A few questions before I make a mistake please

[Serren]

Hi all! New Sacramento area user here. I have a couple of questions. I also am going to join MARS. Oh, I accidently posted this in a general forum, but wanted to get local help with my problem. Sorry about the double post.

I bought an inuse 14g Biocube from a person on Craigs List last month. The tank had live rock, sand, hermits, a shrimp, a few snails and one clown. All looked alright, except for this green hair algea. Since I was new to the reef world, I figured I would be able to take care of this problem myself.

Well, now a month later the hair algea is worse then ever. Here is a picture, which tells 1000 words.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2025/2234335705_86fa24e498_o.jpg

This photo was from a couple of weeks ago, and is now actually worse. I tried scrubbing it off, which didnt work that well, and I later learned is bad for the rock.

So here is my plan, which is where I need advice to confirm wither it will work.

Tonight I setup up a new temp tank. Once it gets settled down, I am going to move my crabs, the clown, my one mushroom, and my starfish into this new tank, and then throw-out all the old sand, corals and rock. This seems extreme, but I am willing to go to these measure to be rid of this ugly algea.

What are the opinions on my plan of action?

Thanks!

Steve

 

[kevin95695]

try a sea hare first

 

[kevin95695]

Oh, and welcome to the freak show!

 

[KMP]

and then throw-out all the old sand, corals and rock. This seems extreme, but I am willing to go to these measure to be rid of this ugly algea.

you could very likely end up with the same problem after getting the new sand/rock in. good maintenance (water changes/clean the filter), careful not to overfeed and the sea hare like kevin mentioned is the best bet.

oh and on the sea hare, you'll need to find it a home after he/she's done it's job.

 

[kevin95695]

I'll be ready for another sea hare shortly with the new build(s) :twitch:

 

[P.Kelly]

Steve,

Let's start with the important stuff. Do you have a DI/RO system to make "clean" water, are you buying water from a fish store or are you using tap water?

Are you running the stock BC14 lighting (i.e. Power compacts) or an aftermarket metal halide system? How many hours a day?

Are you using any phosban or GFO material in your filter?

How much are you feeding your fish?


You don't need to throw out the rock, do the following:

1. Make sure you are using clean water. If you don't have an RO/DI system at home, get water from the Coral Reef Shop if you're in the north, or come to my house if you're in the south area. This is a MUST!!!

2. Plan on doing 25% water changes every week for the next 2-3 months to export nutrients, since you don't have a skimmer and you're fighting an uphill battle.

3. Get some GFO from a local club member to put in the filter area.

4. Pull the rock out and take as much of the green hair algae off as possible by hand and put the rock back in.

5. If you aren't having nitrate problems, you may want to get an algae blenny, sea hair or other algae eating creature.

6. If you have metal halides, turn them off and just run the PCs. If you only have PCs, cut your photo period back to 4 hours a day.

7. Cut way back on feeding your fish.

I just went through this same problem with my 92 gallon. In 3 weeks I had the problem totally resolved, but it takes a fair amount of work.

 

[kevin95695]

Yeah. And that, too.

 

[KMP]

what he said...

 

[P.Kelly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11917472#post11917472 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevin95695
Oh, and welcome to the freak show!

It's not that bad!!!

















Well, maybe.....



















Sometimes...

 

[jtarmitage]

First, welcome!
Second, that's not all that bad. Pete pretty much spelled it out.
Off the top of my head:
Reduce photo period for a few weeks, with a "nap" of an hour during the middle.
Run carbon and phosban to soak up nutrients.
Vacuum the gravel to make sure there is no excess detritous decomposing and compounding the problem.
Make sure you are not overfeeding.
Then, practice patience! Don't do or add anything until things stabilize and the algae begins to die off. When you can see the rock again, you will know you are ready to add more critters.
Good luck, and don't hesitate to ask questions.

 

[P.Kelly]

I would add to what Jeremy said about vacuuming the substrate: IMO do not vacuum it all at once. Spread out the vacuuming over a few days. The last thing you want to do is compound your problem by stirring up a ton of detritus back into the water column.

 

[jtarmitage]

Good point Pete, though the stirring up of detritous is a good thing to me, as it can then be filtered out. The downside to vacuuming the entire sand bed at once is that you disturb the bacteria in the sandbed. Do 1/3 at a time, leaving a couple of days in between at least.

 

[Serren]

Thanks all for the idea and suggestions! What I ended up doing was a hybrid of the above and making my wife happy.

First, to answer the questions from above.

My water comes from a water store recommended by the LFS on Keifer. It is right next store, and they have a $20,000 RO/Ultraviolet water purifing system that is bigger then an SUV. The LFS guy uses this water for all his tanks, so it most be ok. I dont know about the water from before I got the tank though, and it came with the algea.

I am running only the stock lights. I have my lights scheduled as following:
8am to 6pm 10,000 daylight
6pm to 9pm Actinic Blue
9pm to 6am Moon light leds
6am to 8am Actinic Blue

I have a sack of phosguard in the first chamber. Its about two weeks old. I have the bioballs (yeah, I know, most hate them!) in the 2nd chamber, and the stock sponge in the 3rd chamber.

I feed my one fish very little. Just a few specs every other day.

On to what I did today:

1) I moved just about all the live rock into my temp tank. I am hoping the cold and the dark will help remove the algea while I move on to the other steps.
2) I scrubbed most of the algea off the walls and equipment.
3) I changed out about 3 gallons of water.
4) I vacuumed 1/3rd of the tank.
4) Since I last checked, my nitrates were zero, so I picked up an algea blenny. This little guy went right to work!
5) I added two small chunks of new live rock to give the crab and stuff a place to hide.

I am feeling much more confident, and am glad that I am not redoing everything from scratch. Hopefully, with everyones help here, I can learn what I need to see this problem through.

I do have a few follow-up questions. Can someone suggest a better light schedule? Maybe one for this problem phase and another for when I am hair algea free?

I took a few new photos, which I'll upload later. Oh, I did find two random unattached mushrooms while moving out the rock. A green and a purple. I also noted, when taking a look at the old rock, worm like creatures wiggling around that I had not seen before. One was about as big as a pencil lead, with black and white stripes. The others were pure white, about the width of a toothbrush bristle. very odd. As soon as the light hit them, they ducked back into the rock. The black and white one was quite ugly!

Thanks again for the advice and tips! I hope to meet some of you in person shortly!

Steve