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Pencil urchin I've had for a few weeks doesn't touch GHA, which was the primary reason for getting one (and bc I understood them to be hardier than tuxedos). GHA is now in a fast growth rate. Tank info below, and pick after lights out--you can see the GHA taking over on the top rocks:
So what now? Another urchin or swap urchins? Turbos? Sea hare? Chiton?
I'm currently pulling out as much as I can tweeze with aquarium tongs every few days. Losing battle. Not too interested in making some sort of algae scrubber or trying to drop nutrients to nil--I have macro that need the nutrients and don't want other problems with low nutrients.
Sand bed and lower rocks are pretty clean. Conches doing great work there.
Toying with idea of using hydrogen peroxide spot treatment, using the nipple of a baby bottle connected to aquarium pippette for targeted patch treatment--worried this will kill all my coraline.
Any ideas welcome!
Tank: Fluval Evo 13.5g
Rocks: mix of TBS gulf live rocks and CaribSea LifeRocks
Sand: mix CaribSea LiveSand and TBS gulf sand
Filtration: BRS ROX carbon in chamber with Intank Media basket, with coarse/fine filter pad at the top rack, mesh bags of live rock rubble in chamber 2, heater/Sicce 1.0 in return chamber.
Dosing: nothing currently. ALK keeps going up from ~7.5 dKh HG salt mix mix at 1.026sg), so not adding any All-For-Reef right now.
Inhabitants: 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 Randall's pistol shrimp, 1 saron shrimp, 1 pom pom crab, 1 pitho crab, 1 serpent seastar, 2 small conches, mix of astraeas, trochus, dwarf trochus, nerites and ceriths., A money cowrie, 2 large RFAs, torch, scoly, duncan, mushrooms, gsp, xenia, alveopora, acans, blastos, zoas, fungia plate, trumpet, 2 stalks of brotycladia, some small codium starting to expand, and some things I'm surely forgetting.
Feeding: NLS thera+ pellets fed directly once per day, one at a time to clowns and LPS (mushrooms also like a pellet every now and then, too); 4x catfish pellets (2 to serpent star, 1 intended to saron shrimp and 1 intended to pompom crab); sometimes 1/3rd of a veggie pellets for the conches and snails since sand bed is pretty clean; 50uL Reef Nutrition "RN" oyster feast, 50uL RN phyto dead, 50uL RN R.O.E. eggs, 50uL RN mysis feast.
Nutrients: running hot around 10-25ppm NO3, and 0.1ish PO4. ALK ~9.5dKh.
Lighting, 2x 21LEDusa Reefbarpro bars running not too high.
Thanks!
So what now? Another urchin or swap urchins? Turbos? Sea hare? Chiton?
I'm currently pulling out as much as I can tweeze with aquarium tongs every few days. Losing battle. Not too interested in making some sort of algae scrubber or trying to drop nutrients to nil--I have macro that need the nutrients and don't want other problems with low nutrients.
Sand bed and lower rocks are pretty clean. Conches doing great work there.
Toying with idea of using hydrogen peroxide spot treatment, using the nipple of a baby bottle connected to aquarium pippette for targeted patch treatment--worried this will kill all my coraline.
Any ideas welcome!
Tank: Fluval Evo 13.5g
Rocks: mix of TBS gulf live rocks and CaribSea LifeRocks
Sand: mix CaribSea LiveSand and TBS gulf sand
Filtration: BRS ROX carbon in chamber with Intank Media basket, with coarse/fine filter pad at the top rack, mesh bags of live rock rubble in chamber 2, heater/Sicce 1.0 in return chamber.
Dosing: nothing currently. ALK keeps going up from ~7.5 dKh HG salt mix mix at 1.026sg), so not adding any All-For-Reef right now.
Inhabitants: 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 Randall's pistol shrimp, 1 saron shrimp, 1 pom pom crab, 1 pitho crab, 1 serpent seastar, 2 small conches, mix of astraeas, trochus, dwarf trochus, nerites and ceriths., A money cowrie, 2 large RFAs, torch, scoly, duncan, mushrooms, gsp, xenia, alveopora, acans, blastos, zoas, fungia plate, trumpet, 2 stalks of brotycladia, some small codium starting to expand, and some things I'm surely forgetting.
Feeding: NLS thera+ pellets fed directly once per day, one at a time to clowns and LPS (mushrooms also like a pellet every now and then, too); 4x catfish pellets (2 to serpent star, 1 intended to saron shrimp and 1 intended to pompom crab); sometimes 1/3rd of a veggie pellets for the conches and snails since sand bed is pretty clean; 50uL Reef Nutrition "RN" oyster feast, 50uL RN phyto dead, 50uL RN R.O.E. eggs, 50uL RN mysis feast.
Nutrients: running hot around 10-25ppm NO3, and 0.1ish PO4. ALK ~9.5dKh.
Lighting, 2x 21LEDusa Reefbarpro bars running not too high.
Thanks!