Whats your tank nemisis?

[k2parkstar]

I would say most of us have had to, or are currently battling some pest or nuisance algae. So lets hear about it and what remedies helped you.

As for myself i've battled aptasia, aesterina's, and bubble algae. The aesterina's being my least concern as for now because I haven't seen them eating my zoa's. That being said I picked up a harlequin shrimp to clear them out, and in the future i'll just feed him chocolate chip stars. As for aptasia, if its a small rock I can pull out then I turn up the heat and burn them off, otherwise peppermint shrimp have done well for me. Lastly and the thing I hated the worst, bubble algae! What a nightmare that stuff is. When I first started getting them I didn't know not to pop them, big mistake. I had to remove rock and scrub them off then rinse the rock. Also, I use chemipure elite and a phosphate pad to reduce nutrients to starve them. I'm happy to say I haven't seen any bubble algae in months.

 

[turbo21]

DINOS
i am tired of fighting dino's year after year. I am starting to think it is a seasonal thing and may be caused by pollen in the air. I had trouble for the last 2 years and went back through my post history and saw that i had problems with them within weeks of the same time last year

i had a few month battle with aiptasia but beat it with peppermint shrimp, copperband bf, and injecting them with kalk

bob

 

[Dowtish]

paly polyps that want to encroach on everything. These are a decent cool blue color, but they still make me mad.

 

[swannyson7]

anthelia...

 

[apicturepaints]

Nitrates. I've been trying to get them down forever. Also, red turf algae. :/

 

[jtgordon20]

Luckily nothing right now except sand moving in front corner and showing the bottom of the tank

 

[Steelerfan747]

Many years ago I saw a little starfish that hitchhiked on one of my rocks or corals. I thought it was cool to see. Then I started to see more and more and more until I had easily over 100 of them. I started to do research and found they were asterina stars and that they are not desirable for the reef so I got me a Harlequin shrimp who quickly eliminated them. I loved the harlequin but found it cruel and expensive to continueously have to purchase sand sifters to feed him so I ended up getting rid of him.
I also had a few bubble algea which I also found cool and really liked the look of them. I never intended to get rid of them but to my surprise they were swallowed up with the introduction of a purple tang.

A little over a year due to lack of time and improper equipment, I went through a period of bad husbandry. During that time I developed a thick almost sea weedish red algea that completely covered my rocks. I was able to take care of it but only after scrubbing all my rocks and performing 20% water changes every week till they were completely gone.

Most recently I have been battleling aptasia which started during the poor husbandry period as well. I have bought a total of about 6 pepermint shrimp but have not had good luck with them. Not only do I not see them but I have not seen them reduce the little buggers except for one which I was very thankful for as it was in a position that I could not reach to apply aptasia-x to. The rest I have applied treatment to and thought they were gone only to have others pop up in other locations but I will not rest until they are all gone, Gone I Say.

 

[k2parkstar]

This is an ideal post to "Level Up" for that Tunze Osmolator. Let's hear what your doing/ what you did to destroy your tank nemisis. Thank you for the response's so far.

 

[k2parkstar]

Many years ago I saw a little starfish that hitchhiked on one of my rocks or corals. I thought it was cool to see. Then I started to see more and more and more until I had easily over 100 of them. I started to do research and found they were asterina stars and that they are not desirable for the reef so I got me a Harlequin shrimp who quickly eliminated them. I loved the harlequin but found it cruel and expensive to continueously have to purchase sand sifters to feed him so I ended up getting rid of him.
I also had a few bubble algea which I also found cool and really liked the look of them. I never intended to get rid of them but to my surprise they were swallowed up with the introduction of a purple tang.

A little over a year due to lack of time and improper equipment, I went through a period of bad husbandry. During that time I developed a thick almost sea weedish red algea that completely covered my rocks. I was able to take care of it but only after scrubbing all my rocks and performing 20% water changes every week till they were completely gone.

Most recently I have been battleling aptasia which started during the poor husbandry period as well. I have bought a total of about 6 pepermint shrimp but have not had good luck with them. Not only do I not see them but I have not seen them reduce the little buggers except for one which I was very thankful for as it was in a position that I could not reach to apply aptasia-x to. The rest I have applied treatment to and thought they were gone only to have others pop up in other locations but I will not rest until they are all gone, Gone I Say.

Lol, keep fighting the good fight! I've read that peppermint's only eat smaller aptasia, but I don't know this for certain. Like turbo mentioned earlier, I believe injecting them with kalk has good results.

 

[thewackyreefer]

I'm currently battling a little cyano... I've been running fresh carbon, po4 remover and have performed 2 chemiclean treatments to no avail.

Went lights out for 36 hours and that didn't help much either.

 

[CJO]

I have lots of asterinas and they don't bother anything except for some algae on which they munch.

My issue has been bubble algae and aiptasia. I keep thinking that I've gotten rid of it all and then, every once in a while, another pops up. Not enough to really affect things, just enough to drive me crazy!

CJ

 

[JOANN]

Flatworms - Flatworm Exit and Sixlines not helping yet ....

 

[weaponsofmassdesign]

I battled cyano in my 10g for a few months. I did lots of water changes while siphoning it out. I only had low light coral in there so I finally kept the lights off for around 72 hours and haven't seen it since.

 

[tinctorus]

DINOS
i am tired of fighting dino's year after year. I am starting to think it is a seasonal thing and may be caused by pollen in the air. I had trouble for the last 2 years and went back through my post history and saw that i had problems with them within weeks of the same time last year

i had a few month battle with aiptasia but beat it with peppermint shrimp, copperband bf, and injecting them with kalk

bob

When you do water changes are you making your own water or are you buying natural water from the pet store where you bring your own buckets in?
Some stores mix there own saltwater and other stores have natural seawater trucked in so it is possible that if they are getting it trucked in that the area the guy is bringing it from is have an outbreak at that particular time of the year

 

[mallorieGgator]

Green slime and red slime. Also stringy hair algae patches. If I get behind on water changes it's very obvious.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

 

[FaviaFreak]

hair algae, bubble algae, aiptasia, you know name it I've dealt with it..it's always something

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Bryopsis is my current nemesis and asterina starfish. I dealt with cyano and dino.

 

[SDguy]

Majanos were getting so bad in my tank I considered tearing it down and restarting. A matted filefish saved the day

 

[jonbar1]

Caulerpa, it's been in my tank since day one and not going anywhere. I even restarted the tank with new rock, but it found a way back. Sadly I used the old rock for a FOWLR that is slowly becoming a softie tank and once I upgraded the light the caulerpa started to come out after a couple years of dormancy.