Me and My 4g Reef

[VKP01]

You are getting the full reefing experience! Knock on wood, but all I’ve had to deal with was some minor bryopsis. (Fluconazole DESTROYS that and all other algae btw)

Maybe I’ll knock it all out now and then have a smooth reefing experience from then on out lol

I’ve heard good stuff about it, might try that. Did you have any downsides with it?

 

[VKP01]

School’s cancelled for the rest of the month, so maybe that’ll give me a chance to get everything back in line with this tank

 

[Magellan]

Maybe I’ll knock it all out now and then have a smooth reefing experience from then on out lol

I’ve heard good stuff about it, might try that. Did you have any downsides with it?

Yea, I really enjoy cleaning my glass and didn’t have to do that for 2 weeks...

just kidding. But I would imagine that for a large amount of algae dying off at once, you might run into nutrient issues. So maybe a massive manual clean/removal/water change before dosing anything like that..I didn’t have that much to begin with but wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

 

[jd-woodlands]

I had a bad green hair algae and cyano outbreak in my 10gallon nano, I still can’t believe how much better it is doing after removing all sand.

I removed everything in the tank to a holding container, drained tank, cleaned with vinegar and then peroxide. removed what colonies I could from rocks, did a peroxide spray on rocks and to rinse.

mixed up 100% new water, put everything back, added fritzzyme 9 bacteria and everything has been perfect since! Even glass film algae is almost non existent. Refreshed CuC as well.

no livestock losses at all.

 

[VKP01]

Yea, I really enjoy cleaning my glass and didn’t have to do that for 2 weeks...

just kidding. But I would imagine that for a large amount of algae dying off at once, you might run into nutrient issues. So maybe a massive manual clean/removal/water change before dosing anything like that..I didn’t have that much to begin with but wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

Lol!

that’s a good point. I’ve been struggling to get my nutrients high enough, so as long as I keep ammonia in check I think we’ll be ok there. So it sounds like I could pull what algae I can out, dose Fluconazole, and monitor nutrients afterwards.

 

[VKP01]

I had a bad green hair algae and cyano outbreak in my 10gallon nano, I still can’t believe how much better it is doing after removing all sand.

I removed everything in the tank to a holding container, drained tank, cleaned with vinegar and then peroxide. removed what colonies I could from rocks, did a peroxide spray on rocks and to rinse.

mixed up 100% new water, put everything back, added fritzzyme 9 bacteria and everything has been perfect since! Even glass film algae is almost non existent. Refreshed CuC as well.

no livestock losses at all.

Awesome!
I’m hoping that it doesn’t come to a point where I have to do something as extreme as that, but that seems like a good way to do a thorough cleaning. I don’t like running a “sterile” system, and I want to preserve as much biodiversity and macro/microorganisms as possible.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Magellan]

Lol!

that’s a good point. I’ve been struggling to get my nutrients high enough, so as long as I keep ammonia in check I think we’ll be ok there. So it sounds like I could pull what algae I can out, dose Fluconazole, and monitor nutrients afterwards.

The algae is consuming them. Having a lot of algae in the DT is similar to running a fuge. But yes, maybe put some phosguard in after you dose to keep P04 from spiking and you should be fine

 

[VKP01]

The algae is consuming them. Having a lot of algae in the DT is similar to running a fuge. But yes, maybe put some phosguard in after you dose to keep P04 from spiking and you should be fine

Yeah, and they’re frustratingly good at it
I don’t know what it is about the tank, but even before I had algae I’ve never been able to get them up. I’ve heard claims that marine pure bio media can do it, might be worth switching that out now that I think about it

Thanks!

 

[Magellan]

Yeah, and they’re frustratingly good at it
I don’t know what it is about the tank, but even before I had algae I’ve never been able to get them up. I’ve heard claims that marine pure bio media can do it, might be worth switching that out now that I think about it

Thanks!

I use that too

new tanks struggle to keep nutrients up because the rock and sand is absorbing them, completely normal.

 

[VKP01]

some pictures I used to identify the dinos. There’s ostreopsis (big, yellow) and coolia (small, orange) dinos, some diatoms (rice shaped), and algae (green) under 40x and 100x magnification

edit: 40x and 100x are the objectives, I have 10x eyepieces as well

 

[VKP01]

I’ve ordered some fluconazole, it should be here within the week. I’m still running UV, I think it’s keeping the dinos in check but not wiping them out. I might try removing the filter floss and stirring them up daily.

 

[Magellan]

I’ve ordered some fluconazole, it should be here within the week. I’m still running UV, I think it’s keeping the dinos in check but not wiping them out. I might try removing the filter floss and stirring them up daily.

There are some great threads here about fighting Dino’s but I know it’s basically an all-out war type situation to get rid of them for most people. Really cool that you have access to a microscope, I would be doing a paper towel test lol

 

[VKP01]

Her barnacle broke off the rock! I tried to clean it but she bit me :mad:

 

[VKP01]

With UV and spot removal, the dinos are mostly staying away. Can’t really see any significant areas of them in the tank, but they still show in samples under a microscope.
Fluconazole should be here this week to start knocking the algae out.

 

[Magellan]

Her barnacle broke off the rock! I tried to clean it but she bit me :mad:

She’s so tiny! That is wild

 

[VKP01]

FTS
The copepods couldn’t be happier. I’ve been pulling handfuls of algae out once or twice a week. Can’t wait to get this under control

 

[VKP01]

She’s so tiny! That is wild

Right! And I’ve got really small hands too, lol. She’s less than an inch long

 

[Magellan]

FTS
The copepods couldn’t be happier. I’ve been pulling handfuls of algae out once or twice a week. Can’t wait to get this under control

It’s like a fuge with corals in it

 

[Magellan]

I’m sure you know this already, but just in case:

when you dose Fluconazole, you can’t have any chemical filtration or it won’t work. So no purigen or chemi pure or carbon or polyfilter. Also try and get 95% of the algae out of there beforehand, or your nutrients will go absolutely through the roof when it starts to die. (You can run Phosguard/gfo though to keep phosphates down). Then no water change for 2 weeks or you have to dose more.

that’s what I did and my algae vanished like DB Cooper...

 

[VKP01]

I’m sure you know this already, but just in case:

when you dose Fluconazole, you can’t have any chemical filtration or it won’t work. So no purigen or chemi pure or carbon or polyfilter. Also try and get 95% of the algae out of there beforehand, or your nutrients will go absolutely through the roof when it starts to die. (You can run Phosguard/gfo though to keep phosphates down). Then no water change for 2 weeks or you have to dose more.

that’s what I did and my algae vanished like DB Cooper...

That’s the plan! It’ll get here sometime this week, once it does I’ll be doing some serious scrubbing and pull the chemipure out. I’ll continue testing as usual to monitor everything, really hoping I can let it go 3 weeks without a wc, but if not I’ll have plenty of fluconazole leftover. Really excited to see how it goes! Thanks!