I'm going insane

[Tamberav]

I'm close to quitting the reefing hobby. I've been reading and browsing R2R every day looking at everyone's successful reefs and its frustrating me because my tank has been under control by GHA and Bryopsis for literally 8 or 9 months. Since then, every day I have been manually removing. I've taken out any rocks I could (some have feather dusters glued to them so that's impossible), and scrubbed them clean. In a few days the GHA pops back. I have tried Flux RX, 100% sump water changes, gravel vacuuming my sand, adding layers of black construction paper on the sides of the tank, blackouts, etc. I bumped up my CUC a ton too; adding dozens of blue legged hermit crabs, conch, pincushion urchin, 6 turbo snails, 10 astrea snails, and more. My parameters are and have been for a long time, spot on. Ill post exact parameters below.

Unless anyone has some ideas, I think the last thing to try is to do a "rip clean" method by @brandon429 . I want opinions from a few other people too if thats alright. For those that have done this and had it work, did you give your fish, corals, and inverts to the lfs for them to watch them while you drain the whole tank? I read that sometimes you should drain all water and spray it with vinegar or something. Also just to confirm, live rock in aquariums wont lose their beneficial bacteria after being dried and stuff right? Same thing with sand? Finally, if I drain all the water, should I put it in a barrel to keep it, or make new water? If I make completely new water wont I need to re-cycle my tank and wait weeks until I can get my fish back in the tank? My tank is already almost a year old so I dont want to do that again - I'm finally at the point that if I get rid of the algae my param's are perfect so I can add my dream corals.

My parents want to give away everything in the tank and make it a freshwater one because they think its too much work for me but I really don't want to do that. I just want my tank to finally be beautiful to look at, not make my parents sigh when they look at it. What is there I can do? I'm starting to go crazy lol.

I'd really appreciate it if somebody could answer the questions I have above - I'm willing to do the rip clean but I just want to confirm the methods... Thanks so much

Is it actual bryopsis or GHA?

They are very different beasts.

Just wondering. Both are beatable, there are some forms of Dino that really make ya pull your hair out tho.

 

[Tamberav]

I can imagine the brand matters, but who knows. I used ReefHD Reef Flux. It worked great. I manually removed all I could first, as per the directions. I added an extra pill (it comes in pill form) just to be safe. I thought this was safe because the directions say you can double the dose for faster results. Nothing bad happened. My nutrients increased a bit. Briopsis went away after a few weeks.

Ironically, the day after I posted on this thread, I noticed the Bryopsis is back. So I’m going to do another treatment. But I was bryopsis free for three months. Not sure if I got more as a hitchhiker, or if the deepest roots survived…. I’m not worried, I’m confident I can repeat my results. I’ll let you know.

Reef flux never seemed to fully cure it for me. It would look 100 percent fine but come back eventually after many months.

 

[brandon429]

if this was a nano, a rip clean would be undebatable. but its not, so rip cleans can be debated but they still exist as the only method of wrecked tank-> clean tank on the same day of any option.

applying fluconazole in the clean condition, as growback prevention, works better than applying it the normal way/six pounds of algae in place.

however rip cleaning a 65 gallon correctly is a massive job, a 10 hour straight job or it's not being done right. I couldnt require anyone to endure that much work lol as a partial job is dangerous, only a thorough rip clean is the right way.


the after pics people post of rip cleans are infectious I agree but they're also not telling of the massive degree of hours and time it takes to do a rip clean the right, safe way.

this is exactly why I only do pico reefs. large tank=good fish=access headache. I'd rather have tiny reef, coral only, no fish, not any headaches from the tank due to easy access

 

[Freenow54]

I'm close to quitting the reefing hobby. I've been reading and browsing R2R every day looking at everyone's successful reefs and its frustrating me because my tank has been under control by GHA and Bryopsis for literally 8 or 9 months. Since then, every day I have been manually removing. I've taken out any rocks I could (some have feather dusters glued to them so that's impossible), and scrubbed them clean. In a few days the GHA pops back. I have tried Flux RX, 100% sump water changes, gravel vacuuming my sand, adding layers of black construction paper on the sides of the tank, blackouts, etc. I bumped up my CUC a ton too; adding dozens of blue legged hermit crabs, conch, pincushion urchin, 6 turbo snails, 10 astrea snails, and more. My parameters are and have been for a long time, spot on. Ill post exact parameters below.

Unless anyone has some ideas, I think the last thing to try is to do a "rip clean" method by @brandon429 . I want opinions from a few other people too if thats alright. For those that have done this and had it work, did you give your fish, corals, and inverts to the lfs for them to watch them while you drain the whole tank? I read that sometimes you should drain all water and spray it with vinegar or something. Also just to confirm, live rock in aquariums wont lose their beneficial bacteria after being dried and stuff right? Same thing with sand? Finally, if I drain all the water, should I put it in a barrel to keep it, or make new water? If I make completely new water wont I need to re-cycle my tank and wait weeks until I can get my fish back in the tank? My tank is already almost a year old so I dont want to do that again - I'm finally at the point that if I get rid of the algae my param's are perfect so I can add my dream corals.

My parents want to give away everything in the tank and make it a freshwater one because they think its too much work for me but I really don't want to do that. I just want my tank to finally be beautiful to look at, not make my parents sigh when they look at it. What is there I can do? I'm starting to go crazy lol.

I'd really appreciate it if somebody could answer the questions I have above - I'm willing to do the rip clean but I just want to confirm the methods... Thanks so much

Had the same issue. Nutrients are the problem lower that make sure lighting, and temp are OK. Took me several months of scrubbing and correcting my bad habits to stop it

 

[Freenow54]

I'm close to quitting the reefing hobby. I've been reading and browsing R2R every day looking at everyone's successful reefs and its frustrating me because my tank has been under control by GHA and Bryopsis for literally 8 or 9 months. Since then, every day I have been manually removing. I've taken out any rocks I could (some have feather dusters glued to them so that's impossible), and scrubbed them clean. In a few days the GHA pops back. I have tried Flux RX, 100% sump water changes, gravel vacuuming my sand, adding layers of black construction paper on the sides of the tank, blackouts, etc. I bumped up my CUC a ton too; adding dozens of blue legged hermit crabs, conch, pincushion urchin, 6 turbo snails, 10 astrea snails, and more. My parameters are and have been for a long time, spot on. Ill post exact parameters below.

Unless anyone has some ideas, I think the last thing to try is to do a "rip clean" method by @brandon429 . I want opinions from a few other people too if thats alright. For those that have done this and had it work, did you give your fish, corals, and inverts to the lfs for them to watch them while you drain the whole tank? I read that sometimes you should drain all water and spray it with vinegar or something. Also just to confirm, live rock in aquariums wont lose their beneficial bacteria after being dried and stuff right? Same thing with sand? Finally, if I drain all the water, should I put it in a barrel to keep it, or make new water? If I make completely new water wont I need to re-cycle my tank and wait weeks until I can get my fish back in the tank? My tank is already almost a year old so I dont want to do that again - I'm finally at the point that if I get rid of the algae my param's are perfect so I can add my dream corals.

My parents want to give away everything in the tank and make it a freshwater one because they think its too much work for me but I really don't want to do that. I just want my tank to finally be beautiful to look at, not make my parents sigh when they look at it. What is there I can do? I'm starting to go crazy lol.

I'd really appreciate it if somebody could answer the questions I have above - I'm willing to do the rip clean but I just want to confirm the methods... Thanks so much

If you are using Reef Roids STOP

 

[Freenow54]

Flucanozol will completely remove the bryopsis. I spelled it wrong because I’m driving but wanted to get you the info asap. GHA youre gonna have to feed less or filter more.

hope this helps. You can overcome it

Nice texting and driving about a friggin aquarium

 

[Ro Bow]

If you are using Reef Roids STOP

im not

 

[Ro Bow]

When all else fails ...... source water.

Have you tried just leaving it alone for a few months?

for a few weeks - not months. It grew out of control in the meantime...

my water is rodi

 

[Ro Bow]

Just looked at ur build thread. Do u have a refractometer and cal fluid?
D

no to both sadly

 

[Ro Bow]

Is it actual bryopsis or GHA?

They are very different beasts.

Just wondering. Both are beatable, there are some forms of Dino that really make ya pull your hair out tho.

its both

 

[Ro Bow]

update - raised nitrates and phosphates and tank looked like this for a week or too, then the algae returned, and its back to the way it was. I am working on building a red sea diy lid and will buy 2 lawnmower blennies and a diamond goby to clean my sand

 

[Ro Bow]

Do you have or have access to a microscope? I kept treating mine like GHA but it turned out to be chrysophytes.

forgot to post these

 

[DeniseAndy]

Do not buy two lawnmower blennies. These guys eat a lot and need large tanks even for one. Plus, they prefere to nibble off glass and very low algae. I am just afraid they will not survive or do what you want in your tank.

 

[Ro Bow]

Do not buy two lawnmower blennies. These guys eat a lot and need large tanks even for one. Plus, they prefere to nibble off glass and very low algae. I am just afraid they will not survive or do what you want in your tank.

Thanks for the info. A 65 gallon would be big enough for 1 though right? I've seen then in much smaller tanks than mine

 

[DeniseAndy]

Probably. They do a ton of grazing. Mine loves algae sheets too. So, if you feed them those, they will much happier. Look for a nice chunkier one. They sometimes come in really thin and do not survive long.

 

[Ro Bow]

Probably. They do a ton of grazing. Mine loves algae sheets too. So, if you feed them those, they will much happier. Look for a nice chunkier one. They sometimes come in really thin and do not survive long.

Will do. I have quite a few algae sheets right now because of my tang, so ill make sure to feed it those too. Thanks

 

[gbroadbridge]

Will do. I have quite a few algae sheets right now because of my tang, so ill make sure to feed it those too. Thanks

Don't worry, he'll push the tang out of the way