Algae Identification

brandon429

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there we are, many before and afters logged. Hey if you w post a pic of your tank here we can make you a custom job to save all the reading
 

Gator_Reefer

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there we are, many before and afters logged. Hey if you w post a pic of your tank here we can make you a custom job to save all the reading
Thanks. Hopefully these pics help. Not going to lie, pretty embarassed to have to post these pics up.

E518F8E3-A6CC-4285-97FC-B6DE3BAB6568.jpeg 51A3603D-079B-4E2B-818E-E3A319EE41FC.jpeg A64EE725-8586-455F-9872-3929D3F2C66A.jpeg 7A2031A7-C70C-441B-B700-749C8C2D94C9.jpeg 9B3E2C0A-C4F7-444C-83F8-253CA25829A6.jpeg
 
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Gator_Reefer

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It’s a 30.2 gal AIO tank. It’s exactly a year old today actually. Started off with dry rock. Unrelated to algae/detritus, have been slowly removing sand bed in order to eventually replace with a larger grain sand that won’t blow over as much with flow.

I don’t your not focused on params at this point but just for reference they are:

NO3: 6ppm (2 weeks ago at 12ppm)
PO4: 0.07ppm (2 weeks ago at 0.25ppm)
Salinity: 1.025 sg
pH (peak): 8.10
alk: 9 dkh
Ca: 430
Mg: 1275ppm
Temp: 77.8 F
 

brandon429

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I’m so glad to see that scape really you are going to like this

nice corals, healthy fish, cleaned sand not crudded up, algae is just growing where light hits it best there’s no problems here and a real reef looks exactly like that in sections, attracts the grazers and we’re attracted to it lol so it’s about to go down

very glad to have the double job logged here that’s perfect work reference building in this work thread.

It’s minor hard work to switch out all these zones but the outcome will be really sharp. We can do a test section of the rock if you like before beginning, to chart action against the target growth, or we can just hammer it all out in one pass either way is fine.

If you want to draw off half of that water to reuse after cleaning that’s no big deal. As you drain the tank down the first half can be caught for reuse since it’s clean water, but after that it will begin clouding as you catch fish and remove the whole system for reef surgery.
for the reset back up we can use that drawn water plus some made up

*have your new sand ready we can switch this out all at once with no cycle* buried on page one of that peroxide thread is the sand rinse thread. Forty pages of instant sandbed swaps the reason it works all at once is because your live rock has all the bacteria needed, even after we attack it with peroxide too lol. That many bacteria are on it...reliable.

so as side job we need your new sand no matter what brand to be side rinsed in tap water specifically over and over until it’s 100% cloudless not 99%. Snow globe grains. Final rinse is RO water to evacuate the tap, new sand set aside cloudless is ready for install. We use tap so you can pre rinse as long as needed. When you reassemble with cleaned rocks, fish and corals back in, you don’t want initial clouding you’ll want laser sharp clarity, WVU pulls it off sharp here on page three

assuming we are going to knock it all out one pass no testing, next post is the ordered job and it will not cause a cycle.
 
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brandon429

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awaiting new job to edit back in
 
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Gator_Reefer

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New sand is totally prepped and off to the side somewhere. You can sprinkle some of it down into a clear glass of water and the grains simply fall down, no clouding whatsoever in the cup. This matches forty pages from the sand thread, we are set for new substrate now


drain system and catch decent initial water for reuse, you can hold fish and some corals in this water if you like while things are apart. before setting corals in there, swish them off in separate water, detritus will stick to the bottoms and will ride in to the clean water, we want no clouding no detritus to go where your fish are held.

at this point the tank is drained mostly, cloudy at the bottom, but fish are safe in clean tank water and some lone corals too. Those stuck to the rock ride the air. You can mist them with saltwater for half a day if needed they won’t die, rocks will be out of water probably 20 or 30 mins for dentistry and on page one of the sand rinse thread I drained my entire reef with corals for 33 mins in the air in one take on a YouTube video link. You’ll be misting or pouring saltwater on them, piece of cake.

corals and fish safe and clean water, lift out rocks set on a clean counter or a towel. Stacks in the air, the horror :)

now the tank is mud water and sand, clean it all out totally and set the new sand back in. Wipe the walls down all clean, I use peroxide to clean the insides of scum etc. now the aquarium is clean glass, perfect sand 10000% pre rinsed and no silt for a disappointing cloud.

take a pocket knife and be scraping that algae off, pulling off strands, small cups of saltwater can be poured over the worked sections to carry algae down the sink. First part is dentist and angle tool on plaque (algae) scrape and rasp etc. get as much as you can dislodged, unanchored. Rinsed away. Rocks look clean before any peroxide goes on the former bad spots

*brushing will pestle the algae down into the rock crevices, scraping out and down the sink is best. Whole strands removed

Take peroxide from a new bottle and either dropper it onto the former algae areas or mister bottle spray it, avoiding attached corals. Hit attached rock corals with saltwater to keep them wet as we work. After peroxide burns clean spots for hidden cells a few minutes in the air, rinse off the areas with a little saltwater and set the rocks back in the cleaned tank. Fill up, match salinity and temp to your old systems and fish and corals go back in


dont shine full lights for five days decrease intensity and ramp back up like these are new LED lights. You w have the sand you want, a cloudless skip cycle since all detritus was kept away from sensitives, and this thread will have two very strong efforts logged for others to see


very happy to be able to work with your tank. For this hard two hours work we opt out of waiting till Easter for chems to possibly work, and they’d increase your detritus loading vs remove it, this way is better for longevity even though it seems so offensive.

if you want to try fluconazole or vibrant later on to prevent growback (until coralline covers those zones it will but very slowly) then after the rip clean you can, just not before. It’s going to run clean a good while before any growback, and you can easily drain some water down exposing half the rock no removal needed, hit with peroxide and just fill back up as easy touch ups. A little peroxide in the tank won’t hurt, I don’t see any lysmata shrimp and those are the sensitives but not the rest of what you have

Seabass would want you to see her tank so there’s light at the end of this tunnel :) hers was a frag tank easy job.
SeaBass before






SB after, there’s rocks in there!
Awesome, I’m all in Brandon. Planning to go straight into the full job without testing, want to get this overgrowth off regardless.

Question, I recently bought 12% peroxide from Amazon. Can I use that higher strength for the rip clean, or too strong?

For tools, this is what I currently have on hand, do you think it’ll do?
0D514FED-D3EA-4BBB-BED4-FE478CF1B1CF.jpeg


During cleaning of the rock, I plan to have a container of new saltwater on the side just for rinsing them out as I clean to flush out the dislodged pieces of algae, etc..

Thinking of trying to do this tomorrow night. I’ll let you know how it goes!
 

brandon429

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Those are literal dentist tools wow

undisclosed I had wanted 35% for the application portion, a deep burn, but I said to myself: all these jobs are 3% people are happy. It’s hard to get anything above 3% anyway

12% is about to work four times better on growback prevention that’s for sure, and I have a youtube vid of me placing about 3 mils of 35% inside my pico reef to be mixed around in short contact; actually touching corals and shrimp. In this plan above it’s spot targeting on rock, use the rocket fuel for max efficiency that’s perfect, no nontargets were burned in spot application and this strong peroxide still does not harm filtration. My pico has seen more repeats of 35% than any tank I know


the main pulling off of algae can be by hand and wide tip knife if that helps any, faster clearance, and then the final digs are those precise tools. I’d order a set of those off amazon for my system for sure if could go back to 2010 when I had some algae detailing to do. You’ll be happy to know rock scraping ends one day when the coralline enamels the entire setup, all my algae work now is scum glass growths. Today I’m deep cleaning only to eject waste, scrub out using 35% some yellowing deposits down low on my vase. The rocks will permanently self manage one day, you didn’t have invasion anywhere else in the whole system. So when that system ages out it will be low work if the current steady state holds up

this level of resolve is rare, therefore your tank is about to quickly fall in line and function exactly as you want it to with very little delay. There is no better work to add to this thread, double power for our first reference link in the pest algae challenge thread
 
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brandon429

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One other thing we enjoy about this thread


its title is to identify a problem algae but we never did

thats hesitating, to ID
species doesn’t affect the plan, only accessibility and will

merely an assessment of gallonage and will = challenge tanks snapped into position. I have no idea the genus or species of any algae posted
 
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Gator_Reefer

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Those are literal dentist tools wow

undisclosed I had wanted 35% for the application portion, a deep burn, but I said to myself: all these jobs are 3% people are happy. It’s hard to get anything above 3% anyway

12% is about to work four times better on growback prevention that’s for sure, and I have a youtube vid of me placing about 3 mils of 35% inside my pico reef to be mixed around in short contact; actually touching corals and shrimp. In this plan above it’s spot targeting on rock, use the rocket fuel for max efficiency that’s perfect, no nontargets were burned in spot application and this strong peroxide still does not harm filtration. My pico has seen more repeats of 35% than any tank I know


the main pulling off of algae can be by hand and wide tip knife if that helps any, faster clearance, and then the final digs are those precise tools. I’d order a set of those off amazon for my system for sure if could go back to 2010 when I had some algae detailing to do. You’ll be happy to know rock scraping ends one day when the coralline enamels the entire setup, all my algae work now is scum glass growths. Today I’m deep cleaning only to eject waste, scrub out using 35% some yellowing deposits down low on my vase. The rocks will permanently self manage one day, you didn’t have invasion anywhere else in the whole system. So when that system ages out it will be low work if the current steady state holds up

this level of resolve is rare, therefore your tank is about to quickly fall in line and function exactly as you want it to with very little delay. There is no better work to add to this thread, double power for our first reference link in the pest algae challenge thread
Sounds good! I’ll post updates when I have them
 

Gator_Reefer

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Ok, got the job done finally, overall it took a bit more than two hours but thats mainly because I tend to overanalyze everything and spend more time that I probably needed to......also I feel it took an insane amount of rinsing to get that new sand completely clear .

Will send after pics when I take some tomorrow. Feels so great to be rid of all that algae!

Question, is it normal to have a significant pH drop after doing the cleaning and removing the algae? Snails look a little slow to move too, hopefully all temporary.
 

brandon429

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I can’t wait to see when the daylight comes :) we haven’t tracked out pH before, we do the work prior with no real param updates I recall. Based on post patterns of outcomes there hasn’t been any issues if it did drop during our work. We usually start back with all new water so the pH matches whatever mixed water brings up, in this case using some old tank water if so isn’t a big change it seemed prudent to reduce some water makeup to focus on being so thorough with the rinse preps on sand and rock

detritus is really seen in an accurate light when it comes from deep within the sand, I expect the minor pH shift to come from liberated organics-in-decay that were formerly locked down low now mixed in a little, even if the rinse was thorough I’m sure some of the waste acids remain in fraction somehow

it should resolve fast when the machinery starts up again during the light phase/ photosynthesis time

its amazing we lock all that stuff away in the bed. It definitely feeds gha and other invasions.
 
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Ok, got the job done finally, overall it took a bit more than two hours but thats mainly because I tend to overanalyze everything and spend more time that I probably needed to......also I feel it took an insane amount of rinsing to get that new sand completely clear .

Will send after pics when I take some tomorrow. Feels so great to be rid of all that algae!

Question, is it normal to have a significant pH drop after doing the cleaning and removing the algae? Snails look a little slow to move too, hopefully all temporary.
Your algae would have been synthesising, increasing the pH, this is now not the case.
 

brandon429

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Even before lights on, how’s this reef patient in recovery

in just these few hours duration after reassembly, any ammonia issues would have manifested and resolved when we pulled out the dead bodies. Nh3 issues can’t persist any longer, they resolve that fast although when present in that short window after reassembly, nh3 is a buzz saw killer

(discerning time frame of ammonia uptake from active surfaces: chemistry forum, adding raw ammonia into reefs thread, seneye digital tracks complete conversion very fast tank to tank, a function of surface area we all overdo)


nh3 noncontrol, completely stripped surfaces, has no middle ground-like an annoyance-level burn. It’s either a killer or it’s under control now at eight am

our systems do not permit the lingering of nh3 it’s rapidly uptaken. Clear water vs massive cloudy water in 4 hours is the top proof of nh3 control after a rip clean.
 
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Gator_Reefer

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Here they are, the after pics......

Corals a little irritated but hopefully they continue to settle in and fully open back up.

Seeing a low pH still, but as some have mentioned it could be due to that large amount of algae no longer absorbing CO2 thru photosynthesis. Will do some water testing tonight though to ensure any organic dieoff from the rocks aren’t shooting up ammonia levels.
 

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brandon429

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Excellence

extremely clear, shockingly clear system :) so happy for you

not sure on that long term scope, but now we have an excellent starting point to try things- you did a perfect job !

WVU would be proud of you.




the fish distribution is noted above.

the water clarity, your rock is algae free but you didn’t wide-swath make the rocks white, they’ve been targeted. Literally only the bad parts are gone. A dentist would be proud of these reef teeth above Gator.
 
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brandon429

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we want to expand this model to including dinoflagellates systems, I think nanos on the whole will respond powerfully to the old standby deep cleaning, the type of invader doesn't matter.

Jon M took a perfectly running 120 gallon sps system and rip cleaned it as a preventative there was literally nothing wrong with his reef when he did it here. This link can be included here because its so incredibly through, like you guys' jobs just were.


that's the reason I think we can get an edge on dinos with rip cleaning, because it does not hurt to try.
 

brandon429

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we sure have used this work example a lot lately :) hows updates
 
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