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.

 

[JonoH]

Any Updates?

 

[DarkReefer]

Any Updates?

Hey mate,

Nothin much really happening recently.
My redline cleaner shrimp has gone MIA a few weeks ago, I suspect it's been killed off but I haven't seen any remains anywhere, so there's a glimmer of hope that perhaps it's moulting and hiding REAAAALLLYYY well somewhere... lol

Still struggling with algae issues, the fuge doesn't really seem to be taking off (I'm not noticing any growth tbh). Just yesterday or the day before I changed the light schedule so it's only all the time except for about 30-60 mins where it'll ramp down and back up again. Going to monitor the macro to see that I'm not over doing it but yeah.. bit of a shame so far.
Really got to get in clean the powerheads and the back wall again as the GHA is all over these, have noticed some coraline algae growing on the backwall here and there now though so perhaps there's hope. As they say, it took a long time to get to this point with the GHA, so it'll probably take a long time to correct.

Nutrients have been okayish - Nitrate coming down a little since last test (was 51, now 34.9) and Phosphate's also down from 0.543 to 0.478.
It's possible this Nitrate spike happened after cleaning some GHA off the back wall, less to soak it all up. Phosphates have been up for a bit though.

 

[JonoH]

Hey mate,

Nothin much really happening recently.
My redline cleaner shrimp has gone MIA a few weeks ago, I suspect it's been killed off but I haven't seen any remains anywhere, so there's a glimmer of hope that perhaps it's moulting and hiding REAAAALLLYYY well somewhere... lol

Still struggling with algae issues, the fuge doesn't really seem to be taking off (I'm not noticing any growth tbh). Just yesterday or the day before I changed the light schedule so it's only all the time except for about 30-60 mins where it'll ramp down and back up again. Going to monitor the macro to see that I'm not over doing it but yeah.. bit of a shame so far.
Really got to get in clean the powerheads and the back wall again as the GHA is all over these, have noticed some coraline algae growing on the backwall here and there now though so perhaps there's hope. As they say, it took a long time to get to this point with the GHA, so it'll probably take a long time to correct.

Nutrients have been okayish - Nitrate coming down a little since last test (was 51, now 34.9) and Phosphate's also down from 0.543 to 0.478.
It's possible this Nitrate spike happened after cleaning some GHA off the back wall, less to soak it all up. Phosphates have been up for a bit though.

I lost my Cleaner Shrimp over christmas also - thought the same thing for a while, but now accepting its def gone!

Do you dose Trace at all? My Chaeto grows like a weed, but I use Coral Essentials Alk+Trace for my Alk 2 Part, from what I understand, the Chaeto will absorb a lot of the trace elements.

Keep at it, unfortunatly there are no good shortcuts in this hobby!

 

[DarkReefer]

I lost my Cleaner Shrimp over christmas also - thought the same thing for a while, but now accepting its def gone!

Do you dose Trace at all? My Chaeto grows like a weed, but I use Coral Essentials Alk+Trace for my Alk 2 Part, from what I understand, the Chaeto will absorb a lot of the trace elements.

Keep at it, unfortunatly there are no good shortcuts in this hobby!

That sucks that you lost yours too.
I'm not even sure which fish would've taken it out tbh. Doubt it was the flame hawkfish that guy was half it's size (doesn't seem to grow that fish.. lol) and the others I wouldn't have expected it from as the anthias all used it to clean. Possibly the tomini tang as it seems to be a bit of a jerk to the sand sifters so maybe thought it as competition also but who knows... one day it was there, the next it's not lol.

Yeah I use coral essentials also, use it for alk+trace, mag+trace & cal+trace.
I even bought some cheato grow that I've been dosing once or twice a week as well straight into the chamber.
If the length of time doesn't help, I might try and change the colour a little and add in some blues/whites or something as I've taken all of those out so it's just a purple/redish colour.

 

[JonoH]

That sucks that you lost yours too.
I'm not even sure which fish would've taken it out tbh. Doubt it was the flame hawkfish that guy was half it's size (doesn't seem to grow that fish.. lol) and the others I wouldn't have expected it from as the anthias all used it to clean. Possibly the tomini tang as it seems to be a bit of a jerk to the sand sifters so maybe thought it as competition also but who knows... one day it was there, the next it's not lol.

Yeah I use coral essentials also, use it for alk+trace, mag+trace & cal+trace.
I even bought some cheato grow that I've been dosing once or twice a week as well straight into the chamber.
If the length of time doesn't help, I might try and change the colour a little and add in some blues/whites or something as I've taken all of those out so it's just a purple/redish colour.

Weird - it could be that the GHA is sucking the nutrients out though perhaps. \
I'm using a Tunze Eco Chic fuge light - just leaving it on 24hrs a day.

Same, have no idea what would have taken the cleaner shrimp! It just sucks since they are not cheap!

 

[DarkReefer]

Weird - it could be that the GHA is sucking the nutrients out though perhaps. \
I'm using a Tunze Eco Chic fuge light - just leaving it on 24hrs a day.

Same, have no idea what would have taken the cleaner shrimp! It just sucks since they are not cheap!

Yeah it's possible. The stuff on the backwall has been slowly coming back over time, just haven't had the energy to spend the time scraping it all again and cleaning her up.

Yeah I think my light (using an old AI 32HD light) would be pumping out a similar colour to the Tunze so who knows, might need to get the lens sorted on them (they melted a little ages ago) whether that's hindering I'm not too sure... there's certainly a bunch of coraline algae growing down there, just need the chaeto to start going nuts .

Agreed. Loved having it, was such a character and cool to see it cleaning fish but at $200 ish a pop, I wont be rushing out to replace it.. lol

 

[Liquid361]

I noticed you did as I did with my 2100 S2 and paid extra to not have the crates stacked. I was curious if others did that also. Seems crazy for them to be stacked and still have to check inside for damage. Can’t wait to see your build! We have very similar tastes.

 

[DarkReefer]

I noticed you did as I did with my 2100 S2 and paid extra to not have the crates stacked. I was curious if others did that also. Seems crazy for them to be stacked and still have to check inside for damage. Can’t wait to see your build! We have very similar tastes.

Didn't know that was a thing to be honest.
I just ordered it and it showed up like that, didn't have to pay any extra to not stack or anything of the sort.
The only thing I did was contact them to ask if they'd deliver it into my garage as my driveway has a bit of a gradient on it and was unsure if a truck could unload on it or not, but aside from that it was pretty effortless to that point!

 

[Liquid361]

Didn't know that was a thing to be honest.
I just ordered it and it showed up like that, didn't have to pay any extra to not stack or anything of the sort.
The only thing I did was contact them to ask if they'd deliver it into my garage as my driveway has a bit of a gradient on it and was unsure if a truck could unload on it or not, but aside from that it was pretty effortless to that point!

This was I got…