Stuff growing on live rock
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how you choose to view that sets your reefing care boundaries for the next ten to twenty years, no joke.
Five web posters will not agree on what to do, only the challenge of making and losing tanks to various invasions will set you on a given course. here's mine
you posted pics of new rock, open to colonization, and plants are often the first colonizers of openly avail substrate.
the other four posters will see that as a tank nutrient issue, I do not.
The reason it grew back is you skipped the peroxide scrubbing part. repeat, using that trick
I guided my reef into having no more algae work, by doing algae work up front. These aren't real reefs with the correct grazers in tow, so I learned early on via loss$ that hand guiding while unnatural, allows rocks to slowly take on coralline and coral flesh which exclude algae at that point anyway.
In our thousands of active pico reefs we run now via forum posts, we're all pretty much algae free due to the direct kill method and we don't test for N or P either, we just keep really clean tanks and kill as needed
in time, the system takes over on its own. I haven't treated for algae in seven years and I own no test kits other than temp and salinity. my reef is 12
if you take your rocks, and set them on any reef in the world (perfect waters) and put a metal cage around the new rocks so that grazers can't get to it, that algae and others will grow first.
Five web posters will not agree on what to do, only the challenge of making and losing tanks to various invasions will set you on a given course. here's mine
you posted pics of new rock, open to colonization, and plants are often the first colonizers of openly avail substrate.
the other four posters will see that as a tank nutrient issue, I do not.
The reason it grew back is you skipped the peroxide scrubbing part. repeat, using that trick
I guided my reef into having no more algae work, by doing algae work up front. These aren't real reefs with the correct grazers in tow, so I learned early on via loss$ that hand guiding while unnatural, allows rocks to slowly take on coralline and coral flesh which exclude algae at that point anyway.
In our thousands of active pico reefs we run now via forum posts, we're all pretty much algae free due to the direct kill method and we don't test for N or P either, we just keep really clean tanks and kill as needed
in time, the system takes over on its own. I haven't treated for algae in seven years and I own no test kits other than temp and salinity. my reef is 12
if you take your rocks, and set them on any reef in the world (perfect waters) and put a metal cage around the new rocks so that grazers can't get to it, that algae and others will grow first.
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Green hair alge. Time for more snails.
agreed. margarita snails w help there, but they vary in tanks as all cuc members do. I view cuc as try it, see if it works but allow no variability in my tanks at least. Im algae free due to my own work, not due to an animal. Its perfectly fine and normal to use them, but this too diverges among five posters on how to proceed, only trial by fire w cement someone's way 
I do not use cuc's in my reefs to be algae free. If I did use them, they'd be placed into the forced algae free tank to work as preventers, side-feeding off the normal tank fare. The way I attained a reef unable to be invaded by any living organism was to do backwards of what the masses do
its much more work intensive than people normally want, in the beginning. When those rocks are all purple, its never work on algae again.
notice nutrients don't affect my tank
nor cuc
nor anything, algae is simply not permitted. I will not take one step forward with a system that can result in invasion, not one step. hardly anyone reefs that way, its more about natural cycles for many, including algae cycles.
a 34 gal setup could easily be kept algae free forever though, its the large inaccessible tanks that have the real concern.
I do not use cuc's in my reefs to be algae free. If I did use them, they'd be placed into the forced algae free tank to work as preventers, side-feeding off the normal tank fare. The way I attained a reef unable to be invaded by any living organism was to do backwards of what the masses do
its much more work intensive than people normally want, in the beginning. When those rocks are all purple, its never work on algae again.
notice nutrients don't affect my tank
nor cuc
nor anything, algae is simply not permitted. I will not take one step forward with a system that can result in invasion, not one step. hardly anyone reefs that way, its more about natural cycles for many, including algae cycles.
a 34 gal setup could easily be kept algae free forever though, its the large inaccessible tanks that have the real concern.
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NavySquid
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Ok so just scrub them again I did that Sunday along with a 15 gallon water change in a 34 tank lolagreed. margarita snails w help there, but they vary in tanks as all cuc members do. I view cuc as try it, see if it works but allow no variability in my tanks at least. Im algae free due to my own work, not due to an animal. Its perfectly fine and normal to use them, but this too diverges among five posters on how to proceed, only trial by fire w cement someone's way
I do not use cuc's in my reefs to be algae free. If I did use them, they'd be placed into the forced algae free tank to work as preventers, side-feeding off the normal tank fare. The way I attained a reef unable to be invaded by any living organism was to do backwards of what the masses do
its much more work intensive than people normally want, in the beginning. When those rocks are all purple, its never work on algae again.
notice nutrients don't affect my tank
nor cuc
nor anything, algae is simply not permitted.
you have to include the peroxide step
and the rasp, always clean your algae like this:
have the rock take outside the tank, and use a steak knife to score off all the algae. dig in, like a dentist does on plaque.
knife the rocks free of algae, remove the anchors, rinse off
apply peroxide to clean part
then rinse
then post pics
the growback still comes but MUCH slower, and this is the actual guiding. that algae has been allowed to seat in, so we don't expect a one off cure. adding these two steps might even stop it for a long time, it varies. harmless to try though.
your first method was score off the plants only, like a lawn mowing and leave the anchors, get fast growback. the rasping + peroxide are anti-anchor steps. the rasping is where you are pulling out dandelions by the root/stem and getting the entire plant.
and the rasp, always clean your algae like this:
have the rock take outside the tank, and use a steak knife to score off all the algae. dig in, like a dentist does on plaque.
knife the rocks free of algae, remove the anchors, rinse off
apply peroxide to clean part
then rinse
then post pics
the growback still comes but MUCH slower, and this is the actual guiding. that algae has been allowed to seat in, so we don't expect a one off cure. adding these two steps might even stop it for a long time, it varies. harmless to try though.
your first method was score off the plants only, like a lawn mowing and leave the anchors, get fast growback. the rasping + peroxide are anti-anchor steps. the rasping is where you are pulling out dandelions by the root/stem and getting the entire plant.
I always pair that event with whatever action X we are taking on the water or dirty sandbed or any reason for the algae when applicable.
any action we take overall for algae, must be done on the guided-back condition I think omission of that step is easily seen in any algae or dino challenge thread we can find online. what you will see is a bunch of actions taken on an invaded green forested tank, not the forced clean one.
so to force the tank clean, then take preventative action X, is totally backwards to the norm and its outcome is really strong
In your tank, causative looks to be due to open real estate. I noticed its not centering on your glass, or in the water as a greenwater manifestation, from that I didn't think you had much of a nutrients issue currently regardless of test kits
in every way, my way is unnatural and mean and species specific and against most reefkeeping rules. the only reason ill use it is the number of after pics we collect w it, thousands. others have a less intense take on algae wars and do fine w their methods.
any action we take overall for algae, must be done on the guided-back condition I think omission of that step is easily seen in any algae or dino challenge thread we can find online. what you will see is a bunch of actions taken on an invaded green forested tank, not the forced clean one.
so to force the tank clean, then take preventative action X, is totally backwards to the norm and its outcome is really strong
In your tank, causative looks to be due to open real estate. I noticed its not centering on your glass, or in the water as a greenwater manifestation, from that I didn't think you had much of a nutrients issue currently regardless of test kits
in every way, my way is unnatural and mean and species specific and against most reefkeeping rules. the only reason ill use it is the number of after pics we collect w it, thousands. others have a less intense take on algae wars and do fine w their methods.
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After you scrub. Put in a bunch of turbos.
Lawnmower blennie and cerith snails are often helpful. Ultimate solution is to control nutrients.
dangros
Well-Known Member
and take your time. Once you learn the demands of the tank, that stuff will balance out. Read about refugiums too. New tanks (Since you didnt know what hair alg. was, I'm assuming your tank is very new), will go through phases of various algae over the first 6 months to a year. You are likely to introduce a lot of changes over that 6mo to a year which may knock things out of balance. These include upgrades in lights, new rock, new sand, new fish or other living critters, different temps, etc etc.
Do your research, it pays off.
Do your research, it pays off.
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