Forty-Two
Well-Known Member
Hi there -
TLDR; Favia, algae invasion, have done peroxide dip - what next?
We recently purchased a Favia from our LFS sight unseen. It’s approx a 6 hour round trip - so I like to avoid it and do the purchase remotely.
The Favia came in a bit of a weird state - it was brown and fuzzy, and it’s colours were all brown and green. Not really knowing a lot about the species other than some inter webs research we put it in the tank and started monitoring it.
A few key pieces of info:
This is a new tank that was cycled with live rock and bottle bac approx 3 weeks ago.
There are copopods and amphipods visible in the tank.
The Phosphates are high and we’re aware of that. I have some Phosphate E coming to help - but it likely won’t be here for 1- 2 weeks approx. (we live remotely).
Params are as follows
Nitrates: ~3-5 ppm
Phosphates: .5 ppm (I know it’s high)
Calcium: ~480 ppm
Alkalinity: 8 dkh
PH: 8.2
temp. ~26.2 C
Salinity: 1.025
Volume: approx 20-30 gallons
Skimmer: yes
Inhabitants: 2x Clown, 1xGSP, 1xFavia, 1xcrimson hermit, 1xfighting conch, a bunch of tiny snails from the live rock, and some worms of different types
Favia was placed at approx mid level of the tank because of the weak light and some articles indicate that is the proper placement.
I replaced the light with a Kessel a500x - which I’m aware is overkill for this size of tank. However it’s more of a test for the 220 before I invest in lights there.
The intensity of the Kessil is around 25-30% - mostly blue spectrum.
The colour of the coral started changing to purple and green with flecks (which is beautiful) - so I thought it was successful and adapting well to the light.
It dawned on me yesterday that what we have is an algae invasion problem (which is the brown/Green fuzz) I started to try to blow off the algae with a pipe. To my horror the skin of the flavia started peeling away and floating off. Also it became apparent that the clowns have been nipping at it.
I immediately changed the of the favia and put it on a rock in the sand and lowered the light more (I have a par meter coming). We then did a peroxide dip (80ml of peroxide to 1L of tank water). Unfortunately I couldn’t stomach it being in there more than 2-3 minutes as it seemed to be freaking out, losing all colour and it’s ‘mouths’ all opened. We put it back in the tank - and it seemed to help but we’re unsure of what to do next as the algae doesn’t seem to be gone. I’m guessing the light was too intense for it and that is part of the cause of the bleaching - and it definitely came with the algae but the high phosphates made it worse
The plan of action is:
1) Lower Phosphates
2) Monitor light levels
3) Peroxide dip again??/glue off damaged areas?
TLDR; Favia, algae invasion, have done peroxide dip - what next?
We recently purchased a Favia from our LFS sight unseen. It’s approx a 6 hour round trip - so I like to avoid it and do the purchase remotely.
The Favia came in a bit of a weird state - it was brown and fuzzy, and it’s colours were all brown and green. Not really knowing a lot about the species other than some inter webs research we put it in the tank and started monitoring it.
A few key pieces of info:
This is a new tank that was cycled with live rock and bottle bac approx 3 weeks ago.
There are copopods and amphipods visible in the tank.
The Phosphates are high and we’re aware of that. I have some Phosphate E coming to help - but it likely won’t be here for 1- 2 weeks approx. (we live remotely).
Params are as follows
Nitrates: ~3-5 ppm
Phosphates: .5 ppm (I know it’s high)
Calcium: ~480 ppm
Alkalinity: 8 dkh
PH: 8.2
temp. ~26.2 C
Salinity: 1.025
Volume: approx 20-30 gallons
Skimmer: yes
Inhabitants: 2x Clown, 1xGSP, 1xFavia, 1xcrimson hermit, 1xfighting conch, a bunch of tiny snails from the live rock, and some worms of different types
Favia was placed at approx mid level of the tank because of the weak light and some articles indicate that is the proper placement.
I replaced the light with a Kessel a500x - which I’m aware is overkill for this size of tank. However it’s more of a test for the 220 before I invest in lights there.
The intensity of the Kessil is around 25-30% - mostly blue spectrum.
The colour of the coral started changing to purple and green with flecks (which is beautiful) - so I thought it was successful and adapting well to the light.
It dawned on me yesterday that what we have is an algae invasion problem (which is the brown/Green fuzz) I started to try to blow off the algae with a pipe. To my horror the skin of the flavia started peeling away and floating off. Also it became apparent that the clowns have been nipping at it.
I immediately changed the of the favia and put it on a rock in the sand and lowered the light more (I have a par meter coming). We then did a peroxide dip (80ml of peroxide to 1L of tank water). Unfortunately I couldn’t stomach it being in there more than 2-3 minutes as it seemed to be freaking out, losing all colour and it’s ‘mouths’ all opened. We put it back in the tank - and it seemed to help but we’re unsure of what to do next as the algae doesn’t seem to be gone. I’m guessing the light was too intense for it and that is part of the cause of the bleaching - and it definitely came with the algae but the high phosphates made it worse
The plan of action is:
1) Lower Phosphates
2) Monitor light levels
3) Peroxide dip again??/glue off damaged areas?
