Jimbo’s CDA 250

[Jimbo327]

I have added a Scopas and Desjardini tang in my tank. Good to have some herbivores and the remaining algae is mostly gone. I’m measuring the tank N and P to understand the true parameters. Results: Nitrate 0 and Phosphates 0.03.

I feed 5+ times per day, but cannot keep Nitrates up. So I’m using sodium nitrate powder to make my own Nitrate supplememnt. Assuming a 200gal tank volume, 1 gram of the sodium nitrate powder is needed to increase 1ppm in my tank. Makes the math very simple. I will be targeting 5ppm for Nitrate. Will be measuring nitrates and phosphates everyday for next 2 weeks, and see trend. Obviously, I wish I can keep N and P stable with only feeding, but my tank maturity and bioload is not enough at this point in time.

 

[Jimbo327]

Today is Day 14 of the Fluconazole treatment. I'm very happy with the results. All of the nuisance algae is gone, and nothing died in my tank. Of course, every tank is different...so again, your miles will vary.

Going to run the ozone and carbon tonight, and degrade/remove the fluconazole from the system. Don't want anything to get fluconazole resistance. I fully expect some algae to come back over time, but that's okay.

Also, picked up a bunch of classic SPS frags from a few local reefer (Thanks Darrell and Esther!).

Before treatment:

After treatment:

 

[Jimbo327]

I can finally take some photos without the algae outbreak. My fishes.

 

[Smite]

Love to see it, looking clean!

 

[Jimbo327]

Love to see it, looking clean!

it’s been a blessing not having to spend hours pulling unending algae. I’m sure it will come back now that the chemical is out of the system.

Next will be a 10-20% water change and replace carbon filters on RODI. Then send DT water sample out for ICP as I’m sure there are some low elements.

 

[Jimbo327]

I ordered some reagent grade LC powder from chemsavers.com (free shipping and no tax), and can mix up a solution. Didn't want to deal with pool LC as purity can be a concern and there could be other additives for pool applications.

I'm reading all of the debate and dangers of LC use in aquaria. It's wild. Some people just dose it directly in the DT. Others drip it into the overflow, skimmer intake or fine micron sock. LC is very powerful, so needs to be diluted tremendously. The trick will be contact time of LC vs. phosphate levels, and getting it to precipitate to be captured in the export mechanism... only 57 milligrams of LC can lower a 250 gal water volume by 0.05ppm phosphates. Crazy effective.

I don't need the LC right now, but I would like to experiment with it at very very diluted doses. If I don't like it, then I'll just use it for my pool. It's still way more cost effective than the pool bottled phosphate remover. It's a win win for me.

I'm a big fan of glennf and his DSR (Dutch Synthetic Reefing), and I believe in the US, this is called Moonshiners method. The basis is controlling the elements through dosing. It's a new school way of reefing that doesn't depend on water changes. Although it does incur a higher cost of chemicals or more testing involved.

 

[Jimbo327]

Yo...I'm seeing the start of multiple specks of coralline algae on my powerhead covers!

So I started cycling this tank on Sep. 6, 2023...so it has been 4 months before I see some real signs of coralline algae. It's definitely much slower with 100% dead rock to start. But I'm glad it is finally happening. Let's see how long it takes to get some decent coverage.

Added some strontium solution (~1ppm) and 1 drop of Lugol's Iodine. I will keep this dosing for about 1 week to boost up these elements for coralline algae growth.

 

[Coralmama]

Yo...I'm seeing the start of multiple specks of coralline algae on my powerhead covers!

So I started cycling this tank on Sep. 6, 2023...so it has been 4 months before I see some real signs of coralline algae. It's definitely much slower with 100% dead rock to start. But I'm glad it is finally happening. Let's see how long it takes to get some decent coverage. View attachment 114274

Added some strontium solution (~1ppm) and 1 drop of Lugol's Iodine. I will keep this dosing for about 1 week to boost up these elements for coralline algae growth.

Hey! If you are ever interested in selling let me know.

 

[Jimbo327]

To Do List This Weekend:

1) Replaced carbon filters (BRS universal 1 micro carbon filter) and pre-filter in RODI.
2) Cleaned out skimmer cup and neck.
3) Changed rock work (drill more holes) and make some new rock structures
4) Moved MP40s from back to side of tank and increase flow across tank

I'm tweaking my rock scape. It is still a work in progress. Next week will be a busy work week, so will probably have to wait until next weekend to work on the scape. Probably should have put in more time and work on the rock scape before starting the tank. Lesson learned.

 

[Jimbo327]

Uh oh, looks like I'm going back to battle. New rocks are giving me more imbalance. My white sand!!!!

 

[drexel]

Damn! I would hold off adding trace elements until you have some biomass in there. Iodine can also fuel algae and if there's not enough coral biomass to consume them, algae will be the first in line. Also, if you want to add iodine, then I would dose Seachem Iodide, as it's a safer way of adding iodine.

 

[Jimbo327]

No more dosing besides calcium and alkalinity! Turned my UV back on 24/7 as I had it running 1 hour per night, but seems like this is favorable to the brown dino looking thing on the sand.

I’m also putting in new rocks and taking out cycled rocks as well. So that’s definitely ruining my stability. But I really don’t love my current rock scape.

 

[drexel]

Have you looked for some actual live rock to put in your system? Real live rock can by $50lb and I would still buy it over dry rock. We now know that we don't need that much rock in our systems, just enough to do the job. Hopefully this will be a short ugly stage for you?

 

[Jimbo327]

I'm buying lots of SPS frags from local hobbyists, and getting coralline and rubble from them as well. So I'm trying to diversify the biome.

Right now, my rock scape looks like a mountain of rocks. I took some rocks out and put in new QM Ecoscape artificial rocks (Got lucky and I won a box of it at the last OC Coral Show raffle). I've created more swimming lanes for the fish, so it looks more open. My goal this weekend is to finalize my scape, and glue down the SPS frags.

I'm going to have to ride out the ugly brown algae stage. Hoping it is a short one as well. I think it'll just take patience for my system to balance out all of the rock changes. Luckily, my trochus snails regularly spawn in my tank, so I have lots of baby trochus snails in my tank. I've watched all of the trochus spawn at the same time during the morning, it's pretty cool. And next month, I plan to get a bulk order of Nassarius Vibex snails to turn my sand over.

Slowly, making little improvement here and there.

 

[drexel]

Sounds like a good plan. If you want something that does a good job with the sand, tiger tail cucumbers do a really good. I’m sure I’ll have another one split soon enough, trade you some trochus for one?
Also, diatoms (brown algae) is much preferred over the other nasty stuff.


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[Jimbo327]

Definitely down for a trade for trochus snails for a cucumber! But my trochus snails are very small, so I need to let them grow a bit for fair trade.

LOL. Praying for diatoms!

 

[drexel]

This sounds crazy, but dosing a little silicates will help, as they fuel diatoms and help out compete dinos. Silicates being one of the nutrients that are overlooked when combating the nasties.


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[DanK.Reefer]

I second the silicate dosing. I had a pretty gnarly dino outbreak during my ugly phase and beat them rather quickly using this meathod(4-5 weeks). I used no UV at all and still don't have one. I also dosed nitrates and phosphates at this time to fuel growth in my bacteria colony and growth in the fuge. I also added some xport cubes in my sump in. I still have a little bit of diatomes on the sand bed but it sure beats the alternative.

I also bought some 5 micron filter socks and vacuumed the sand bed through them. Dinos and many types of nuisance algeas can't make it through the 5 micron filter. Just put the sock in the sump and siphon straight into it. This way you can really clean the crap out of the sand bed and not have to change the water. I would just vacuum until the the sock was plugged then throw it out.

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[Jimbo327]

Interesting. I read that with diatoms, I should be using GFO to suck out the silicates. And you are saying to dose silicates to grow diatoms and outcompete other algae. So many ways to reef. And I love it because it keeps the hobby interesting. For now, I’m not going to dose anything and let the tank settle with the new rocks. If it is ugly, I’ll just live with it.

 

[Jimbo327]

I do have a problem with my micro goniopora that I picked up at CFM last year. For the first month, it looked great with full PE. Now it is all retracted or half extend. I have not been spot feeding it regularly, just once a week I would put a cut up plastic water bottle over it and feed it. But it does not seem like it eats at all.

I have to do something or this micro Goni isn’t going to make it. I’m going to try everything and throw the kitchen sink at it to save it (flow, food, light, elements, feeding schedule).