it’s popping up on almost every piece of rock I have…
i have a cleanup crew coming in the mail tomorrow, should have been here today. Would they help?
Also I have read lowing my Phosphates and raising my Mg slowly may stop its growth. I really don’t think I can remove all of the rock
It may not be what I think it is. Maybe someone else can chime in and give their opinion, but to me it looks like what I think it is. If it is, you may want to start getting it out Bryan. While you have a chance and while it small.
Ok. How should I deal with the rocks I remove?
I’m not really sure as to what will eat it. I have never heard or read of anything that will eat it. By lowering phosphates and raising Mg may help, but I never heard it my self. The only way I heard or read about is manually getting it out by hand.
also after doing some google image searches the biopsis hair alge looks it is more green, this one I have is def a dark brownish, red color if that helps
[quote=“JackRyan, post:64, topic:6040”]
Ok. How should I deal with the rocks I remove? [/quote]
Chisel the plant out with a screwdriver or some sort of tool is the only way I know. make sure no trace of the plant is left on the rock.
seriously thinking of autoclaving these pieces
Jack, my guess is hair algae. (You gotta admit, that pic makes it hard to tell) Personally I’d go a little light on you lighting for a few days and let the cleanup crew have some time to git’r done. Everyone typically goes thru a diatom, then algae phase as the tank settles in and tells you what it needs. (In this case prolly just the CUC). You’ll be amazed at how well Astraea snail keep the rock clean. If there’s algae around, they’ll find it. In the meantime look at it this way. It’s plant life, what does it need to grow, and how can you remove that. Light (photosynthesis), nutrients (phosphate, possibly nitrates, and other potential trace elements that are in your water as dissolved solids (TDS).
Few questions.
If you’re measuring for phosphates, where is it at?
What does your CUC consist of?
You’re using RODI right? (On my iPhone right now or I’d check)
Seriously though, Grab a beer and let the CUC do their thing for a few days. Don’t go crazy changing your nice aquascape. This is just round 1 of how your tank will test you! We’re here to help!
-Rob
Def drinking beers to relax…but yeah, got the RO/DI, CUC is from reefbreaders (38 gallon set because didnt want to go overboard on my 55, listed below) and my phosphates have been at about .25ppm. Going to do a water change tomorrow and doing a GFO later this week.
35 Dwarf Ceriths
14 Nassarius
14 Florida Ceriths
8 Large & 10 Small to Medium Nerites
I started taking the rock out but as I looked more it was going to be impossible for me. Almost every rock has some sort of resemblance of it, albeit very small pieces. I did go through and pluck them off as best I could. Hopefully I can get the phosphates under control as the CUC enters and keep these in check.
Jack, made some additions to my post as you were replying I think, double check above.
RODI, excellent.
GFO it’s gonna help, and you might use one or two reactors anyway down the road so you can’t really go wrong with that. However, as the algae grows, it will naturally reduce the phosphates (that are either leeching from your rock or sand if I had to guess)
How are the nitrates? I dont think your bio load is too heavy, just the clown and sixline right?
I’ll toss one back for ya! Cheers !
haha I thought I saw more text the second time I read it :BEER thought I was going crazy. Gonna look into a reactor but without having a sump I am not sure how it would work (I really have no idea about them yet, haven’t researched them at all).
Nitrates are at zero, my bioload hasn’t been too bad and yea only the clown and wrasse. This CUC really needs to arrive, was supposed to be here Wednesday. It would make me feel so much better.
I’m totally with you on the CUC. The amount of snails some of these places say you need for x gallons is crazy. Sure they’ll make quick work of any algae and provide that initial customer satisfaction and WOW factor, then half of the population of the crew dies off from starvation later.
[quote=“Faralon, post:73, topic:6040”]
I’m totally with you on the CUC. The amount of snails some of these places say you need for x gallons is crazy. Sure they’ll make quick work of any algae and provide that initial customer satisfaction and WOW factor, then half of the population of the crew dies off from starvation later. [/quote]
probably all dead anyways because the USPS in the most literal sense of the phrase is “snail mail”
i would take the rock out and scrub it off with a brush and rinse it in old tank water to get rid of it. you want macroalgae in the fuge, not the display tank.
1st…I totally agree with Ken…I will also admit that I am WAY to lazy to do that…but he IS right.
Goodluck with USPS…temperature and time are against you at this point. Yikes.
Reactors…have you thought about a sump? Do you have room under your stand? The only part that sucks about running a reactor outside of a sump is the pump. You gotta toss a pump into your display tank to pump wanter thru the reactor. You’ll have to get creative to hide it, especially since the tanks isn’t “reef ready” with a seperate partition built in for plumbing. (My 90gallon tanks isn’t “Reef Ready” either). If there isn’t room behind your tank, you might have to put them on the floor. So you’re going to have a pump, a supply and a return line running into the back of your tank somewhere. Hopefully someone more versed in running a reactor outside a sump will chime in.
You’ll see alot of people using the Two Little Fishies reactors…they’re nice, but they wont hang on the back of a tank…not mine at least. It does hang on the side of my sump very well though.
As you can see, my tank really wants a 1.25" gap to be able to hang something over it…and the TLF reactor doesn’t cut it.
wow, thanks for all that info! Might have to get on this sump soon. I am contemplating a sump and currently have a 10g tank I could use for it but I feel like I need larger than 10 (I have lots of room I think). Need to start researching again.
Go as big as you can…
Admittedly…Mine holds about 12gallons of water, and a little more…but thats only when the power goes out, haha!
For me, its a place to put pumps/heaters/carbon/purigen/skimmer/small DSB (prolly useless)/and cheato factory for nitrate removal. Details are in my members tank thread. I have free cheato for ya if you ever get it setup!
Video on the sump is actually at the top of the last page. I dont run the De-Nitrate anymore…Cheato is keeping me at around 10ppm for now…
Hey everyone,
Need some advice again, got some frags from reefman and they are looking great so far :
: I will get some pictures on here soon.
However, after I did all the work rearranging some rock, glueing the frags in my clown started acting really strange. After two days I Woke up and he was dead. Very similar to what happened to my other one and I’m thinking I got a bad pair because my six line is doing very well. After he died I did a water change and now I am in a position I was trying to avoid…having a semi-aggressive fish in there all alone when I still would like to add more. Any fish you guys would recommend? Do I need to get something in there soon so the wrasse doesn’t become territorial of the whole tank? I was really hoping to get about 4-5 fish in here and then focus on corals.
my six-line is never aggressive towards other fish so i wouldnt worry about it unless you have seen yours be aggressive before. it was nice meeting you the other day at reefman’s welcome to the club