OP
OP
Gretchacha
Active Member
Mid November update:
Unfortunately after my water change last week, my skunk cleaner shrimp, my conch, and a large trochus died (possibly more snails or hermits that I didn’t notice). We were all quite attached to Marcel the conch and the beautiful shrimp, as they were some of the first inhabitants with any personality and were so interesting to watch.
A few weeks ago I submitted tests to Triton for ICP and Aquabiomics for bacterial DNA and Ilness tests. I also ordered the live gulf reef sand from Aquabiomics, which is supposed to add bacteria and microorganisms to balance your biome and reduce nuisance algae after two weeks. It has been tested to verify there are no pests or bad bacteria present.
Well, I added the sand and my order of live pods from reef nutrition 3.5 weeks ago, but my nuisance algae is covering everything in 3” hairs. So on Tuesday (the three week mark), in the spirit of Ultra Low Maintenance, instead of spending an hour pulling gha out of the aquarium, I dosed Reef Flux. Unfortunately, I had just done my monthly filter maintenance the previous week, so there was fresh carbon and a bit of Purigen installed. With the canister filter, it’s hard to change media, so I just left it and dosed the meds anyway. I read a thread about microdosing flucanazole for algae at 1/100th of the dose, so I figured even a small amount remaining after filtration should still work, and it won’t be all pulled out. Apparently, it is difficult to remove with carbon, hence the large water change. Anyway, I dosed ⅙ Tuesday morning and another ⅙ Wednesday morning. I turned off the skimmer for 3 days. At the same time, I added ½ doses to my two QTs the day before I did the DT to test. I saw no adverse affects. Today is Sunday and the tank is once again overrun with algae. I got my hands in there and yanked at it all morning, changed 10-15% of the water and added ⅔ dose of flux again (2 capsules in DT). I did not do anything to QTs.
I removed the carbon and purigen from the filter and added a full bag of Cuprisorb to remove the nickel that is dangerously high on the Triton test. I also added some phosgaurd I had, maybe ⅓ bag. My water tested ok yesterday at 10ppm nitrate and 0.03 ppm phosphate. Hopefully the cuprisorb works on the nickel. I will leave these media in until the end of the month, and according to Reef Flux I should not perform any more water changes until my next maintenance. We’ll see about that. I sent off another ICP test Friday to see if dosing All4Reef improved my other low values. I will probably send one more in a month to check the high values of Nickel and lithium.
I’m pretty sure the nickel was from the circulation pumps I use to stir my saltwater. They are from Amazon and I often leave them in for days. I have had them three years from back in my freshwater aquascape days. I’m sure they are corroded. Luckily, my tank is small, water changes are small, batches are made in 5 gallon buckets. I have a sand smoothing tool from aquascaping that kinda fits to the bottom and I switched to nyos salt a few months back, which dissolves in 10 minutes. I just mixed my salt by hand and then heated it.
I placed an order for new shrimp and conch and some cool money cowery and limpets from Reef Cleaners. It’s getting cold to be ordering livestock now in Wisconsin, so this order should hopefully last until spring. I got one emerald crab, I may just keep in my tiny DT to clean frags. They were out of pitho crabs.
Here is a photo of how bad the algae got.
I moved and repositioned some coral around after cleaning, too. Here is an after photo with plenty of corals still annoyed.
Unfortunately after my water change last week, my skunk cleaner shrimp, my conch, and a large trochus died (possibly more snails or hermits that I didn’t notice). We were all quite attached to Marcel the conch and the beautiful shrimp, as they were some of the first inhabitants with any personality and were so interesting to watch.
A few weeks ago I submitted tests to Triton for ICP and Aquabiomics for bacterial DNA and Ilness tests. I also ordered the live gulf reef sand from Aquabiomics, which is supposed to add bacteria and microorganisms to balance your biome and reduce nuisance algae after two weeks. It has been tested to verify there are no pests or bad bacteria present.
Well, I added the sand and my order of live pods from reef nutrition 3.5 weeks ago, but my nuisance algae is covering everything in 3” hairs. So on Tuesday (the three week mark), in the spirit of Ultra Low Maintenance, instead of spending an hour pulling gha out of the aquarium, I dosed Reef Flux. Unfortunately, I had just done my monthly filter maintenance the previous week, so there was fresh carbon and a bit of Purigen installed. With the canister filter, it’s hard to change media, so I just left it and dosed the meds anyway. I read a thread about microdosing flucanazole for algae at 1/100th of the dose, so I figured even a small amount remaining after filtration should still work, and it won’t be all pulled out. Apparently, it is difficult to remove with carbon, hence the large water change. Anyway, I dosed ⅙ Tuesday morning and another ⅙ Wednesday morning. I turned off the skimmer for 3 days. At the same time, I added ½ doses to my two QTs the day before I did the DT to test. I saw no adverse affects. Today is Sunday and the tank is once again overrun with algae. I got my hands in there and yanked at it all morning, changed 10-15% of the water and added ⅔ dose of flux again (2 capsules in DT). I did not do anything to QTs.
I removed the carbon and purigen from the filter and added a full bag of Cuprisorb to remove the nickel that is dangerously high on the Triton test. I also added some phosgaurd I had, maybe ⅓ bag. My water tested ok yesterday at 10ppm nitrate and 0.03 ppm phosphate. Hopefully the cuprisorb works on the nickel. I will leave these media in until the end of the month, and according to Reef Flux I should not perform any more water changes until my next maintenance. We’ll see about that. I sent off another ICP test Friday to see if dosing All4Reef improved my other low values. I will probably send one more in a month to check the high values of Nickel and lithium.
I’m pretty sure the nickel was from the circulation pumps I use to stir my saltwater. They are from Amazon and I often leave them in for days. I have had them three years from back in my freshwater aquascape days. I’m sure they are corroded. Luckily, my tank is small, water changes are small, batches are made in 5 gallon buckets. I have a sand smoothing tool from aquascaping that kinda fits to the bottom and I switched to nyos salt a few months back, which dissolves in 10 minutes. I just mixed my salt by hand and then heated it.
I placed an order for new shrimp and conch and some cool money cowery and limpets from Reef Cleaners. It’s getting cold to be ordering livestock now in Wisconsin, so this order should hopefully last until spring. I got one emerald crab, I may just keep in my tiny DT to clean frags. They were out of pitho crabs.
I moved and repositioned some coral around after cleaning, too. Here is an after photo with plenty of corals still annoyed.
