Denzil's 10 Gallon (Temporary) Nano Tank
- Thread starter denzil
- Start date
iCon
Supporting Member
Your algae looks bryopsis-like enough to be worried about it IMO.
Redid an entire tank due to that stuff.
+++Tech M/Mg if it's all over the tank.
Peroxide if localized on frags or removable rock. There's a write up on here about this method and several threads on other sites: http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/11002
Redid an entire tank due to that stuff.
+++Tech M/Mg if it's all over the tank.
Peroxide if localized on frags or removable rock. There's a write up on here about this method and several threads on other sites: http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/11002
denzil
Guest
iCon said:
Yeah, I'm pretty confident that it's Bryopsis because I looked at Brandie's tank and she has it all over her one Koralia and a couple spots on her LR. Not sure how we'd get rid of it on her LR but it's high enough so that when she does a water change, it's out of the water.
Thanks for the lead on the bryopsis removal! Definitely will have to try it out.
iCon
Supporting Member
+++ = lots. Hah. The Mg method and peroxide method are both well documented with success stories etc. Basic info: Raise Mg in your tank to a high enough level and watch the bryopsis die off. Some corals may bleach etc. Some say an impurity in Tech M is the cause for the die off. Peroxide is just a simple 1:5 mixture and you use it like a dip, repeating as necessary. I believe it's 1:5...The thread should have ratios of what people used and for how long. AFAIK, nothing is really guaranteed to eat the stuff. An occasional fox face here and there but it's best to rid the tank without adding a creature for the job.
Before you or brandie upgrade, strong recommendation to get rid of the bryopsis first. It's really not fun to have in a main display tank. The stuff spreads like wildfire - make sure not to pass it between yourselves...or others!
It's one of those things where if I see it on a frag, I'll toss it or frag the frag... Good luck!
Before you or brandie upgrade, strong recommendation to get rid of the bryopsis first. It's really not fun to have in a main display tank. The stuff spreads like wildfire - make sure not to pass it between yourselves...or others!
It's one of those things where if I see it on a frag, I'll toss it or frag the frag... Good luck!
Kmooresf
Supporting Member
denzil said:
Hey Denzil. Stuff is looking good. Sorry about the Algae issues, but if it's not one thing, it's another. :tired: Just have to be persistent.
As for your phosphate........it took me a long time to get mine under control. .5-1 is a LOT of phosphate.........you are correct that the test kits are difficult to really decide what you are looking at. Different lighting affects it greatly. I have a Hanna checker for phosphate that I would be willing to let you try out for a few days if you like. It might not be 100% accurate, however it is very consistent. So if it's off by .03 high or low.......it is always that way, so you can still get a good idea of where you are at. They are expensive little buggers, but I like them.
A few things to consider.......is your live rock from someone else's tank? It could need to be cooked and might be leaching phosphate into your system? Or if it was dry rock.......(I used pukani from BRS.....love it, however later found others had probelms with phosphates from this as well.....seems to go away after about 6 months to a year)......might just be a waiting game. I used a lot of GFO along with my water changes to get it under control.
CHAETO!!!!! (did I spell that right?) I got a clump from Erin (kensington reefer) and holy moly that stuff is amazing. I noticed a huge difference in my phosphates after adding it, and I am cutting out buckets full every two weeks. I can't remember if you have a sump on the little guy.....prolly not, but if you do, add the stuff.
How is your skimmer? Skim the heck out of that tank if possible. You might not have one yet, but I could loan you a Aqua C remora to hang on it for a bit. Not the best, but better than nothing.
Check your salt. Check for phosphate in your salt mix................check just before you do a W/C. Might have to use the Hannah as it would prolly be pretty low...like .04ish, but it's good to know. I started using "microbe lift" stuff from neptune. AMAZING!! Mixes clear with no precip.....good alk numbers (8.5 after a day of mixing) and no phosphate. Anyway, might be worth checking your salt.
Make sure you test your water before you feed. Made that mistake a few times.. LOL! Yeah, I did. I am sure you have thought of your food, but I noticed that certain foods really crank up my phosphates. The "oyster feast" sends mine through the roof. The Rods food seems good though, and rotifers are good.
Ok, I'll stop. Sorry I am home sick and bored. Prolly the nyquil talking.
Good luck, the tank looks good.
BAYMAC
Guest
denzil said:BAYMAC said:FWIW Bam Bams are one of many zoas named by BAR members that are "named corals" now
Hah, cool. Which Dan do you speak of?
BammBamm (Dan). I don't recall his last name, we're talking just a few years into the club getting going. Dan's been our for a few years now.
http://www.bareefers.org/home/user/852
Then of course there are the armour of gods, and numerous others
denzil
Guest
Would love to try the Hanna checker but I think it's safe to say that I have a phosphate problem, haha. Maybe when I get the phosphates down, I may take you up on the offer. One thing I can say is that the Red Sea Pro kit I'm using is pretty consistent (as far as I can tell).Kmooresf said:denzil said:
Hey Denzil. Stuff is looking good. Sorry about the Algae issues, but if it's not one thing, it's another. :tired: Just have to be persistent.
As for your phosphate........it took me a long time to get mine under control. .5-1 is a LOT of phosphate.........you are correct that the test kits are difficult to really decide what you are looking at. Different lighting affects it greatly. I have a Hanna checker for phosphate that I would be willing to let you try out for a few days if you like. It might not be 100% accurate, however it is very consistent. So if it's off by .03 high or low.......it is always that way, so you can still get a good idea of where you are at. They are expensive little buggers, but I like them.
A few things to consider.......is your live rock from someone else's tank? It could need to be cooked and might be leaching phosphate into your system? Or if it was dry rock.......(I used pukani from BRS.....love it, however later found others had probelms with phosphates from this as well.....seems to go away after about 6 months to a year)......might just be a waiting game. I used a lot of GFO along with my water changes to get it under control.
CHAETO!!!!! (did I spell that right?) I got a clump from Erin (kensington reefer) and holy moly that stuff is amazing. I noticed a huge difference in my phosphates after adding it, and I am cutting out buckets full every two weeks. I can't remember if you have a sump on the little guy.....prolly not, but if you do, add the stuff.
How is your skimmer? Skim the heck out of that tank if possible. You might not have one yet, but I could loan you a Aqua C remora to hang on it for a bit. Not the best, but better than nothing.
Check your salt. Check for phosphate in your salt mix................check just before you do a W/C. Might have to use the Hannah as it would prolly be pretty low...like .04ish, but it's good to know. I started using "microbe lift" stuff from neptune. AMAZING!! Mixes clear with no precip.....good alk numbers (8.5 after a day of mixing) and no phosphate. Anyway, might be worth checking your salt.
Make sure you test your water before you feed. Made that mistake a few times.. LOL! Yeah, I did. I am sure you have thought of your food, but I noticed that certain foods really crank up my phosphates. The "oyster feast" sends mine through the roof. The Rods food seems good though, and rotifers are good.
Ok, I'll stop. Sorry I am home sick and bored. Prolly the nyquil talking.
The rock was originally base (Marco) rock that was seeded by a rock from Brandie's 90g. We recently started monitoring her water parameters within the past month so I imagine that there was already high phosphates to begin with when I pulled that rock to seed my base rock back in October. One thing to note though was there was one day (about a month ago) where I dropped 10 drops of Oyster-Feast in the tank which clouded up the water pretty bad. However, it cleared up the next day. Maybe my rock is leaching phosphates (hope not)?
I have some macroalgae (Blue Ochtodes) that I got from Felicia but it was covered with so much cyano that I ended up ripping it out. However, there are small patches of what remained that appear to be growing which could help me (I think). Does it necessarily have to be chaeto or will any macroalgae do?
I do have a skimmer (Tunze 9002) but I really don't like it in the 10g. It takes way too much real estate for a tank of five clowns, a peppermint shrimp, an emerald crab, and a (recently added/rescued) mandarin (don't worry, my tank's literally infested with pods; it's pretty ridiculous(ly)/awesome). Maybe we could swap skimmers for collateral while I borrow your Remora? Would definitely prefer the HOB skimmer.
I'll definitely check the salt this weekend before I do a WC. I'm thinking I'll do another 50% WC because I'm assuming (since I haven't tested yet today) that the phosphates are still high. While I'm at it, I'll check the RODI water as well. The DI resin looks exhausted (my assumption based on the color) so I'll have to check there as well.
Thanks for the tip on testing before I feed. Should I also test shortly after feeding as well?
Thanks in advance!
Kmooresf
Supporting Member
I would say any macro algae is going to be a good addition. Might be that Chaeto grows faster than others? Seems like the sheer mass it produces is much more than my other algaes. Never tested that theory though.
You can use the remora as well as the tunze if you like. It's just sitting in my old 26 gallon bow front that I can't seem to get rid of. Keep thinking it might be useful for something. LOL! This might be a disease? :~ Too far in to think about that now.
Congrats on the phosphate......sounds like a big improvement. I appreciate how committed you guys are to this. I think it's the only way to be truly successful with a tank. Get to know as much about it as you can. Fun!
You can use the remora as well as the tunze if you like. It's just sitting in my old 26 gallon bow front that I can't seem to get rid of. Keep thinking it might be useful for something. LOL! This might be a disease? :~ Too far in to think about that now.
Congrats on the phosphate......sounds like a big improvement. I appreciate how committed you guys are to this. I think it's the only way to be truly successful with a tank. Get to know as much about it as you can. Fun!
denzil
Guest
Yeah, I'm not entirely sure if chaeto grows faster than the Blue Ochtodes but I definitely like the color of the Blue Ochtodes.Kmooresf said:
Yeah, the phosphate has definitely decreased but still not ideal yet. I definitely want to get the water parameters straight since everyone's going to be in the 10g for a few months before my 40B is ready to go. I just want to make the inhabitants as comfortable as possible as they patiently wait for their new home. I just need to get my tank stand design finalized and get to building!
Will you be at the meet this Saturday by chance? If not, I'll have to pick up the Remora from ya.
denzil
Guest
KH: 9.65 dKH
Ca: 465 ppm
Mg: 1500 ppm
NO3: 0 ppm
PO4: between .25 and .5 ppm
For some odd reason the chaclies aren't doing too hot... looks like they're slightly receding even after acclimating all the corals in the Acclimate box at the 14 setting and dipping them in Revive for 15 mins. I'm hoping I won't lose the frag that I got from Jess. I also used the BAR's newly acquired MQ-200 (for BAR's lending library) and I'm getting a top, middle, bottom reading averaging 350, 200, 100, respectively. The green chalice was originally on a frag rack at the top and the DC Streamline Dreams was in the middle. Both have now been brought to the bottom of the tank.
Ca: 465 ppm
Mg: 1500 ppm
NO3: 0 ppm
PO4: between .25 and .5 ppm
For some odd reason the chaclies aren't doing too hot... looks like they're slightly receding even after acclimating all the corals in the Acclimate box at the 14 setting and dipping them in Revive for 15 mins. I'm hoping I won't lose the frag that I got from Jess. I also used the BAR's newly acquired MQ-200 (for BAR's lending library) and I'm getting a top, middle, bottom reading averaging 350, 200, 100, respectively. The green chalice was originally on a frag rack at the top and the DC Streamline Dreams was in the middle. Both have now been brought to the bottom of the tank.
denzil
Guest
KH: 9.2 dKH
Ca: 475 ppm
Mg: 1600+ ppm
NO3: 20 ppm
PO4: between .1 and .25 ppm
pH: 8.4
I just tossed some GFO in a media bag (from the Chemi-Pure Elite) into my AC30. It appears I have a nitrate and phosphate issue still lingering. Hoping the next few 50% water changes and time will fix that. Should I be concerned about the Calcium and the Magnesium ranges? Does everything else look okay? Just wondering if anyone can share their experiences with similar readings.
To rehash, I have the AquaC Remora skimmer (set about midway) with one MP10Wes on and the AC30 with two sponge filters that are taking the bottom and middle portion of the chamber and the GFO in the media bag at the top. Also, I'm running the RapidLED lights with five royal blues and four cool whites. PAR readings average 350, 200, 100, from top to bottom, respectively.
Ca: 475 ppm
Mg: 1600+ ppm
NO3: 20 ppm
PO4: between .1 and .25 ppm
pH: 8.4
I just tossed some GFO in a media bag (from the Chemi-Pure Elite) into my AC30. It appears I have a nitrate and phosphate issue still lingering. Hoping the next few 50% water changes and time will fix that. Should I be concerned about the Calcium and the Magnesium ranges? Does everything else look okay? Just wondering if anyone can share their experiences with similar readings.
To rehash, I have the AquaC Remora skimmer (set about midway) with one MP10Wes on and the AC30 with two sponge filters that are taking the bottom and middle portion of the chamber and the GFO in the media bag at the top. Also, I'm running the RapidLED lights with five royal blues and four cool whites. PAR readings average 350, 200, 100, from top to bottom, respectively.
lattehiatus
Past President
The two sponge filters in the AC30 are potential nitrate factories that could be contributing to the slightly higher nitrate level. It's alright to just run the GFO bag without any other media in the other "compartments" - if you still want to retain some mechanical filtration a layer or two of filter floss will do it. When GFO is not being tumbled in a reactor it has the tendency to clump, so you'll likely need to take out the media bag with GFO and unclump it every week or so to maintain PO4 removal efficiency.
Piper
Guest
Are you adding Mg to the tank? Seems just a little high if you're not dosing it but should not be too much of an issue. I ran my Mg that high for a while shortly after I started up my tank to help with hair algae. I wouldn't worry too much about Ca either.
Nitrates went from 0 - 20 in 4 days? Have you tested your W/C water after mixing to see what the nitrates are? Seems odd to have them go up that much in such a short time.
I agree with what David said on the sponges and GFO. Make sure you're rinsing the spongers and/or filter floss at least once a week. Suck as much poop out of the tank as you can when doing water changes. Use a turkey baster to get it off the rocks and bottom of the tank so you can get to it easier.
All tests/numbers aside, how are the critters in the tank doing at this moment? Are the chalices still looking off?
~Charlie
Nitrates went from 0 - 20 in 4 days? Have you tested your W/C water after mixing to see what the nitrates are? Seems odd to have them go up that much in such a short time.
I agree with what David said on the sponges and GFO. Make sure you're rinsing the spongers and/or filter floss at least once a week. Suck as much poop out of the tank as you can when doing water changes. Use a turkey baster to get it off the rocks and bottom of the tank so you can get to it easier.
All tests/numbers aside, how are the critters in the tank doing at this moment? Are the chalices still looking off?
~Charlie
denzil
Guest
Hrm, that seems to make sense. However, I have a bit of a pod population in those two sponges. What should I do with them? Should I rinse them out in the tank to release any of the pod population that I can or is it not worth the potential nitrate spike? I'm definitely going to keep the GFO in there for now. Is it safe to just do away without the AC30 once the water params are stable for a few weeks?lattehiatus said:
Nope, definitely not adding Mg to the tank. However, I am doing 50% WC. I haven't tested my WC water after mixing and the most recent batch was from a new Salinity bucket that I decided to mix by emptying the contents into another Salinity bucket per Tony Vargas' suggestion about mixing settled salt. I do realize the tank's overstocked so I wrote off the 20 ppm nitrate to that. Also, now that David had mentioned the sponges being a nitrate factory, when I retrofitted the GFO into the Chemi-Pure Elite bag, I did take those two sponges and dipped/rinsed them around inside the tank to release some of the pod population that was in them. That may explain the nitrate spike that was measured just after four days.Piper said:
Yeah, that's what I thought too so I figured it was something I was doing wrong. If anything, the only thing I'm dosing is if my alk gets low but you're right, ever since the water changes, the alk parameter has always been fine. I only have a bali green this time around!iCon said: