Chiselin time!

[CeeGee]

ludnix,

That is the bulb I have and the chaeto dwidles and did so before I ever added GFO. The GFO seems to be doing little to nothing as well. I got home late last night and it will be the same story tonight but I am going to post pics of this stuff asap so maybe someone here can help.

 

[Voltekker]

Dose magnesium, Ive used it for all types of algae

 

[hottuna]

I had the same problem once...They used to call me " Chisel head " at my lfs for a while as a joke...used an old sm wood chisel...

 

[scapes]

get a foxface....it eats everything green

 

[tybox]

x2 on the foxface, havent seen any algae in my tank since I added one. Was the last piece of the puzzle in my fight with bryopsis a few years back.

 

[StupidsReef]

If you raise you Magnesium level from 1300ppm to 1600ppm and keep it there for 1 week ( that's 7 days ) it should TKO this algae. I would also take the advise of running Carbon as well. Together with GFO, Carbon and a boost in the Magnesium level & the time to allow everything to take effect, you should be satisfied will the out come. After one week I would return Magnesium levels back to around 1300ppm, but I would continue to run the Carbon. GFO is ok to run for outbreaks IMO once you have it under control I'd slowly back the GFO down.

JMO none of this is prove FACTS, I'm no expert, just another reefer trying to help.

 

[CeeGee]

here are some pics as promised (sorry it took so long as I have been very busy).

 

[spleen93]

Yikes!

 

[CeeGee]

Where are all the algae experts?

 

[Tang Salad]

Wow, that stuff looks mean. I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure it can be killed off. It sounded like you've already tried every trick in the book, right? If you're convinced there's nothing left to try, then try the carb/bac. It will without a doubt kill that stuff. Have you used vodka/sugar/zeovit/prodibio/polyplabs before? If you haven't or don't know where to begin, I'd be happy to walk you through it

 

[Tang Salad]

Sorry, just reread earlier where you said "I haven't tried carbon dosing. I haven't had time to read up on it thoroughly. Last time I read anything about that there seemed to be a lot of questions about long term effects. I would be interested in trying this if it would work."

It will work, and IMHO will be way better than chiselin'. You have a great skimmer, and this will help carb/bac work to full efficacy. But you will need to take your refugium offline, or remove all the macroalgae from it.

 

[CeeGee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13434380#post13434380 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tang Salad
Sorry, just reread earlier where you said "I haven't tried carbon dosing. I haven't had time to read up on it thoroughly. Last time I read anything about that there seemed to be a lot of questions about long term effects. I would be interested in trying this if it would work."

It will work, and IMHO will be way better than chiselin'. You have a great skimmer, and this will help carb/bac work to full efficacy. But you will need to take your refugium offline, or remove all the macroalgae from it.

Thanks for coming back TS!

The pics make it look worse than it actually is. Don't get me wrong it is bad (bad enough for half my rock to be cooking currently) but the pics make it look like the whole tank is covered and that is not the case.

Lets get some vodka going. There is no way I can afford the zeo/prodibio so if vodka will work lets give it a go. I have been raising my mag over the last few days as StupidsReef suggested. I don't have the Kent product I have ESV b-ionic magnesium (liquid). I would think that it is similar to the kent. I bought it a long time ago in case I ever needed to raise my Mag but I have always had a good Mag level according to my Salifert kit and Reef Crystals salt.

You say that I have a great skimmer but it doesn't seem that great to me. It goes days without pulling anything and if a drop of selcon hits the tank forget it. Come back a week later if you want to see any action from that G3. As soon as cash permits I am going to a deltec. On the other hand maybe it is just too dang big for the water volume I have. I bought waaaaaaay more than I needed because I knew I would be moving to a larger tank. That will be happening as soon as my first batch of rock is finished cooking which will be in a month. I am going to cook it a little longer than suggested just because this stuff is so nasty.

I do really appreciate you stopping back by. This stuff is killing me. I am at least seeing a little growth and slight color on my SPS again and polyp extension is better than it has been in a long long time. The funny thing is look at that algae and look at how pale my SPS are. The algae suggests high nutrients but the state of the SPS suggest not enough. Keep in mind this stuff took a little over two weeks in complete darkness to die. Wicked stuff. I really think this algae is special. Lets eradicate it.

Removing the chaeto is not an issue as it is dying a slow death anyway. If you look closely at the Tunze pic you can see pieces of it that are half dead (broke off the main colony because it is unhealthy and took a journey into the display tank). The chaeto dies while the problem algae thrives like no tomorrow.

A couple of things I have noticed about this stuff which may or may not matter. It likes very high flow. It likes any type of light from the top of the tank down to the bottom rocks in the tank. It will grow over coraline. Thats about all I got.

 

[just dave]

Before you go to all the trouble of ripping your tank down I would look into and try one of the aforementioned ULNS / bacteria driven methods. I have a lot of customers and friends using the Prodibio products with very good results. Just be careful and don't get impatient if you use one. If done properly the results will come. You will need a good skimmer that is performing well with these methods. Brightwell has one out now as well called NeoZeo but I don't know of anyone that has used for a long enough period of time to give any useful feedback yet. Prodibio is not really expensive.

 

[CeeGee]

Dave my man! How is it going? Have you ever set up another display tank to take the place of that beautiful SPS tank you used to have in the shop? I will never forget that tank. Simply put it was breathtaking. After I get this algae beat will you help me understand how to eradicate internal parasites from flasher wrasses? I have been through two really nice McCoskers that slowly starved to death (while eating like pigs till the day they died) over the course of 7-8 months. Both were quarantined and treated with prazi-pro and the copper that you sent me that I still owe you for (you never told me how much to send you).

Anyways back on topic.

If the vodka will work I might try that. One night as a young man I got really F'd up on Popov. If Popov would F this algae up as badly as it did me I would go buy a bottle tomorrow.

I am basically going through all this trouble of cooking (and it is a lot of trouble. quite frankly it is a royal pita) because I am setting up a new tank in a few and want to wipe the slate and start getting the results I am looking for.

 

[Tang Salad]

First off a confession: I've never used vodka. I've used PolypLabs, and while they both work on the same principal and I'm confident either will work for you, I can't give you specific vodka dosing instructions. (But...IIRC the starting does for vodka is about .15-.3mL/25-gallon every day when lights are on. Wait for confirmation on this.)

If you can spring $120 for the PL, it may be simpler and faster. The PL system comes with a vodka-like carbon source, along with bottled bacteria. Whether this bacteria is totally necessary is still debated, but it worked very well for me. And no, I don't work for them.

No matter which method you choose, you MUST remove all macroalgae from the refugium, or just take fuge offline. Carbon dosing will suck (nearly) every last bit of NO3/PO4 from the water. You don't want to deal with your refugium algae turning white. Remember the goal is No Algae Anywhere, including the fuge.

And get your skimmer running in top form. Skim wet, skim heavy. The bacterial films that the carbon feeds need to be skimmed out. Get in the habit of daily turkey bastings of the LR., as they will gather more detritus/clear slime than ever before.

Do all this and you'll have that stuff dead and gone in under 6 weeks. And if you don't, I'll send you a chisel myself! :lol:

 

[CeeGee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13434556#post13434556 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tang Salad
First off a confession: I've never used vodka. I've used PolypLabs, and while they both work on the same principal and I'm confident either will work for you, I can't give you specific vodka dosing instructions. (But...IIRC the starting does for vodka is about .15-.3mL/25-gallon every day when lights are on. Wait for confirmation on this.)

If you can spring $120 for the PL, it may be simpler and faster. The PL system comes with a vodka-like carbon source, along with bottled bacteria. Whether this bacteria is totally necessary is still debated, but it worked very well for me. And no, I don't work for them.

No matter which method you choose, you MUST remove all macroalgae from the refugium, or just take fuge offline. Carbon dosing will suck (nearly) every last bit of NO3/PO4 from the water. You don't want to deal with your refugium algae turning white. Remember the goal is No Algae Anywhere, including the fuge.

And get your skimmer running in top form. Skim wet, skim heavy. The bacterial films that the carbon feeds need to be skimmed out. Get in the habit of daily turkey bastings of the LR., as they will gather more detritus/clear slime than ever before.

Do all this and you'll have that stuff dead and gone in under 6 weeks. And if you don't, I'll send you a chisel myself! :lol:

So $120 worth of PolypLabs will last how long? As of right now a $8 bottle of vodka is sounding better. What do you do after the carbon source takes the algae out? I am a firm believer in keeping things simple. The truth is that I messed up really badly when I started this tank and this is the result. If the carbon source would work it's magic and then I could quit it and go back to normal (good) husbandry that would be ideal for me.

 

[Tang Salad]

I have a similar size tank, just a bit smaller (40 Display + 20g sump) and I've been using it for 6 months. I'm now about half empty, so I guess about a year...or about $.33 a day...if that helps.

 

[Tang Salad]

Most people continue to dose carbon even after all the algae is dead, to prevent any from returning. After all the algaes die, your corals will begin to lighten. At this point you can increase your feeding to help the corals get richer colors.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13434554#post13434554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CeeGee
Dave my man! How is it going? Have you ever set up another display tank .............

New tank

If you go with the Vodka method read up and be very sure you know what to do. The Prodibio ( and I'm sure most of the others) also provide you with a bacteria additive (Biodigest) as well as a carbon source( Bioptim ,non-alcoholic I believe in most if not all.) The Prodibio would run you about 30 bucks for about 12 weeks worth depending on how you used it. The Brightwell NeoZeo could cost even less long term if you used just the carbon source and the bacteria.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13434554#post13434554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CeeGee
Dave my man! How is it going? .............I still owe you for (you never told me how much to send you).

It's going fine and don't worry about it, my treat.