<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6864894#post6864894 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bax
That's cool about the macros, they will bind up a lot of wastes as they grow just harvest it regularly and either toss it or better yet give it away to friends or better yet yet trade some with friends.
Maybe you need to put someone in charge of that algea, like an urchin or a large turbo snail. In smaller tanks you are limited as to fish that'll do the job.
Mmm Hmm, the macro's really taking off! I'll be sure to harvest it as it fills my refugium. Hey John, can I get store credit for chaeto if I can't find anyone to give it to? I promise to kill all of the flatworms first!
As far as the algae is concerned, John visited my tank this past weekend and opened my eyes to the problem that I have. I guess I've been in denial and haven't taken notice, but instead of having a garden of corals in my tank, I instead have a disgusting outcropping of nuissance algae covering almost
every surface of my tank. And it's not just bryopsis. There's green leaf algae, bubble algae (valonia), and a burgundy hair algae covering all of the rocks, the back glass, the return PVC for my closed loop, my overflow box, the corals, and even the snail shells (poor little guys). In summary, it ain't pretty. In addition I spent 3 hours pruning bryopsis on Saturday, and it's already growing back. Once again it was easier to peel, and it's a little duller in color than it originally was, so I'm still hopeful that it's dying back. Since I left for my trip I wasn't able to dose B-Ionic or add baking soda, so my alkalinity and Ca dropped severely (285 ppm and 6.55 dKH, respectively) so I've begun a major tune-up to remedy that. Hopefully by increasing my alkalinity and maintaining it at around 12 dKH I'll be able to get the bryopsis under control. As far as the other algae is concerned, I've also cut
way back on my feedings. I'm down to about 10% of what I was adding to the tank, and I'm no longer spot-feeding my corals. My blue-legged hermit crabs have almost all moved into either cerith snail shells or nassarius snail shells, so this obviously has been at the expense of the snails. This may have resulted in increased detritus accumulation in the tank, so John is going to order me some additional critters, including Nassarius snails and a fighting conch to eat detritus and probably another emerald crab to help with my algae problem. I really wish I could get a tang or two to help with my algae but, of course, my tank's too small. If anyone knows of a fish that likes to eat macroalgae and would do well in a 30g tank,
please let me know!
I treated the tank again with FWE (120 drops of the stuff) on Sunday and as of last night, I didn't see any worms. I realize that their eggs aren't affected by the treatment, so I'll be on the lookout for more and as soon as I see a couple, I'm going to treat the tank again. I plan to continue this cycle until the problem is eradicated once and for all. My worms may have developed a resistance to FWE, and I might end up trying Praziquantel if this goes on for more than 3 weeks. How does this sound??
OK, so this is pretty interesting. I mentioned that after a week of neglect (not adding B-Ionic or baking soda), my tank's Ca was 285 and alkalinity was 6.5 dKH. I checked the chemistry calculator and figured I'd add 4 tsp of Kent TurboCalcium and 3.5 tsp of baking soda to start to get my numbers near where I wanted them. Instead of adding them separately I thought I'd save a step and placed both powders into a mixing cup. When I added tank water to dilute them the solution immediately began to bubble over into my tank. Not being able to carry it across the room, I stupidly poured the entire brew into my tank. Well, the entire tank became a white cloud. This lasted for about 10 minutes before it started to clear. The water cleared after about 5 hours, but all of the rocks and corals were "dusted" with white powder, precipitated calcium no doubt. A few of the corals slimed a little bit, and my clownfish was quite freaked out about her sudden poor visibility, but nothing perished. Unfortunately, all of the nuissance algae survived the ordeal as well. Now I remeber the active ingredient in the volcanos I used to make as a juvenile delinquent - BAKING SODA. Interesingly, my calcium and alkalinity only increased a very small amount, and my pH actually increased by 0.1 immediately after this occured. I guess the chemical reaction neutralized both the calcium and the alkalinity effect of the baking soda, and the product of the reaction caused an alkalinization (increased pH) of the tank. So last night I added both chemicals again, only
separately this time. I guess there truly are no short cuts in this hobby.
Enough bad news. On Saturday I got some new frags! All are 1-1.5 inch acroporas and include:
a. tenuis (moderate blue color from Bali)
a. nana (origin unknown)
a. hemprichii (gold color from Java)
a. can't remember the name (beautiful blue color)
This was part of a group buy that was organized by my bud John. A lot of folks who received corals have experienced some losses (long story, DEFINITELY not John's fault) and my a. tenuis and a. hemprichii are experiencing STN at the bases. I hope they make it. While cleaning my tank on Sunday during the water change, I also found a small coral, about the size of an eraser head, attached to 1/2 of a mollusk shell that was sitting in the sand. It's circular, flat, and mostly white with bright green spots around the perimeter, and it contains multiple beautiful little pink spots centrally around the mouth. I can try to get a picture of it, along with my other new corals, but my macro shots aren't really close enough with my camera to give any detail, so I'm not sure if the pics will be worthwhile. At any rate, I mounted this little coral along with its shell onto my aquascape, and I hope it grows so that I can eventually identify it. I just love hitchhikers!
. This was my first marathon and overall, a great experience.
. I anticipate finding worms when I get home, and I'll have to get some more FWE and treat again. John, you still have some from your raid in Dallas?
. Additionally, the bryopsis is indeed growing back, as some of my corals are again obscured by the green plague. Looks like I've got some more pruning to do.
. Actually, as I gaze upon the title of this thread, I better do a lot better than that, eh?
