pico reef pest algae problem challenge

Well, I'll be attempting this on my HA that recently popped up after switching to LED after reading EVERY page of the thread. (never had before that in the 5 yrs running, but that's another discussion.) Picked up my 3% today. I have a 180 g w/ 45 g sump. Mix of LPS and sps. Some rocks I'll remove and dip, others I'll have to do the drain method or turn pumps off as their drilled and on a PVC pipe that cant be removed.

Couple confirmations/questions
1. read cleaner shrimp don't handle this, nothing about a coral banded? Anyone?
2. when I drain or target in the main tank its just a couple drops at the base, but no more than 1ml per gallon in one total treatment? So my case don't put more than about 20ml into the water?
3. how long is safe to let sit before next treatment?

Thanks! I'll be sure to get before and after pics. Will start tomorrow.

Andrew
 
load some pics if you can!

Coral bandeds are tolerant, Ive actually got peroxide on mine before it didn't die.

You can treat 3x per week safely with the 1:10 dosage...this is a safe zone for starters, people use up to 2-3 mls per 10 as well
 
with pics we can see if there are any details before the application, but any external treatments are just fine to start with
 
I'm beginning to think I'm sold on this method. I'm really nervous about this, but this will help me with some other issues/items also. I have a 120g tank with about 125 lbs of LR in it. My thought is to pull out and dip ALL of the rock. The reason for this is manifold...

First of all, I intend to pull all of the fish out of the tank and quarantine them all to be absolutely certain we don't have any diseases in the tank. The reason for this is that about a year ago we had a major ich outbreak that killed off all but two of our fish. We are currently looking at possibly getting some new fish including at least one Tang and so I'm extremely paranoid about ich.
Next, I have been thinking about adding some more sand to the bed, and emptying the tank seems a good way to go about adding a large volume of sand. Along with the sand, my wife has been making noise about adding a few more pieces of live rock so this would be the idea time for that also in my opinion.
Finally, I do have GHA, bryopsis, bubble algae, and at least a couple small patches of what I think is cyano bacteria. My hope is that the dips will be able to address all of these nuisances at the same time.
The one thing that would not be handled by this approach is the dyno on the sandbed, at least I'm pretty sure it's dyno. I'm really not sure how to deal with that, and I'm also not sure if I'm going to have any issues with stirring up the sand so much and adding more sand to the tank. Maybe just covering up all of the dyno with additional sand will smother it?

I'll post again with the procedure I'm thinking of trying when I get thru reading some more of these 30 pages and have had more time to think it thru.
 
The most common method for standard low lying dino (not the aggressive invader kind) is simple repeated removal, they tend to exhaust the silicate or whatever food source is boosting them then they die off. peroxide will kill them but people usually opt for physical removal first. if you are going to have a barren tank with only rock and sand and water and dinos go ahead and squirt some peroxide on them to help out, it can't hurt. There is no known practical dose at 3% that could hurt your filtration bacteria for the dosages you'll be using.

so about the sandbed heres my idea tell me what you think.

I can't think of a situation, unless carefully planned and the tank stocked around real/true long term sandbed maintenance, where the sandbed of a reef aquarium is not one big giant diaper w slow buildup.

So if you disturb part of it, or overlay a clean linen on top :), its covering up diaper waste below lol

if you are taking a tank down that far...why not clean the whole sandbed out and start clean. its the last chance you'll ever get is how I see it. do nothing with a sandbed partially loaded with waste, but if you have a chance to really clean one in the absence of corals etc why not start square one!

you could remove the whole sandbed, rinse it in clean ro water and most of the bacteria will xfer right back over to the new tank sans detritus since the biofilms will be mostly present.

Im thinking your sandbed isn't holding something that we need, its holding something you couldn't get rid of while things were running.
 
Just found this wonderful thread.

Just found this wonderful thread.

What I most have is this red bubbly type algae. Not sure what it is called, but I will upload some pics.

Let me know if you guys think this the hydrogen peroxide will get rid of it.

I do have a cleaner shrimp though, so I am a bit reserved from what I have read.

Is there a specific post # that addresses a step by step of how to do it? Or a video? Thanks in advance!

http://imageshack.us/f/846/dscn1556q.jpg/
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http://imageshack.us/f/528/dscn1548o.jpg/
 
Just an update. I treated directly to my rockwork about 6 months ago and successfully eradicated TONS of bubble algae. I wanted to say that in the past 6 months, I have had the algae return to the back wall, and the powerhead casing, but NONE has come back on my rocks. :)
 
Hello Brandon,

I'd like to pick your brain quick if I could. (Or anyone that may have some advice here.) I am cycling a 3x3 tank in my basement, long story short I would like to put some rock from my DT in the new frag tank but I have a bad Valonia outbreak in DT. I don't want to risk transferring a problem to my new tank. Would an option be to pull a piece of rock from DT and treat with P and place in my DT's sump for a period to make sure no spores are present, then treat again in a week? At this point I think it would be safe to transfer and keep the beneficial bacteria, but not the unsightly algae.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Cheese

Link to my original thread on asking about this,
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2190180&highlight=valonia
 
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That will certainly work, would you take before and after pics for us if you do, we have real good Valonia before and after pics going on in the middle pages

Thanks for inquiring! Can't wait to hear results
 
Here's a quick update for you guys, you have seen the before pics, here are some afters for you

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Yep I know iv killed the algae, but not the cause as yet, this is however giving me the chance to get a true reading of my my nit/phos in my tank

Gazz
 
Ok.
Did half of my rocks filled with bubble algae and hair algae. Pulled them and squirted the peroxide right on the effected area then dipped the rocks in clean saltwater. After placing the rocks back and and doing a 10% water change, i noticed the areas i hit were neon red under my moon LEDS.
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sorry about my spelling. i am currently using my phone
 
my phone prefills too lol but its worth it to be able to text quick!

Thats the classic red death sign, the color turning hot pink or flourescent in the targets. I think they will be dead in two days, the only determining factor is really how old your bottle of peroxide was (used bottles are weak) and how long you let it sit on target before the rinse. But to get a color change this quick, I bet you zapped it.

dont worry if your briareum takes a few days to open, they are finicky either way. They are not sensitive, peroxide at this dilution will not hurt, they'll open when ready, likely tomorrow.
 
I just squirted some straight peroxide (from a new bottle) right in the target areas, let ir sizzle foe about 2-3 minutes and dunked the rock a few times in a bucket and through it in a cleaner bucket to take it back to the tank and repeated this with the other rocks.
I did shoot my zoas with peroxide and the came back out tuis morning so i tjink thy should be fine!

sorry about my spelling. i am currently using my phone
 
Just a quick note... I pulled ALL of my rock out and did the soak in 50/50 solution. Unfortunately I still haven't gotten things put back together properly yet as I have a 6 line and watchman goby that I can't catch to get out of the tank. Anyway, the odd thing is that the bryopsis has turned bright green. I don't think I've ever seen it this color before, so maybe it's a good thing, or bad for the bryopsis at least. I'll update again hopefully after this weekend when I can get the fish out and the rock work redone.
 
Attacked the algae around the zoa polyps by pouring H2O2 directly on, listened for the sizzle, rinsed the rocks and did a WC on the tank.

The polyps are closed but look fine. I did this a week ago on another area so I am not worried. Right now the algae is pearling so I am hoping they are going down in flames.

I will do another area and another WC later on in the week in hopes to get ahead of the situation.
 
I've tried to read a bunch but I just can't find the solution for rocks that can't be moved unless i dismantle my entire rockwork to get it. Is there a way to treat in tank somehow?

If already written up could you direct me to the page number.

Thanks
 
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