Jimbo’s CDA 250

[DanK.Reefer]

Blennys

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[Jimbo327]

I added a green slimer and tanzanite terror SPS into the tank. I think also an ASD Doomsday and Rainbow Millepora. Let’s see if these survive.

Algae is kicking my butt. I screwed up and added N and P into the tank because the water tested 0. But that was a mistake because the hair algae was really masking it. So my hair algae really grew with the added Nitrate and Phosphate.

 

[Smite]

Nice! Sounds like you need some more herbivores, what do you have so far?

 

[drexel]

As @Smite mentioned, herbivores are your best friend here, plus a lot of elbow grease shortening the algae so the CUC can get to it. Nothing will eat long hair algae, but shorten it down and use some turbos, tuxedos and astraeas, and you should be good over time. If you have an ongoing algae problem and are testing zero nutrients, the algae is simply uptaking everything it can. Algae is really good at life, corals, not so much.

 

[Jimbo327]

That's my problem. I got no herbivores, and been having a difficult time to get healthy tangs since my last QT fail. I only have an army of snails and hermit crabs.

After I manually removed as much algae as I can, I added some fluconazole at half dose into the tank yesterday. I didn't want to dose chemicals, but I can see that if I didn't do anything to at least keep it in check, it was going to overwhelm everything.

 

[drexel]

Pick up some turbos, astraeas and tuxedos. If you can't find them locally, then order from saltwateraquarium.com it's a little more, but their inverts are in fishless systems and are packaged nicely. I bought a small package from a while ago and I'll probably order again for my son's 50g. Lawnmower or starry blennies may be a good option too?

 

[Jimbo327]

I have 20+ astreas, 10 turbos, 20+ ceriths, 20+ hermits, conch and a gazillion trochus after they spawned. I also have some nerites and nassarius snails. I was hoping that my CUC will keep it in check until I can get some tangs, but I can clearly see that it needed some help.

Another reefer on the forum had a tank leak, and I agreed to purchase and rehome his tang...and I've been holding off on getting another tang until I can get his tang situated...but so far, just getting the run around.

Plus I've been siphoning the longer algae directly into my filter sock in the sump and then removing it. I've manually knocked back the algae significantly, Spending a few hours here and there to just manually remove. But I started seeing a different kind of macroalgae that is not hair algae, and that prompted me to add the fluconazole. I definitely don't want different types of macroalgae to get a foothold.

 

[drexel]

I think you’re on the right track, it’s just going to take time. Hopefully the tang will get sorted soon.


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[JohnBRZ]

I would add an algae scrubber if you don’t have one already. It should help reduce the algae in the display and you can DIY one pretty cheap. Have you seen the turbo eating hair algae?


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[Jimbo327]

All the snails have been eating. The snails all had these long hair algae growing on its shell. Majority was growing on my sand, back wall and rocks. Definitely an ugly phase, I had let it grow out to feed all the baby trochus snails and suck up as much N and P. These photos were taken a few weeks ago before I had started manual removal.

 

[Jimbo327]

Day 3 of Fluconazole (Reef Flux). Nitrate 0. Phosphate 0.03. Started with half dose 200mg/20gal on Day 0. Skimmer and UV are still off.

So far so good. Fingers crossed. The green algae color is turning lighter. No negative impact to the rest of tank, everything is alive and not really reacting.

I have not cleaned the glass because no algae is growing. I typically hate using chemicals, but this one is alright with me!

 

[drexel]

If you have room in your sump, you can use an algae turf scrubber with the idea that it allows the algae to grow in a specific area and not in the display. Whether it's an ATS or refugium, there's some merit to how well they work in these situations and to the benefit of the overall system. I usually use a true refugium in my systems, but I'll most likely use an ATS in a future upgrade.

 

[Smite]

I've had success with Flux at half dose for bryopsis. Hopefully it does well for GHA too.

I've ran ATS in the past, they work pretty well at nutrient control but I don't really recall how well they worked at isolating GHA to the ATS?

Hopefully when the flux knocks the algae back your CUC will help keep it there in the display. I've never really had great luck with snails/crabs and GHA. Tangs and blennies do a much better job so hopefully you'll get some through QT here soon.

 

[Jimbo327]

No room in my sump to run an ATS.

I don't know why I'm getting such immense joy watching my algae die. Just Satisfaction. It's so disheartening when hair algae and bryopsis grows all over the tank, and you can't seem to win the war no matter what you do. Whoever discovered fluconazole for algae treatment needs to be inducted into the reefing hall of fame. This satisfaction is only second to zapping mosquitos with my electric bug swapper racket.

 

[drexel]

Fluconazole is one of the best things that's happened in recent reefing years. It's one, if not the only chemicals/treatments that does what it says it does. Now if we can find a treatment for those damn ankle biters, that would be awesome!

 

[DanK.Reefer]

I got this chamber used from another reefer (John). The external AA refugium drain is quite noisy.

I played with a few configurations, and got it to be as quiet as possible.

I added an elbow with hole drilled on top to break any potential syphon. Also, the drain pipe outlet should not be submerged (but just above the water line). This will prevent the syphon and subsequent gurgling noises of the flush.

View attachment 112514 View attachment 112515 View attachment 112516

I hope this helps anyone who buys an AA external refugium chamber in the future.

To be honest, I would not recommend anyone buying this AA external refugium chamber. The potential that something will get caught in the drain (like chaeto or snail) is too high and it will flood. There is no emergency drain, so it is a very poor design. Personally, I would not run this as a refugium as the risk to flooding is too high. I would need to drill another hole as emergency drain or build a weir if I would run this as refugium.

For now, I will just run this empty. No plans for now, maybe a very deep sand bed, miracle mud or allow bacteria to grow. All depends on how my nitrate looks when the tank settles down.

hey Jimbo whats going on with this chamber that you have mentioned in the past? It may be time to turn it into a refugium. It would be a quick answer to your algea issues. Just throw in a ball of cheato add a light and be careful it doesn't bottom out your nutes and cause a dino bloom. At this point I dont think that would be an issue for you as it sounds like you have enough there to grow algea.

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[DanK.Reefer]

Also another thing I thought to mention is to check your RODI topoff water nutrient level. You may be getting nutrient creep. I found that even though I was getting a final TDS reading below 4-5 after the DI filters then when I tested the straight RODI water I found that the top off water was high in NO3 and PO4. I was still getting some creep because I was using and making water constantly and always topping off a gallon or 2 here and there. When this happens the water remaining in the filters allows for nutrient concentrate to "creep" through the filters and then when producing just a small amount of water this bypassed concentrate goes straight into the reservoir. After a few months of this I found that my reservoir had creeped up to a high concentration of nitrates and phosphates out of the tap water and using this for top off caused an algea bloom.

I now make sure to fully drain the reservoir before making a new batch of RODI. I then run the first 1/2 gallon or so of product out into the yard before running the new batch of 35 gallons.

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[Jimbo327]

I measured my nitrate and phosphates before and they both tested zero. So I didn’t turn on my external denitrator chamber yet. Instead, I made the mistake of added N and P supplement to bring them up from zero, but that just fueled the algae.

Just have to be patient and wait for another few weeks for the treatment to finish. Once the algae is gone, then I can reset and know what the real nitrate and phosphate levels are, and completely rethink of the way I run this tank.

 

[DanK.Reefer]

I hear ya. It's always trial and error at first. I have always just really liked the stability that the refugium offers. I also like the reduced need for water changes without carbon dosing. IMO using different forms of dosing to chase nitrate and phosphate perfection just lead to overall system instability. People run all types of tanks all of the time with crazy out of balance parameters and still have succesful systems that grow coral simply because thise parameters are maintained and stable. Stability is far more important to a healthy system than exact numbers.

I personally have a slew of chemical options sitting on the shelf none of which have been opened. They were all purchased as knee jerk reactions to different percieved issues I thought I was having. I never dosed them though because I was too afraid of the adverse affects and in my hesitation everytime (so far), natural means fixed the issue. In the first year starting my tank from sterile rock I have had and beat Diatomes, Dinoflangeates, Cyano(both red and green), hair algea and bubble algea. All without chemicals. It just takes time and trying to force it may cause it to take even more time.

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[Jimbo327]

Every reef rank is in different stages of maturity, so while one thing can work on someone's tank, it won't work on another...even if they are doing the exact same thing. Different bacteria. Fish load. Feeding habits and amount.

My new working theory is that since my tank is so new and started with dead rock and sand bed with bottled bacteria, it is very efficient in converting nitrates to nitrogen gas. And thus bottoming out my nitrates, and causing instability in my nutrients...and hence no coralline growth. My #1 priority right now is stabilize the nutrients (nitrates 5-10ppm and phosphates 0.05-0.1ppm) so that coralline algae can grow.

I will send in an ICP soon after this treatment is done and a water change.