Algae Identification

[brandon429]

No, those rocks would still pass cycle needs for sure. they are dang sure cleared off this round nice pics, for sure replace sand is ok.

if you don’t pre rinse the new sand you get between 1-? days of clouding. If you pre rinse it’ll be cloudless merely choose the mode n run thanks for documenting with the good pics. That type of growth originally may have subsided over time but in at least one spot of the universe we want to log action time where people aren’t told to wait longer, the tank above is in process of getting handled agreed

I have 35% too but let’s wait to see how it grows back first. When the first spots pop up do this test: one tiny section just gets the 35% dribbled on the targets (outside of tank, lift up test rock) and on another growth section, rasp dig the red growths out with the steak knife tip and truly dig / dislodge. Then apply the peroxide on the cleaned spots, set back rock, evaluate which effort section got the best growback control. I have no idea how to beat that stuff naturally so the barbarian mode is assumed till someone does show how to beat it

 

[xabo]

Thanks for the reply..........I did a treatment with the peroxide before. The algae turned a bright orange color, then white color and the snails took care of it. It's a long slow process though.

 

[brandon429]

I bet there’s an invaded tank out there who wants a restored reef tank


rip clean here with us, make a plan live time

 

[Mike Zimmerman]

Ok, I fully understand the method here. The reason for doing a rip clean is due to some personal issues that left my tank being neglected for a few years, and used tap water to top off. All coral except one cluster of mushrooms died. lost two fish, I have a lone clown fish left. Phosphates are off the chart, also have some bubble algae
I'm going to remove half the rock due poor planning, way to much. I also have bought some new flat base rock to add the old rock to.
my questions,
can I use a pressure washer to clean the old rock?
will it remove excess phosphates?
will adding new rock cause a cycle.
planning on next weekend, hopefully!
thank you in advance. 50 gallons AIO

 

[brandon429]

I think that system is quite nice honestly as is

thank you for posting we are always trying to filter down the best of the best here so whatever you do will make nice final work pics compared to the ones above, which I think look nice already with contrasting colors-some localized algae for grazers not dispersed all over tank but up top, easy to get to. In my opinion I wouldn’t rip clean that tank here’s why


you are are the bell curve ride still it’s not downhill yet, save the disassembly cleaning, and best of the best sand rinse, until the corners of the tank are filled with accumulations and invasion pockets; right now it’s all clean. You want some of the minor brown coloring and some red in the sandbed, that’s right at the prime diversity point which feeds back a small degree of juvenile benthic creatures to the corals, and while rip cleaning has no harm if you’re thorough you should just add the rocks you want to that setup

no rip clean for a while and honestly cease testing for phosphate for a couple months, that’s no joke. It’s a complete distraction we don’t need, none of these jobs are param measure and react it’s what sets us apart as a work thread.

even if your phosphate is high it’s doesn’t do any good to know, the rock chosen is bone white and known to retain then release it in curing cycles


I’d never want to offset that expected spike just let it be, so you don’t get dinos by reacting to it.

run your lighting with 15% or so less overall intensity, the system isn’t packed with enough coral to command full power even though it looks nice and bright. Until it’s packed in corals you don’t need production-level lighting.


the final trick for your setup, based on those pics, which will get you the look you want matched to that need is rock rasping and it will need to be repeated. Instead of responding to phosphate you’d forego testing for it till April or so, and spend this few weeks for the first time doing normal small siphon cleanups with water changes.


take the rocks from that easy accessible stack, follow up cleaning will be a snap, and set them in the sink


and take a steak knife tip and dig score out all that algae like you’re a reef dentist, dig up and scrape dislodge the long algae. Rinse it down the sink in saltwater.

now the rocks are free or algae, plus for once the holdfast is killed. Before setting back in tank, spot apply peroxide to the former spots that used to have algae- this is for final holdfast kill. Set rocks back in tank, if you’d just do a perfect job on rock rasping that would really feature well here. We get two months of no test and response, merely hand guiding and no param chasing, feeding well by direct not broadcast coral feed, and ride it two months. I promise it’ll look sharp, run well, not need a rip clean and you can still add your desired rocks into the setup and let them take on bacteria by mere association, no bottle bac is needed.



your system doesn’t need param detailing it needs sustained eight week easy physical guiding with peroxide burning as the final step, it’ll stop that growback and let you plant corals all over that open rock. You can see from Gator’s updates on prior pages, thick purple coralline grew back over former rasp spots. its about maybe six or seven repeat gardens, like bringing a renthouse lawn back into compliance over the first summer.


when you’re ready to rip clean it that part will be easy, run any of these guys setup logged here. Glad to have your new post

 

[brandon429]

If you want to do a big 50% water change it won’t hurt. Put the new rocks in there first after you pre-clean them off a pressure washer really isn’t needed

it won’t hurt but rubbed off under common tap water would be fine, final rinse in r.o. and set into tank.

choosing to cure these new rocks calls for more hand guiding work, that’s the selection tradeoff.

it’s not about using more GFO that’ll bring dinos and right now the scape looks very balanced, it’s ok to add some stuff to it

lower the light power and sustain that a while during mixed curing


do the 50% water change matching temp and salinity and pour very slowly back over a lower rock when refilling, so sandbed waste wont cast around and risk harming stuff

 

[Mike Zimmerman]

If you want to do a big 50% water change it won’t hurt. Put the new rocks in there first after you pre-clean them off a pressure washer really isn’t needed

it won’t hurt but rubbed off under common tap water would be fine, final rinse in r.o. and set into tank.

choosing to cure these new rocks calls for more hand guiding work, that’s the selection tradeoff.

it’s not about using more GFO that’ll bring dinos and right now the scape looks very balanced, it’s ok to add some stuff to it

lower the light power and sustain that a while during mixed curing


do the 50% water change matching temp and salinity and pour very slowly back over a lower rock when refilling, so sandbed waste wont cast around and risk harming stuff

I checked the phosphorus with a Hanna url checker with old regents, just bought some new regents, haven’t tested with the fresh one yet. It was off he charts 126, tested twice. Didn’t even convert it over. I wanted to create some open space in the tank so it would be easier to clean the sand, under the rock is open, and the big rock is all glued together. So I figured it would be best just to remove it, make it smaller and clean the sand while I’m at it. I did a couple of 30% water changes, and the bubble algae exploded. Ive been stirring the sand and have pockets of crap under the rock , been using my Powerhead to blow it up. Like I said, no water changes in a couple of years. The tank is 7 years old

 

[Mike Zimmerman]

I checked the phosphorus with a Hanna url checker with old regents, just bought some new regents, haven’t tested with the fresh one yet. It was off he charts 126, tested twice. Didn’t even convert it over. I wanted to create some open space in the tank so it would be easier to clean the sand, under the rock is open, and the big rock is all glued together. So I figured it would be best just to remove it, make it smaller and clean the sand while I’m at it. I did a couple of 30% water changes, and the bubble algae exploded. Ive been stirring the sand and have pockets of crap under the rock , been using my Powerhead to blow it up. Like I said, no water changes in a couple of years. The tank is 7 years old

After reading and rereading you reply. What do you think about this plan
take the rock out, break it into manageable pieces.
Clean rock to get rid of detritus, pick all the bubble algae out and use hydration peroxide.
change aqua scape using about ten percent new rock, losing about 30 percent old rock to make more open space.
make a 50% water change
my only question is how much of the sand should be cleaned, should I just try and get out as much as possible, or a bit at a time? Not sure
also use gfo to reduce phosphate.
thank you for your time, really do appreciate the help

 

[brandon429]

We need to keep this thread different than the rest, it’s supposed to be a pure action thread. Pure control action for six pages, we are starting to drift into partial stuff above. the best way to undo sand stirring in the tank, casting of detritus, is just rip clean the tank. Let’s do the full rip clean. All at once. When your current tank shines perfect, to warrant being in this thread, we can deal with your aqua scape change. Let’s do the main tank in full, pick any job logged here that you studied and apply it in full.




once your current reef above is 100% clean, after that’s done, you can choose how much scape you want to change out or add new rocks to, separate from the rip clean event. We have been able to avoid any discussion on phosphates or GFO this whole thread so let’s keep that going with a sharp rip clean here.

now we’ve moved away from 50% water change and into full rip clean which is 100% water changed on top of rinsed sand, and rasped rock, done all at once.

if we do not feature the absolute best of the best zero hesitation rip cleans here our thread will be sidetracked


once your tank has been rinsed and 100% changed like the rest you can easily change out a portion of the scape, or add dry materials to the scape, those won’t have any impact on the rip clean / the rip clean part is solely what we choose to feature in this one particular thread

 

[Mike Zimmerman]

We need to keep this thread different than the rest, it’s supposed to be a pure action thread. Pure control action for six pages, we are starting to drift into partial stuff above. the best way to undo sand stirring in the tank, casting of detritus, is just rip clean the tank. Let’s do the full rip clean. All at once. When your current tank shines perfect, to warrant being in this thread, we can deal with your aqua scape change. Let’s do the main tank in full, pick any job logged here that you studied and apply it in full.




once your current reef above is 100% clean, after that’s done, you can choose how much scape you want to change out or add new rocks to, separate from the rip clean event. We have been able to avoid any discussion on phosphates or GFO this whole thread so let’s keep that going with a sharp rip clean here.

now we’ve moved away from 50% water change and into full rip clean which is 100% water changed on top of rinsed sand, and rasped rock, done all at once.

if we do not feature the absolute best of the best zero hesitation rip cleans here our thread will be sidetracked


once your tank has been rinsed and 100% changed like the rest you can easily change out a portion of the scape, or add dry materials to the scape, those won’t have any impact on the rip clean / the rip clean part is solely what we choose to feature in this one particular thread

Sounds good, I think this is the best approach. I will back off added new rock until I have this finished and let it sit for awhile. Tyvm

 

[brandon429]

very good, and we value your updates too based on this ordering of ops it will add depth to our thread. it seems strange to surgically part these systems and wash these things like we're doing (though live rock contacting only saltwater is the magician's slight, the rest of the bacteria are pore accumulators around the system, detritus aggregates, and we're better off open pored/clean and flowing till they fill up again one day currents and export allowed)

this first rip clean allows you to set those easily rasped rocks back on top of pristine sand.
you are highly unlikely to get any tradeoff invasion, such as dinos, cyano or gha. gha eventually/it selects for that given time we can see/ but my gosh that's an easy scape to access for force guiding.


I have a rip clean coming up, fully rinsed 6 pounds of sand/small nano tank/ are sitting dry in a pizza pan over here waiting for me to quit procrastinating.

my tank is 16 years old its been cheated this old by rip cleans,

if I had to guess this is time #20 or so.

I have a couple areas that need dental precision; today after work I go to hobby lobby and get my mini paint pipettes. which are 35% peroxide delivery tools, pappa is not playing around here lol.


then the whole tank will go back together just as it came, but with new sand and zero bottle bac. I commit to uploading my pics too, I'll get to it in a couple days. plus my sandbed needed a 2 inch lift/cleaning over these last 2 years removed some and my scape was slouching. this will move it all right back to the top, a gem reset coming.

peroxide will never be dosed to my water, its for external tank surgery after rasping, where the former attachments were. instead of making it remove whole plant removal, I've dentally pre-scraped and dislodged and rinsed off all the algae itself, the spot is bare. peroxide goes on that/thorough


the masses would just add it to the tank. thats four steps shy of mean resolve.

 

[Mike Zimmerman]

very good, and we value your updates too based on this ordering of ops it will add depth to our thread. it seems strange to surgically part these systems and wash these things like we're doing (though live rock contacting only saltwater is the magician's slight, the rest of the bacteria are pore accumulators around the system, detritus aggregates, and we're better off open pored/clean and flowing till they fill up again one day currents and export allowed)

this first rip clean allows you to set those easily rasped rocks back on top of pristine sand.
you are highly unlikely to get any tradeoff invasion, such as dinos, cyano or gha. gha eventually/it selects for that given time we can see/ but my gosh that's an easy scape to access for force guiding.


I have a rip clean coming up, fully rinsed 6 pounds of sand/small nano tank/ are sitting dry in a pizza pan over here waiting for me to quit procrastinating.

my tank is 16 years old its been cheated this old by rip cleans,

if I had to guess this is time #20 or so.

I have a couple areas that need dental precision; today after work I go to hobby lobby and get my mini paint pipettes. which are 35% peroxide delivery tools, pappa is not playing around here lol.


then the whole tank will go back together just as it came, but with new sand and zero bottle bac. I commit to uploading my pics too, I'll get to it in a couple days. plus my sandbed needed a 2 inch lift/cleaning over these last 2 years removed some and my scape was slouching. this will move it all right back to the top, a gem reset coming.

peroxide will never be dosed to my water, its for external tank surgery after rasping, where the former attachments were. instead of making it remove whole plant removal, I've dentally pre-scraped and dislodged and rinsed off all the algae itself, the spot is bare. peroxide goes on that/thorough


the masses would just add it to the tank. thats four steps shy of mean resolve.

Ok, took me all day, took out all rock and sand. The sand took forever to clean. My rock was cleaned in three separate saltwater buckets, dirty to clean rinsing buckets. Tried to get the bubble algae off as well is I could, hit it with hydrogen peroxide. But I see I may have missed some, hoping the peroxide will kill it over time.

 

[Mike Zimmerman]

Ok, took me all day, took out all rock and sand. The sand took forever to clean. My rock was cleaned in three separate saltwater buckets, dirty to clean rinsing buckets. Tried to get the bubble algae off as well is I could, hit it with hydrogen peroxide. But I see I may have missed some, hoping the peroxide will kill it over time.

 

[brandon429]

when are we going to get the 7th installment of the perfect rip clean here? let's get one before end of year

requirements:

preferably a nano, in a junked out condition (big tanks work too, but take way more prep time, nanos=perfect 4 hour job)

needs to be someone who's read the thread and is willing to rinse sand so clean, so clear, they deserve to be here vs any other common rip clean thread. this is for 100% rinsers.

 

[brandon429]

Chevyveet is our seventh perfect rip clean save example

I give up

I have been reefing for almost a year and after countless kinds of coral I can’t seem to get anything to live. I have had SPS, LPS, softies and everything in between. Nothing I do seems to work. I religiously check my parameters and have them as close as I can to the optimal parameters of...

www.reef2reef.com

In chat, he did not hesitate one bit

He followed every rule of rip cleaning happily, with trust, and his system shines

I've done fifty rip cleans since my prior example and they didn't rinse this well, even though they still did a good job and their tank is fixed. Chevy rinsed so well he's now in top seven rips of all time. Tank is shining now

 

[brandon429]

DannoOMG gets formal billing

first top winner rip clean in 2023


remember: this is the top gun rip clean thread. average rip cleaners, hesitants, only get to watch


this is for elite blackbelt 10th year mma study rip cleans, DannoOMG is in

entry thread:

Looking for advice on my 5 month old 13.5 Evo. (warning LOTs of information)

I have been trying to get some reef tank services to come and consult me on how I should improve my tank but nobody has gotten back to me. I guess they are too busy. Information I will include hoping it will give you guys an idea of where I should go from here : *Lighting/Tank/Pumps etc *What...

www.reef2reef.com

he agrees to put that tank in rip clean rehab, before pic

a year and a half ago:

after the rip clean, careful rock disassembly dentistry and rasping, total sandbed command rinse with tap, then months of feed+ change water workouts over and over:

that pic is one year of his work in repeat feed + water changes, look at sps growth

he has been detailing his rip clean with me for a year in private chats.

this is the Oligotrophic condition, forced and guided now in Jan 2023

formerly the Eutrophic condition = high plant loading, scums, trapment of waste, low surface area due to blanketing

Oligotrophic tanks are high flow, low storage, very high suspended protein quality, low breakdown wastes, fast coral growth, low plant selection.


that's a win, accept the medal of honor for forced tank rehab.

Going from a 13.5 Gallon Evo to a 25 Gallon Innovative Marine using the "Berlin Method."

I almost called it the Belgium method. Tssst. What are we making waffles or somethin? Tssst... I have had my 13.5 Evo running for 2 years now and have decided I want something a little bigger and something that will give me some better options for returns pumps etc... Things are getting tight...

www.reef2reef.com

Final thread on the life arc of this tank above: it's ready to be upgraded from. Not due to invasion, but by choice, he needs more room for sps growth now. that's absolute 1.5 year documented nano reef boot camping on file.

 

[brandon429]

Humuhumufan did a great job de-aging his reef tank. He belongs in the best of the best thread for rip cleans, solidly

GHA Has Destroyed My Passion for the Hobby

Title says it all. I've been in the fish game on and off for about 30 years now. I don't think my morale has ever been this low. I feel like my tanks are just becoming a source of stress in my life. My 20g reef (below) has been up since 2019, my FOWLR has been up since 2015, and I also...

www.reef2reef.com

*why that example belongs here vs other reef tank algae threads: because he rip cleaned it to remove a bunch of dirty waste in the sandbed, and any other method leaves the waste in the sandbed to fuel cyano and dinos outbreaks

as a first time tank surgery performer, he simply followed through top to bottom. we did not use bottle bac

we didn't wrestle with api and red sea ammonia kits to cause cycle doubt, you can see by pics his tank is alive, shining, de-aged, and robbed of algae and invasion feed. sub to him to watch for future updates. success. total success he commanded. pics:

before beginning the job, pent up waste + GHA present, eutrophic condition in effect:

after the take down, notice how much total waste was in this sandbed. posters in his thread adamantly recommended we leave all that in, and solely dose the water with things. He would get revolving cyano and dinos outbreaks if we killed his GHA< and added that rotting mass to already rotting mass in the sand feeding GHA> so glad he opted for reef tank surgery.

look at his transfer of living materials into a holding tank, 1st skip cycle transfer for the job, see the holding tank's clean water? that's what makes a skip cycle materials transfer...permitting no clouding in the holding vessel (or the final assembly display tank)

here's his rocks in a holding bin, getting knifed to scrape off the algae. peroxide on the clean spots, after erasing the algae with metal/steel:

after hours, literally hours washing the sandbed in tap water then saltwater as the final rinse, this was the second to last picture, see how clean this water is?

and now the final assembly pic with fish, skip cycle rip clean gold, a de-aged tank not setup to break out in dinos and cyano cyclically like we see in hands-off threads:

the oligotrophic condition is now restored. for a while


well done, well done, well done H.

we used no bottle bac, no dosers, no meds, no testing and no hesitation to get what is shown above. we did the opposite of what the masses recommend. because that rock was knifed so clean, so precise, and the sand was rinsed so cloudlessly, he's in the best of the best. WELL DONE thank you so much Humuhumu!

 

[brandon429]

So to make the best of our bump today let's track out some prior entrants to see how the tanks fared. WVU is gone/haven't seen on the site for follow up lately so I'll go check some others.

Gator hasn't updated to the site in a long time as well. UKR is still around, so I sent an update request to his work thread and will report back when details are added.

Danno has graduated his tank repaired above/his black belt level rip clean into a new tank so we're on track there. he earned an upgrade system and is carrying over his current gear into the new, as a skip cycle tank upgrade:

look at the waste left behind in the old system. this is what sandbeds catch, that we remove cyclically in rip cleans and if it's left in the tank, invasions begin. bare bottom tanks can remove this waste factor before it accumulates and sandbedded reefs can either remove it preemptively in small cleanings or all at once as a rip clean.

skip cycled into the new tank, clean, no bottle bac used:

this thread is for best-of-the-best rip cleans only, no filler posts that way we can keep the read short and the tank completion pics very prominent in the read.

We kept his cycle in place didn't use bottle bacteria

He used same rocks sand and corals. That's a continuance, not a restart.

He's now adding pods to the system to complete the controlled instant aging of the tank via skip cycle rip clean.

 

[revhtree]

Thread open please stay civil or don't participate. Thank you.

 

[brandon429]

understood will do thanks team.