Share tips for cleaning tank additions. (Not just frags)

[Erasmus Crowley]

My tank crashed. It sucks, but I'm trying to look at it from a "glass half full" point of view. Now I get to build a new rockscape and do things differently. I'm planning on sterilizing the tank and starting with dry sand and dry rock.

Before the crash, the old tank had a very persistent form of calcareous brush or beard algae that nothing would eat, and no chemical or biological treatment could kill. I want to make very VERY sure that I don't accidentally reintroduce that stuff to the rebuilt tank. I tried all kinds of snails, urchins, vibrant, fuconazole, etc. Nothing worked. It feels like steel wool to the touch and it was very unpleasant to look at.

Also, I had a major problem with vermitid snails. Every single rock and frag plug was peppered with them so badly that grabbing a rock felt like picking up a very sharp hedgehog. They sucked up tons of calcium and alkalinity that should have been going to my corals, and I really don't want them again ether.

So here's my current situation. I have a QT tank that is currently full of fish, small coral frags, unhappy anemones, snails, random other inverts, and a big ball of chaeto that all survived. All of those things are contaminated with both the calcareous brush algae that I hate, and the plague-like species of vermitid snails. Some of them I can trash and re-aquire without too much guilt, specifically the chaeto ball, but the snails actually have both those pests growing directly on their shells and I really don't want to kill the snails.

If you were in my situation, what techniques would you guys use to make sure that you didn't reintroduce those pests into your sterile tank environment? What would you just get rid of, and what would you try to clean and save, and how would you do it?

 

[Spare time]

For the vermitids on the snails, take some bone cutters, plyers, or similar tool and crush them. This is safe for the snail. Do this to all of them and put them in a clean tank (maybe a 5 gallon and hopefully something for them to eat). I would then check them daily and continue to crush any new vermatids if they arise.

Out of curiosity, do you have a picture of that brush algae (is it shaving brush?)? You can rinse fish and what not off gently with new water from the tank before you put them in to try and avoid contamination (not sure how well this works but tend to rinse any snail, frag, or fish with a bit of my tank water from a cup to wash any lfs or whatever water off of them).

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

For the vermitids on the snails, take some bone cutters, plyers, or similar tool and crush them. This is safe for the snail. Do this to all of them and put them in a clean tank (maybe a 5 gallon and hopefully something for them to eat). I would then check them daily and continue to crush any new vermatids if they arise.

Out of curiosity, do you have a picture of that brush algae (is it shaving brush?)? You can rinse fish and what not off gently with new water from the tank before you put them in to try and avoid contamination (not sure how well this works but tend to rinse any snail, frag, or fish with a bit of my tank water from a cup to wash any lfs or whatever water off of them).

Here's a picture that I just took of one of the rocks from my display.

A lot of people would be tempted to call it green hair algae, but I've fought green hair algae and I beat it easily. GHA felt soft and slimy to the touch, and came off of surfaces easily. This turf/brush/beard algae stuff feels very tough and hard to the touch. Steel wool is the best comparison I can think of. It has VERY strong roots into the rock and sometimes hurts my fingers to grip it and apply enough force to pull it off. And even then it's probably leaving some roots or holdfasts behind to regrow. It's been terrible.

 

[Cole.mormon]

Have y pu tried a high power inline UV sterilizer

 

[Spare time]

Here's a picture that I just took of one of the rocks from my display.

A lot of people would be tempted to call it green hair algae, but I've fought green hair algae and I beat it easily. GHA felt soft and slimy to the touch, and came off of surfaces easily. This turf/brush/beard algae stuff feels very tough and hard to the touch. Steel wool is the best comparison I can think of. It has VERY strong roots into the rock and sometimes hurts my fingers to grip it and apply enough force to pull it off. And even then it's probably leaving some roots or holdfasts behind to regrow. It's been terrible.

Yeah taht is not hair algae. Prbably some turf like algae. An urchin may eat it for you

 

[Cole.mormon]

*that

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

Have y pu tried a high power inline UV sterilizer

I haven't tried it, but I don't think it would do anything to help with the turf algae or vermitid snails that are already attached to the frags or the snails. Can you explain how and why you think it would help?

Yeah taht is not hair algae. Prbably some turf like algae. An urchin may eat it for you

I actually added a pincussion urchin just to try and fight this stuff and even the urchin avoids it. I ended up having to feed the urchin bits of seaweed so that it doesn't starve.

 

[Cole.mormon]

Hehe

 

[Cole.mormon]

Have yo u tried mexican turbo snails?

 

[count krunk]

I have a red looking version of that algae. I ended up scrubbing my rocks with a stiff brush and so far that has worked.

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

Have yo u tried mexican turbo snails?

I have tried them. They didn't touch it either. My last mexican turbo starved to death while the rocks were covered in this stuff.

I don't mean any offense, but it seems like you have never fought this kind of algae. I've tried all the solutions for normal algae problems and none of it worked.

I've done dozens of different species of snails, limpets, emerald crabs, hermit crabs, urchins, lawnmower blennies, dwarf angels, peroxide dosing, DinoX, Vibrant, and a few other things that I'm probably forgetting. None of the common algae remedies are working. The only livestock that I haven't tried is a tang, and that's because my tank is too small for a tang.

The ONLY thing that seems to work is to soak the whole rock in very strong mixture of peroxide and saltwater. Problem there is that I don't know how to do that with my coral frags, or most of my inverts without killing the animal.

At this point, I'm seriously considering using a small paint brush to slowly and meticulously paint concentrated peroxide onto every single hard surface of every frag and snail shell, but that still doesn't help me protect against it hitching a ride on my urchin or my crabs when I move them to the new tank.

If this stuff makes it into my new tank, I might seriously give up on the hobby.

 

[count krunk]

It may be best to start fresh with new rock and completely new livestock then. Let a LFS or another person figure out these problems.

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

It may be best to start fresh with new rock and completely new livestock then. Let a LFS or another person figure out these problems.

That's basically what I've done. In the time since I started this thread I sterilized the tank by running it with RODI water for a while, then I added dry sand and dry rock. I cycled with a few bacteria in a bottle products. Then I added some cultured coralline and pods from BRS, and some chaeto that I sterilized in a freshwater soak.

So far, so good. The tank is coming back to life pretty nicely. I'm just working my way through the ugly brown stage.

I did rinse and move my fish from the frag tank to the new tank since I figured that the odds of a live fish carrying vermitid larvae or some of this turf algae seemed low enough to be negligible.

I don't feel good about giving the contaminated inverts and frags to a LFS and letting this stuff spread to other tanks, and I'm kind of attached to them. I definitely don't want to euthanize them either.

 

[Cole.mormon]

How big is the tank?

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

How big is the tank?

It's a 40 gallon breeder with a 20 gallon sump.

 

[Cole.mormon]

Do you have a good phyto plankton
And copepod population?

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

Do you have a good phyto plankton
And copepod population?

Before my tank crashed, yes I did.

Right now I don't have a good population of either of those, because I just restarted my tank and it's still going through the ugly stages.

As I said in my reply to count krunk, my tank was just restarted with sterile rocks and sand. This algae isn't in my tank anymore. I don't need any more suggestions about how to fight it in my tank because it's all dead in there.

I just need to find a way to safely clean off my inverts and frags that are in quarantine, so that I can keep it out of my main tank. I don't see any way that phytoplankton and copepods can possibly help me accomplish that.

Thank you for trying to help, but the advice you keep offering seems very random and I think you aren't understanding my situation. I suspect that there is a language barrier getting in the way. It's becoming kind of frustrating for me.

 

[Cole.mormon]

Ok thought we were on the tank still
Have y pu tried dipping the coral?

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

Ok thought we were on the tank still
Have y pu tried dipping the coral?

The question that I'm trying to find an answer to is, "dipping in what?".

What will actually kill this horrible algae without also killing the coral?

What can I dip a crab in that will kill vermitids without killing the crab?

 

[count krunk]

I also have a 40 Breeder, but with a 29g sump. You will have to dip n scrub the corals. Not the fleshy parts but the hard bases or plugs they are attached to.

As another said you will need to crush, crush, and did I say crush? The vermitid snails until they are dead n gone.

You should be able to scrub away any nuisance algae with a stiff plastic brush after you have reduced phosphate and nitrate in the water. Makes them weak yes?

I recently made it through some ugly ugly algae in my tank.

I upgraded my skimmer and starting running gfo through a mini reactor. Two weeks gfo, one week carbon, then either back to gfo or I take a week off running it, depending on the po4 level.

I'm going to start doing nitrate soon I think though, test keeps on showing 0 trates.

Low low trates and phosphate puts you in the dino danger zone. You don't want to muck about with dinos.