Algae Abatement Plan

[ReefinManhattan]

My 75 gallon reef tank was going along great until this Fall when I pulled a bonehead move--after doing my weekly cleaning of my algae turf scrubber, I forgot to turn the circulation pump on and didn't realize it until the following week, by which time the algae mat was good and cooked on the screen by the LED's. By the time I got the screen cleaned and repopulated, I had a pretty bad hair algae problem on the rocks and sand.

Now that the scrubber screen is back to normal, I started my recovery plan. I moved the remaining corals into my QT and scrubbed every rock and skimmed the top layer off the sand. I did three 20% water changes over the past 3 weekends using a mix of Poland Spring distilled water and Tropic Marin Pro salt. I tested the distilled water before mixing and it registered 3 TDS.

Even with all of that, the algae is coming back. I just bought a 100 GPH RODI system, and started using that water in my ATO, instead of the distilled. I ordered a new cleaner crew (no hermits) from reefcleaners.org, which should arrive today. Just wondering if I should stay the course, and let the snails/scrubber do their work, or if there is anything else I should be doing--like maybe more water changes with RODI water? Any ideas would be appreciated....

 

[five.five-six]

Just be patient with your CUC. I’m getting out of a similar situation, differant cause, but similar situation and just let the CUC do it’s job. I have to resist the urge to oversize the CUC because I know that if I do, once the overpopulation of algae is gone, they will starve and contribute to anew problem.. I expect they will take about a month to get things tidy.


As an aside, why no hermits?

 

[brandon429]

you missed the algaecidal step, your growback would be fractional with that insert

peroxide on the target, out side of tank, after the spots were scraped as the pre rinse. a bit-getter. a holdfast-melter. The fact you can access your system like that implies you might have a nano? if so, algaecide cheat step w fix you, and not harm your ATS as it comes back bc this is external work. you left holdfasts as the direct cause of your post.

 

[ReefinManhattan]

you missed the algaecidal step, your growback would be fractional with that insert

peroxide on the target, out side of tank, after the spots were scraped as the pre rinse. a bit-getter. a holdfast-melter. The fact you can access your system like that implies you might have a nano? if so, algaecide cheat step w fix you, and not harm your ATS as it comes back bc this is external work. you left holdfasts as the direct cause of your post.

I'm not quite sure what you just told me to do. I have a 75 gallon tank, but since I had the QT, I set it up and moved my corals so I could take out one liverock at a time and scrub it in a bucket of saltwater. If I was to do that again, where does the peroxide come in? Won't peroxide kill the good stuff on the liverock?

 

[brandon429]

i wanted to link this below only to show you other peoples work. it always sounds so strange on the first offer agreed, but you stated interesting factors that directly align with our method

that actual thread is about 8 pages I think, but the linked ones are sixty apiece of the same stuff. that's a bulk of anecdotes (and massive trove of after pictures I might say) but its also a bulk of gold flecks mixed in with the granite. Here are the flecks in my opinion:

1. no microbial impact across every tank ever tested, bacteria don't factor in peroxide works.
2. no impactful loss of nontargets in those works. what happens as an outlier = also low impact, and hardly occurred (loss of say a CUC member or something)
3. use a test rock, then upscale, we don't peroxide your whole tank. we model what an invader does, without jacking with your whole system as a guess (every other method) and then we upscale a known working system/approach. a test rock is you lifting out a good example of your challenge, and using a kitchen steak knife to medically debride the algae off the rocks by rasping force. rinse off in saltwater. your knife dug the algae out, not scraped, it left marks like a parrotfish does on the real reef. we are taking no risk with your whole system, just tiny models, such a neat way to view peroxide work in my opinion.

tooth plaque... we bleed a bit, a dentist doesn't kid glove us. they rasp~
your rock has to have its algae holdfasts cut out, then burned, to see if that universal method works. we can try lesser ones too, be creative.

that's our intercept point, when you've accessed the rocks outside and peroxide will stop or massively extend your growback phase, giving your preventatives (nutrient adjusts, clean up crews, lighting changes, gfo + or -, all the common approaches are preventatives not removers) You did mowing of dandelions... so they grew back. We'll be digging them up, then putting a fast acting algaecide with no environmental impacts in its former spot. total acknowledgement of holdfast algae biology in the approach.

(I don't want to dig my whole tank)
you may not have to, a test rock (s) is a set of harsh to less harsh actions, then put the rocks back in, and assess for a few days. what was the least amnt of work it took to keep a rock clean? A test rock must have at least one universal method tried, which still preserves the biosystem (rasping nor nothing we do affects a tanks biofilter, certain) so that you have your base go-to in the event you get fed up here.

on one additional test rock, pull it out and merely dump peroxide across it, leaving the algae in place for a bit. rinse, put back, chart the algae death and growback if any

we take action in a week. The method is so strong, that I state any keeper willing to access the system can be free of any invasion they have including invasive dinos. your algae is a cakewalk its the bulk of all our work.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/

 

[brandon429]

Using water-only approaches to starve algae is the universally-recommended way. We had to produce something that works when it didn't, out of sheer demand.


Being willing to access ones rocks, and sand where indicated, means we can opt out of any invasion in reefing.

Any enduring invasion thread you can find right now on the entire internet is a water-actions thread, not a direct access one. To me the gold is in that detail.


what are pico reefs never constantly invaded, but large tanks are?

accessing one's rocks and sand for cheating is simply taking the final say on invasion, that doesn't mean its ideal, or that a finely balanced CUC and nutrient dealing system isn't ideal. substrate access gardening is what we do till we earn cruise control mode.

the fact nobody ever posts pics of algae taking over the fleshy part of a brain coral also matters...we practice farming to include bio excluding surfaces too (lots of corals is algae preventative, by taking real estate, basic marine biology fact as well)

our system isn't about peroxide, its actually about using a cheat to affect a very natural viewpoint on things, in my opinion.

The number one thing we do not need to know in those threads is your nutrients, we take only internal locus of control actions, all that is preventative details. we're the cleanup crew.

our way is not exclusive to any other common approach. run our method to be invader free, then run their method as a preventative = cannot be invaded for the rest of your reefing time.

 

[ReefinManhattan]

Very interesting...thanks for posting! Question— do you use straight peroxide or do you dilute? How long do you leave it on, and do you just rinse afterwards , or soak in clean water?

 

[brandon429]

since we're only focusing on test rocks, that one that gets the harshing, after the hard scrape, leave that 3% on there a good 4 mins outside the tank. then rinse in saltwater and put the rock back forced clean. we track what it does over a bit of time, and that's our ultimate go to option, the one we want to use the least cuz its the most work. but I bet it commands that rock clean too...we need to know that detail does indeed produce that result.


the lesser test rocks, just pour that 3% peroxide right across the rock and algae and try to avoid any corals, let that drizzle sit much less, say about 30 seconds then rinse it off with clean saltwater and put back. if that stuff dies predictably within 48 hrs and turns white, and doesn't come back anytime soon, we don't need the harsher one.

we'd do a third test of even less work where you might not have to take your rock stack out at all, though that willingness is what caught my eye in your post. most refuse that option and you couldn't arm bar them into considering it



take pics for us in these works if you do attempt, ill update the threads we always like new pics for sure.

 

[ReefinManhattan]

Very interesting...thanks for posting! Question— do you use straight peroxide or do you dilute? How long do you leave it on, and do you just rinse afterwards , or soak in clean water?

Since using a knife on the first test rock would require a lot of work and little chance of reaching into every crevice, I will modify slightly by using a stiff mechanic's wire brush. They have very stiff wire bristles designed to clean battery acid off of terminals and rust off of iron parts. Of course I will go out and buy a new one just for this purpose!

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

If the problem is hair algae I'd definitely add some emerald crabs, they destroy that stuff.

 

[brandon429]

i know that brush

yep that's technically metal it will work. it w clear a large path/make white but it sure will rasp algae. the knife is more pinpoint, only where required. it doesn't leave a white lawnmower trail heh

hey before you do that, do the secondary test rock

just lift out a rock, pour peroxide from a new bottle right across the targets, let sit in air 4 mins, all corals can take that if some are on the rock, and put back. mist the corals w saltwater if concerned.

that alone w kill your algae in 48 hrs, no rasp I bet, see if the growback warrants buying more rasping stuff. I bet it doesn't rquire anything extra. peroxide is bad awesome.