pico reef pest algae problem challenge

[brandon429]

Sps hanging down from the cave is sick when they plate in!

[brandon429]

That's how the nepthiid corals present in nature, looks sharp

[mkbtank]

Thanks Brandon. Tank looks way better now since I found this thread.

[Jerzy]

Thanks guys, this works great...my algae was getting pretty bad after I put in LED's. I did a small test the other night on a rock with GSP,I didnt kill them so I went and did a few of my worst large rocks covered with Hair Algae. Working really good today, all of it turning white, all the corals opened up without any problems. Great thread, thanks again

[brandon429]

Excellent! hope its not too late at least for the kill shot we like those death pics!

[Jerzy]

I'll try to get a good shot of it tonight... most of my pics are pretty bad.

[Jerzy]

Not the best pic, but you can see alot of the algae to the right turning white, this was where I had my biggest problem

[brandon429]

Yes that's clear
Plus you are adding pics to support the diversity of corals that are unharmed with guided treatment

On the nano reef thread i've started trying to rally the original peroxide dosers to post update shots

We will prove you do not have to strip water nutrients bare to have an algae free tank.

Watch how long your post treated rocks stay algae free even if you change nothing about the nutrients or export

We don't know how this works yet

I pose that killing the whole organism through targeted free radical assault is a fine interrupter of reproductive pathways in algae

[Jerzy]

My back wall is covered with algae, had a trubo snail that really kept it clean but he knocked everything over, so out he went. Whats the best way to get rid of that?

[brandon429]

What about a dedicated scraping with a razor + siphon since its an accessible straight surface?

[Jerzy]

I though about doing that, but I'm worried about sending cuttings all over the tank and making things worse. I did replace the turbo with a lawnmower blenny. I have a ton of algea,but the he wont touch any of it. It looks like his starving.

[brandon429]

Well if you want it gone like that I don't see the harm in a drain and treat.

I run in tank spot treatments with 18% solutions I make at home as test runs for removing various reef headaches, I've treated my vase rough enough that I can say its a preferable long term control method when these targets are accessible




Any area you treat and follow up with a water change will become very clean there's no harm in that.

take pics lol

[brandon429]

The number one claim against using peroxide dosing is that it doesn't address the core of the algae problems so it will just come back.

that proved to be untrue for my tank
And I began to wonder if it was untrue in other tanks managing pests directly

[brandon429]

A shortcut on the drain and treat safety method is to drain the tank twice but only use clean water on one fill up

Drain tank once to get to target outside of water
Catch water in vessel

After 2 min drain treatment refill tank to bring peroxide into solution
Drain and replace that water with clean water, always pour in water slowly to avoid kicking up waste

when a tank has anemones or life we've listed as sensitive the external treatments are recommended

[mwladdicted]

Ok, I've decided to give this method a shot, I've tried every other option possible to rid myself of this crap. I just underwent a tank move and figured now is a better time than ever to spot treat each individual rock. I applied 3% directly to the affected areas and let sit for about 3 minutes, washed rock, and place it back in the tank. I've only have tried it on 2 rocks so far
Here they are immediatly after treatment.


And here is the whole tank with my ugly algae everywhere.

Wish me luck!!

[brandon429]

Its soon to be a goner!

[mkbtank]

Originally Posted by mwladdicted

Ok, I've decided to give this method a shot, I've tried every other option possible to rid myself of this crap. I just underwent a tank move and figured now is a better time than ever to spot treat each individual rock. I applied 3% directly to the affected areas and let sit for about 3 minutes, washed rock, and place it back in the tank. I've only have tried it on 2 rocks so far
Here they are immediatly after treatment.


And here is the whole tank with my ugly algae everywhere.

Wish me luck!!

If your results are similar to mine Tom you will be amazed in another day or so!

[cmb074]

I have a wiry red algae problem (can not be brushed or even scrapped off) and I have been fighting (not too well!) for over a year and a 1/2- It is pretty much all over. See Attached. I am curious how to handle such a problem with the peroxide?

Not a little tank.....

[thebanker]

You'll have to remove each rock and apply peroxide to the wire algae. Red wire algae seems to be very easily killed by peroxide, so that's good news.

UPDATE on my algae battle:

I don't have very good pictures, because it was tough to get them during the tank move, also the light I'm using is so blue, my phone doesn't capture it correctly...

But hydrogen peroxide, and 8 mexican turbo snails really helped with my algae issues.

Bryopsis = gone
Wire algae = hot pink & dead, quickly getting eaten by hungry snails
Green hair algae = lunch

I will say that the peroxide definitely did something to make the algae more attractive to my snail crew.

So a success story here too.

[brandon429]

excellent ~~

[brandon429]

Cmb074

Thats exactly why I like before pics, before you treat anything. You have the #1 peroxide wimp of all time in your tank, the lysmata cleaner shrimp. Its not a big deal it just means like Banker said you'll need to try and pull out any rocks that you can, so you can dribble straight 3% on them externally, wait two mins, then rinse and re install so you aren't importing any back into the tank.

My goal is to kill nothing but the algae in your tank, but thats relative to the work you are willing to do.

if removing rocks is absolutely not something you are willing to do (even though cleaning under them is a great idea=clouds of detritus are under that structure) then we have to factor in possible loss of the shrimp from a drain and treat

IMO cleaning the tank and getting rid of that algae, my worst enemy, is more important than a small collateral loss even though external treatments will accomplish zero collateral loss.

a drain and treat is just that...lower the water level as low as you can go to expose the red algae

use a sparing amount of peroxide right on the algae, let sit for two mins (no corals in your tank will mind this, I can see what you have) then fill back up. If you treat the whole red algae surface at once, thats several drops of peroxide you will have to use and the refill will kick it back up into solution as the water level rises.

It would be wise to do as large of a water change as you can to offset that again, just for safety. When pouring back in clean water we know it will not hurt your tank if you pour slowly to avoid kicking up detritus in the sandbed. Matching temp and specific gravity alone is safe, we've seen this done time and time again in these threads.

So this algae you have is a beast, an absolute beast. even though taking out your rocks one by one really stinks and might take hours to do/reinstall, at least thats a guaranteed method of kill for you.

This red algae does not show immediate signs of being treated, it likely won't even bubble. But you just use a new bottle of peroxide to make sure its strong, treat, let sit and rinse/reinstall and on day two you will see the tips turn hot pink.

On day five it will be nearly gone we have an exact picture timeline on page 8 or 9 of this thread I think

thanks for joining!!!!!
B

[brandon429]

if all this sounds kinda crazy try just a certain rock you can lift out.

theres no hurry, your tank has been like this for months now and we're starting something new. whats another week or two in being prudent...dont rush if you dont want to

Pull out any rock thats easy and covered in this stuff

do an external application of fresh 3%, wait two mins, rinse and reinstall. document that piece alone for the next week and get familiar with the procedure/outcome

then when that rock is barren clean you'll get this real big zest to do your whole tank lol and it won't seem so harsh

[cmb074]

Well I took out 4 rocks with not much in the way of corals on them and poured the peroxide on- I will see how it goes and then I may just go rock by rock if those clean up nice. I will post more pics in a couple of days. Then I will go for the removing of all rocks and cleaning....oh my! Anything to be rid of this pest!

[brandon429]

I think that is the -perfect- method. I can personally guarantee you the headache will slowly subside. 5 days per run, Im so happy for you. let me tell you a short story about that kind of algae, it killed my first reefbowl. if I would have known about peroxide in 2004 I could have saved all of it, and it would be the oldest pico reef by a decade now but now i have to settle for a crappy 6 yrs on the current one lol/

Make no mistake, peroxide is the fountain of youth for this current reefbowl, it will live as long as the hardware/my mistakes allow it to live. No more biological restrictions, stuff is amazing.

I even have some red algae in a tough spot down low that I don't even care about. h202 is so effective I'll get to it when I feel like it.

Currently Ive moved on from 3%, I use home-diluted 35% now and I usually do my cooking at 18% or so. Mind you this is one gallon vase, packed with tons of coral, 15 different kinds, all aged and plated into place, and I do -in tank- spot treatments with multiple drops of 18% anywhere I want cleaned.

This is why I kind of lol up top in the general forum when I see people getting hot and bothered over a little bit of 3% in their giant tanks lol. I think you will be very happy next week!

My fav use for ultra powerful 18% peroxide is to burn the inside of my glass clean. It gets fugly really bad...green and yellow mico algae hardened like super glue on the inside (I never post those pics only the clean ones, its far easier for me to ask for a before pic than to post it myself lol)

one pass with a corner of a paper towel, held with forceps, on the inside of the glass and bam...it flashes white bubbles as it burns the hound out of that stuff, I let it sit for like 5 mins while I do whatever, then I refill, then drain once more and refill again. I do that once a month to keep an indefinately clean tank, to heck with phosphate management.

[brandon429]

But I am keeping a careful eye out for any manifestation of resistance of this algae to peroxide, this is too good to be true so far. I track about 10 peroxide threads daily on the web and have noted nothing along those lines, but we need to keep on this for a few years to really see. Maybe by then the next big wave in algae control will be here.