Feeling kinda defeated

[jadedog]

Good morning,

I've had my tank running for a bit over a year and I always made sure to quarantine my fish. I never took the time to do that for my coral and now I am paying the price. I am currently fighting Bryopsis, Ulva, Bubble algae and now Aiptasia. I've already dosed flux rx for the bryopsis and it came back after a few months. I've been managing all this quite well but I feel like I need to take more steps before it goes out of control. I guess I'm just looking for suggestions and advice or things I can do to fight this maybe certain fish or inverts? My display is 60gal 36x20x22 and my sump is 25. Coral is growing quite well but I just would love to knock a few of these pest algae down. Unfortunately I can't remove most of the rocks due to the aquascape and corals.

 

[Reefer Matt]

The way I deal with algae is manual removal, large water change (adjust nitrate and phosphate as required), then add a large cleanup crew of snails, crabs, urchins, shrimp, etc that will eat developing algae before it becomes a problem. Aiptasia can be controlled with the correct species of shrimp, or nudibranchs.

Also, I’ll flag the #reefsquad

 

[allof fish]

Good morning,

I've had my tank running for a bit over a year and I always made sure to quarantine my fish. I never took the time to do that for my coral and now I am paying the price. I am currently fighting Bryopsis, Ulva, Bubble algae and now Aiptasia. I've already dosed flux rx for the bryopsis and it came back after a few months. I've been managing all this quite well but I feel like I need to take more steps before it goes out of control. I guess I'm just looking for suggestions and advice or things I can do to fight this maybe certain fish or inverts? My display is 60gal 36x20x22 and my sump is 25. Coral is growing quite well but I just would love to knock a few of these pest algae down. Unfortunately I can't remove most of the rocks due to the aquascape and corals.

What’s the worse problem now? If the rocks aren’t held together you can try to remove some and pressure wash them. That will take care of algae and aptasia just do it little by little

 

[davidm777]

Hello sorry to hear you struggling. Please give more information as it might be something simple you doing or not doing.
What water you use?
What's your maintenance routine?
What you feed and how much?
Also please include pictures of your display and sump.
Providing this info will help to give you better advise.

 

[jadedog]

What’s the worse problem now? If the rocks aren’t held together you can try to remove some and pressure wash them. That will take care of algae and aptasia just do it little by little

The worst in order is , Bryopsis , Bubble algae, Ulva , Aiptasia. I plan to try Reef flux again for the Bryopsis, I have a urchin that takes care most of the Ulva but he cant get all of it. Bubble algae I haven't tried much to control it and it is spreading decently. I don't have any clean up crew that will touch the bubble algae or Aiptasia. Nothing is like really taking over expect for the Bryopsis. I cant pull most of the main rocks since its like a arch filled with coral so I'm kind of screwed. When I upgrade in the far future I think ill make sure all my rocks are pullable.

 

[slingfox]

Manual removal is your best friend if dealing with a large infestation of uglies on a new tank. If the aquascape could be added to the tank it can be removed. Coral should have zero to no effect on ability to pull out the rock since coral does fine in the air for the short sports of time needed to scrub.

After the rocks are scrubbed add a large clean up crew. You may also want to revisit you feeding practices. You don’t post enough info for people to provide any advice other than the most basic kind: scrub and add CUC.

 

[Jimbo327]

If you plan to do flux. This will take care of bryopsis, leave it in the tank for 14-21 days. For aiptasia, get a couple berghias. For bubble alage, get a couple emeralds. Problem solved.

 

[jadedog]

Hello sorry to hear you struggling. Please give more information as it might be something simple you doing or not doing.
What water you use?
What's your maintenance routine?
What you feed and how much?
Also please include pictures of your display and sump.
Providing this info will help to give you better advise.

I use Tropic marin pro and do about a 10% water change weekly. Im running filter socks and a skimmer. I keep my po3 around .06-.10 my No3 is always around 3ppm. I feed about 1 frozen brine/mysis cube and occasionally pellets on top of that. Sorry if the tank pics are blurry lights just turned on.

 

[jadedog]

If you plan to do flux. This will take care of bryopsis, leave it in the tank for 14-21 days. For aiptasia, get a couple berghias. For bubble alage, get a couple emeralds. Problem solved.

This is probably my plan I'm just scared of the crabs because a lot of people say they will eat coral. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[jadedog]

Manual removal is your best friend if dealing with a large infestation of uglies on a new tank. If the aquascape could be added to the tank it can be removed. Coral should have zero to no effect on ability to pull out the rock since coral does fine in the air for the short sports of time needed to scrub.

After the rocks are scrubbed add a large clean up crew. You may also want to revisit you feeding practices. You don’t post enough info for people to provide any advice other than the most basic kind: scrub and add CUC.

Sorry I have posted more info in the comments now. Yes your are right I can pull the rocks the issue is there all kinda attached in like a arch so it might all collapse but I probably could get it done if it comes to it.

 

[jadedog]

Hello sorry to hear you struggling. Please give more information as it might be something simple you doing or not doing.
What water you use?
What's your maintenance routine?
What you feed and how much?
Also please include pictures of your display and sump.
Providing this info will help to give you better advise.

Here's a better video

 

[Jimbo327]

This is probably my plan I'm just scared of the crabs because a lot of people say they will eat coral. Thanks for the suggestion!

They don’t eat coral. Most reefers have them as bubble algae control.

Brightwell razor is also very effective at killing bubble algae.

 

[Rocks reef]

You really don’t have a lot of rock in there as it is. I’d pull the corals off the rock that are on plugs like the euphyllia. You can always mount them again. As far as the zoas, they will take over the whole rock eventually so I’d recommend moving the rock they are on away from your main structure.
You can pull the rocks and scrub them in a 50/50 peroxide/saltwater mix.
Also, I would add more live rock to your system. In my opinion, you are on the lighter side. More rock means more bacteria to breakdown nutrients.

 

[jadedog]

They don’t eat coral. Most reefers have them as bubble algae control.

Brightwell razor is also very effective at killing bubble algae.

Thanks for your suggestions! I'm going to order some pitho crabs tonight they seem promising.

 

[jadedog]

You really don’t have a lot of rock in there as it is. I’d pull the corals off the rock that are on plugs like the euphyllia. You can always mount them again. As far as the zoas, they will take over the whole rock eventually so I’d recommend moving the rock they are on away from your main structure.
You can pull the rocks and scrub them in a 50/50 peroxide/saltwater mix.
Also, I would add more live rock to your system. In my opinion, you are on the lighter side. More rock means more bacteria to breakdown nutrients.

It is on the lighter side I was never truly happy with my scape. If I do this I would probably just try to rescape it entirely I do have about 15lb of rock in my sump though. Never really thought about the zoa issue either this is my first tank so I definitely made a lot of mistakes. Thank you for all the suggestions. Maybe I can make a sorta holding tank while I scrub everything and rethink the rock work if I go down this path.

 

[Australian_Reef]

What is your CUC at the moment? No one thing will solve all the issues but what do you have in play at the moment?

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

The way I deal with algae is manual removal, large water change (adjust nitrate and phosphate as required), then add a large cleanup crew of snails, crabs, urchins, shrimp, etc that will eat developing algae before it becomes a problem. Aiptasia can be controlled with the correct species of shrimp, or nudibranchs.

Also, I’ll flag the #reefsquad

Keukenthali shrimp are superior Aiptasia consumers. The typical peppermint shrimp can be hit or miss, but Keukenthali get everything.

 

[jadedog]

What is your CUC at the moment? No one thing will solve all the issues but what do you have in play at the moment?

Tuxedo urchin, 10 blue leg hermits , 2 conches, few bumblebee snails, 1 turbo, 8 zombie snails , tons of trochus snails and a few other types of snails. I don't think any of the snails touch byropsis or bubble algae.

 

[Australian_Reef]

Tuxedo urchin, 10 blue leg hermits , 2 conches, few bumblebee snails, 1 turbo, 8 zombie snails , tons of trochus snails and a few other types of snails. I don't think any of the snails touch byropsis or bubble algae.

Byropsis once established needs a systemic treatment I’d say. I have patches of byropis only on areas the urchins can’t easily reach. Luckily it’s on my higher margins so I’m going to go h2o2 there. The only issue I can’t solve yet is bubble. On YouTube gallery Aquatica have a good episode on bubble algae treatment.

 

[jadedog]

Byropsis once established needs a systemic treatment I’d say. I have patches of byropis only on areas the urchins can’t easily reach. Luckily it’s on my higher margins so I’m going to go h2o2 there. The only issue I can’t solve yet is bubble. On YouTube gallery Aquatica have a good episode on bubble algae treatment.

Yeah I hit it with reef flux before and it all melted but it pretty much all came back after a month. Some say you need to hit it with a 2x dose... but I'm not sure. I've been looking at some posts and apparently pitho crabs are the best bet for bubble algae. I'll have to check out that video.