Tigahboy's Macroalgae Tank(s)

[Drewerd7]

Thanks! It's definitely super hard with larger tanks and I've avoided them for the most part for that very reason.

I have 80 lbs of dry rock coming in. I think I will need to scape and play around a bit before landing on a concept, so decided to go dry rock for this one instead of maricultured live rock (though of course I do love my live rock).

Tigah goin with dry rock?!
KP might just sponsor you with some free live rock if you let them know what's coming! Lol.
Well, I understand, you will have MUCH more control of your 'scape with dry rock.

The evolution of that Iwagumi and freshwater-influence of yours will be interesting to see. All these coral keepers are growing on ya! Lol
Well, don't spend TOO much time worrying about your 'scape, cuz we KNOW it'll be COVERED in 10 months!

Love your use of UNS for aesthetics.. the tanks are such a clean and flawless design. Great canvass.
One request: don't make us wait too long for updates.

 

[Garpgarp]

Some potential inspiration to be found: https://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2266471

I'm not able to check their post history, but it seems like your current design philosophy scales up well.

 

[Tigahboy]

Tigah goin with dry rock?!
KP might just sponsor you with some free live rock if you let them know what's coming! Lol.
Well, I understand, you will have MUCH more control of your 'scape with dry rock.

The evolution of that Iwagumi and freshwater-influence of yours will be interesting to see. All these coral keepers are growing on ya! Lol
Well, don't spend TOO much time worrying about your 'scape, cuz we KNOW it'll be COVERED in 10 months!

Love your use of UNS for aesthetics.. the tanks are such a clean and flawless design. Great canvass.
One request: don't make us wait too long for updates.

I have 80 lbs of dry rock inbound! I definitely will need a little more time with this scape so I decided to go dry.

Some potential inspiration to be found: https://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2266471

I'm not able to check their post history, but it seems like your current design philosophy scales up well.

Such a beauty!

 

[Tigahboy]

My macroalgae bowl cracked while I was doing maintenance, so as I was moving stuff to other tanks I decided to do a quick new project and move over one of the mangroves (because I'm an addict and can't stop creating new projects).

I had all of the components for this tank lying around (or moved from the decommissioned bowl).

Tank: UNS 5S (2 gallons)
Light: Reefbreeders Display Fuge Pico LED
Substrate: Caribsea Reef Sand with Miracle Mud mixed in
Rock: 5 lb-ish live rock from my bowl and supplemented with dry rock
Flow: Hygger 53 gph pump
Heater: YukiHalu 25W with built in temperature controller
ATO: AutoAqua Smart ATO Lite

 

[saltnut]

Boom - Insta-tank. I love it.

 

[Tigahboy]

The 30g turned 1 year old today. Definitely has had and continues to have its share of challenges (dinos, hair algae, flatworms, losses during my vacation), but at least the macroalgae have done pretty well in this tank both in terms of growth and colors.

A year ago.

 

[SaltwaterandLime]

I followed you here from your post on the daily question. My patients have all been neglected for the last hour while I read through your entire thread. I've been starting to consider a macro algae tank, before I switched to saltwater tanks I always had planted freshwater tanks and I'm in love with the look of all of your tanks!!!!

 

[Tigahboy]

I followed you here from your post on the daily question. My patients have all been neglected for the last hour while I read through your entire thread. I've been starting to consider a macro algae tank, before I switched to saltwater tanks I always had planted freshwater tanks and I'm in love with the look of all of your tanks!!!!

Thank you for going through this unwieldy thread!

 

[Tigahboy]

After putting it off for forever b/c I was too nervous to cut holes in such an expensive tank, I finally mustered up the courage to drill my UNS 90U.

Basically got everything I needed from BRS. I used Mr. Chili to mop up the excess water I used to cool the drill bit/cut.

One hole for the Fiji Overflow Box and one for the return line.

Next step: plumbing this to my sump!

 

[Tigahboy]

Check out the current issue of Reef Hobbyist Magazine, my 30g macroalgae tank is featured!

Reef Hobbyist Magazine Q4 2022

Read Reef Hobbyist Magazine Q4 2022 by Reef Hobbyist Magazine on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!

issuu.com

 

[Tigahboy]

Also, a couple shots of the 30g I took the other day.

I was battling hair algae in here for the longest time and finally eradicated it by aggressive manual removal and adding a gazillion snails (astreas, ceriths, and nerites) at once, but then out of nowhere the little bryopsis I had in here just exploded. Whatever trace elements the hair algae were taking up clearly limited the growth of the bryopsis all this time. So now I'm struggling with bryopsis now. Joy!

 

[MartinM]

Eliminating Bryopsis with nutrient control is pretty much impossible, everything will starve before the bryopsis. Fluconazole worked very well for me. The only other macroalgae that was affected for me by dosing was grape caulerpa, and I have about a dozen+ species.

And to confirm, you drilled the bottom of your tank? I’m wanting to drill the bottom of two 180U’s and just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any tempering.

 

[Tigahboy]

Eliminating Bryopsis with nutrient control is pretty much impossible, everything will starve before the bryopsis. Fluconazole worked very well for me. The only other macroalgae that was affected for me by dosing was grape caulerpa, and I have about a dozen+ species.

And to confirm, you drilled the bottom of your tank? I’m wanting to drill the bottom of two 180U’s and just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any tempering.

I do have Fluconazole on hand, but I'm worried about using it on this tank. May have to resort to that though at some point. I've always had some bryopsis in this tank but it never really got out of control like now.

I drilled on the side; not the bottom.

 

[MartinM]

I don’t blame you about not wanting to use it. Bryopsis sucks

 

[Tigahboy]

I don’t blame you about not wanting to use it. Bryopsis sucks

I just dosed it.

Wish me luck!

 

[MartinM]

Good luck! I think it’ll be fine

 

[Tigahboy]

Good luck! I think it’ll be fine

So as an update, I dosed 5 mg/L of Fluconazole for the bryopsis outbreak in my IM 30L last Friday (7 days ago). Bryopsis is gone now.

And while I noticed very little die off (Caulerpa racemosa seemed like the only macro affected) up until now, today I finally started seeing more die off from other macros (Caulerpa mexicana, brachypus, botryclodia, and mermaid's fan). I think if I just let it continue without any intervention I could see a lot more loss. So I'm going to do a big water change now and hope to minimize further detriment to this tank. But I'm glad I did it and got rid of the byropsis, and while the few species I mentioned were affected, there's still enough to grow back pretty quickly, and all of the other macros were unaffected.

 

[MartinM]

Nice! Carbon will pull it out also.

 

[courtneykeeps]

Nice! Carbon will pull it out also.

I was thinking this too. Maybe dosing it until the bryopsis dies out and then putting carbon in to clear it.

Either way thanks for keeping us updated @Tigahboy ! It's another success story in the bank of knowledge for people yet to face it.

 

[Tigahboy]

Nice! Carbon will pull it out also.

Yup, I’m running carbon as well.