Bubba's SPS Journey

[ajjw0828]

Hi Bubba, been reading a lot of your post and I definitely want to get my pH up. Running a calcium reactor and C02 scrubber with a refugium on opposite schedule but still not getting it very high. I'm going to try your co2/ skimmer combo to see if that helps, but have also been considering a kalk stirrer. Was wondering what brand stirrer you have and if you like it? Also, do you just have your ATO feed the stirrer or do you have it setup with a dosing pump? Just wondering how many times a day you have the stirrer turn on and how long you wait to dose/ or have the ATO pump water after its stirred?

 

[bubbaque]

Sorry to hear the news.... But I'm sure you are going to solve it very soon.

Have you thought on using dorabellas?

I gave two of them a try and they didn’t eat it.

Hi Bubba, been reading a lot of your post and I definitely want to get my pH up. Running a calcium reactor and C02 scrubber with a refugium on opposite schedule but still not getting it very high. I'm going to try your co2/ skimmer combo to see if that helps, but have also been considering a kalk stirrer. Was wondering what brand stirrer you have and if you like it? Also, do you just have your ATO feed the stirrer or do you have it setup with a dosing pump? Just wondering how many times a day you have the stirrer turn on and how long you wait to dose/ or have the ATO pump water after its stirred?

I don’t use a stirrer. I have a separate container for kalk that doses on a timer. I does a couple gallons a day to keep ph up.

I don’t wait after it’s been mixed to start dosing. People say to let it settle but I never have.

 

[ajjw0828]

I gave two of them a try and they didn’t eat it.


I don’t use a stirrer. I have a separate container for kalk that doses on a timer. I does a couple gallons a day to keep ph up.

I don’t wait after it’s been mixed to start dosing. People say to let it settle but I never have.

Ok sweet, cause I was just sourcing kalk stirrer and dosing pump and price was adding up quick, lol. How large of a container are you using? Seems like it would need to be pretty large for 2 gallons a day. So it sounds like just add the 2 tsp per gallon when you fill the container stir it and let it dose till empty then repeat?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Ok sweet, cause I was just sourcing kalk stirrer and dosing pump and price was adding up quick, lol. How large of a container are you using? Seems like it would need to be pretty large for 2 gallons a day. So it sounds like just add the 2 tsp per gallon when you fill the container stir it and let it dose till empty then repeat?

What size is your tank? I’m using the two little fishies kalk reactor on my 50 gallon cube via my ato and have been very happy with it.im also using the the co2 scrubber. Ph went from 7.6-7.8 to 8.2-8.4

 

[RCS82]

What size is your tank? I’m using the two little fishies kalk reactor on my 50 gallon cube via my ato and have been very happy with it.im also using the the co2 scrubber. Ph went from 7.6-7.8 to 8.2-8.4

Two Little Fishies has a good kalk reactor? Hmmmm, I've used their gfo and media reactors but hadn't seen the kalk reactors. I've had my eye on the Icecap unit for a little bit.

 

[Potatohead]

If you are doing multiple gallons a day I don't see why you can't make a kalk reactor out of a powerhead and five gallon bucket. Just put the powerhead on a timer every 30 minutes or so for like one minute and then use your dosing pump to dose like 15-20 minutes after that. That way you wouldn't need to really mix anything just put some water in the bucket every few days and a few cups of kalk once a month or so.

 

[TX_Punisher]

If you are doing multiple gallons a day I don't see why you can't make a kalk reactor out of a powerhead and five gallon bucket. Just put the powerhead on a timer every 30 minutes or so for like one minute and then use your dosing pump to dose like 15-20 minutes after that. That way you wouldn't need to really mix anything just put some water in the bucket every few days and a few cups of kalk once a month or so.

Basically what I did. 4g bucket, remote from tank. DOS hooked up with specific dosing amounts throughout the day in conjunction with CA reactor. A valve and spare 1/4" rodi line off the tunze topoff from my RODI topoff to the 4g bucket and fill it every 3 weeks with a turn of a valve. That way I'm not carrying water all over. Turn of the valve redirects topoff water back to sump. Then just add 1-2tbsp of kalk per gallon. A pump on a timer mixes it every 3 hours for 5 minutes.

I do have a kalk reactor and will be moving that in to use with a Versa when they become available again.


Bubba,

I hope your winning that algae battle? Let us know how the pincushions are doing. I make pick some up as I started dosing phyto and BOOM, had an algae spike myself.

 

[Rick5]

Those urchins are incredible. I ordered four based on @jda 's recommendation in this thread. Granted, I am not dealing with green hair algae, but a bout of invasive brown hair algae that is more likely a less or non-toxic dinoflagellate. I don't have a microscope so I cannot definitively identify the pest. Nevertheless, I hope the urchins are working for you, @bubbaque

 

[bubbaque]

I have discovered the urchins are a bust also. What I thought was them eating the algae was just them eating the coralline between the algae. They avoid the algae just like everything else.

Here is a pic where I had a patch of algae on my glass cleaner and the night before there was about 5 urchins on it. They ate all the coralline and left the algae.

Good news is the algae scrubber is really growing well and combined with my daily scrubbing of the rocks the algae is roughly 80% gone and the scrubber seems to be preventing or really slowing the regrowth.
I hope within the next couple weeks I will be done with this algae. I may even get rid of most the urchins so I can have coralline regrow and maybe help beat out the algae regrowing.

 

[drawman]

I have discovered the urchins are a bust also. What I thought was them eating the algae was just them eating the coralline between the algae. They avoid the algae just like everything else.

Here is a pic where I had a patch of algae on my glass cleaner and the night before there was about 5 urchins on it. They ate all the coralline and left the algae.

Good news is the algae scrubber is really growing well and combined with my daily scrubbing of the rocks the algae is roughly 80% gone and the scrubber seems to be preventing or really slowing the regrowth.
I hope within the next couple weeks I will be done with this algae. I may even get rid of most the urchins so I can have coralline regrow and maybe help beat out the algae regrowing.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Is that algae "slimy" (for lack of a better description)

 

[bubbaque]

Is that algae "slimy" (for lack of a better description)

No it’s not. It looks like typical hair algae besides nothing is eating it. Here is some I have been collecting lol.

 

[fishead]

You'll beat it Bubba!
I saw you had a TSA rainbow fusion some time back. Have you still got it? How do you rate it?
I just scored a chunk but it hasn't landed yet and would like to learn whatever I can about it.

 

[CoralWealth]

Maybe I missed it Bubba but how are your corals doing during all of this?

 

[YHSublime]

I've been silent on waiting to see how all these different ideas work out for you.

I know this is an apples to oranges comparison, but I dosed fluconazole in my tank to get rid of some Bryopsis that somehow managed to rear its head in my tank after about 2 years. I was reluctant to do so, but I've torn down tanks before because of bryopsis, so wanted to nip it in the bud while it was a small issue.

I had zero problems, if anything, my acro seemed to love it, and just took my skimmer lid off for maybe a week, then did a water change.

My nutrients have always run low, and I have a hard time growing cheato or macros, but since the dosing, I haven't seen even a trace of hair alage. It worked for me, and wasn't just a band aid fix either. Anyways, I don't want to say it'll work for you, because it might not, but boy did it do the trick for me!

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Fluconazole is very tricky with heavy Acro tanks. I ran it once when my acros were very small and it worked great. I ran it again when my tank had much more mature colonies, and they did not like it, at all. You need to really monitor Cal/Alk/Nitrate/Phosphate because they can fluctuate during treatment. I seem to recall Bubba ran it once before and had some negative Acro reactions.

Then there is the fact that fluzonazole is not a permanent isn’t fix. It will always eventually come back.

IMO, the best thing to do is manage through natural methods which is what Bubba is doing now.

 

[YHSublime]

Yeah, like I said, apples to oranges. I'm also in the run as close to natural as possible camp, so to take a chance on something like fluconazole was out of the ordinary. Anyways, just sharing my experience with it.

I've also had fish, like a purple tang, that didn't touch algae, then all of a sudden got a taste for bubble algae. Your foxface might come around, don't give up!

 

[bubbaque]

You'll beat it Bubba!
I saw you had a TSA rainbow fusion some time back. Have you still got it? How do you rate it?
I just scored a chunk but it hasn't landed yet and would like to learn whatever I can about it.

It was looking really nice but I ended up losing it when I added the denitrator.

Maybe I missed it Bubba but how are your corals doing during all of this?

Some are fine and others are not. I have put them through a lot the past few months. First trying out the denitrator and then trying different methods to rid the algae. Even the ones that still look fine have stalled in growth. I have a feeling I may end up having to buy lots of corals by time this algae is gone.

I've been silent on waiting to see how all these different ideas work out for you.

I know this is an apples to oranges comparison, but I dosed fluconazole in my tank to get rid of some Bryopsis that somehow managed to rear its head in my tank after about 2 years. I was reluctant to do so, but I've torn down tanks before because of bryopsis, so wanted to nip it in the bud while it was a small issue.

I had zero problems, if anything, my acro seemed to love it, and just took my skimmer lid off for maybe a week, then did a water change.

My nutrients have always run low, and I have a hard time growing cheato or macros, but since the dosing, I haven't seen even a trace of hair alage. It worked for me, and wasn't just a band aid fix either. Anyways, I don't want to say it'll work for you, because it might not, but boy did it do the trick for me!

Fluconazole is very tricky with heavy Acro tanks. I ran it once when my acros were very small and it worked great. I ran it again when my tank had much more mature colonies, and they did not like it, at all. You need to really monitor Cal/Alk/Nitrate/Phosphate because they can fluctuate during treatment. I seem to recall Bubba ran it once before and had some negative Acro reactions.

Then there is the fact that fluzonazole is not a permanent isn’t fix. It will always eventually come back.

IMO, the best thing to do is manage through natural methods which is what Bubba is doing now.

I am really trying to avoid fluconazole as both time I tried it before I had bad reactions and the bryopsis grew back within 3 months. That said I am getting really, really tired of scrubbing the rocks daily to try and keep the algae growth down while I wait for the scrubber to really do it's thing. If it doesn't start to reduce in the next few weeks I am going to use fluconazole.

 

[bubbaque]

I appreciate all the advice on the algae but to give the algae talk a break I figured I would throw in a rare coral pic, lol.

 

[tripdad]

Sorry to hear the rough times are continuing, been down that road before myself. Hang in there! Any chance you can do back ups with someone?