DarkReefer's CADE Reef S2 1800

[JonoH]

Haven't looked into it yet.
I've been hoping to avoid treatments and do it the natural way but I think I need to start considering them. It's just not going anywhere and looks terrible.

I'm not super worried about ich because I've had it a few times before and the salts seem to get rid of it. Will continue trying to just keep em nice and fat with food for a few more days and then might give it a go if I don't see any improvement.

I havent used the treatment myself - but a few guys over here that have had bad hair algea have, and had really good positive results with it.

My UV has been off for a month now, so that may be making a difference also!

 

[shadyraro]

Thanks mate, really need to do something about the hair algae though. It's doing my head in a bit but otherwise happy with how it's going over all.

Gotta start dosing some of those peroxide salts or whatever again as the Blue Tang got ich showing after having the new fish added. So far the others seem okay.

Had one of the anthias get too excited yesterday over some frozen food and jump out of the water (out the open net as I still had my hand in at the time) and onto the floor.
Seemed to be swimming around again yesterday afternoon so hopefully it's okay.

Do you have a UV?
I'm thinking of installing one as my blue tang looks like he may be getting ich as well, I added a few chromis a couple weeks back.

 

[DarkReefer]

I havent used the treatment myself - but a few guys over here that have had bad hair algea have, and had really good positive results with it.

My UV has been off for a month now, so that may be making a difference also!

Ah nice... maybe I'll have to look into that, would love to actually see the rockwork and have the coraline algae take off some more. Phosphates seem to be the thing that's high on my tank, even my Nitrates are still lowish surprisingly (even after all the food I was chucking in after adding the new fish), so it's probably no surprise there that the hair algae is taking off.

I've been thinking of trying to rearrange my sump a little and set up a better positioned refugium but I need to get hold of some chaeto from somewhere and haven't seen any at the LFS.

Yeah good point. I've had mine off for about a week or so after dosing prazipro (back on as of Friday). So might be why the Blue Tang has broken out (in addition to the new fish).

Do you have a UV?
I'm thinking of installing one as my blue tang looks like he may be getting ich as well, I added a few chromis a couple weeks back.

I do, it's an Aqua UV but it's only a 25W unit that I brought across from my old system. I've thought about replacing the globe (it's about 2 years old by now I think) but I probably should be running a larger UV on my system so I should be looking into upgrading instead.
I think I got UV initially due to dinos in the old tank, but it's been really solid at helping keep the fish healthy too. Using that and dosing peroxide salts for me has helped me manage ich outbreaks.

 

[JonoH]

Thinking about your GHA issue, if you dont have too many corals encrusted onto the rock, it may be worth doing a rip clean on the rock?

Basically take all the coral off the rocks, then wire brush them in some RO and a big bucket.
I did a few of the rocks in my tank where i could get them out, but the larger ones i couldnt move!

 

[DarkReefer]

Thinking about your GHA issue, if you dont have too many corals encrusted onto the rock, it may be worth doing a rip clean on the rock?

Basically take all the coral off the rocks, then wire brush them in some RO and a big bucket.
I did a few of the rocks in my tank where i could get them out, but the larger ones i couldnt move!

Appreciate the thought!

I feel like pulling the rockwork would be a pain. Semi-doable as they're separated but slightly risky too. One of them in particular has a split in it and if I were to move it, it would definitely fall apart. Might still be worth as I could always try and reattach it I guess... will have to consider it a little more.

Would the wire brush be risky though if there was potential metal fibres or something that might flake off on it

 

[JonoH]

Appreciate the thought!

I feel like pulling the rockwork would be a pain. Semi-doable as they're separated but slightly risky too. One of them in particular has a split in it and if I were to move it, it would definitely fall apart. Might still be worth as I could always try and reattach it I guess... will have to consider it a little more.

Would the wire brush be risky though if there was potential metal fibres or something that might flake off on it

I have a brush with Titanium bristles, so wasnt an issue, but you can just use one with hard plastic/nylon bristles also.

 

[DarkReefer]

Well my SPS frag is completely dead lol.
I noticed yesterday that half of it was suddenly white, not bleached... just white.
This morning I had a quick look with the light off and could see that it's completely white now. Not bad... just 2 days and it's completely gone.. only lasted 15 days and not really sure if it was somehow eaten to death or if it was nutrients etc.

Guess I'll wait longer before trying sps again.

 

[DarkReefer]

Been getting sick of looking at the algae in the tank so last night I took out a good chunk, especially off of the powerheads and back wall. Powerheads had grown a fair bit considering it wasn't that long ago I cleaned all of them out.
Back wall is much less furry, I also took some chunks away from a single zoa polyp that was being overcrowded by it, a chunk away from my green mushrooms that had found a spot to grow on the only piece of rock they hadn't covered and a bunch off around near where my fireworks are growing, they were also being crowded.

I'm really surprised at just how inquisitive the CBB is, it's not shy at all. It's quite happy to just hang around my hands in the tank and will watch me pull the stuff off and then goes and inspects the area where I've removed stuff. It's amusing to see lol.

I think I'll just keep trying to pull some out every day or every other day and see how successful that is (probably not very).

 

[DarkReefer]

Just tested and looks like things have spiked a bit since my last one with Nitrates at 34 and Phosphates at .491 (previously 6.5 + 0.129 respectively)!
Unsure if this is directly related to me pulling the algae out that I did, but I definitely need to start attacking these things.

I think I'll make a few calls today and see if I can get that fuge up and running. I'd also like to tackle my pH, as it's been sitting around 7.8 for a while now. Not sure if the fuge alone would help/sort that too (think it would a little) or if I attack it separately but need to start looking into options there too. Also need to consider upgrading my UV!

Also took some pics with my work iphone to test if I could possibly get some better pictures or not. The results weren't bad, maybe a little more clarity but still quite blue despite using a lens.

(it was satisfying pulling out that tuft of algae too lol)

 

[DarkReefer]

Well I ended up ducking down to the LFS who actually had some chaeto on hand and grabbed a roughly softball sized chunk. First time ever seeing/touching chaeto and was surprised how tough it felt (not slimy etc. like some corals).

I was aiming to originally move the glass divider over so I could fit the reeftmat in the very left chamber and put the chaeto in the default refugium section. Unfortunately it seemed impossible to get the glass out as I couldn't get my blade between certain sections to cut the sealant/glue away. Other sections worked really well but for some reason others it was like it was like there was no silicone between it and more of a glue or something.
So now I'll have to resilicone a couple spots after that failure.

In the end the chaeto was placed in the first (very left) section of the sump and utilized a nero10 I was already using in the sump to get some flow moving through it.
I used some of the left over polycarbonate sheet from the light shields to cut a divider and some flow holes to hold the chaeto there. (The glass one has a large gap underneath it so the chaeto was able to escape).
I utilized my old Hydra 32HD light and just set leds as below. No blues at all and running about 9hrs.
UV - 5%
Violet - 20%
Green - 5%
Red - 100%
cool white - 5%

Fingers crossed it all goes well. I'll have to do some testing in the next day or so just to see if it's chewing up the nutrients and adjust the light time/intensity from there.

Someone also suggested using the media section on the very right (just before the return pump) instead and moving the media into the main sump area. I thought this might be a pretty good idea so I'll see how this goes for a week or so and then possibly look to move it over.