The algae/aiptasia plan, with nukes

[jhadaway]

I have been battling GHA off and on now for a good year. It is fluffy green or brown and thick growing in every crevis. My snails, urchins, hermits and crabs don't touch it. The aiptasia battle is a little younger. Both are at a tipping point. When the GHA started to appear I added a GFO reactor and changed the media every 3-4 weeks. At the time I changed my 2 filter socks every 3-4 days. Slowly the algae was growing faster no matter what I did. I have never had anything measurable for nitrates or phosphates and a recent ICP test confirmed it as zero. So the algae consumes it all as fast as it's produced and I can't measure it. I have fought to get a refugium going enough to help the cause. I recently put in a 100 watt grow light that seems to be working well but I don't have the time to wait for the cheato to grow now. At the end of the day the sump in a WB 100.3 just isn't big enough for a meaningful fuge. I also installed a Klir-4 V2 rollermat that has done great but nothing seems to stop the algae train. I'm bombing with Flux Rx this weekend to try and get a reset.

As far as the aiptasia go, I have 3 ORA peppermint shrimp in the tank and I'm going to start breeding Berghia in a separate tank by feeding them aiptasia until I get the numbers up. One of the shrimp wiped out all of the aiptasia in my 5.5 gallon pico but I don't see any change in my 100.3 at home. The shrimp may have been a snack for my coral banded shrimp. I've tried every other gimmick known to man to get rid of them. Berghia is my last shot unless I can get a filefish from ORA sooner or later.

My plan with the algae is to bomb with Flux Rx as many times as I need with my reactor running GFO (No Carbon). I'll pull out all I can and go back to filter socks temporarily. Once the algae or most of it has gone I'll install an Icecap medium Algae Scrubber. I'm keeping the fuge going with a smaller light just for pods. I'm hoping by then I can get some measurement on phosphate and nitrate. I feed frozen foods twice a day equaling about 2 cubes and I have cut that back a bit.

Has anyone else hit the reset button and had success adding the algae scrubber? I would much rather have the refugium but I'm done with that for now.

 

[nuxx]

Honestly I think once you have an aiptasia it'll pretty much be there at some level.

Can def. control it, but just feel like it's where you can't see it.

 

[therootcause]

Hello. I have a Waterbox 180.5 with WB sump and fuge. I know you have a plan already but can I play the role of negotiator and we talk some more before you push the metaphorical nuke button?

My CUC is as follows (in order by quantity)...what does your CUC look like?
300 small blue legs
100 astraea snails
50 medium blue legs
15 nerites
sea cucumber
starfish


Can you post a photo so we can see your rock scape? H202 would wipe out that GHA in 2 days if the scape can be removed, sprayed, rinsed, and put back into the tank?

 

[jhadaway]

Honestly I think once you have an aiptasia it'll pretty much be there at some level.

Can def. control it, but just feel like it's where you can't see it.

I'm hoping the peppermints keep them at bay once the bulk of them have been eaten.

 

[nuxx]

I'm hoping the peppermints keep them at bay once the bulk of them have been eaten.

Never really felt they did the best...

Berghia are the way to go imo

 

[jhadaway]

Hello. I have a Waterbox 180.5 with WB sump and fuge. I know you have a plan already but can I play the role of negotiator and we talk some more before you push the metaphorical nuke button?

My CUC is as follows (in order by quantity)...what does your CUC look like?
300 small blue legs
100 astraea snails
50 medium blue legs
15 nerites
sea cucumber
starfish


Can you post a photo so we can see your rock scape? H202 would wipe out that GHA in 2 days if the scape can be removed, sprayed, rinsed, and put back into the tank?

Your crew is huge.

My CUC
20 or so blue legs
2 red legs
20 astrea
25 turbos, Indo, Mexican, Smooth
1 tuxedo urchin, 1 more on the way
1 sea serpent star
2 Florida conch
1 brown sea cucumber
24 or so nasarious (sp?)
20 cerith,
15 nerite
5 trochus
30 bumble bee
2 emerald crabs
coral banded shrimp

I hit the pieces I could remove with H2O2 and it works for a few weeks but it always comes back to the same spot. I soak the rock and also paint it straight on at 100%. It always comes back. Most of my rockwork can't be taken out. I can try and get a shot tonight.

I'm hoping the algae scrubber will outcompete the algae in the tank.

Thanks,
JOe

 

[therootcause]

Your crew is huge.

My CUC
20 or so blue legs
2 red legs
20 astrea
25 turbos, Indo, Mexican, Smooth
1 tuxedo urchin, 1 more on the way
1 sea serpent star
2 Florida conch
1 brown sea cucumber
24 or so nasarious (sp?)
20 cerith,
15 nerite
5 trochus
30 bumble bee
2 emerald crabs
coral banded shrimp

I hit the pieces I could remove with H2O2 and it works for a few weeks but it always comes back to the same spot. I soak the rock and also paint it straight on at 100%. It always comes back. Most of my rockwork can't be taken out. I can try and get a shot tonight.

I'm hoping the algae scrubber will outcompete the algae in the tank.

Thanks,
JOe

I think you gave it the old college try with the H2O2 and the CUC! You also reminded me that I have a couple emeralds, fighting conch's, and nessarius. Time to bring out the briefcase.

 

[jhadaway]

I think you gave it the old college try with the H2O2 and the CUC! You also reminded me that I have a couple emeralds, fighting conch's, and nessarius. Time to bring out the briefcase.

On the bright side, the top of my sand is clean as a whistle. Rocks, not so much. The conch and the cucumber are workhorses!

 

[jhadaway]

I am now a week into the Flux Rx treatment and I'm happy to say almost all of the algae has melted away. My cheato is happy in my basement for now and I've decided to keep going with a few mods to my refugium for now instead of an algae scrubber. HOWEVER, the great debate continues. The whole time I assumed that the phosphate that caused my algae problem was bound up in the GHA. -WRONG! I measured .02 on my Hanna last night. I'll do nitrates tonight but I would bet a paycheck that they are also low. Soooo my question is WHAT THE !@#$%^ is causing my algae explosion? I actually just lost my Orphek OR3 so it's not a light adjustment. I actually decreased lighting a month or 2 ago. I keep my whites on the low side.
I'll be increasing the size of my fuge, underlighting with a Tunze Eco Chic and lighting from the top with a 100w grow light that seemed to be kicking things into gear. But as far as what caused the issue, I'm stumped. I do not want to do it again. Now I'm thinking about leaving my GFO/Carbon Reactor offline, going back to carbon dosing and maybe having to dose phosphate and nitrate. I also ordered 2 more cans for my RODI to concentrate on silicates. That's crazy to me. Goes against everything I read and thought I knew.

 

[Waters]

I made a thread a while back about growing GHA in brute cans, in the dark, with 0 nutrients. The stuff flourished lol......I think they require very little nutrients (or light for that matter) if there is nothing else there to provide competition.

 

[Dburr1014]

I have been battling GHA off and on now for a good year. It is fluffy green or brown and thick growing in every crevis. My snails, urchins, hermits and crabs don't touch it. The aiptasia battle is a little younger. Both are at a tipping point. When the GHA started to appear I added a GFO reactor and changed the media every 3-4 weeks. At the time I changed my 2 filter socks every 3-4 days. Slowly the algae was growing faster no matter what I did. I have never had anything measurable for nitrates or phosphates and a recent ICP test confirmed it as zero. So the algae consumes it all as fast as it's produced and I can't measure it. I have fought to get a refugium going enough to help the cause. I recently put in a 100 watt grow light that seems to be working well but I don't have the time to wait for the cheato to grow now. At the end of the day the sump in a WB 100.3 just isn't big enough for a meaningful fuge. I also installed a Klir-4 V2 rollermat that has done great but nothing seems to stop the algae train. I'm bombing with Flux Rx this weekend to try and get a reset.

As far as the aiptasia go, I have 3 ORA peppermint shrimp in the tank and I'm going to start breeding Berghia in a separate tank by feeding them aiptasia until I get the numbers up. One of the shrimp wiped out all of the aiptasia in my 5.5 gallon pico but I don't see any change in my 100.3 at home. The shrimp may have been a snack for my coral banded shrimp. I've tried every other gimmick known to man to get rid of them. Berghia is my last shot unless I can get a filefish from ORA sooner or later.

My plan with the algae is to bomb with Flux Rx as many times as I need with my reactor running GFO (No Carbon). I'll pull out all I can and go back to filter socks temporarily. Once the algae or most of it has gone I'll install an Icecap medium Algae Scrubber. I'm keeping the fuge going with a smaller light just for pods. I'm hoping by then I can get some measurement on phosphate and nitrate. I feed frozen foods twice a day equaling about 2 cubes and I have cut that back a bit.

Has anyone else hit the reset button and had success adding the algae scrubber? I would much rather have the refugium but I'm done with that for now.

The berghia will be eaten by the shrimp unless you plan to take them out when you introduce the berghia.

The algae scrubber will prohibit the growth of the refuge if it grows at all because fluconazole won't let the algae scrubber grow.

To many things at once.

Fluconazole will kill all the gha in about 20ish days.

I would stick with the shrimp or do berghia, not both.
If you don't have a massive aptaisia problem just do the shrimp. Berghia hunt but need to find aptaisia before they starve.

Edit: just read post 9.
Glad you have the algae sorted out.

 

[jhadaway]

Bergia are in an acclimation box for now making babies. I bring up a rock until its clean. They just finished a good 15 or so. They het fresh food tomorrow. I’m hoping the nudis outpace the predators. I have a coral banded shrimp too so the peppermints could already have been dinner. They haven’t done anything i can see yet. I cant catch the cb so I'm rolling the dice with everything.
Once the algae is gone ill do a massive water change and put half my cheato back in. If it grows ill add the rest. Im bailing on the algae scrubber for now. I have a mandarin that i thought moved on to the e sea in the sky. He poked out after a good 3-4 weeks. I need the fuge to keep the pods cranking out.

 

[Dburr1014]

Bergia are in an acclimation box for now making babies. I bring up a rock until its clean. They just finished a good 15 or so. They het fresh food tomorrow. I’m hoping the nudis outpace the predators. I have a coral banded shrimp too so the peppermints could already have been dinner. They haven’t done anything i can see yet. I cant catch the cb so I'm rolling the dice with everything.
Once the algae is gone ill do a massive water change and put half my cheato back in. If it grows ill add the rest. Im bailing on the algae scrubber for now. I have a mandarin that i thought moved on to the e sea in the sky. He poked out after a good 3-4 weeks. I need the fuge to keep the pods cranking out.

Fluconazole didn't hurt my cheato at all.

 

[jhadaway]

I read lots of threads before i did this and it seemed that reef flux didn't kill cheato but flux rx did. Cheato is s rip off so i set up a spare 5.5 gallon for it. I would say about 90% of the gha is gone in 1 week. Worth every penny.

 

[Dburr1014]

I read lots of threads before i did this and it seemed that reef flux didn't kill cheato but flux rx did. Cheato is s rip off so i set up a spare 5.5 gallon for it. I would say about 90% of the gha is gone in 1 week. Worth every penny.

That is exactly what I used, flux Rx. I only did 2/3 of the dose and my cheato is fine.

 

[jhadaway]

Well, about 1 1/2 months later both my 15g nano and my WB 100.3 are completely free of hair algae and I mean completely. I did add some additional cleanup crew to both tanks just in case it resurfaces. The aiptasia on the other hand, urgggg. The 15g is completely free of them thanks to a single peppermint shrimp. There are 3 peppermints in my 100.3 but I have only seen one in the past month. The berghia cleaned all the aiptasia off of one rock before being moved to the display tank. I'm trying to be patient but I'm not seeing any changes yet. They are stinging the !@#$% out of some of my corals. The peppermint shrimp in my nano is out all the time with the cleaner shrimp I just bought. Not the pretties thing in the ocean but I owe him one. I am tempted to take him home! I'll update the battle as it goes... Aiptasia are the devil.

 

[Dburr1014]

Peppermints Will eat berghia, if you are saying they are in the same tank.