Reef2Reef Pest algae challenge thread hydrogen peroxide

[VJV]

The more coralline you have the less nutrients are available for other algae. It's a tough battle, but at least peroxide doesn't kill the coralline completely. If you grow green algae it in your sump, it won't likely grow in the display since there will be nutrients there. The tank will manage itself. Whether you like the result or not is dependent on how you configure your nutrient management. I'm learning a lot going through all of these exercises. I'm also spending a ton on water testing!! LOL. I also determined that GFO is not a good thing unless you are growing algae in your sump already and your Po4 are still running high. Even then, it's still only a temporary fix due to the excess iron you'll be dumping into the water column. If you don't have algae growth somewhere, it will be somewhere soon!

That's a very good point (about GFO). I actually always found curious that we use iron oxide (which is a great plant fertiliser) to get rid of algae. Not wanting to ratle the "reefing establishment" i quietly moved towards aluminium oxide (Seachem Phosguard). As far as i know aluminium is not a fertiliser to anything.

 

[brandon429]

If someone wanted to link page 10 here, to that actual reefcentral thread, Id not be heartbroken

id like to, but cant.


the sole and complete motivation would be so that the OP in that thread can have after pics that look like SeaBass prior page, by next week actually. nice to have options!!

 

[Ryengoth]

That's a very good point (about GFO). I actually always found curious that we use iron oxide (which is a great plant fertiliser) to get rid of algae. Not wanting to ratle the "reefing establishment" i quietly moved towards aluminium oxide (Seachem Phosguard). As far as i know aluminium is not a fertiliser to anything.

It also binds all phosphorous molecules, not just po4, which can cause nutrient issues for some sea critters. It also releases some Fe back into the water, but as brandon429 said it could be possible to completely drain a GFO reactor with an algae scrubber, depending on how large it is, how much phos content is in the water and the flow.

 

[Ryengoth]

Reefcam has been re-positioned for a better top-down view of the wall. Hardly any visible GHA. \o/
https://www.ivideon.com/tv/camera/200-ff0fd407646e3847d30602ee342ab175/65536/?lang=en

 

[Ryengoth]

I can't paste a link in the post. It's munging the URL.. stupid link protection to keep people on the forum probably.

 

[Ryengoth]

Oh well, it's there.. but it's not usable. I can't even edit/delete the post now. Crappy forum software IMO.

 

[Ryengoth]

Looking for live GHA for testing. If you have a substantial amount you have physically removed, bag it in a little tank water and I'll send you a return shipping kit.

 

[Ryengoth]

Here's the green and furry rock that I treated in the video, the first one with the two slopes that bubbled a lot.
Nothing there now but green coralline taking over it seems. The snails were fast to get on that rock. Both of the turbos were cleaning up fast. Something about that decaying fiber and they get to good stuff near the roots I guess?

Some nice isolated algae spots in the substrate are growing up. I did not treat those areas before. I'm going to harvest that, for my test tank, once it gets a little bigger.

One of my yellow polyp frags is getting overrun.. time to treat with a dropper. I'll video it.

 

[Ryengoth]

So, nice clean rock right. Well, my po4 went up the past few days and is .08ppm as of tonight. No ammonia and the alk is finally down to 10.8dkh. Green fuzz and light fuzz is starting to appear on areas not currently covered in coralline. I've been seeing lots of amphipods roaming the rocks and my sump sponge and substrate has lots of them and are actively cleaning up the crud in the sponge and algae trap as we speak. It looked like a brownie on Monday. Today it looks almost clean. I dumped 3000 copepods and a 16oz container of live phyto in the sump on Friday. I also dumped a 3000 pack of pods in the DT and around 8oz of phyto there as well since I haven't dosed either in several weeks and have added LPS and SPS corals. I introduced a powder brown tang and a yellow tang today. The yellow tang has been nipping at the fuzz, but it's too short for him to eat being almost 4" long. The powder brown is still a weenie and is scared to leave the cave during the day. I'm not dosing right now. I want to see how aggressive the regrowth is and if the tangs, blenny and turbos can keep up when the po4 is almost .1. I asked the LFS to save me any GHA and aiptasia they pull, for the test tank (which I have no time or space to deal with right now).

 

[brandon429]

I need to purchase live copes

A negative aspect of total detritus control is thin pods too... constant export of my sandbed and rocks means anyone not holding on takes a drain ride.

searching for gammarids mainly, seeking the ant colony moving look

 

[Ryengoth]

I need to purchase live copes

A negative aspect of total detritus control is thin pods too... constant export of my sandbed and rocks means anyone not holding on takes a drain ride.

searching for gammarids mainly, seeking the ant colony moving look

I have a ton of amphi's buried in floss if you want a small set to re-establish your sump. All they need is a dirty sponge, but a dose of phyto helps them grow big. Some of mine are twice the size of large mysis.

 

[brandon429]

Practicing the rule of exclusion as primary algae control in my own tank, analysis:

-invader is obligate hitchhiker bubble algae variant, reddish bubble algae

-got in by simple import. I selected a clean looking frag from lfs, turned out not to be clean apparently heh, the pic shows bubbles forming at the edge pushing up tissue. About three bubbles so far, means more are coming. The rule of obligate hitchhiker battles is once the target DNA/all possible mass is excluded, including by direct action chemically if possible, it cannot come back until reimported.


×non quarantine is the sole cause of why there's an invader in my tank, not nitrates or phosphates. ×

-related to other threads, this invader ranks high in invasive adaptivity, so I'll act now, not later, and decline it's presence.

- I've been blast feeding my tank ridiculous for one week to fatten up some distress frags I bought, I'm sure the botry likes the extra nutrients coincidentally but this isn't a nutrient-modulated invader. It requires hesitation after initial visual inspection to take over a tank, and, a rockscape that is inaccessible which causes the keeper to be hesitant. I'll select oppositely.

-plan of action is certain. Lift out this frag rock set it on a plate. One drop of peroxide on all three bubbles, which will contact polyp tissue as well. Lps are known tolerants of light directed contact. That corner will stress a little, maybe lighten a bit after my dental profi angle picking coming up, but it will heal faster when these bubbles are gone. I will have to scrape a little up under the tissue, some minor insult is coming. It will heal and be fine if I get this stuff out now.

After sitting three mins straight contact I'll pick off the bubbles and hit the area again with a drp of 35% then place it in the tank, low tissue contact time.

Prognosis: will not have an invasion.

I took about fifteen minutes in the air. Found two more other side of polyp and zapped then clipped on a plate. I squirted saltwater on the corals as rinse and hydration but the target areas were in air and hit over and over with drops then rinse.

Put back in tank will be able to assess next week. No other areas had growth I think I caught in time. Any part of my reef is accessible in case I didn't. Bubble algae will not win. <----how many counter options are implied in that statement=this tank is immune to takeover, and I don't even own a nitrate or phosphate test kit and never will. once this is killed, ill never have to treat the bowl until next import, and im through adding frags now.

This green brain got blasted with peroxide multiple times, they are tolerants as are most known lps.


24 hrs later no harm and there was much direct contact:
No algae yet.

And this on Monday night. Feeders out fighting with brother acans on rock no algae thankfully. Full attack did sway outcome

Side note
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/349362-d3monics-28gal-ha-battle-live-plants-order-in/

Above is a peroxide turnaround from friends at nano-reef.com and he has sensitive blood shrimp in his tank + anems

 

[Maxxingout]

This bryopsis is crazy! I've hit this stuff with 3% peroxide while taking the rocks out of the water. HATED doing that, took 75% of my rocks out to treat. I had so much bryopsis growing on the rocks spot treatment was not a option. The 1st rock, which was also the worst, I literally poured peroxide over the rock. Waited about 15min before dunking into a 5gal bucket of tank water. The other rocks I hit up with a syringe and soaked the pretty good. Unfortunately as Brandon has stated, grow back is likely with 3%. Unfortunately unfortunately (yes I said that twice) I've taken some of the rock out twice and weeks later am seeing some grow back . I need to find out where I can get the 35% peroxide from. I've also noticed that some of this stuff is now growing out in-between the newly encrusted parts of my sps arrh. So I'll have to hit those parts up but will have to do the 10% or so of peroxide.

The death smell is pretty strong after a day and the skimmer is working overtime that's for sure! The way I have my rocks positioned, it's caused me some major headaches and broken sps corals due to trying to remove these big pcs of rock. I thought that running a ULNS would help once I treated with peroxide but I guess not. If anyone can share the places they got there 35 % peroxide from I'd appreciate it.

Some before pics.

I have no idea what that sponge brain type looking thing is? Just started popping up in places..

After pics

 

[brandon429]

also try that tech m along with the peroxide as the external doser...tech m is very strong when dosed to the tank, so why not just go straight to target Im really liking tech m external treatments too, for both gha and bry

at work now will reread and stop back in around lunch thanks for posting!

 

[brandon429]

All my power 35 comes from health food nature store, refrigerator section, use as fruit wash and bath additive and general eye loss danger heh wear goggles

As a spot treater it's a mower for sure


also noted is the helpful nature of doing only a single test rock before going through the tank, this gives kill times to watch out for and regrowth times before doing the big job. even if someone does want to hit the whole tank at once as the test run that's fine, arresting its growth vs adding to the mass is often something peroxide will do and a little cut back never hurt. its true that if I had a bry issue, id use only 35% as the spot treat or at least a dilution well above 3%. you could also paste it with baking soda as listed to make that area stick/cake for the few mins cooking out side of tank then rinse back off and reinstall.

 

[Ryengoth]

Since you burned most of the mass it should take a while to grow back if you can dose a small amount of carbon for a week or so. Get an algae "scrubber" going in your refug/sump while the bacterial bloom is going on. Grab what you can off of the glass and other smooth objects and put it on the scrubber. You can also remove the sock and give the rocks some toothbrush action to help relocate some of that to the sump. I have a 9x5" section of dual-layer floss growing like mad now and the hair algae is going down in my DT. The skimmer has a green coat on the outside as well. The hair algae is slowly dwindling and the tang is having a hard time finding snacks. You can't eliminate the algae but you can relocate it and support it there. Snails and other grazers will help keep it trimmed down in the DT.

 

[a49panhead]

Following

 

[Ryengoth]

I honestly feel that photosynthesis supporting light has more of an effect on the resilience of this stuff than the nutrients. I'm testing that in a clean QT with a full-spectrum T8 running 24/7. A small Penguin HOT is on it and providing a small amount of aeration. A week has gone by and I actually have a small amount of growth on the original mass. I'm going to put a new filter in tonight and see how it is on Sunday.

 

[Maxxingout]

I've been looking into a ATS and actually have been running carbon for a few months now. Def helps with nitrates and to an extent, phos. The thought on light is interesting and probably true in it's own right. I'm running led lights on my tank for now.

 

[Ryengoth]

I'm planning on putting a small GFO reactor on the test tank to see if I get increased growth just from iron leeching, with zero no3/no4/po4. I've not worked out the media volume or flow amount yet. It will likely be based on suggested levels by TWV.