pico reef pest algae problem challenge

[WetShepherd]

**Update** (and partial cross-post from my original thread)

This is a follow-up to my previous post here.

I continued following the regimin of reduced feeding (80% of the normal amount, but every other day instead of daily) and I continued dosing 5ml H2O2 on the non-feed days to the water column. I continued doing daily filter sock changes along with 5 gal water changes to remove the 'orange cloud' that formed whenever I pulled a filter (excess diatoms slipping through). I capped this all off with weekend water changes of 30%. Total time for this routine was 18 days.

The tank improved slowly , but after each filter change it was a bit cloudy up to and including my filter change on Thursday, Feb 16th. I skipped my change on Friday and Saturday found the water to be crystal clear (finally!). After a brief consultation with Brandon I stopped the H202 dosing and the tank has remained clear. I still have a bit glass and fan cleaning, not to mention some serious concern about what might be hidden in my pipes - but otherwise I think I'm ready to consider this a successful comeback.

Thank to all who lent their knowledge and experience

 

[brandon429]

That pic is laser clear i'm so happy! Your work and feedback with this large tank has helped others I've already xmitted your doses and approach to others in pm thank you!!

 

[Ralph ATL]

Day 49 with Kent Tech M, albeit I just did my second water change without adding anymore allowing the Mag to slowly get to normal levels.

Since I have been following the regime of covering any remaining patches with: day 1, kalk/rodi/H2O2 day 2, H2O2 & day 3 off, I AM 99.9% ALGAE FREE!

It appeared to be multiple types of Algae, including Bryopsis, and others....that were resistant to algae-fix and Somewhat to Kent's Tech M.

The final test will be after the carbon is back on line and removes whatever chemical that caused algae to be distressed. I'll be ready to paste it like Aptasia...

 

[brandon429]

hey great thanks for the follow up. For the longest time I used lighters to burn off pests and this works possibly even better than peroxide because its residual free

but that only works up top in a vase, down low everything recessed and blocked etc, easy to wield a drop as needed.

taking action is the hallmark of this thread, not peroxide. Its refusing to let an invader stay in your tank even that means removing the rock its on until someone is willing to treat it. The cardinal rule for total control over these reef tanks is permit nothing to take over any real estate, take universal measures first if underaction has been your benchmark.


At least you triple bombed your tank clean, Im tired of seeing all these tanks who took 16 months to beat an invader we beat in a week because I remember how that felt.

I once let a rampant red brush algae ruin my pico vase because no one online gave me permission to act and requested follow up pics.

after losing enough tanks getting them out to 2, 3 years and then an algae comes along you cant beat, every single time by the 36th month, you become kinda crazy fixated on not putting up with invaders regardless of how someone chooses to beat them.

If I ever come into someone house to see a reef and there's algae junk, I am thinking 1998 called. If I can clean out a living vase with the stuff no big tank has an excuse.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

okay there is no way i can remove this rock from my tank it holds the whole pile up...is there anyway i can do this "in tank"

tank is only 5g with a 5g sump volume.

the algae is green looks just like cheato but it is straight and very well rooted to the rocks, looks like a dense bush of green twigs sticking out of the rock...it is very annoying and time for it to go..

reason for its presence i can only chalk up to over feeding, no skimmer, and lack of water changes...life is back on track and now this stuff has to go...the patch is only about 2" square..

 

[brandon429]

for sure. I do in tank treatments on my one gallon vase w sps with a 15% solution, sometimes an 18%

heres the checklist, none of these and you are good to go:
cleaner shrimp, lysmata species and interestingly not many other species are affected.
anemones like bta
decorative macro algae
xenia but usually not a big deal I have some.

drain all the water. place two drops or so from a brand new bottle 3% on the target while the water is drained below that level.
let sit two mins or so.

none of my corals mind. feel free to spot wet any corals you think need the attention during the treatment. every coral Ive ever owned did not mind hanging in the wind briefly.

refill the tank with the water you originally drained out (saves money over two new water changes)

this puts the in tank peroxide back into solution

then do a big water change with clean new water. either change all of it or if you have fish that need swimming room do a couple consecutive 80% changes thats well enough. large water changes are harmless if you match temp and sg and pour back in slowly over the top of a rocky area to avoid kicking up waste. its positive for your tank anytime. we don't do enough of them usually because its impractical

pls take before and after pics it will die certainly no doubt we like the proof here~
if you have some of the sensitive species try and get them out for treatment.

 

[brandon429]

A primary factor in this treatment Im keeping an eye on is how fast do these target areas grow back. And I don't mean ones the keeper didn't fully treat, some people were using old bottles etc

but a spot that got a custom approach specific for that tank and substrate...I don't think this is a bandaid fix like people assume, the follow up pics don't support that.

There is some unknown factor at work as a long term preventative of algae invaders regardless of a change in water parameters, so we need all the pics we can get.

The first time someone has a full tank regression like the before pics post them pls.







I never thought any algae control regimen was one off, its an ongoing cycle of course
but Im saying that occasional peroxide use translates into more algae control and less overall tank work than any method ever shown to me. Why in the world would I want to hook up phosphate strippers, beaded nitrate reactors, complex refugia or ats methods when every few months a big water change/treat removes the tiny amount of algae completely.

the method is easier to run the smaller the tank you have it made man!

its a reasonable practice to use some creative and safe application of peroxide as a drain and treat every few months if you have a smaller tank, right when a spot pops up, your nano can never be taken over by any invader and this is the number one lifespan limiter outside of hardware issues/bad luck like power outages. it will take 10 minutes every few months to ensure your reef is never overtaken, once you get it cleaned out and practice universal exclusion going forward. You might end up starving your clean up crew.



whatever achieves the goal of having no algae at any time for the life of the tank. thats the standard Ive always wanted for my tanks.

 

[mkbtank]

I forgot to mentione earlier. I had 2 astra snails that were somehow covered with red turf, and bubble algae! (The were completely camouflaged). When I treated my rock, I also brushed a bit of Peroxide on their shells and let them walk in a very shallow container for 3 minutes before rinsing and returning.

They are also clean

 

[brandon429]

how cool is that? I had seen any posts about direct gastropod dipping! chalk that up to another tolerant species~

 

[reefknight]

I've read through various posts here and have spoke to a couple of folks over on R2R concerning using H202 to eradicate algae. I'm prepared to begin this on Sunday but want to get a firm grasp on everything. If I have missed something in the thread that may answer some of my questions, please forgive me.

My problem is Gelidium, wiry red turf algae. It has infested my rock work which consists of Fiji and Tokota liverock. It began in an older tank that I had broke down last year, The rock was removed, dried, sun bleached, scrubbed and blasted with fresh water. Fast forward a year and its back, BIG TIME.

I originally ran the Zeo method in this tank, but stopped due to my SPS's lightening too much (actually too much light, but different story). The algae really began making a come back at this point. After reducing light, more frequent water changes, changing salt mixes and running a lot of carbon I tried the Tech M treatment. It did not work, just raised my MG level to over 1800ppm and is now taking forever to drop. So next I add two sea hares and two diadema urchins. They are making a dent in the algae, but not enough to matter. Also my Naso tang and Foxface sample it, but do not consume enough to get excited about. Will add several Turbo snails as soon as I can get to a LFS. Next I began running GFO (Rowaphos) 2 days ago in hopes of trying to reduce the PO4 that the algae can consume. Ready to try something else now as this is driving be bonkers!

Tank info: Total water volume approx. 210gal
185gal display (60x30x25)
50gal breeder sump w/ refugium approx 10gal containing liverock (macro died during Tech M)
Vertex Alpha 200 skimmer
ATB 1500 Flowstar return
ATI 10x54w T-5 (2 lamps for 6.5hrs(Blue + & Actinic), (8 lamps for 4hrs) these alternate
Vortech MP40w and (2) Tunze 6055's circulation
Profilux Doser 3ch (36ml of Alk/Ca/Mg per day)
Salt mix - Recently changed from Salinity to RS Coral Pro - 10% weekly
Phosban reactor - 1/2 cup of Hydro Carbon changed every 14days (Currently 1/4 cup of Rowaphos)

Parameters :
SG - 1.025
pH - 7.9 (Home holds excess CO2)
Alk - 8.5dkh (Elos)
Ca - 430 (Elos)
Mg - 1800 (Elos)
NO2 - 0 (Salifert)
NH4 - 0 (Salifert)
NO3 - 1(Elos)
PO4 - 0.00 (Hanna Checker LR)
Temp - 77.5 - 78.0 F

Inhabitants:
Astrea, Nassarius, & Cerith snails
Red leg, Blue leg & Scarlett crabs
Sea hare (2)
Diadema urchin (2)
1 Peppermint Shrimp
Fighting Conch

Blonde Naso tang
Magnificent foxface
Darwin B & W clownfish pair
Bartlett Anthias trio
Male Pylei and Male Pink Margin Fairy wrasses
Blue Mandarin Dragonet

Various SPS, LPS, Zoa/Palys and Mushroom/ Ricordia corals

With the above information what suggestions for treatment can you offer? Would you treat the tank with H2O2 or would you remove the rocks individually and treat each one separately? How many rocks would be safe to treat at once? I've been told by someone to rinse rocks in tap after letting them set for a couple of minutes, would rinsing in RO water be better? Has this treatment affected anyone's biological filter and caused any sort of cycle? Can carbon or GFO be ran simultaneously of treating the effected rocks? I also have this algae encrusting portions of my sand bed and my snails, would you recommend siphoning the effected substrate out and discarding? I see from a previous post the some one successfully dipped a snail, may try that. My returns are also encrusted in this, can I remove, dip, rinse or can I drip straight on during a water change when my water level is low?

I do apologize for all of the questions and the length of my post, I just want to present all the facts for the best possible advice.

Thank you to all in advance for your assistance and to all of those that have attempted this already!

 

[thebanker]

If you remove each rock and drip H2O2 on the red wire algae, it will turn hot pink and die. Then, rinse each rock with salt water, and put them back into your tank. I wouldn't do it all at once, but a few rocks at a time should be fine.

That said, I'd really reccommend Mexican Turbo snails as a follow up treatment, so the dead algae is processed into another form (snail poop) that can be removed.

Mexican turbo snails seem to prefer red wire algae over other pest algaes, and will make short work of it. I know this because I have the red wire algae in my tank (in manageable amounts), and they will always attack it first, given the choice.

 

[reefknight]

During the die off phase how much algae debris comes loose? Is it enough that I should consider running a filter sock for a few days?

Thanks for the advice!

 

[thebanker]

Yes, I'd run a sock, because some will get loose. It depends on the kind of algae. Bryopsis and GHA tend to get looser than red wire algae.

 

[brandon429]

we needs pics this thread is driven by pics

happy to have ya onboard.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

well dang...the A hoeksamei is a pretty sensitive coral and i have two cleaner shrimp as well...the rest of the coral not so worried about...everything is glued to my rocks too...

 

[brandon429]

Shoot us a full tank shot or pm it to me lemme see if there are any details that stand out

 

[mwladdicted]

I am now a believer. My tank is immaculate this method rocks!! Pictures to come.

 

[reefknight]

we needs pics this thread is driven by pics

happy to have ya onboard.

Thanks!

I'll snap a few pictures tomorrow and post them of the display. Off the top of my head corals include:

LPS
Couple colonies of acans
Blasto wellso
Favia (Sponge Bob & Dragon Soul)
Aussie duncans
Rainbow Lobo
Green/purple fungia
War Coral
WWC Golden Eye chalice
Meteor Shower cyphastrea
Cyphastrea japonica

SPS
Pink Lemonade
Purple Plasma
Hawkins
Miyagi Tort
Shawn Bennett Tort
Cali Tort
WWC Ice Fire Echinata
Shaggy Watermelon Acro
Red Planet
WWC Red Shortcake
Tri Color
Setosa
Sunset monti
Rainbow monti
Blue polyp monti cap
Green Slimer
Granulosa

Soft
Ricordia
Rodactia
Green Palm Cloves
Zoos/Palys
Nuke Green
Oxides
JF Pirates Blood
Cornbred Viper
Rastas
Lord / Rings
Radioactive
Couple of no names

I'm guessing that a couple of the smooth skin acro's are going to be rather sensitive. :worried:

 

[brandon429]

that's a diverse tank no doubt, many of those are new to our treatment

Smooth skin acros wow that's rather uncharted territory if you are doing external treatments it will be a lot of work but safe nonetheless

From descriptions alone it sounds like you are going to have to do a drain and treat? I can't imagine removing rocks with all that in place!

 

[reefknight]

The only good thing, if you can call it that, is that most of mine are frags and very few are encrusted. Albeit there are some that are, mostly SPS's just to complicate things. I'm going to test this on Sunday on my right hand island. Remove the few top pieces of rock, which are some of the most heavily infested rock, treat and replace them.

I did forget to mention that I checked my RO/DI system last week and determined that the TDS was reading 7-10 TDS (seems to fluctuate), replaced my filters and my canisters are cracked and leaking badly. So I have enough water made for a single water change (20-25gal) and about 20gals for top off. Time for a new unit I believe, as three cracked canisters and a new membrane are half of a new unit cost.

Now with having a single water change on hand would you;
- Do the water change the same day that you treat the infested rock....or

- Do the water change a day or so after, to remove part of the pollutants that the dying algae is releasing?