pico reef pest algae problem challenge

[brandon429]

Orion glad it worked, you certainly took action before an outbreak which is ideal. Also you know something funny...your tank is i think only the second pico reef being treated in the whole thread lol we've migrated mainly to big tank treatments

Florida your situation is pretty easy to control since there isn't alot of reef substrate we are concerned about

For these situations i try to use peroxide last, and avoiding coral contact where possible.

So for each frag with gha, id remove it all by hand in a separate container. Then, spot apply the peroxide to the plug areas avoiding the actual coral polyp, this will help stop or slow regrowth, most of the time it stops it.

For areas in the tank with gha i would remove/siphon by hand. Remove nearly all mass from the tank by hand, use peroxide to control regrowth, that means less peroxide used in the end.

Any areas afterwards you can drain and treat, that's best. If not, after its all been hand removed, do the underwater spot injections covered on the last few pages i really think this + some aggressive phosphate management will turn it around!

 

[brandon429]

For your frag tank though the bulk of the work i envision is a few hours of hand removal, scraping, using scouring pads etc on the plastic areas/filter etc for bulk removal

The peroxide application is the little work, to catch regrowths not as the primary remover

Even though we list tolerant species to peroxide, nobody loves it or anything, so since its a stressor i recommend not doing full tank runs when alternatives are better for your frags. In this kind of tank this seems more prudent than a full dosing

 

[ampemployee1]

Here are the pics from 48 hours after dose. Quite a bit more dying GHA. HOpefully all of it will die without me having to dose again.

@NAM2212, if you are able, consider harvesting all the dying GHA before it starts falling off. Removing the dead, whispy HA will also export the nutrients bound to the algae. Now that is dying, it should come off pretty easy. I used a set of tweezers, and pulled from the base of the algae.

When I did my rocks, I manually removed as much of the GHA first, then applied the 3% treatment, rinsed, then returned to the display. Wet skimming, GFO, and a little bit of additional manual removal of dead/floating HA did the trick. I posted some pics earlier in this thread. The clean up crew, GFO, and my tang are keeping the rocks clean. The coralline algae is now coming back; covering about 10% of the rocks now. Its been about 3 weeks since I treated my rock. Good luck with the GHA eradication.

 

[nam2212]

Here are the pics from 48 hours after dose. Quite a bit more dying GHA. HOpefully all of it will die without me having to dose again.

@NAM2212, if you are able, consider harvesting all the dying GHA before it starts falling off. Removing the dead, whispy HA will also export the nutrients bound to the algae. Now that is dying, it should come off pretty easy. I used a set of tweezers, and pulled from the base of the algae.

When I did my rocks, I manually removed as much of the GHA first, then applied the 3% treatment, rinsed, then returned to the display. Wet skimming, GFO, and a little bit of additional manual removal of dead/floating HA did the trick. I posted some pics earlier in this thread. The clean up crew, GFO, and my tang are keeping the rocks clean. The coralline algae is now coming back; covering about 10% of the rocks now. Its been about 3 weeks since I treated my rock. Good luck with the GHA eradication.

Thanks. I will try to go in and remove as much as I can later tonight. I tried to siphon a lot of it out last night but that didn't seem to work. It seems to be very well embedded even though it is solid white. I will make sure to remove as much as I can manually. I really hope I am able to get rid of mine for good.

 

[nam2212]

It took about 3 days but the skimmer started going crazy with all the extra organics in the water. About 90% of the GHA is now white and slowly falling off the rocks. The 4 Mexican turbos have been pulled off the rocks and placed on the rocks to remove what they can. They are doing a really good job of cleaning it up and so is the tuxedo urchin. I do have some frags in the sand that have GHA still attached that were not treated. I will try to treat those on Thursday night. The tank looks a lot better. I think the GHA is growing back much more slowly as well. I guess the GFO reactor is starting to help too.

 

[nam2212]

Day 6 results:

I will need to pull these frags out and cover the GHA in peroxide. I plan to do that tomorrow. I took them off the rocks originally before I treated with peroxide.

And this is just a cool shot of my tuxedo urchin:

 

[brandon429]

That's backflippin clean man
I really appreciate these last few pages of huge detailed pictures, i wanted the whole thread to be like that


it would also add a great dynamic for those who don't make major changes to nutrient stripping to stop back in several mos to let us know how the regrowth factor turns out. If your phosphate and nitrate measures stay the same, id like to know how your regrowth occurs.

I can tell from the collective posts that some portion of tanks might have regrowth at such a frequency that peroxide dosing wasn't a final approach

But as a counterpoint, my own pico reef has more nutrients input now that ever, and the algae treatments with peroxide are months apart, in no way a boost to my work, its a lessening. In my case, and from some collective feedback across forums, there are a huge number of tanks that can reduce their overall algae removing workload and cost by using peroxide.

It is most helpful in pico reefs where we control the total water volume easily

Going up to large tanks the options for nutrient control and methodology are so varied one can't really claim one method better than another. But as this thread unfolds and we get trials and input from nearly exclusively large tanks, its becoming clear the current status quo in algae control was still lacking for large tank care even after hundreds of books over the matter over the last two decades

The improvement I'm most happy with is the predictability and relative safety we can see comes along with certain application techniques, we are freer to try it vs years ago where it was seen as wildly unpredictable

It either works or it doesn't on your target. We have an astounding track record of predicting and mitigating the danger to non targets. The molecule is very predictable in the reef tank.

 

[brandon429]

Nam do you mind if i repost your first before and last after pic on another forum

 

[ampemployee1]

Nam, looks great!

 

[smatter]

:beer: I'll drink to that!

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

[nam2212]

Nam do you mind if i repost your first before and last after pic on another forum

Feel free to post them.

 

[Orion120]

Got back home this morning, turned on the lights, and no more algae on the back rocks at all. Just algae on the glass that easily wipes off with a mag float, and some on the rock in the foreground that has a small ric on it. I didn't dip that particular rock because of the ric being there.

 

[Anthony.Luciano]

Brandon, Is there any in tank treatment with peroxide because I can't remove all the rocks from a 450 gallon with coral currently growing on it. I do have 4 cups of high capacity gfo in a reactor and 2 pounds of regular gfo in a mesh bag in the sump. I pick out as much algae as I can from the rocks and remove it completely from the tank but it always grows back. I use reverse osmosis water for everything and regular instant ocean salt. I only have 5 small fish so there's barley any bioload in the tank and a skimmer rated for over 1000 gallons. I also use ozone at 100% I don't monitor the orp because the generator is small enough that it can't oversaturate the tank. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[brandon429]

Oh sure I'll take that one on a date. Post up pics of her

the vast majority of these treatments are in tank variations

I want that 450 post up a nice fts with some close ups it will be clean in a week.

All you do is get an injection syringe used by diabetics, still the waters by turning off pumps for a while, then start injecting very very slowly right into the patches, no need to remove them they will die and you will most likely get final control of algae not having to up your gfo any which can be dangerous.

The gfo is going to block regrowth alot better when the offending biomass is removed first. Gfo at that point fulfills its intended role-a preventative. Nearly all gfo threads try to use it as a removal tool...what we do is use peroxide either as both or at least as the remover its meant to be.

With pics we'll be set and a450 will take the place as the largest tank we've done.

And the whole thread is designed around what works in a gallon reef that's pretty sick man. I really want the 450 with problem algae.

 

[brandon429]

the vast majority of these treatments are in tank variations

I want that 450 post up a nice fts with some close ups it will be clean in a week.

All you do is get an injection syringe used by diabetics, still the waters by turning off pumps for a while, then start injecting very very slowly right into the patches, no need to remove them they will die and you will most likely get final control of algae not having to up your gfo any which can be dangerous.

The gfo is going to block regrowth alot better when the offending biomass is removed first. Gfo at that point fulfills its intended role-a preventative. Nearly all gfo threads try to use it as a removal tool...what we do is use peroxide either as both or at least as the remover its meant to be.

With pics we'll be set and a450 will take the place as the largest tank we've done.

And the whole thread is designed around what works in a gallon reef that's pretty sick man. I really want the 450 with problem algae.

 

[brandon429]

Page 41 tribute to Justin Credabel's initial article on peroxide use externally and reefmiser's nano reef thread that demonstrated a way to get algae out of my tank until a better way is found.

That's what inspired me to find out all possible ways to apply it and we have ideas here from others about sealing it in pectin gel binders and such there's no telling how long it will be until a company markets clear, viscous algae paste. For removal.
i called it here first! Lots of people used peroxide before but if you really search, in tank treatment was universally discouraged until enough people tried it and proved otherwise.

Every picture and post here gives me take home dynamic information that saves my reefbowl further with alternate dosing ideas.

There is no way in 2009 Randy Homes Farley, Jay Hemdal, Steven Pro etc all captioned in earlier links i posted here would have agreed one could routinely use 35% as an in tank treatment in a gallon pico reef or any other size tank. All your collective posts advance this branch of chemical algae removal and its making my tank stronger as a benefit.

 

[brandon429]

Double post

 

[Anthony.Luciano]

Thanks. I will definitely post pictures of the tank tomorrow. I have to buy that injection syringe so the progress will be delayed a few days unless it is okay to use a pipette, but I rather just listen to what you said the first time around and wait until I buy the syringe.

Oh sure I'll take that one on a date. Post up pics of her

the vast majority of these treatments are in tank variations

I want that 450 post up a nice fts with some close ups it will be clean in a week.

All you do is get an injection syringe used by diabetics, still the waters by turning off pumps for a while, then start injecting very very slowly right into the patches, no need to remove them they will die and you will most likely get final control of algae not having to up your gfo any which can be dangerous.

The gfo is going to block regrowth alot better when the offending biomass is removed first. Gfo at that point fulfills its intended role-a preventative. Nearly all gfo threads try to use it as a removal tool...what we do is use peroxide either as both or at least as the remover its meant to be.

With pics we'll be set and a450 will take the place as the largest tank we've done.

And the whole thread is designed around what works in a gallon reef that's pretty sick man. I really want the 450 with problem algae.

 

[brandon429]

A few pages back we were using the underwater tarp/Saran wrap method its ideal with the syringes if you can get some
I have pipettes too but the saran wrap tarps pinned in place around target areas holds the peroxide in place much longer

Speeds up kill time for sure

You can use 50mls of 3% three times per week very safely on that tank if there are no cleaner shrimp. We've found no usual reef fish sensitive either at that dose. Thanks for posting for sure

Its an amazing method for large, full tanks

Each time, you can use 50mls spread among a few tarps placed/pinned/molded/butted by other rocks on each run, you will get a nice kill predictably

 

[Anthony.Luciano]

Here are some pictures I took today. I don't have a great camera so the quality isn't the best.