Hello, have a bunch of questions I'd like to ask everyone. First, my tank is dealing with insane pest/nuisance problems. Can you identify what pests/algae is in my tank, and how do I get rid of them. I have a wrasse in this tank that I'll be draining this weekend and catching to move to a new tank since he kills every CUC addition , and most likely my flame hawk as well cause he's just a jerk to everyone also. I'd like to know multiple options and opinions please. Like for example, maybe just a huge cuc can take care of it, or maybe chemical. Most of my corals have died except a goni , duncan, leather, and cane coral. This is a 40 gallon btw.
HELP! What are these?
- Thread starter Sermanley
- Start date
First, I think your tank looks fantastic.
How long has the tank been set up?
Pic 1 - Looks like just a full tank shot.
2&3 - Aiptasia anemone - They will divide/reproduce and take over if not controlled. Inject with kalk paste if only a few. If more, a butterfly fish (some not coral safe), peppermint shrimp or Berghia nudibranchs.
4,5&6 - A macroalgae of some sort. I wouldn’t consider a pest, it’s biodiversity and good food for herbivores. Nutrient control would be my first recommendation, see my questions at the bottom of this post. If you really want to get rid of it, a tang of your tank is large enough for one.
For a general CUC, I always recommend a mix of snails and crabs. Reef Cleaners & Reeftopia have good packages. KP Aquatics doesn’t have packages but, has a good variety of snails and crabs.
What are your water parameters? Specifically:
Salinity
Alkalinity
pH
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
Calcium
Magnesium
How long has the tank been set up?
Pic 1 - Looks like just a full tank shot.
2&3 - Aiptasia anemone - They will divide/reproduce and take over if not controlled. Inject with kalk paste if only a few. If more, a butterfly fish (some not coral safe), peppermint shrimp or Berghia nudibranchs.
4,5&6 - A macroalgae of some sort. I wouldn’t consider a pest, it’s biodiversity and good food for herbivores. Nutrient control would be my first recommendation, see my questions at the bottom of this post. If you really want to get rid of it, a tang of your tank is large enough for one.
For a general CUC, I always recommend a mix of snails and crabs. Reef Cleaners & Reeftopia have good packages. KP Aquatics doesn’t have packages but, has a good variety of snails and crabs.
What are your water parameters? Specifically:
Salinity
Alkalinity
pH
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
Calcium
Magnesium
First two pics and the anemones underneath the leather in the last pic appear to be Aiptasia. These can typically be taken care of manually (kalk paste, f Aiptasia or similar) if it’s a small outbreak. Larger outbreaks, peppermint shrimp (not always successful and will likely be eaten by your hawk), Aiptasia eating filefish, or Berghia nudibranchs. Aiptasia can and will irritate/kill corals if given the opportunity.
The algaes pics 4,5 and 6, almost looks like Cheato. Likely to be taken care of by hermits or snails or pretty much any algae eating herbivore.
In the full tank pic, it appears you may have some diatoms (or maybe Cyano) but if diatoms, can be taken care of with some sand sifters and/or other clean up crew.
As to the coral health, without exact parameters, it’d be hard to determine, but in addition to parameters, what lighting is being ran?
The algaes pics 4,5 and 6, almost looks like Cheato. Likely to be taken care of by hermits or snails or pretty much any algae eating herbivore.
In the full tank pic, it appears you may have some diatoms (or maybe Cyano) but if diatoms, can be taken care of with some sand sifters and/or other clean up crew.
As to the coral health, without exact parameters, it’d be hard to determine, but in addition to parameters, what lighting is being ran?
10 month old 40 gallon tank , flame hawk, melanarous and 1 clown are the inhabitants now after my other fish all died, I was only able to recover 1 body , is it possible the dead fish I never found could have decomposed and caused this issue?
Salinity I keep at 1.026
Alk 8.2
Ph 8.4
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 16.5
Phos 0.05
Cal 460
Mag 1350
This last week I added Nitrate to my tank cause it bottomed out 0.0, I added a little too much cause I was aiming for 5.0 not 16.5 lol , but those pics were the same before I added the Nitrate, for months the parameters for nit and phos have been close to zero for phos and 0 for Nitrate, I cut my lighting down to 8 hrs a day , I had it on for 10hrs the whole time the tanks been up.
I posted the parameters up above ^ on another reply and the problem is my wrasse kills everything I buy to help lol, lighting I use a blade grow and glow at roughly 20% strength for around 150 reading at the top of the rocks to roughly 50 at the sand bed
Both nitrate and phosphate are a bit high but, you explained that. If you get those under control (water changes and, if needed GFO) you should see the algal growth slow down.
For the Aiptasia, you definitely don’t want the peppermints with the wrasse. I’d start with kalk injections but, watch your Alk and pH using that merhod.
Decomposing livestock (dead stock?) certainly could cause an increase in algal growth.
For the Aiptasia, you definitely don’t want the peppermints with the wrasse. I’d start with kalk injections but, watch your Alk and pH using that merhod.
Decomposing livestock (dead stock?) certainly could cause an increase in algal growth.
I really want to break the tank down and start over, I'm getting a 75 gallon tank next month and will probably keep this one up and running as my reef tank and use the 75 as a fowlr for now. You think it would be a horrible idea to just remove the rock work , scrub it good with maybe spot treatment of hydrogen peroxide? And I just bought a new 20 pound bag of live sand from carib sea , maybe suck up all the old sand and get rid of it ...... I think close to 4 dead fish have decomposed in there due to harassment from my flame and wrasse.
IMO, you don’t have big enough of an issue to warrant all that work. I think just water changes will get you back on track. Maybe vacuum about 1/8 to 1/4 the sand bed weekly. Pulling out and scrubbing all the rock could lead to the tank re-cycling. Disturbing too much of the sand bed could release hydrogen sulfide which can kill livestock.
Ok so what if the plan was , catch the wrasse and flame hawkfish. Keep them elsewhere for now or I might just sell them to a LFS for store credit if they sell. And then I'd just have the single clown in there, I'd add a lawnmower and fox face plus prob 5 red leg 5 blue leg 5 nass snails 5 astrea snails and maybe 2 pep shrimp. You think that could do the trick with say 20% weekly water changes ? Cause I only have 3 snails alive , 2 big astrea that the wrasse can't seem to kill and eat, and a tiger conch.
Ty
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