My Bacteria Driven Journey
- Thread starter Tswifty
- Start date
Tswifty
New member
ORA Red Planet, ORA Joe the Coral, Purple Tip Efflo
August 9, 2009
August 30, 2009
September 15, 2009
One of the worst areas for algae.
August 9, 2009
August 30, 2009
September 15, 2009
Some other pics:
ORA Bird's of Paradise - knocked it over the other day, and spun it around when I remounted it. Blotchy areas on the left are from holding it in place when remounting.
Tyree Ponape
August 9, 2009
August 30, 2009
September 15, 2009
One of the worst areas for algae.
August 9, 2009
August 30, 2009
September 15, 2009
Some other pics:
ORA Bird's of Paradise - knocked it over the other day, and spun it around when I remounted it. Blotchy areas on the left are from holding it in place when remounting.
Tyree Ponape
Aqua Keepers
New member
Tswifty, I can see the improvement, but what are your overall opinions about your new method?
Stanley-Reefer
New member
Swifty--I'm seeing similar results, but I am changing a good amount of water just to further aide stripping more nutrients and moreso to suck out the algae.
Yours looks very pale--have you hit it with a syphon to see if it'll pull off the rock? If it will, it won't come back!!!!
Yours looks very pale--have you hit it with a syphon to see if it'll pull off the rock? If it will, it won't come back!!!!
Aqua Keepers
New member
AA's will cure this
Tswifty
New member
I definitely like running the "bacteria driven" system, and can see the benefits... However, I'm in a bit of a pickle right now.
I mean here are the positives... 1 month in (2 weeks MB7, 2 weeks MB7 & Vodka)
- Greater polyp extension
- Clearer water (really began to notice this past week)
- White sand... no more brown diatom type stuff building up every few days.
However, I really haven't seen a decrease in nuisance algae yet (of course it's only been 2 full weeks of vodka dosing). The biggest decrease was due to manual removal. Also, some of my corals look to be nutrient poor (lightening up), while others look great. So I'm not sure if I should begin Amino Acid dosing yet or what since there is so much nuisance algae still present? The coral you can see this the most in is the ORA Red Planet if you look at the progression pictures.
Also, my refugium is thriving again, and has filled the refugium section again... so I'm not sure if I should pull it or what?
I'm trying not to jump too far ahead. I mean looking at it realistically, I've only been at this for a little over a month.
Thank you.
I haven't tried siphoning it yet. The main decrease was from manual removal the other day. So I'll be interested to see if it will come back or not. If the bacteria and carbon dosing are doing their thing, hopefully it will not be able to come back.
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
Swifty,
I see a huge difference in the algae color! I think with as bad as your case was/is you will have to dose for a couple months.
Do you have any herbivorous fish that will eat the algae? Also I know this in the thread somewhere but how many snails and crabs do you have? May be worth getting like 15 more of each to let them munch on the algae. I have noticed when HA gets shorter strands the crabs and Mexican Turbo snails love the stuff!
That is my 2 cents.
Great thread and tank BTW!
I see a huge difference in the algae color! I think with as bad as your case was/is you will have to dose for a couple months.
Do you have any herbivorous fish that will eat the algae? Also I know this in the thread somewhere but how many snails and crabs do you have? May be worth getting like 15 more of each to let them munch on the algae. I have noticed when HA gets shorter strands the crabs and Mexican Turbo snails love the stuff!
That is my 2 cents.
Great thread and tank BTW!
mordibv
Active member
Glad to see the the tanks looks better . The bottle brush and green acro show great improvements .
I am wondering if cleaning the sump up did more than the dosing. I am still scratching my head on the algae issue .
That skimmer looks like it should be more than enough for the bioload .U would think it would strip that tank clean .carbon and gfo too. It looks like u run it a lil wet imho .
I have tried bac driven systems Prodibio ,Brightwell and gave up on them . I hated the black stuff on the rocks and walls . My next build will go to the supplements below with Reef BIO Activ (sorta bac type ) and BIO calcium . I will wait after I have fully encrusted rock and a back wall full of coralline algae (sorry i like the stuff ) .The bac products seem to inhibit micro and macro algae imho .
I have given my Bright well bac stuff MB7 & bio fuel to a buddy but kept the amino's ,reef snow , lugols , pottassion , replenish , marine c and restore .
Any who I'll watch ur tank blossom again .
Thanks for sharing this with us .
I am wondering if cleaning the sump up did more than the dosing. I am still scratching my head on the algae issue .
That skimmer looks like it should be more than enough for the bioload .U would think it would strip that tank clean .carbon and gfo too. It looks like u run it a lil wet imho .
I have tried bac driven systems Prodibio ,Brightwell and gave up on them . I hated the black stuff on the rocks and walls . My next build will go to the supplements below with Reef BIO Activ (sorta bac type ) and BIO calcium . I will wait after I have fully encrusted rock and a back wall full of coralline algae (sorry i like the stuff ) .The bac products seem to inhibit micro and macro algae imho .
I have given my Bright well bac stuff MB7 & bio fuel to a buddy but kept the amino's ,reef snow , lugols , pottassion , replenish , marine c and restore .
Any who I'll watch ur tank blossom again .
Thanks for sharing this with us .
Last edited:
newsalt
Active member
In this thread and Sunny's thread, I read that you have to have a big skimmer. I have a 180g tank and I have an MRC MR2 Skimmer:
http://www.myreefcreations.com/MR-2-Protein-Skimmer
It has the 12" riser add-on:
http://www.myreefcreations.com/6-x12-Add-On-Riser
Is this a big enough skimmer?
http://www.myreefcreations.com/MR-2-Protein-Skimmer
It has the 12" riser add-on:
http://www.myreefcreations.com/6-x12-Add-On-Riser
Is this a big enough skimmer?
Big E
Premium Member
The Paletta Pink looks horribly bleached..........can't believe that came off my colony. I don't like the look of the Red Planet either.
Instead of upping the vodka dosing, how bout going slower? The corals will handle it better. It's nice that some of the algae seems to be subsiding but some of the corals are already starving, which I believe is your current concern.
The reason the polyps are out on some acros during the day(that never were before) is because they are starving. Night polyp extension isn't enough for them like before. They are extended 24/7 to get more light/food.
Maybe you can spot feed some of the corals that are hurting?
Instead of upping the vodka dosing, how bout going slower? The corals will handle it better. It's nice that some of the algae seems to be subsiding but some of the corals are already starving, which I believe is your current concern.
The reason the polyps are out on some acros during the day(that never were before) is because they are starving. Night polyp extension isn't enough for them like before. They are extended 24/7 to get more light/food.
Maybe you can spot feed some of the corals that are hurting?
gavinbree
New member
It's worth mentioning that hair algae can leech nutrients directly from the rock, increasing vodka dosing will have very little effect, its just a matter of waiting it out until the hair algae has gone through its cycle and used up the stored nutrients in the rock.
Once you have hit ULN readings (refering to your chart from 09/05) you should be looking for the maintenance dosage not continue increasing.
I can appreciate that the algae is unsightly and you want rid of it of course, but its going to take time, hair algae is a strange thing in that one day it will be growing like mad and then a few days later it will almost vanish.
Once you have hit ULN readings (refering to your chart from 09/05) you should be looking for the maintenance dosage not continue increasing.
I can appreciate that the algae is unsightly and you want rid of it of course, but its going to take time, hair algae is a strange thing in that one day it will be growing like mad and then a few days later it will almost vanish.
+1
You have nutrients stored in the rock. This will take months to remove.
Your water column is low in nutrients (hence the lighting of the acros) but the algae are still getting nutrients from the rock.
I removed my rock and cleaned it with a garden hose. The amount of gunk that i removed was astonishing.
