Still battling the red wave

[Wade]

I'm guessing this is cyano only because it's red. It's not all over the tank, but continues to be a pest. It's covered my encrusting gorgonian which has decided not to come out today and I'm guessing this is the cause. Just tested all my parameters and everything is still looking good. I have replaced about 20% of my substrate, but that's a slow process since I'm vacuuming it out which results in a 20-30% water change each time so I'm spreading them out. I feed roughly once every day to every other day, NO3 and PO4 both at 0.00ppm. Anything other than patience that can be done here?

IMG_0444.MOV

[sifuentes31]

Looks like Pink Cotton Candy Algae to me. Try the " THREE DAYS OF DARKNESS" and get some Mexican turbo snails. Maybe up the CUC.

[ckyuv]

It won't let me look at your video on my iPhone :/

[Wade]

Looks like Pink Cotton Candy Algae to me. Try the " THREE DAYS OF DARKNESS" and get some Mexican turbo snails. Maybe up the CUC.

What's CUC?

[ckyuv]

Clean up crew = cuc

[Wade]

ah. I'm headed to a frag swap this weekend and plan to pick a bunch of stuff up. I'll look for some Mexican turbo snails, although I'm not sure if there will be anyone there with that kind of stock. Is that all that works for it?

Edited September 19, 2013 by Wade

[subsea]

Cerith and Nassarrius both reproduce in the sandbed. Patrick

[Timfish]

After seeing your video I'm pretty sure you have the soporophyte stage of an Asparagopsis spp red algae, definitely not a cyanobacteria. It's generally not palatable to most herbivores. What you want are animals that will scrape the areas clean, my first choice would be urchins but hermits and some of the snails should work also. You probably will have to resort to manual removal. My past experiences with it is it shows up during the first year while a system is maturing and clears up on it's own in about 4 - 5 months. I don't have it cause too many problems with corals but I wouldn't add anything expensive or delicate.

[Wade]

I guess I'l go pick me a couple of pencil urchins tomorrow and some turbo snails if I can find them. I've got my QT going so maybe I can get this under control before I move whatever new stock I get to my DT.

[Timfish]

I would just be patient. I would keep adding corals the reasoning being as the corals grow they will be competing for the same nutrients the algae is useing. Here's pictures of one set up I did. the two pictures were taken 15 months apart. You can see in the first picture corals were being added while there was a hair algae, including the same one I think you have, during the maturation process. Outside of siphoning out algae and a few urchins nothing was done to stop the algae. (No skimmer was used either.)

[Wade]

Thanks for the pictures. That really shows that above all patience is what's really needed. I think an urchin or two would still be good additions. I think I brushed off the gorgonian last time it got covered. Not sure if that was good for it or not, but it came back nice so I guess it didn't mind too much:)

[Bpb]

Peroxide works wonders for spot treatment. Only algae I've found that can withstand it is valonia. Gotta cut the flow and not do too much at once though. It won't solve your problem but it can save a frag or two that may be overgrown. As Tim said its about maturation. I asked a million questions on here right when I started my tank about cyano, Dino, and hair algae outbreaks I dealt with. There were no magic fixes. Just runnin gfo and carbon regularly, and regular water changes. Most those things will clear up in time with regular maintenance

[Wade]

@Timfish: Which corals would you define as "delicate" that I might want to avoid at this time?

Edited September 20, 2013 by Wade

[Planeden]

i'm not timfish, but i go to live aquaria and click on the beginner corals to get an idea.

[Timfish]

Even though I never buy anything from Live Aquaria it's surprising how often I use they're website as a reference for people to see what I'm talking about or like Planedon said as a reference for corals although some of the times they are clearly being cautious for the inexperienced aquarist IMO. I hate rules of thumb but if people are throwing or giving it away it's almost too hardy. For the most part healthy growing corals will fend off nuisance algae but steps most likely will need to be taken to keep it from shading the edges of coral colonies. In first picture I posted besides the brain you can see Monti's and Acropora millipora but also present in the tank at that time was the A. youngii, Green Slimmer. as well as A. valida. Poccillopora damicornis and birdsnest. Obviously many of the mushrooms, palys and zoas would be candidates.

[Wade]

Ok, just on my way back from the frag swap. Holy cow! Remind me never to do this again. Bought wayyyyyy too much. Good times. Here's my question: do I need to dip all this stuff before it goes into the QT or just before I move it from the QT to the DT, or both?

[jestep]

Ok, just on my way back from the frag swap. Holy cow! Remind me never to do this again. Bought wayyyyyy too much. Good times. Here's my question: do I need to dip all this stuff before it goes into the QT or just before I move it from the QT to the DT, or both?

I would do at the very minimum an iodine based dip. A lot of people do bayer insecticide or peroxide dips as well.

[Bpb]

Yeah dip will depend on species. Not all dips are created equal. Quarantine first. Come up with a list of what you got, then a list of compatible dips

[Wade]

Okie dokie. I've got Bayer and CoralRX. I'm still on the road back, but off the top of head I've got favia, chalice, montipora, plate, acans, frogspawn, blasto, maze brain, meteor shower, zoa, and an acro.

[Wade]

Well I've got the stuff floating. Too many different bags to try and drip acclimate so I'll float for 30 minutes and then start using a pipette to introduce some tank water to them. I guess I'll do that for about an hour and put them in. I'll post a pic of my haul once it's all on the frag rack. Man I got some nice stuff! Exciting times.

[Wade]

Here they are. Looks like 17 in total. I also picked up a large blue star fish, 2 urchins and 2 large turbo snails. Wow. Now I hope they do ok in my QT until I move them to the DT.

[Wade]

So how much this really needs to be quarantined? I know the zoa and maybe the blasto, but what about the rest?

[Bpb]

Well...I've personally never quarantined a coral before...that being said I know I am playing with fire. No dips will kill eggs. The best you can hope for is no pests at all. The worst you can deal with would be dipping once a week for 3-4 weeks to kill anything that may have hatched from eggs you can't see before they're able to lay new eggs. It's up to your discretion.

Since you have them in quarantine already, I'd dip the sps in bayer, rinse and return to quarantine, dip everything else in coral rx and return to quarantine. Watch closely for a week or two. I'd put the Lps right in the display after a dip. It's the zoa eating nudibranches, montipora eating nudibranches, red bugs and flatworms you gotta worry about with the sps and zoas. One dip will usually kill anything on them though, just not eggs. It's really up to you how long you wanna wait and how many times you wanna dip.

[Dustin Pedretti]

Here they are. Looks like 17 in total.  I also picked up a large blue star fish, 2 urchins and 2 large turbo snails.  Wow.  Now I hope they do ok in my QT until I move them to the DT.  

Wow wade you really did get a good haul!