I know about the “ugly” stage of cycling but this is ridiculous.
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OP
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glb
7500 Club Member
I think I did a big water change first. Check the directions on the reef flux and it says how much. I’m pretty sure I started dosing right away. I used Brightwell Neonitro and Neophos. Just do the calculations on the bottle for your size tank and you’ll know how much to dose. It took about a month of daily dosing to see nitrates and longer for phosphates. In fact, I’m still dosing phosphorus daily and restarted the nitrogen when the nitrates dipped too low. Hang in there, it will get better!!!
OP
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glb
7500 Club Member
Soooo, I have a new kind of algae going on. The po4 zeroed out again after I ran out of of po4 dosing solution without realizing it (about a month ago and went unnoticed for a few weeks). I’m now dosing po4 again daily but am getting a zero reading. This new algae is pink and is a film on the rocks. It easily blows off with a turkey baster but reproduces daily. I’m sure it’s consuming all the po4. What do I need to do to get rid of it? Reeflux again? Any help is appreciated!
OP
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glb
7500 Club Member
So the rocks are still filthy and I feel like giving up. What is all this junk?? The no3 is 2.5 and po4 bottomed out to 0 again because I ran out of the phosphorus solution for a few days. It’s been replaced now. I scrubbed the rocks with a toothbrush yesterday but today they’re gross again. I put the IK gyre on a varied flow from 10-60%. I’m going to feed more mysis shrimp and less pellets to see if that helps. I did dose some neonitro because the no3 is so low and my LPS are tolerating it but not growing. Oh and the cyano is back. I’ve put my heart into this tank and it is so ugly I want to cry. Any help is appreciated!!! Help #reefsquad!!!
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Big G
captain dunsel
Been there. Water changes. Lots of water changes. When you use your toothbrush is it attached to the end of a siphon hose.? Working slow and steady. Maybe doing only half the tank a day worked pretty well for me. Lots of changes of filter socks too. Hang in there.
your sandbed re contributes removed items back to the rocks.
you need to pull your sandbed out, make the rocks comply, then put the sb back all rinsed and clean. the way to arrest your issue is with a full cleaning, not partial ones due to the strength of the periphyton/growths which you want gone. These are highly adapted organisms, that's why they're so tough.
You can become the matched grazer to the problem, but its best to copy what people do in tank restoration threads to become clean, not work in increments.
you need to pull your sandbed out, make the rocks comply, then put the sb back all rinsed and clean. the way to arrest your issue is with a full cleaning, not partial ones due to the strength of the periphyton/growths which you want gone. These are highly adapted organisms, that's why they're so tough.
You can become the matched grazer to the problem, but its best to copy what people do in tank restoration threads to become clean, not work in increments.
opinions on that range, but I vote for mini modeling before any tank work. In any tank. its a cool trick where we don't invest tons of time only for a quick growback.
I read earlier you scrubbed with toothbrush and it grew back, the next increment in my opinion is just one rock done with the peroxide step, externally. nothing added to the tank
take out a diff rock you haven't worked, and toothbrush scrub it again, all of it or at least half. totally clean, rinsed off in saltwater each time, toothbrush is clean working the light periphyton out of place revealing just its rock anchor, all rinsing in clean saltwater to evacuate the mass.
now the rock is clean, and we know it w growback if put back.
spray 3% peroxide from a mister bottle all over the cleaned rock, this is zapping cellular leftovers and tiny holdfasts that help in regrowth
let the rock sit in the air another 3 mins cooking, it wont do much. might not even bubble much, its working. if you listen to it up close you'll hear little pops, that's the bubbling on a small scale.
No it doesn't kill the filtration bac, we're up to nine years now of peroxide work its a well known item nowadays.
rinse the rock again in saltwater, put back among the others and lets see what it does.
this is one increment up on the physical access scale, if it behaves really well we should consider cleaning out the bed and working the other rocks. Its neat we can merely test it first to see whats possible, don't have to risk your whole tank to wasting time.
I read earlier you scrubbed with toothbrush and it grew back, the next increment in my opinion is just one rock done with the peroxide step, externally. nothing added to the tank
take out a diff rock you haven't worked, and toothbrush scrub it again, all of it or at least half. totally clean, rinsed off in saltwater each time, toothbrush is clean working the light periphyton out of place revealing just its rock anchor, all rinsing in clean saltwater to evacuate the mass.
now the rock is clean, and we know it w growback if put back.
spray 3% peroxide from a mister bottle all over the cleaned rock, this is zapping cellular leftovers and tiny holdfasts that help in regrowth
let the rock sit in the air another 3 mins cooking, it wont do much. might not even bubble much, its working. if you listen to it up close you'll hear little pops, that's the bubbling on a small scale.
No it doesn't kill the filtration bac, we're up to nine years now of peroxide work its a well known item nowadays.
rinse the rock again in saltwater, put back among the others and lets see what it does.
this is one increment up on the physical access scale, if it behaves really well we should consider cleaning out the bed and working the other rocks. Its neat we can merely test it first to see whats possible, don't have to risk your whole tank to wasting time.
In re checking pics I can see coralline and live rock quality under the growths we should preserve those areas
Not much peroxide on them, be directed with it creatively. Hit the less than perfect spots with the peroxide mist, mainly just brush those off. We want to turn out one test rock that was detail brushed off, rinsed well, then spot sprayed with peroxide in a directed manner to work around nontarget areas as much as possible
Since the sandbed could indeed be feeding all the growths back up to the rock, if you want a thorough assessment of your aquarium that zone cannot remain untested.
The test is take a stick and kick it around in the corner sandbed area while on cell video, see if it makes a cloud or not. If you can disturb the sand down halfway with a stick and not generate a cloud then we know something about its potential
But if disturbance kicks up the sandbed in a notable way, that job is indicated in the video as a mix of invader + feed being upwelled
So the total work we've done is one tiny test rock or area, and a corner sandbed drop test for clouding. Low impact invader-specific work, no ID or test param needed.
*******you posted really high res pics above that is quality live rock be directed and detailed with the peroxide spray and dropper approach. Preserve the coralline, don't do dips and things that cover the whole rock. Toothbrushing and saltwater rinse doesn't kill coralline, it's 90% of your work here as you've already done. That directed peroxide boost step is 10% of this deal, but it's likely to cut that growback and already known safe to tank filtration bac, it's a great test rock action to measure and photograph
I'm betting on it like a racehorse, if it doesn't work then we didn't harm your tank which is why test modeling is gold
Not much peroxide on them, be directed with it creatively. Hit the less than perfect spots with the peroxide mist, mainly just brush those off. We want to turn out one test rock that was detail brushed off, rinsed well, then spot sprayed with peroxide in a directed manner to work around nontarget areas as much as possible
Since the sandbed could indeed be feeding all the growths back up to the rock, if you want a thorough assessment of your aquarium that zone cannot remain untested.
The test is take a stick and kick it around in the corner sandbed area while on cell video, see if it makes a cloud or not. If you can disturb the sand down halfway with a stick and not generate a cloud then we know something about its potential
But if disturbance kicks up the sandbed in a notable way, that job is indicated in the video as a mix of invader + feed being upwelled
So the total work we've done is one tiny test rock or area, and a corner sandbed drop test for clouding. Low impact invader-specific work, no ID or test param needed.
*******you posted really high res pics above that is quality live rock be directed and detailed with the peroxide spray and dropper approach. Preserve the coralline, don't do dips and things that cover the whole rock. Toothbrushing and saltwater rinse doesn't kill coralline, it's 90% of your work here as you've already done. That directed peroxide boost step is 10% of this deal, but it's likely to cut that growback and already known safe to tank filtration bac, it's a great test rock action to measure and photograph
I'm betting on it like a racehorse, if it doesn't work then we didn't harm your tank which is why test modeling is gold
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OP
OP
glb
7500 Club Member
Snails have saved the day! I picked up a bunch of turbos and a few trocchus and the tank has cleaned up beautifully. The corals are looking great and the detritus is going away. I’ll post pictures when I get home. Woohoo!
so happy that nature made a break through. I have aimed exactly 410 eyes at this thread, we want progress lol and awesome you never gave up. 99% would have taken down the tank
persistence I admire
were you able to add any sludge digester type bottle bac additives
persistence I admire
were you able to add any sludge digester type bottle bac additives
OP
OP
glb
7500 Club Member
So here’s the latest. I went through a bout of stringy brown algae with bubbles which I think was dinos. I used Microbactor7 and nitrate/phosphate dosing to get it under control. Now I have this orange stuff all over the rocks and sand. The corals and fish seem to be fine but I’m starting to see some bubbles in this stuff. Is it dinos again? It looks completely different. I haven’t tested my tank this week but I’ll post the numbers when I get them. There’s also this plate-like green algae growing on a few of the snails. Good grief is all I have to say. The snail with algae is the bright green thing in the middle on the rocks close to the sand. It’s hard to see, but the algae looks like small lily pads.
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