pico reef pest algae problem challenge

[brandon429]

Simon your pictures are great

none of the treated areas seems to bleach

it shows that manual removal can work sometimes instead of changing the water chemistry

this is a picture of me using a wire holder like a Paas Easter egg dip
Peroxide as a preventative...dipped right up to the mass but not on it

[brandon429]

Pulsing xenia frag!

Two days later and the plug is as white as it can be

it came from a frag tank that had diatoms

[Ralph ATL]

OK, 90 gallon long term sps tank with Leopard Wrasses and other sensitive fish...some rock can be removed, others cannot and even at 90% water removal, some algae will still be on base of rock with fish flopping to their death in stress....

what say you?

help me on my Bryopsis removal to insure all coral, fish, and inverts are safe! I am at day 40 on Kent Tech Marine, and 85% has been resolved, however, 15% at various points in tank are wanting to stay.......Kent Mag at 2000.

Change GFO weekly, and use Vodka....ulns.......never had an issue in years until I had a sick leopard that I overfed for months until way over recovered....BAM!

[brandon429]

Post us up a pic w can make a strategy

we know of no fish that show sensitivity at any practical dosage, no worries w the wrasses its inverts and corals we plan around

Sps are also not particularly sensitive even though 1 would think they would be


sight unseen i'm betting your best bet is the systemic dosage technique of spot injecting the tufts, w a syringe, while the pumps are off. This concentrates the dose on the target and allows rocks to stay down low

Based off pics we will know
Do u have any cleaner shrimp

[brandon429]

Simon's tank from page 10 is a shining example of how to treat a large tank and not lose sps

[Ralph ATL]

Sorry, no pics.

I have a 90, mostly SPS, with some Acans, etc...


4 leopard wrasses, a Tamarin, and other.....

I run an ULNS, that was until I over fed a sick Leopard that has since recovered. So a few months ago I decided to use Tech-M... It worked great until I changed my carbon....I also had multiple species of Algae. Some success.

then, I tried Algae fix...some success.

About 6 weeks ao, I decided to retry Tech-M without using carbon and less water changes..Very, very slowly this feather looking macro algae started dieting off, but in the die off my SPS started to have recession. whether this was from phosphates being released, nitrates, crazy high Mag, or whatever that was in the Tech-M that affects the algae, I don't know...

About a week sgo maybe 70-80% was dead, with some small patches too many places, some recoverying, some dieing, some maintaining status quo.

A couple nights ago I decided to mix some kalk and mag and at night, I bombed some patches. today these patches are struggling to live, but alas, they are still hanging on.

I had some nice dead rock that I started soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide at 3% for a minimum of five minutes in preparation.

My left and right side have the ability to remove rocks, pull off frags, and soak rock, whereas the center 30%, has no way of removing....

I planned on lowering water level to hit some unmovable rock, however, as I went down to about 40% left, my wrasses became too stressed....

Ok, so I removed left side, soaked each rock for at least five minutes in 3%, then rinsed and then soaked in saltwater for 15 minutes...I placed back in tank, along with some of that older dry rock that I prepared earlier.

Then, I did the right side...

I took a one ml syringe that u would use for Aptaisa killer and tried to get an area on my center area.

ok, tanks back up and running, looks great!

Will that syringe work? Or do I need a medical one?

Any other suggestions or advice?

[brandon429]

It sounds good so far for the restrictions you are under

If we are dealing with already challenged sps then it makes me want to increase safety variables for your partial systemic treatment
Just brainstorming it sounds safe to:
Take the treatments in increments rather than all at once (for the areas treated inside the tank)

run decent exporting water changes, siphoned and replaced gently matching temp and sg, before the next treatment

Both of these give increased dissociation time to maximize safety
The one ml syringe sounds like a safe start. Pics aren't intended to showcase a tanks bad side its to give hidden clues for application shortcuts etc

Still the stuff is predictable enough to run in type if we plan safely
Your external spot treatments are great its this last in tank mode I'd like to approach conservatively

Since your system is ulns i'm assuming its bare bottom
That's nice in that repeated water changes won't be kicking up detritus

IMO since your leopard has been stressed recently you w have to find the best medium between systemic dosage, export and refill etc.

I also like the idea of waiting to judge your external treatments and take that last submerged bit over the next week or so.

peroxide will certainly kill the bryopsis I just don't wanna rush it
Thanks for the updates i'm glad you started!

[Tater11]

ok as promised i we were very busy this weekend.we took all the rocks out and sprayed them then rinsed also decided to go bare bottom took out 320lbs of sand.then did a 90 gallon water change this was done on monday here's before and after

before






after







now mind you all the rocks were covered like in the before pics i know its still early but they look 1000 times better.still have to redo the rock work next weekend and get a little more sand out.the algae on the rocks have turned grayish white will keep you posted..

[brandon429]

Thank you!! Wonderful pics!

[Ralph ATL]

here is a one minute video just before my issues started:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMJzdD9DG1Q&hd=1

[Ralph ATL]

no clue why video is not pictured as a screen shot?

[Ralph ATL]

did Simon treat any algae in the actual tank with HP @ 3%?


and how much & how often? I don't see that info?

[brandon429]

That's quite a reef tank, that anem on far left plus your sps really is shocking to me how fast we progressed from treating Pico reefs to full on reef displays. Talk about a new area to tread lightly...

Using the upscale modeling from the 1 gallon reefbowl and from web threads to treat a tank like that is just mind blowing
It looks like a fairly high bioload tank, amazing the algae selects to grow on the wall alone




When I saw your video it just made me want to shy away from peroxide use its just so much life. Take out very very slow pls

Your vid makes me want to be more careful with these large tanks, very humbling.

[brandon429]

I believe simon did the work to run an external treatment

[brandon429]

it will be interesting to chart any regrowth in your tank

[brandon429]

tater your post is really helpful for the makeover outcome

that's massive work on a tank w no cycle it reveals more predictability in these systems

you removed a huge amount of bioload in removing the sand bed

all future invaders can be accessed easily, that's another benefit

[SimonSKL]

Originally Posted by mysterybox

did Simon treat any algae in the actual tank with HP @ 3%?


and how much & how often? I don't see that info?

Ralph, I never treated the whole tank, I took the rocks out and either dipped into 50:50 3% H2O2 or spot washed the infested spots if there are corals on it.

[Ralph ATL]

Ok, thanks everybody!

I appreciate your comments and compliments!

The centerpiece (roughly 40%) of rock cannot be moved out unless there is no other way.....

The algae remaing in this area is mostly between corals and in patches....

Most of it is brown except for a couple of patches that are spikey and mostly green...

I am alternating between kalk and peroxide. One day 3 ml H2O2, next day kalk, next day off.

Today I used 3 ml in H2O2 using a 1 ml syringe.

That dosage seem very conservative to you?

[Ralph ATL]

Double post

[brandon429]

You are doing the modified target injection right? Where the tank is still full of water but the pumps are off and you inject the spot? or were you drain treating

Either way 3ml is very safe, I like that slow approach.

Tell us how you are using the kalk

[Ralph ATL]

Modified target. No pumps nor power heads for 5-10 minutes....

I'm mixing a kalk slurry like you would for Aptasia, consistency of wasabi sauce...
Same treatment, cover algae. No pumps or power heads for 15 minutes.

[brandon429]

That's very interesting I haven't seen that combo before.

Both are individually toxic as a direct application

I wonder if your paste helps extend the contact time that's neat

[mkbtank]

ok, so I am a convert!

here are my experiences and before and after shots....

I have a 28nc and was having a serious bubble algae outbreak.

I......

1.Read this thread.
2.Bought 3% peroxide
3.bought a toothbrush and a scrub brush
4.Took water out (5) for my normal wc
5.Removed my main rock structure (removed most sps but a few)
6.scrubbed off what bubble algae i could (maybe 50%) and rinsed
7.painted peroxide on the remaining algae (one or two patches of ha/bryopsis from a frag as well)
8.let sit for 4-5 minutes
9.rinsed off with old water
10.returned rock to tank (hardest part for me. its still not 100% right imo)
11.returned corals to rock
12.dipped 1 acan frag plug (got some on the acan which bubbled for a couple minutes and was fine)

Next morning bubbles looked the same and i wondered if i went through it all for nothing lol

came home from work to find bubbles turning white and dying.

2 days later.... zero algae except for one rock and one frag base that i didnt treat.

Yes, I realize that there is a reason the algae grew in the first place but for manual removal, this is pretty astounding.

now.... the pics.......

Note- the couple of sps that look like cr&p both fell into my torch last week.

oh... and pics are terrible but you get the idea


right arch Before


Base (bubble and possible bryopsis on the left)


After:




left arch before: (bad pic)



after:


front rock:


After




fts after (yes I love acans)



In closing let me say...

[brandon429]

Oh man that's a sharp tank some of those corals aren't even available where I live I can see some that would go for $250 wow

You guys are doing more peroxide work within sps tanks than any other peroxide thread I've seen

What a helpful resource for Valonia thank you Mitch!!

[netsurge]

Terrible Tank.. looks even worse in person