pico reef pest algae problem challenge

72 Hours Later

72 Hours Later

Serious Progress after 72 hours. I'm not sure if the one treatment will be enough, but there is huge improvement since yesterday.

Reference Location
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I'm not a biologist by a long shot, but there is definitely something happening here. It seems like the cells are breaking down. Would be interesting to hear from someone that could actually explain what we are looking at.

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Can't thank you enough for taking time to compile this!

Actually based on the pics I would have expected more death frm the high mag pics but I'm sure they will catch up

When your picture set is done I'm really going to link it around
 
Can't thank you enough for taking time to compile this!

Actually based on the pics I would have expected more death frm the high mag pics but I'm sure they will catch up

When your picture set is done I'm really going to link it around

Not a problem. I also did the 10 minute experiment you asked about. After 24 hours the algae didn't look any different than it did with the 4 minutes I used on my rocks. I'll look at it again this afternoon. I have pictures as well, just haven't had the chance to pull them together yet. My wife keeps going on about this Christmas thing :)
 
It's coming apart at the seams now.

Tomorrow is the big day, we will be taking the tank down and treating all of the rocks. My only concern at this point is whether we are going to have to do this again in a week to completely eradicate it.

Reference Location
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I also have the 600x pics, but it's really at the point that you can't see anything.
 
Botryocladia skottsbergii - RED VALONIA ***HELP***

Botryocladia skottsbergii - RED VALONIA ***HELP***

HI there all, I found this thread earlier today, I read most of it and finally decided I need to post something regarding this "RED BUBBLE" aka Red Valonia.

I started my JBJ 28 CF 2 years ago with all Dry Rock and seeded it with a friends piece of Coralline covered Live Rock.

All my parameters are in check.... I just can't stop this :headwally: Red Bubble crap.

All was good for 2 years, until recently I ordered a clean up crew and introduced it to my tank... "short story" ended up with this Red Valonia (Botryocladia skottsbergii) and a Mojano Anemone.... WOOO HOOO 'ya rite! I am beyond frustrated...

I am thinking about doing a slow drip of peroxide in my display tank. From what I read the only occupant that will parish or maybe die would be my cleaner shrimp which I really like and my xenia which i don't really care about.

Any thoughts ..... please anyone .... looking to eradicate this b4 it becomes a big problem.

Thanks in advance
-Jek-
 

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BbWebb its time for me to start linking that great page you have with your pics, I deleted the pm in cleaning out my box. can you repost it for us and I'll link it back to nr.com too


Jek thanks for posting thats a nice tank. I can't even see your invader thats how nice it is. No I couldn't recommend a drip, a drain and treat or removal for external treatment is the right way. a drip is too broad, it will stress your tank and might not even affect the target if its what you are describing regarding the genus. again I couldn't see any in your tank but I know its there or you wouldn't be here!

so what we do is QT your shrimp elsewhere so it won't die.

then you drain out nearly all the water exposing the bad areas to the air. catch the water in a bucket to reuse.

You use a dripper, or paintbrush, or sponge, whatever, to apply peroxide right to the bad areas only. Let sit in the air for about 2 mins then refill the tank with the old water. Then drain the same amount right back out, throw that water out since it has peroxide in it now, and refill with clean water matching the specific gravity and temps of the prior change water.

Pour in very slowly over your uppermost point on the rock so the returning clean water won't kick up a bunch of waste and make the tank cloud.

If this happens, drain it again siphoning all that back out and refill with another round of clean water. You can't do too many changes in a nano reef if the water is poured slowly and matches temp and sg of the previous water.

This is a lot of work, but is the right way to go.
 
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The isn't actually any situation one would use a drip directly into the tank when battling any genus of rhodophyta, they are spot treaters as some of them are pretty peroxide resistant and need a bolstered dose, something applied directly, not in the dilution of the tank water.

the few drip methods we used in this thead were for redwater outbreaks and some dinoflagellate tanks, but never for the invaders you mentioned.
 
Thanks for the info... I posted on N-R, that I was going to
dose it after I exile my Cleaner Shrimp to 15 gal frag tank in
the basement. I think you talked me out of all of it, just let
it reside and go about it's business...

I was going to try to increase my 2 part dose so to raise
calcium up to an insane (figuratively speaking) and slowly raise
my SG in the process, maybe I can make it start to "ENCRUST"
before the bubbles rupture.

Later
-Jek-
 
Well, 6 hours later and we tore down the entire tank, treated all of the rock and did a 50% water change to boot. So far everything looks like it survived the ordeal, but we'll know more tomorrow.

Brandon - the link to the site where I'm hosting all of my pics is http://smu.gs/Y4kgN8. I'll continue adding pictures, but maybe not quite so many, now that I've treated all of the rocks in the tank.

Thanks for all of the insight and encouragement. I'll anxiously be watching over the next week as the algae dies off!

Bill
 
I only managed to get one tiny bottle from my local pharmacy and it was 6%. So I added the same amount of RO. How long does it last as I now have a mixture a gunk, algae and bristle worms
 
Thank you for posting bwgan you saved our thread from the doldrums of page 2 lol

the external spot treatment you did was perfect. in about 5 days you are going to really like this! When its finished can I repost your main before and after pic here
 
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just poured over is fine. submerging really imports it into the rock and we can wait on that if the regrowth is really bad, inidicating deep seeded holdfasts from the bryopsis that might regrow. mostly it just dies off and if you have to retreat at all its months from now, a fraction of the original mass. in the meantime you can search for better grazers or nutrient controls that may affect the regrowth rates

in my tank I just retreat every few months because thats easiest and my tank stays perfectly clean all the time with this method.
 
Cool. My only issue is, killing it on the rock is one thing, but supposedly it releases spores into the water. I take it that's where adding it to your system would benefit?
 
Spores never concerned me all these years I'll tell you why...even though I don't have consistent sporulation data for each species battling them without regard to sporulation has never done me wrong :)

the valonia everyone is most concerned about turns out is actually least likely to sporulate. everyone assumes they are in the vacuole...online its kind of a requisite for having them...that if you pop them they will spread

but crabs can't eat them whole, they have to pop them to eat them. and mithrax crabs don't cause the spread of valonia, they help stop it, that was the first of the new evident proofs that sporulation as a go-to risk was overstated.

After some hearty online debates about valonia and sporulation, I spent hours on the web finding proof pro or con. I found one article from a real marine plant expert who said when its time to reproduce, spores can form in some areas of the regenerative cells, but its a timed event, they arent carried at all times. in the cell vacuole is water and bits of leftovers from this and that an nearly all other times, so when crabs split them open harmless bits float out into the tank.

regarding all other algae, we purely ignore sporulation to get the results we've collected here, its a huge non issue so have fun treating any way you want that is safe for your tank!!
 
one other thing to consider is that now we have collected at least one example of the actual testing about spore release, bbwebb's great micro pics.

Those spores/sporangia simply died there were no regenerative bits released that weren't destroyed, they just succumbed like the rest of the plant!
 
Hey Brandon, after out PM convo im in.

Here is my tank:

photobucket-38307-1356873848420.jpg


BB, 27 gallon, skimmer, no sump, vodka & MB7. I change out about 60% volume weekly split over a few waterchanges. The source water is good, the salt mix is good. Bulbs are only about 9 months old (T5 HO). The fish are fed on the lighter side (pellets 2-3x a week, frozen brine or worms 1x then a waterchange afterwards to clean the mess up). I still cant get rid of the remaining little tiny bits of what may be byropsis, and there is some cyano.

The rock you see in the pic, is rodded and glued together. Its also the soul source of biological filtration for the tank...the HEART if you will :D Even though ive read most of the thread i will see im still worried about bombing out the tank since my wife would probably melt down if here 7 year old clown pair died.

Anyways, im in. What do you suggest?
 
thank you for posting, this tank is ideal for dosing because of the open spaces and lack of dsb...there isnt a lot of places for the offending biomass to hide after its eradicated

now the big big question


even though your rock is locked together, if it can be simply lifted out for a brief external treatment you are in the house regarding kill time and safety

and I don't blame you guys for wanting reassurance, when you have a tank that old you don't want anything messing it up.

an in tank treatment will work too, but they pale in comparison to just a single external treatment so ideally thats what I hope you can do

if possible, the undisputed ideal treatment for the rock structure is to simply lift it out and set it on a towel next to the tank.

use a spray bottle rinsed really clean and then filled with a new bottle of 3% peroxide, not a previously opened bottle. sometimes they are too weak. you can use a paintbrush to brush it on, the contact matters not the application method. some might just pour it across the targets. either way the brief exposure time outside the tank is simply too short, and 3% is too weak, to alter your biological filtration.

none of your fish are peroxide sensitive. but by breaking the treatment up into two rather than one big one you have an additional safe zone for the old clowns

spray half the rock, let sit outside the tank for 3-4 mins, this air exposure won't hurt that rhodactis anemone I think I see on the bottom parts nor any bacteria.

doing half is a nice conservative approach, plus you can compare the kill zone to the untreated side for some nice pics on the update lol

a few pumps of misted peroxide is easy to rinse off before placing back in.... just set back in tank, its only a few pumps, a few ml's worth. do the other half next week, rock fully clean, and will continue its duties only better looking


the skimmer will perk up during this time as its taking out the dieoff.

this treatment is ideal for your tank because it kills the regenerative parts of the invader but it can take more than one treatment if the rock was really allowed to set in with it. you will love the quick results.

if the rock can't be removed (even though thats the #1 way) then for an in tank treatment I would use no more than 3mls of peroxide at a time, and I would wrap that rock with Saran Wrap and wet arms lol with the pumps off, then inject the peroxide into the tarp, let sit in a still tank for 10 mins, remove tarp and turn on pumps, do a good water change later.

you could wrap parts of the rock and break the treatment up over several days so its not all at once. the Saran Wrap simpy extends the contact time well enough to make a difference, and even though the full dose goes into the tank those fish aren't sensitive to that dose.

since an external treatment puts hardly anything into the tank nothing can beat the safety of that method, so its my go to prescription. And your tank is wide open spaces, I hope you'll consider manhandling that rock and lifting it out and then putting it back in 5 mins later, this is certainly the best way!

post update pics you are going to like this
B
 
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