Fluval M90 (36gal) Build

[HarleyGuy]

Oh I forgot, I also have a lawnmower blenny that looks like Jabba the Hut! lol

[jolt]

I've read online that with vibrant you need to make sure and pull any algae that has died out of the system manually to avoid nutrient issues that can cause a cyano bloom.

[HarleyGuy]

I've read online that with vibrant you need to make sure and pull any algae that has died out of the system manually to avoid nutrient issues that can cause a cyano bloom.

The Chemiclean removed all the Cyano in 2 days (very awesome), and I removed a ton of the hair algae by scrub/net/water change.

Hopefully the death of what little hair is left will not spur the Cyano again, especially with the Chemiclean in there.

[madsalt]

Another concern that was brought up by timfish is how corals might react. I would be interested in how your LPS respond. By adding these types of chemicals it is possible to create a very low nutrient environment. I will not be able to test this as I do not have any corals in my tank.

[HarleyGuy]

Another concern that was brought up by timfish is how corals might react. I would be interested in how your LPS respond. By adding these types of chemicals it is possible to create a very low nutrient environment. I will not be able to test this as I do not have any corals in my tank.

Chemiclean Usage: River City said that they have used Chemiclean for years to control Cyano with no adverse affects on any Coral or fish. They actually were treating two tanks in their store while I was there, that's how I heard about it. They said it usually keeps Cyano knocked out for about 6 months after each treatment. Also, I'm assuming multiple people in the club have bought fish/corals from River City over the past years without any problems.

Vibrant + Chemiclean Usage: Vibrant is definitely an unknown, as is using both Vibrant and Chemiclean together in the same tank. We will see how it goes over the next few weeks. So far (immediately after the change) the coral actually perked up and looked much better than they did with all the Hair/Cyano in the tank. I'll send out an update the end of this week (with pics).

[+KimP]

I'm so sorry to read about your wreck and I'm glad you seem to be making a smooth recovery. That's amazing! Looks like your corals hung in there pretty well. The most recent pics are looking good! Just stick with the manual removal and water changes as you're able, and that'll go a long way no matter what else you do.

[HarleyGuy]

Hi Kim,

Thanks! I'm hanging in there. Most of the bones have mended but the wrist, hand, and ankle are still bothering me, as is the road rash.

Thanks on the tank. So far it is looking much better, but there is still some furry green here and there that I need to get rid of. The tank animals are working it (snails, crabs, urchins, and Jabba the Lawnmower Blenny), and I'm going to continue with Vibrant and see if it actually helps. I'll send out a status this weekend with pics again.

The good thing is I'm learning a lot that will help when I get the 120 setup.  

[Reburn]

I've been seeing a lot of people do the vibrant thing and I jumped on the band wagon about 2 months ago.  Initial impressions were awesome.  I only had to clean my glass once a week and it was sparkling clean.  My water is usually about a 4 out of a 5 on clearness and it did kick it up to darn near crystal clear.  I wasn't really fighting much algae just a little in the sand of my 34g tank and hair algae on my snails. I was dosing 1 time a week.  It did knock the algae on the sand out but didn't affect the hair algae on the snails.  After most of all the algae was dead my zoas stopped growing and my sps started lighting up at the edges of the encrustation.  This was followed by very slow persistent STN at the base.  Very very slow.  Like 1mm every couple days.  I discontinued vibrant 2 weeks ago and my corals are staring to regrow at the base and my zoas are opening back up.  I believe that this was due to the vibrant not having a ready algae source to "eat" not due to the increased clearness of the water.  The increased clearness was very minimal.  I did maintain 5ppm nitrates by dosing while running vibrant.

So I'm summary here is my unscientific review on vibrant.  Yes it works.  Yes it will help weaken algae where it can be manually removed easier and it will keep your glass clean.  It can cause a cyano bloom (which I didn't experience), which is due to the sequestered nutrients being released back into the water column, as the no3 gets used up the p04 remains which is what causes the cyano bloom.  The cyano is easily dealt with using Phosphate removal methods and chemiclean.  After your tank has been "cleaned" of algae the vibrant will start affecting the growth of coral.  With all this being said, I do believe vibrant does as claimed,   It does work and I would not classify it as snake oil, I will keep it in my inventory to use sparingly when it's needed.  It's not something I would use full time as I do believe that it does has a negative impact on corals on a long enough time line after the algae is under control.  I feel the same way about chemiclean.  It's a great tool but I wouldn't run it full time.  I use it as needed per the instructions on the box.

For fish only systems and QT tanks I continue to use it and think it's awesome.  For reef tanks I will only use sparingly as needed.

[HarleyGuy]

4 hours ago, Reburn said:

I've been seeing a lot of people do the vibrant thing and I jumped on the band wagon about 2 months ago.  Initial impressions were awesome.  I only had to clean my glass once a week and it was sparkling clean.  My water is usually about a 4 out of a 5 on clearness and it did kick it up to darn near crystal clear.  I wasn't really fighting much algae just a little in the sand of my 34g tank and hair algae on my snails. I was dosing 1 time a week.  It did knock the algae on the sand out but didn't affect the hair algae on the snails.  After most of all the algae was dead my zoas stopped growing and my sps started lighting up at the edges of the encrustation.  This was followed by very slow persistent STN at the base.  Very very slow.  Like 1mm every couple days.  I discontinued vibrant 2 weeks ago and my corals are staring to regrow at the base and my zoas are opening back up.  I believe that this was due to the vibrant not having a ready algae source to "eat" not due to the increased clearness of the water.  The increased clearness was very minimal.  I did maintain 5ppm nitrates by dosing while running vibrant.

So I'm summary here is my unscientific review on vibrant.  Yes it works.  Yes it will help weaken algae where it can be manually removed easier and it will keep your glass clean.  It can cause a cyano bloom (which I didn't experience), which is due to the sequestered nutrients being released back into the water column, as the no3 gets used up the p04 remains which is what causes the cyano bloom.  The cyano is easily dealt with using Phosphate removal methods and chemiclean.  After your tank has been "cleaned" of algae the vibrant will start affecting the growth of coral.  With all this being said, I do believe vibrant does as claimed,   It does work and I would not classify it as snake oil, I will keep it in my inventory to use sparingly when it's needed.  It's not something I would use full time as I do believe that it does has a negative impact on corals on a long enough time line after the algae is under control.  I feel the same way about chemiclean.  It's a great tool but I wouldn't run it full time.  I use it as needed per the instructions on the box.

For fish only systems and QT tanks I continue to use it and think it's awesome.  For reef tanks I will only use sparingly as needed.

This all makes sense and although I haven't seen the negative impacts (yet), I agree with your conclusions. I will follow up with pics over the next couple weeks to show the results in my 36G reef. Once I complete the hair algae removal I will stop the use of Vibrant until such time when its needed again (which will hopefully be never :-)). I was extremely impressed with Chemiclean and hopefully will be equally impressed with Vibrant.

[HarleyGuy]

Hi All, one week after the treatments with Vibrant and Chemiclean. The tank is looking ok so far. The corals are looking fine and so are the fish. The Cyano is gone, but the hair algae is still there. I did the second treatment of Vibrant. Here is what it looks like so far.

 

 

[HarleyGuy]

I haven't posted in a while, here are some recent pics. Still have hair algae, but not as much. My next water change will include another scrub and I'm going to add a sump with Chaeto - so that should help. Here are the pics:

 

[stephaniegarcia]

Have you looked in to fluconazole treatment for GHA?  People are using it for bryopsis but it has been shown to nuke GHA as well, just not as quickly. To date, have read zero negative reviews. 

[ShawnM]

Did you give up on the vibrant?

[HarleyGuy]

14 hours ago, stephaniegarcia said:

Have you looked in to fluconazole treatment for GHA?  Pat are using t for bryopsis but it has been shown to nuke GHA as well, just not as quickly. To date, have read zero negative reviews. 

Hi Stephanie, No, I was using Vibrant, GFO, Chemiclean (which removed ALL my Cyanobacteria), and physical removal. This all helped, but it is not completely removing all of the GHA. The tank looks a lot better but I still have a lot of live HA in the tank in hard to get areas, and it is in the clear tubing as well.

I'll do a water change, order the fluconazole, and give it a try as well. Thanks.

[HarleyGuy]

14 hours ago, ShawnM said:

Did you give up on the vibrant?

Hi Shawn, not completely. With the use of Vibrant, GFO, and physical removal, the tank looks a lot better but I still have quite a bit of live HA in the tank in hard to get areas, and it is in the clear tubing as well. I'll send some more pics.

I think I'm going to try the fluconazole. The reviews of that treatment (and pics) of some of those tanks look similar to mine and they were using Vibrant as well with the same partial results. Hopefully the  fluconazole will knock out the remainder and then when I install the sump with Chaeto, all should be good going forward.

Here is the 10gal sump that I built this weekend that is going under the 36 gal tank. Please ignore the crappy looking silicon job lol, it is structurally sound.

• 1st section - Mechanical filter (sock, going to put in a shorter one), Marinepure Bio Media (balls) instead of live rock
• 2nd Section - Marinepure Bio block and Chaeto with adjustable water level, and JBJ Refugium Light
• 3rd section - Poly filter and return

 

• I will also try and fit my GFO reactor in here somewhere..

 

 

[HarleyGuy]

Well I tried fluconazole in a final attempt to remove the GHA, without having to remove my live rock and do some detailed rock by rock deep clean. The results were unbelievable! Within a week it completed removed all of it. I would not have believed anything could completely remove all of the hair algae that I had in this tank. The pics are below. I see NO issues with coral or fish and the GHA is pretty much gone. So I'd say I would highly recommend both fluconazole for GHA and Chemiclean for Cyanobacteria. I'm going to do a water change this weekend, and should be good to go. Very happy with the results. :-)

[HarleyGuy]

One other note, you can buy Chemiclean anywhere, but the flucon - I was looking for something that didn't have a lot of extra additives that may impact a reef. When you search for fluconazole a lot of the items you find have more than just fluconazole in the tablets. What I finally ended up buying specifically said "fish" fluconazole 200mg. It is used in Asia to treat fungal infections in fancy goldfish. It may not be the cheapest option but it gave me a little more peace of mind. :-) 

Here is the link where I purchased the fluconazole     https://www.payless-petproducts.com/fluconazole200.html

 

Here are the details:

Fish Fluconazole (Fish Flucon)

Ingredients
200mg Fluconazole
 

Fish Fluconazole is an antifungal medication used to treat topical and systemic fungal infections in fish. Is for use in aquariums for treatment of fungus susceptible to Fluconazole like Ichthyophonus hoferi and Saprolegnia fungus. There has been some success with the elimination of Bryopsis Algae.

 

Directions:

Add 1 pre-dissolved capsule (200 mg) into aquarium for every 10 gallons of water to be treated. Repeat every 24 hours for 5 consecutive days. It is suggested that a partial water change be made between treatments. Discontinue use if no improvement is noted after 5 days.
 

 

[HarleyGuy]

Also - I only did 1 dose, not 1 dose every 24 hours as specified above...

[BornToHula]

Tank is looking good! Glad the fluconazole worked out.

[HarleyGuy]

13 hours ago, BornToHula said:

Tank is looking good! Glad the fluconazole worked out.

Thanks! I'll be doing a water change this weekend and clean up the bottom to remove the old shells and stuff.

I noticed that my Melanurus wrasse is very good at flipping over snails and eating them, so I need to clean up his pile of kills (snail shells). :-(  He is a great looking dude, very colorful, and doesn't mess with my fish, shrimp, or corals, but he is a snail killer..

[HarleyGuy]

Hi All,

Here is a quick update. The tank is still GHA and Cyano free so I think I'm good after the changes I made to remove both. The corals are showing good growth and everyone is happy. Thanks for all the help and input!!

John

 

[+BobcatReefer]

Tank looks great HG!  Is that a feather duster dead center?

[HarleyGuy]

24 minutes ago, BobcatReefer said:

Tank looks great HG!  Is that a feather duster dead center?

Thanks!

Yes that is a Giant Feather Duster (Sabellastarte sp.) and that dude is doing really good and growing. :-)  These can get up to 7" and I'm going to add a couple of these to my 120gal when I get it setup. I think they look great!

[ShawnM]

Tank looks awesome congrats

[HarleyGuy]

Thanks Shawn!