Alage? ID

[saltyfilmfolks]

I've done turbo snails before and liked them. You just have to watch them carefully. If they die, they release a lot of crap into the tank

Agreed! Worst smell on the planet.

 

[rtparty]

Agreed! Worst smell on the planet.

Hahaha! I made my wife smell a dead snail when I first started the tank. She about lost her dinner. It really is one of the worst smells I've ever come across.

Speaking of smells and off topic...have you ever opened a can of corn and thought it smells just like coral?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hahaha! I made my wife smell a dead snail when I first started the tank. She about lost her dinner. It really is one of the worst smells I've ever come across.

Speaking of smells and off topic...have you ever opened a can of corn and thought it smells just like coral?

Eww no. What brand?

Mmmm. Steamed acro with salt n peppa!

 

[reeferfoxx]

So, I'm giving you two methods of dosing KNO3. Neither are incorrect. However, one of them suggests measuring teaspoons? Anyway, luckily going over/under 1 or 2 points Isn't detrimental.

This link explains the purpose of and use of Stump Remover.
https://reeformadness.wordpress.com...or-better-tank-health-and-better-coral-color/

And then this is Randy Holmes-Farley's suggested mixing and dosing amounts. I go by this since I can weigh out my kno3.
"Dissolve 10 grams potassium nitrate in 1 liter of fresh water. That 10 grams contains 6.14 grams of nitrate, so that solution is 6,140 ppm nitrate.

If you add 1 ml of the solution per 2 gallons of tank water volume, that will boost nitrate by 0.8 ppm nitrate.

As a rough estimate, 10 dry mL of powder weighs about 10 g."

FWIW, if these procedures are done correctly and most importantly, notice alkalinity impacted with GFO, you may not need a whole lot more of CUC. This should clear everything up.

You know you've been in the hobby for awhile when...

have you ever opened a can of corn and thought it smells just like coral?

;Hilarious;Hilarious

 

[rtparty]

Day 1 complete. Rock scrubbed. PhosGard put in and tank is blacked out. I turned the Vortech pumps on high for about 20 minutes to get all the clumps to stay in the column and get filtered out. Filter sock is on the drain and I'll check it in the morning. If the emergency drain kicks in, I'll hear it. It's loud for a reason.

The rock looked so good after the scrubbing. Hoping the CUC will have a chance to get ahead.

I'll get some nitrate solution mixed up tomorrow and will watch alkalinity as well. Alkalinity was a little high so a dip won't be too bad. My few LPS shouldn't mind a dip. There were 3 Astraea snails on the overflow and they have consumed about 50% of the stringy stuff on my overflow so that's a good sign as well.

As I was scrubbing the rock off, I found quite a bit of coralline under the chrysophytes so that's also a positive sign to me. Hopefully everything will get back on track after this.

I can't thank those of you who have helped me in this enough! Salty and reefer, two thumbs up!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Cheers!

 

[rtparty]

Well just finishing up day 3 currently. Got my new nitrate test in and ran a test: 0 nitrates. It didn't even budge to pink either. I'm quite surprised to be honest since I do tend to feed heavily and spoil my fish. Guess my nitrate filtration is on point and I need to dirty up the system.

I will be making up my nitrate solution tonight and will start dosing and testing to see where I need to be to maintain 2-5ppm.

A couple areas on the rocks may not have been scrubbed well enough so a second scrubbing may need to happen in the future. I'll let the CUC, corals, fish and tank all get back to normal business for a little bit however.

The overflow and return nozzle are basically stripped from the stringy algae that was on them. I noticed quite a few Astraea snails on the overflow when I would peek in during the blackout. Also, Cerith snails seemed to head back onto the rocks during the blackout. Good sign? I'm hoping so.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Also, Cerith snails seemed to head back onto the rocks during the blackout. Good sign? I'm hoping so.

Yes, that's what I experienced as well! You could go ahead and scrub the rocks you missed, and then perform a 15-20% water change. Hopefully that will end it. I guess, I never asked how big your tank is? Larger tanks like 100 gallons and up sometimes require a 2nd round.

 

[rtparty]

Yes, that's what I experienced as well! You could go ahead and scrub the rocks you missed, and then perform a 15-20% water change. Hopefully that will end it. I guess, I never asked how big your tank is? Larger tanks like 100 gallons and up sometimes require a 2nd round.

50g display.

I'll scrub the rocks off and do the water change. Fish and coral are all out and happy.

 

[rtparty]

Update:

There was a lot of cyanobacteria going on today. I only got to spend a few minutes working on and looking at the tank so not sure how everything else was doing. Corals and fish are fine. Just a lot of cyano

 

[reeferfoxx]

Update:

There was a lot of cyanobacteria going on today. I only got to spend a few minutes working on and looking at the tank so not sure how everything else was doing. Corals and fish are fine. Just a lot of cyano

Your chrysophytes are gone

 

[rtparty]

Your chrysophytes are gone

I hope they are at least dwindling. There are still patches of them on the rocks where they were hard to reach or wouldn't come off with the scrubbing. That's why I figured I would need a second scrubbing at some point. As I went to make up about 10 gallons of water, I realized I didn't have much fresh RO on hand. My RO unit is at work since TDS is about 300 there. Home TDS ranges from 700-1000+ and I don't feel like replacing my filters once a month...

 

[reeferfoxx]

There is some red cyano which I expected with a 5 month old tank.

Chyrsophytes is a rare outbreak for most new tanks. Its difficult to tell what it is actually feeding on. However, some have a cell structure made of silicates. In fact, i geared my final treatment around removing silicates as other routes failed. That said, Dana Riddle had an article about GFO and what it removes in a time frame. I used that research here. Now, what has happened is we've removed the competition and are now letting the tank get back on track. Just like you and others that went through this treatement, have experienced cyano afterwards. One guy did report that his cyano began turning white after a week or two. I never did follow up on that. So, cyano is a normal occurrence after chrysophytes. As the tank matures it should go away.

 

[sundog101]

Good to hear it's clearing out. I think I've got the same thing.

 

[rtparty]

Looks like chrysophytes to me. The protocol here seems to have worked quite well. Just make sure to have all items on hand.

RO Water: probably enough for a 20% water change
Stiff bristle toothbrush
GFO or PhosGard
Nitrate test kit
Spectracide Stump Remover (nitrate dosing)
Black garbage bags for the blackout
Canister filter or plenty of filter socks to catch the floating stuff you scrub off

 

[rtparty]

Update time:

Chrysophytes appear to be mostly gone. I'm talking 99% gone because I'm sure there is some I just can't see but the last patches have disappeared. Coraline is exploding right now but so is cyano. I'm going to do a full test tonight on the big 3 and nitrate. I've been dosing around 10ml a day of KNO3.

Hoping the cyano will just run its course and go away in time.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Update time:

Chrysophytes appear to be mostly gone. I'm talking 99% gone because I'm sure there is some I just can't see but the last patches have disappeared. Coraline is exploding right now but so is cyano. I'm going to do a full test tonight on the big 3 and nitrate. I've been dosing around 10ml a day of KNO3.

Hoping the cyano will just run its course and go away in time.

Congrats!
I'm hoping the cyano goes away also. There are other route to getting rid of it but im sure you feel the same way I do about putting chemicals in the tank. So im crossing fingers for you.

 

[rtparty]

Congrats!
I'm hoping the cyano goes away also. There are other route to getting rid of it but im sure you feel the same way I do about putting chemicals in the tank. So im crossing fingers for you.

Yeah I don't want to go down the chemical route unless it starts to cover every rock and starts irritating the corals.

Thanks again for the guidance! Pretty easy solution in the end

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thanks again for the guidance! Pretty easy solution in the end

No problem! It took me months to ID it, and a couple more to come with an "easy solution" which ended up being a weird experiment. Even the pros thought I was crazy. But it worked!

 

[John Ostler]

Random, It wouldn't be the beginnings of a white scroll macro algae (can't remember the exact name). I had a tank fullll of the stuff way back in 1996 and I seem to remember it starting out as almost a little bacteria-esk. You find it in the shallows off french polynesia as well, not sure if it relates to lower spec gravity.