tedious process

lol I do not test my Mg manually ever! ICP testing covers it for me. The good news is once you get it where you want it, you can test it once a month, once a quarter... it is not a parameter that moves quickly.