13 day total blackout not working

[Scottm032]

My 200 gallon system been going 4 months now. This green algae is so stubborn. Urchins will not touch it on the dry rock particularly. I decided to break down my rock structure, put it in sealed 100 percent darkness brute cans with tank water, flow, and zero light. How could it survive? 10 days in and no change. 3 days ago I added a healthy dose of fluconazole. I am 13 days in to this total blackout and this algae won't budge.

Anyone?

I included a pic that doesn't really show much. The darker rock in the middle is caribsea painted totally pink/purple. You can kinda see where the algae is on that one. Just take my word for it.

 

[Reefering1]

What would you like the rocks to look like?

 

[crazyfishmom]

Ugh… it can be really stubborn right?

A few of the typical questions:

Nutrients?
All other parameters?

what type of water do you use to make your saltwater?

 

[Scottm032]

Nitrate are 10 and PO4 is .15. I don't know what type of algae could survive such a long period with no light. I am considering just putting the rock back into my display and hoping coralline just eventually takes over. I rebooted this almost 10 year old system 4 months ago and have made lots of mistakes. I been doing this 25 years and made the mistake of thinking I know what I am doing. I have no experience with this dry rock and allowed myself to get into a tizzy with this issue. The tanks I have built in the past have been sps dominant, incredibly successful systems. I've been killing zoas man. This was not the reboot plan! Just wanna get my system on track to start investing in high end corals without fear of killing every danged thing.

 

[blecki]

Are we talking about the... green film? How is that even an issue?

 

[Reefering1]

Do you have pics if the tank before you pulled and poisoned your rocks?

 

[Scottm032]

Are we talking about the... green film? How is that even an issue?

Maybe it's not an issue. It wont scrub off and it wont die in darkness. Maybe it's ok and will eventually be replaced with coralline.

 

[Scottm032]

Do you have pics if the tank before you pulled and poisoned your rocks?

What do you mean poisoned?

 

[Reefering1]

What do you mean poisoned?

I decided to break down my rock structure, put it in sealed 100 percent darkness brute cans with tank water, flow, and zero light. How could it survive? 10 days in and no change. 3 days ago I added a healthy dose of fluconazole.

But regardless, what's done is done. You said the algea remains. pics of rocks, in tank prior to treatment, would be helpful

 

[mh0ward]

I think you probably set yourself back a couple of months. Dry rock is going to go through several stages before it’s matured. I’m guessing you haven’t had to deal with hair algae yet because whatever is in that pic doesn’t look like much of a problem to me.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Nitrate are 10 and PO4 is .15

You probably are running much higher than that

But the algae is consuming it fast enough, that it doesn't stay in the water for the tester

Obviously, regardless the number, you have too much

Have you tried brushing it off with a wire brush or toothbrush?

Green hair algae is like the easiest nuisance algae to get rid of

 

[Solo McReefer]

How could it survive?

Life, uh, finds a way

 

[billyocean]

Could get some live rock to seed it with. Preferably from another reefer with no issues. Or from reputable vendor but will have to qt it it for pests. There's always the rip clean method since it's already out of the tank. Dry rock takes quite a while to be ready for acros especially. If it's just dry rock I would say around a year. I imagine your previous tanks were probably started with live rock

 

[Solo McReefer]

What do you mean poisoned?

Fluconazole kills fungi, mold and mildews, yeasts

Is it supposed to kill algae too

Yes, it will kill even animals at high enough doses, so I suppose it could kill algae. Does it kill algae? I don't know

What I mean is, why didn't you try an algicide instead of a fungicide to kill algae?

Algafix or Vibrant are algicides

 

[PharmrJohn]

If the rock had been properly handled with the transfer to the Brute, with a heater and a powerhead, you may want to consider leaving it in there for a month or so (in total darkness). You can add some nitrifying bacteria if you would like to act as competition for space within and on the rock. Then just let it cook. The green on the rock may be nothing more than staining at this point. Just test the water in the Brute from time to time to get a feel where you're at and add back into your tank when it's time.

I know this is frustrating. Just be aware that you WILL succeed. Sometimes things like this just happen.

 

[billyocean]

Fluconazole kills fungi, mold and mildews, yeasts

Is it supposed to kill algae too

Yes, it will kill animals at high enough doses

What I mean is, why didn't you try an algicide instead of a fungicide to kill algae?

Algafix or Vibrant are algicides

Flux rx or reef flux will work just fine but will take longer on gha than it does with say bryopsis. At this point I would manually remove it.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Flux rx or reef flux will work just fine but will take longer on gha than it does with say bryopsis. At this point I would manually remove it.

Why wouldn't one use Vibrant or Algafix instead?

I wouldn't even use that on GHA.

A brush, suction, CUC, and herbivores is what I would use for GHA. It's about the least hard thing to get rid of

Hopefully that wasn't real ocean live rock that went into the Brute

I would recommend buying real live rock, put that in the tank. Do over

Put the Brute rock out in the garden, unless it were real. I wouldn't use it at this point, it absorbed the fungicide most likely

 

[billyocean]

Why wouldn't one use Vibrant or Algafix instead?

I wouldn't even use that on GHA.

A brush, suction, CUC, and herbivores is what I would use for GHA. It's about the least hard thing to get rid of

Hopefully that wasn't real ocean live rock that went into the Brute

I would recommend buying real live rock, put that in the tank. Do over

Put the Brute rock out in the garden, unless it were real. I wouldn't use it at this point, it absorbed the fungicide most likely

Are you mistaking flucanozole for fenbendazole? Fluc didn't poison the rock...fenbendazole will remain for quite some time and some people have used it to kill cloves and there's talk of it working on aefw but that's another discussion.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Fluconazole is a fungicide

I give it to people almost the time, Diflucan

Not confusing that

It's pretty strong stuff. Not as strong as Ampho B, though

The OP has never said what kind of rock he has. Other than the one painted piece of fake rock. It's hard having a conversation about it, not know what it is. And having to write conditions for what it might be. That is confusing

If it's fake rock, I would condition it for at least a year before using. If I kept it at all. The fluconazole is not the condition for keeping or tossing, the fake live rock is the condition

And buy new real live ocean rock if it were mine

 

[Solo McReefer]

At one point in my life I would expend the time and energy in turning terrestrial dead rock, Marco Rock, any of the fake "Life Rock" garbage, whatever it's called now into live rock in Brutes in the garage for a years

That time has passed for me

The hobby went through a phase of really pushing this crap, BRS, it was everywhere.

It is great and easy to aquascape dry. Little CA glue, some sand. Voilà, you have a Bonsai shaped aquascape. Great. Until you actually try to run it in a system

And starts leaching phosphates and silicates(OFF THE SCALE), and crysophates that make you cry. Never again for me

I'll buy Glow Fish and black light my tank before I use that stuff again


I guarantee to you, the reason Rico had his problems and quit was because of all that fake terrestrial rock he had in his system