Hi,
I've been detailing my journey in my build thread. However, after inspecting my display tank today and not finding a single spot of caulerpa.. I can't help but be so excited I want to share this with others! Hopefully it can inspire others to overcome their periods of neglect, or face what seems to be a monumental challenge.
A bit of backstory. I set up my 37L nano Feb 28th of 2018. I've always been fascinated by saltwater since I was a child, but was surrounded by freshwater tanks my father kept. When I was 12 or so I convinced him to let me try a saltwater aquarium. It was the definition of DIY, low budget, and over ambitious goals. Fast forward 20 years, and after mentioning the idea to my partner she was surprisingly for it. So we agreed on a size and put up the 37L tank.
Her only requirement was to give her a 'forest' aka I had shown her some stunning tanks and she wanted that... heh.
The tank went well. I felt I had a good grasp of the hobby and spent much of my free time diving into various aspects of reefing. I didn't post much here but I read nearly all emergency tank threads and other things. So I tried to do things right. Tank was cycled fishless, good attention to testing and weekly 30% water changes. Solid light for the tank, and understocked fish (single clownfish).
Things were going great! Here's a pic in October of 2018. Most of the frags are in place, or had been for a bit.
Here is the tank at it's peak; Summer 2019. The Yuma would go through cycles, but looking at this pics make me appreciate the growth of the hammer.. At this point, I had kept the GSP off the main rock and let it grow on the back glass.
My partner was satisfied at this point. So we started negotiating exactly how big could we go in our current apartment. Literally taping down sizes on the floor and debating 5cm longer or shorter, wider, etc. We ultimately settled on a size and agreement. If I could build a stand which looked nice, I would order custom tanks (display and sump). Great! Awesome, tank doing well, going to upgrade! woooohoooo!
It's important to note at this point. I had purchased a small zoa colony you can see in the first pic. I saw the algea on it when I purchased it, I knew better. But my partner liked the color and I thought 'how bad could it be.. should be able to get rid of that'. It started to spread. I tried to manually remove it, lower nutrients, etc. By time the second picture happened I even took desparate measure of removing the frag plug (tho some zoas were already on the rock so they stayed). This was too little too late.
Then life happened. My work can be quite intense (not travel just intense). I went from weekly water changes, to making the water but not changing it.. to not even making the water. I think this tank went month(s) without water changes, scrapings, or anything. Only light feeding to it's sole fish. Shameful.
Additionally it took many months to actually get the tanks after ordering them. I got the phone call few days before Christmas 2019 that the tanks were ready.. Here's how the tank looked at that point.
Absolutely shameful.
We had several discussions on way forward. The easiest path of been to cycle the new tank, and just start all over. Pretend that nano never happened.
I decided, partly as punishment to myself, that I would fix this. It had to be doable. By having a larger tank and sump i'd have more tools at my disposal -- utility fish, better skimmer, potentially refugium, etc (in addition to hard work).
On Jan 11th I moved over the rock and fish to the newly setup tank. Here is how it looked:
This will be a challenge. Also as an added pain, the GSP had made it to the rock. Fun.
I started this journey. Previously I had tried to use tongs to remove caulerpa, this was a futile exercise. You'd break off more than you'd remove, and it took forever. I discovered the unbelievable power of using a large hose during water changes + my thumb. It was extremely effective to remove manually the caulerpa. This became my routine during weekly water changes.
Here is Jan 11th:
This will take a while.. Jan 14th.
Here is Jan 28th. I added a two spotted surgeon fish hoping he'd enjoy the buffet of caulerpa. I had also removed what I could during scheduled weekly water changes.
Can fee progress is being made, but it's getting more difficult to remove noticeable amounts during water changes.
And then I accidentally ripped a mushroom off during the water change. My once huge, glorious yuma ricordia
Devastated. I tried to use some rubble in a cup to let him reattach, but than our hermit (oldest member of the tank, his name is stefan) does what he does best.. destroyed things and smashed the mushroom. I ultimately made a different setup with rubble to give him a chance to reattach.
And if that wasn't bad enough; I added additional fish from a store I never used before. Within 48 hours I had velvet breaking out It was incredibly depressing how fast it spread and killed fish. I don't have a second tank for QT and after research ultimately separated my sump and DT from one another. I treated the fish in the DT and kept corals/inverts in the sump(with light). The fish were treated and the sump was left fallow for 6 weeks.
Out of fear of contamination of tools + difficulty in doing water changes/etc in the sump. I did not do any maintenance during this time, just testing and monitoring. I dos'd bacteria to mitigate any ammonia. Fortunately never saw ammonia on my seneye during this time.
Here is the day before I reconnected things.... Notice the sump looks awfully like the nano tank did. The caulerpa had 6 weeks to come back in full power.
Tanks were reconnected on March 28th. During this there was a massive ball of caulerpa floating (but attached at base to the rock) I removed this during the reconnection:
Back to the original plan. Removal during water changes, praying Mr Hyde (surgeon fish) would eat it.. and keep plugging along.
On April 5th I added a small refugium in my sump, using the tunze light. Conveniently I had caulerpa available to start the refugium.. Here is April 5th. I also added a yellow tang. She was larger than I realized, and may swap her out for a smaller one if the LFS can. We plan on upgrading to a larger tank in 2 years (Selling this place and buying a new/larger place).
Here is April 10th:
April 11th:
Here is April 18th. At this point im no longer removing anything during water change. My partner is in disbelief that it's disappearing as she rarely sees the fish nip at it.
April 21st... This is getting exciting! We may actually do it!!!!!!!!
April 28th still a few specs in the lower right.. so can't declare victory yet.
And now today; I don't see a spec!
My display tank is completely caulerpa free! (Worth noting; I am now trying to eradicate the GSP before adding more corals. So it's, uh, quite angry. )
So to summarize:
1.) Don't underestimate a pest. If you see anything wrong with a coral you like, seriously consider the risk you are taking. Is it really worth it?
2.) If you have a standard schedule, and find yourself missing it. Do your best to get back on track. It really is a snowball affect.
3.) You can turn things around. It will take time, patience, and effort.. but it can be done.
As for fighting caulerpa:
1.) Manual removal is very important. Doing it with the right tool is also important. I was using tongs/fingers and it was slow, tedious, and spread more than removed. Using a hose + thumb during a water change was like a vacumn cleaner.
2.) Utility fish are amazing.
3.) Refugium -- By letting new growth happen in the refugium it was outcompeting the display tank. It felt clear that the disappearance in the display tank greatly accelerated as the amount in the refugium increased. It's quite a good amount down there now.
Hopefully this gives some comfort who may be similar, seemingly impossible challenges. Maybe it helps someone with a strategy against a macro algae. Regardless this is a very proud moment for myself in my reefing journey. It should of never happened, but to overcome it is an accomplishment. (And dealing with velvet -- once I had QT going all fish which started QT survived!).
And perhaps a shameless plug for my build thread, which chronicals some of this in a bit more detail. -- https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dopeys-reef.631917
Happy reefing everyone
I've been detailing my journey in my build thread. However, after inspecting my display tank today and not finding a single spot of caulerpa.. I can't help but be so excited I want to share this with others! Hopefully it can inspire others to overcome their periods of neglect, or face what seems to be a monumental challenge.
A bit of backstory. I set up my 37L nano Feb 28th of 2018. I've always been fascinated by saltwater since I was a child, but was surrounded by freshwater tanks my father kept. When I was 12 or so I convinced him to let me try a saltwater aquarium. It was the definition of DIY, low budget, and over ambitious goals. Fast forward 20 years, and after mentioning the idea to my partner she was surprisingly for it. So we agreed on a size and put up the 37L tank.
Her only requirement was to give her a 'forest' aka I had shown her some stunning tanks and she wanted that... heh.
The tank went well. I felt I had a good grasp of the hobby and spent much of my free time diving into various aspects of reefing. I didn't post much here but I read nearly all emergency tank threads and other things. So I tried to do things right. Tank was cycled fishless, good attention to testing and weekly 30% water changes. Solid light for the tank, and understocked fish (single clownfish).
Things were going great! Here's a pic in October of 2018. Most of the frags are in place, or had been for a bit.
Here is the tank at it's peak; Summer 2019. The Yuma would go through cycles, but looking at this pics make me appreciate the growth of the hammer.. At this point, I had kept the GSP off the main rock and let it grow on the back glass.
My partner was satisfied at this point. So we started negotiating exactly how big could we go in our current apartment. Literally taping down sizes on the floor and debating 5cm longer or shorter, wider, etc. We ultimately settled on a size and agreement. If I could build a stand which looked nice, I would order custom tanks (display and sump). Great! Awesome, tank doing well, going to upgrade! woooohoooo!
It's important to note at this point. I had purchased a small zoa colony you can see in the first pic. I saw the algea on it when I purchased it, I knew better. But my partner liked the color and I thought 'how bad could it be.. should be able to get rid of that'. It started to spread. I tried to manually remove it, lower nutrients, etc. By time the second picture happened I even took desparate measure of removing the frag plug (tho some zoas were already on the rock so they stayed). This was too little too late.
Then life happened. My work can be quite intense (not travel just intense). I went from weekly water changes, to making the water but not changing it.. to not even making the water. I think this tank went month(s) without water changes, scrapings, or anything. Only light feeding to it's sole fish. Shameful.
Additionally it took many months to actually get the tanks after ordering them. I got the phone call few days before Christmas 2019 that the tanks were ready.. Here's how the tank looked at that point.
Absolutely shameful.
We had several discussions on way forward. The easiest path of been to cycle the new tank, and just start all over. Pretend that nano never happened.
I decided, partly as punishment to myself, that I would fix this. It had to be doable. By having a larger tank and sump i'd have more tools at my disposal -- utility fish, better skimmer, potentially refugium, etc (in addition to hard work).
On Jan 11th I moved over the rock and fish to the newly setup tank. Here is how it looked:
This will be a challenge. Also as an added pain, the GSP had made it to the rock. Fun.
I started this journey. Previously I had tried to use tongs to remove caulerpa, this was a futile exercise. You'd break off more than you'd remove, and it took forever. I discovered the unbelievable power of using a large hose during water changes + my thumb. It was extremely effective to remove manually the caulerpa. This became my routine during weekly water changes.
Here is Jan 11th:
This will take a while.. Jan 14th.
Here is Jan 28th. I added a two spotted surgeon fish hoping he'd enjoy the buffet of caulerpa. I had also removed what I could during scheduled weekly water changes.
Can fee progress is being made, but it's getting more difficult to remove noticeable amounts during water changes.
And then I accidentally ripped a mushroom off during the water change. My once huge, glorious yuma ricordia
Devastated. I tried to use some rubble in a cup to let him reattach, but than our hermit (oldest member of the tank, his name is stefan) does what he does best.. destroyed things and smashed the mushroom. I ultimately made a different setup with rubble to give him a chance to reattach.And if that wasn't bad enough; I added additional fish from a store I never used before. Within 48 hours I had velvet breaking out
It was incredibly depressing how fast it spread and killed fish. I don't have a second tank for QT and after research ultimately separated my sump and DT from one another. I treated the fish in the DT and kept corals/inverts in the sump(with light). The fish were treated and the sump was left fallow for 6 weeks.Out of fear of contamination of tools + difficulty in doing water changes/etc in the sump. I did not do any maintenance during this time, just testing and monitoring. I dos'd bacteria to mitigate any ammonia. Fortunately never saw ammonia on my seneye during this time.
Here is the day before I reconnected things.... Notice the sump looks awfully like the nano tank did. The caulerpa had 6 weeks to come back in full power.
Tanks were reconnected on March 28th. During this there was a massive ball of caulerpa floating (but attached at base to the rock) I removed this during the reconnection:
Back to the original plan. Removal during water changes, praying Mr Hyde (surgeon fish) would eat it.. and keep plugging along.
On April 5th I added a small refugium in my sump, using the tunze light. Conveniently I had caulerpa available to start the refugium..
Here is April 5th. I also added a yellow tang. She was larger than I realized, and may swap her out for a smaller one if the LFS can. We plan on upgrading to a larger tank in 2 years (Selling this place and buying a new/larger place).Here is April 10th:
April 11th:
Here is April 18th. At this point im no longer removing anything during water change. My partner is in disbelief that it's disappearing as she rarely sees the fish nip at it.
April 21st... This is getting exciting! We may actually do it!!!!!!!!
April 28th still a few specs in the lower right.. so can't declare victory yet.
And now today; I don't see a spec!
My display tank is completely caulerpa free! (Worth noting; I am now trying to eradicate the GSP before adding more corals. So it's, uh, quite angry. )
So to summarize:
1.) Don't underestimate a pest. If you see anything wrong with a coral you like, seriously consider the risk you are taking. Is it really worth it?
2.) If you have a standard schedule, and find yourself missing it. Do your best to get back on track. It really is a snowball affect.
3.) You can turn things around. It will take time, patience, and effort.. but it can be done.
As for fighting caulerpa:
1.) Manual removal is very important. Doing it with the right tool is also important. I was using tongs/fingers and it was slow, tedious, and spread more than removed. Using a hose + thumb during a water change was like a vacumn cleaner.
2.) Utility fish are amazing.
3.) Refugium -- By letting new growth happen in the refugium it was outcompeting the display tank. It felt clear that the disappearance in the display tank greatly accelerated as the amount in the refugium increased. It's quite a good amount down there now.
Hopefully this gives some comfort who may be similar, seemingly impossible challenges. Maybe it helps someone with a strategy against a macro algae. Regardless this is a very proud moment for myself in my reefing journey. It should of never happened, but to overcome it is an accomplishment. (And dealing with velvet -- once I had QT going all fish which started QT survived!).
And perhaps a shameless plug for my build thread, which chronicals some of this in a bit more detail.
-- https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dopeys-reef.631917Happy reefing everyone
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