The CUC lovers thread!

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Love this thread, what a great idea.

I've got a month old 90 gal with a pretty solid film of algae currently being tended to by:
6 Nassarius Snails
6 Astrea Snails
24 - (4, 6? at least a few have met their demise) Hermits

Would love to get a fighting conch at some point --- how long does one wait before getting one?

Fighting conchs eat alot. They'll eat leftover food, detritus and algae. As long as there is enough food you don't have to wait.

 

[JoJosReef]

The only high thing is Nitrate, which has been in the 50s since April. I've seen some algae bloom slowly start over the last six weeks, but we were out of town for eight days and came home to an abundance of GHA. The fish, corals, and anemone seem unbothered right now, but we're going out of town again in a few weeks, and I'd like to try to get it somewhat under control before we go.

Let's see that GHA garden!

Quick Qs:
1. This is the red sea max nano with Caribsea Life rock?
2. Phos around zero? (It's not zero)
3. Two clowns a watchman and a firefish?
4. What kind of food?

Nitrates are probably running much higher and Phos also higher but getting consumed immediately by the GHA. That stuff feeds off the life rock, that's what I had in my Evo.

A few things that worked for me:

1. Switching up foods. E.g, moving from pellets and flakes to some pellets and Reef Nutrition ROE / pods / mysis.

2. Draining the tank part way (enough to expose the GHA on top of the rocks), yanking all of it out with paper towels--keep the corals wet using a feeder pipette dropping saltwater on them every 10-20 seconds--then when the rocks look almost bare of GHA, give them a spritz of hydrogen peroxide using a spray bottle, enough to cover the surface but not begin to saturate the rock. Let it sit for a few minutes while keeping the corals/nems hydrated. After a min or two is up, replace the water in the tank to normal levels. This is not a "rip clean". It's just to let you get the GHA down to the roots where the hydrogen peroxide will have the most effect and your cuc stands a chance at eating new growth

3. Tuxedo urchin and 2 turbo snails. They'll keep the lawn mowed. You might have to supplement them with nori and/or algae tabs occasionally though. They are bulldozers though, so fasten down those frags super tight!

4. You need more consumers! More coral. Maybe a macro or two. Gracilaria hayi is super easy, beautiful and sucks up nutrients. Some strains of short branch codium do extremely well also. More coral!

This worked really well for my GHA garden in my Evo.

 

[JoJosReef]

I second a conch or two, but I would recommend a "bear" or "strawberry" or "tiger" conch for the nano.

Assorted Smaller Conchs

This item is for one individual conch, selected from an assortment we receive that are all reef safe cleaners. (Strombus spp.) The conchs in this product description reach an average adult size of...

www.reefcleaners.org

Tiger Conch

Resides : Sand Consumes : Film Algae, Diatoms, Hair Algae, Detritus, and some species of Cyanobacteria Max Size : 3 or 80mm Origin : Indo Pacific and East...

www.reefcleaners.org

These keep the sand bed super clean. One of mine is even an expert GHA remover for zoa frags. Just put a GHA covered zoa frag on the sand bed and the next morning clean as can be. They LOVE diatoms. Mine also do a few acrobatics to get the GHA off the lower rocks that the turbos tended to ignore.

 

[tbrown]

The only high thing is Nitrate, which has been in the 50s since April. I've seen some algae bloom slowly start over the last six weeks, but we were out of town for eight days and came home to an abundance of GHA. The fish, corals, and anemone seem unbothered right now, but we're going out of town again in a few weeks, and I'd like to try to get it somewhat under control before we go.

That's not high though. First thing I'm checking is rusty magnets! Check pumps, powerheads, etc. It's amazing how a little bit of rust makes GHA explode with growth.

If no rust, what do you want? Urchins, Turbo Snails, Starry/Lawnmower Blenny, Court Jester or Hector's Goby, Sea Hare, Scarlett Hermits? There's a whole plethora of CUC for GHA.

 

[tbrown]

The only high thing is Nitrate, which has been in the 50s since April. I've seen some algae bloom slowly start over the last six weeks, but we were out of town for eight days and came home to an abundance of GHA. The fish, corals, and anemone seem unbothered right now, but we're going out of town again in a few weeks, and I'd like to try to get it somewhat under control before we go.

Do you send ICP tests? Curious on iron levels.

 

[tbrown]

Love this thread, what a great idea.

I've got a month old 90 gal with a pretty solid film of algae currently being tended to by:
6 Nassarius Snails
6 Astrea Snails
24 - (4, 6? at least a few have met their demise) Hermits

Would love to get a fighting conch at some point --- how long does one wait before getting one?

With the 6 Nassarius, until your sand actually looks dirty, I'd hold off as they eat the same foods and both reside almost exclusively in the sand. Like Walker says, they eat a lot and can starve if not provided ample food.

 

[AlyciaMarie]

Let's see that GHA garden!

Quick Qs:
1. This is the red sea max nano with Caribsea Life rock?
2. Phos around zero? (It's not zero)
3. Two clowns a watchman and a firefish?
4. What kind of food?

Nitrates are probably running much higher and Phos also higher but getting consumed immediately by the GHA. That stuff feeds off the life rock, that's what I had in my Evo.

A few things that worked for me:

1. Switching up foods. E.g, moving from pellets and flakes to some pellets and Reef Nutrition ROE / pods / mysis.

2. Draining the tank part way (enough to expose the GHA on top of the rocks), yanking all of it out with paper towels--keep the corals wet using a feeder pipette dropping saltwater on them every 10-20 seconds--then when the rocks look almost bare of GHA, give them a spritz of hydrogen peroxide using a spray bottle, enough to cover the surface but not begin to saturate the rock. Let it sit for a few minutes while keeping the corals/nems hydrated. After a min or two is up, replace the water in the tank to normal levels. This is not a "rip clean". It's just to let you get the GHA down to the roots where the hydrogen peroxide will have the most effect and your cuc stands a chance at eating new growth

3. Tuxedo urchin and 2 turbo snails. They'll keep the lawn mowed. You might have to supplement them with nori and/or algae tabs occasionally though. They are bulldozers though, so fasten down those frags super tight!

4. You need more consumers! More coral. Maybe a macro or two. Gracilaria hayi is super easy, beautiful and sucks up nutrients. Some strains of short branch codium do extremely well also. More coral!

This worked really well for my GHA garden in my Evo.

I don't want to show it because I'm embarrassed! But I guess I shall...I'll grab a few ASAP so you can see the sadness for yourself. And yes, the RedSea 20g! Phos is at 0.03, fish list has not changed, and we're feeding roughly 1/8th of a 1-inch cube of frozen mysis daily.

Thanks for the info; we'll get right on all of that. Do you think the nem will be okay with using hydrogen peroxide? It hands out right at the top of the aquascape so it would be pretty exposed.

 

[AlyciaMarie]

Do you send ICP tests? Curious on iron levels.

Here is a thread with my ICP results and nutrient woahs... https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/need-advice-nitrates-out-of-control.1056370/post-12560004

Returning to my sad tank after RAP NYC. Help!

Hey guys, I need some advice and guidance (again...). For some added context, I had a high nitrate issue a while back that we are still correcting. @Gumbies R Us and I have been gone for the last week at RAP NYC, and we've had a family member coming over and feeding out tank frozen mysis every...

www.reef2reef.com

Updated to the comment.

 

[AlyciaMarie]

Here are pictures. As you can see, there is quite a bit of buildup on the back of the tank. We've manually removed a lot of it, but it's pretty stubborn.

 

[tbrown]

Check for rust. I had a magnetic glass scraper that was just starting to show some rust at a corner. When I pulled that scraper out my GHA went away in a matter of a week.

That was after 2 rounds of Flux RX with nothing affected other than death to the Chaeto in my sump.

 

[mythesis]

With the 6 Nassarius, until your sand actually looks dirty, I'd hold off as they eat the same foods and both reside almost exclusively in the sand. Like Walker says, they eat a lot and can starve if not provided ample food.

We just disturbed the bed under this leather putting it in, but you can see the algae/detritus in the background.


Bonus points for Hermit doing a quick cleaning on the new leather shed...

(At least I hope that's what's happening and it's normal/ok... Just put the coral in this afternoon...)

 

[krollins]

Alright guys, CUC for GHA?...Help!

I would recommend an urchin

 

[JoJosReef]

Here are pictures. As you can see, there is quite a bit of buildup on the back of the tank. We've manually removed a lot of it, but it's pretty stubborn.

That's not too bad. Manageable. Like @tbrown said, make sure there's no rusty equipment causing that to spring up. The back wall is problematic but can be cleaned with a soft scraper, not a razor (assuming it is acrylic). In this case, I would probably start with just the new CUC members and see how they do. If they are ignoring the long GHA or not keeping up, I'd move on to the draining/H2O2 treatment. If doing that, the nem and corals will be fine if you keep dropping water on them to keep them hydrated. They aren't like sponges that die when air hits them (some sponges, at least).

RE: hydrogen peroxide, only spray around the corals/nems. H2O2 touching its foot isn't much of a problem, but don't spray on the nem. I use a feeder pipette to shift the slightly deflated nem around to where I need it to be to get to the GHA. Don't worry about getting 100% of the GHA around a nem, though. For hammers and whatnot, much easier. Just spray close to the rock around the base without getting too much on the skeleton and none in the heads. For zoas, I bother them just a bit so they close up their polyps (careful with eye/face protection when they are exposed to air--they squirt, which could be palytoxin!) and then use a no-needle syringe or dropper to get some H2O2 between the polyps if there's lots of GHA inbetween. It works fine just being careful where you spray. Any misfires, have the turkey baster or feeder pipette ready to dump more water on the affected coral/nem. The nem and corals might be angry for a day or so.

I have a roll of paper towels and a trash bin at the ready. Paper towels work great for grabbing and yanking out GHA, whereas tweezers and such can be more tedious with lots of GHA strands slipping out or not getting pulled out at the base.

I just put the same water back in after I'm done, but you could use this as a large water change opportunity, too.

These are old photos, but before:

After:

Turbo keeping the lawn mowed:

 

[mythesis]

Wife wants a star of some kind.... Thoughts on those for cleanup?

The urchin idea sounds really fun, our rocks aren't glued down though. Might look at the smaller ones!

I assumed conch, snails, and crabs were our options. Need to do more research!

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Wife wants a star of some kind.... Thoughts on those for cleanup?

Brittle star or sand sifting star if there is enough food.

 

[phillyb614]

My beast emerald crab making some zoanthids irritated lol. Dude is a workhorse and doesn’t bother my corals.

 

[tbrown]

Wife wants a star of some kind.... Thoughts on those for cleanup?

The urchin idea sounds really fun, our rocks aren't glued down though. Might look at the smaller ones!

I assumed conch, snails, and crabs were our options. Need to do more research!

Like Walker said, maybe a Brittle Star. Serpent Stars look similar-ish but tend to become fish predators so make sure it's a safe Brittle.

Sand sifters require a lot of food or the will starve. Most of our tanks can't support sand sifters long term so be prepared to target feed if you get one.

Urchins will knock over rocks (even small urchins can), they'll carry coral frags around for you, and several varieties can become coral munchers.

 

[krollins]

Brittle star or sand sifting star if there is enough food.

Or both

 

[fishguy242]

 

[AlyciaMarie]

Thank you all for your help! We picked up a Tuxedo Urchin and some snails today, so we will see how they do against the nasty stuff. I also found a clip that had rusted but was slightly above water level. Still, water could have been condensation on it and dripping in the tank. Either way, the clip has been moved away from the tank.