KJoFan's SCA 150g Build (1 Viewer)

[KJoFan]

Mostly for my own documentation. Spring swap acquisitions:

And a couple others just because.

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[DarkSky]

I remembered something that might be related to your GHA and no detectable nitrates. Algae is capable of taking up ammonia for nitrogen, even before it makes its way through the nitrogen cycle and broken down from NH3 -> NO4 -> NO3 -> N2.

Another possibility why so many people have large algae problems but no detectable NO3.

 

[KJoFan]

The dinos are coming on like wildfire now. I generally associate dinos and cyano with lack of available nutrients. In my case, tied up in the nuisance algae. I guess my hope is to get rid of the nuisance algae as much as I can and hope nutrients rebound, which will take care of the dinos.

But, I don't know if it's as simple as that, or if I should bite the bullet and try the Dr. Tim's protocol and products.

 

[KJoFan]

It’s on.

I’m going to be gone tomorrow until Sunday so I’ll hold off on starting. Maybe Sunday evening I can do some manual removal and start. If not, probably Monday.

I’m hoping for great things.


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[KJoFan]

Took some par readings with an Apogee MQ-200: (sandbed readings in red..seem high)

Resurrecting this in light of (ha!) some new information regarding the par meter I used for these readings. Seems the readings recorded in the photo could be at minimum 50% low. Which means my par readings at the time were pretty high.

Since then, I have reduced intensity. My lighting currently is in acclimation mode at 70%. I've also shifted the spectrum bluer since initial setup. I'm not sure what that really translates to overall in terms of par, but chances are my par numbers have always been higher than I thought.

 

[KJoFan]

Here we go.

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[jlanger]

Good luck!

 

[Mordim]

I'm interested to hear how the Dr Tim's refresh product worked for you.

 

[KJoFan]

I'm interested to hear how the Dr Tim's refresh product worked for you.

I did the 3 days of ReFresh and black out, per Dr. Tim's instructions to combat the dinos and a little cyano. The dinos were gone after that 3rd day and haven't come back, 4 days back on regular lighting. I'm in the midst of the Waste Away dosing now to work on the algae. I need to manually remove some of that if I could find the time to spend on it.

I'm considering a second treatment (per Dr. Tim's suggestion) for the algae just to try to hit it as hard as I can.

So...to this point, the ReFresh and blackout seems to have helped with the dinos.

 

[jlanger]

I'm into a second treatment on my 32gal. The first treatment (targeting dinoflagellates/cyanobacteria) knocked out the dinoflagellates and had some effect on the hair algae. The second treatment (targeting algae) seems to be working also. There's still another week to go, but the tank does looks a lot better.
I am trying to think of a way to add more flow to the display, but I'll probably have to thin out the leather corals first.

 

[KJoFan]

I'm into a second treatment on my 32gal. The first treatment (targeting dinoflagellates/cyanobacteria) knocked out the dinoflagellates and had some effect on the hair algae. The second treatment (targeting algae) seems to be working also. There's still another week to go, but the tank does looks a lot better.
I am trying to think of a way to add more flow to the display, but I'll probably have to thin out the leather corals first.

Are you following the algae protocol for this second time then?

I’m thinking once I finish the dino process I’ll do the algae one and see if that knocks it all back good.

Like you, the hair algae took a hit but I can see it’s not been enough to fully kick it.

I’ll need to replenish my supplies though. This isn’t the cheapest treatment in the world on a 200g net volume system.


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[jlanger]

Are you following the algae protocol for this second time then?

I’m thinking once I finish the dino process I’ll do the algae one and see if that knocks it all back good.

Like you, the hair algae took a hit but I can see it’s not been enough to fully kick it.

I’ll need to replenish my supplies though. This isn’t the cheapest treatment in the world on a 200g net volume system.

Yep. This second treatment is the algae/cyanobacteria recipe. (Oops... mislabelled above.)
I picked up enough to treat 480gal, so I'll be set for a while.

 

[Mordim]

I did the 3 days of ReFresh and black out, per Dr. Tim's instructions to combat the dinos and a little cyano. The dinos were gone after that 3rd day and haven't come back, 4 days back on regular lighting.

That's awesome! Fingers crossed the dinos stay gone. Maybe there is finally a treatment for that type of dinos.

 

[KJoFan]

So update a couple weeks on. Dinos have stayed away to this point. I have had some cyano creep back in and the hair algae is stil present, though not worse and some better than it originally was. I started the Dr. Tim's Cyano/Algae protocol the other day. So, we'll see what another couple weeks brings.

I did some testing for the first time in awhile also the other day.

KH - 6.9
Cal - 390
Mg - Didn't test
NO3 - 10
PO4 - .03

Nutrients are in a good range, though probably slightly false with the hair algae. But, macros are growing pretty good in the fuge (along with hair algae. ugh). KH and Cal are a bit low, but my doser had been off since I started the treatments. I've started it back up, but might manually bump at least Calcium up a bit.

I purchased a ton of corals from someone clearing out most of his tank this weekend. LPS like a large wellso, frogspawn, acans,and a nice favia (looks like UC Fascination) a few sps like a couple nice chalices and a couple encrusting montis (reverse superman), several varieities of zoas (rasta, rainbow infusion, bambams, and more), a bunch of different mushrooms and probably a few things I'm forgetting. All in all 33 different pieces. All fairly easy stuff, but right now I need to stick to that.

My thought is that I need to just up the coral population overall (even if some never make it out of the frag tank) in the system as that should help stabilize things and lead to increased maturity.

So, in summary, my game plan is to beat the hair algae first and foremost, then load up the tank with corals and watch them grow. After it's packed full of pretty much everything but acros, then I can consider clearing some space and trying acros again, but I don't see that happening anytime real soon.

 

[KJoFan]

Just a quick update. I completed the full Dr. Tim's algae protocol with no change/improvement to the amount of hair algae in the tank. I'm kind of at a loss as to what to try from here.

Complete manual removal is nearly impossible unless you just remove 90% of the rock. I'm kind of wondering if it's even possible to eradicate the tank, or at least reduce amount to a level that is manageable by the critters or not.

I've even considered a sump change from the Trigger Triton44 to the Trigger 39 or something similar and even removing the most affected rocks and replacing with new LR. But, is that even a valid route to take?

I'm kind of at a loss and have just been apathetic recently to finding a solution.

 

[VikingsCrazy]

Get a couple tuxedo urchins. They love hair algae!

 

[KJoFan]

Get a couple tuxedo urchins. They love hair algae!

I have two pincushion urchins. One the size of a baseball at least and they don’t seem to make much headway. I tried two tuxedos and they both died so I’ve stayed away from them.

I suspect the hair algae is a bit too long for them to want to eat maybe.


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[Mandarin_Jake]

Have you done anything with hydrogen peroxide? You can get your standard 3% in stores, 12% online, maybe even 36% if you can source that somewhere. You can take out your rocks and spray hydrogen peroxide straight on it and let it sit and kill off most of what's there.

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[KJoFan]

Have you done anything with hydrogen peroxide? You can get your standard 3% in stores, 12% online, maybe even 36% if you can source that somewhere. You can take out your rocks and spray hydrogen peroxide straight on it and let it sit and kill off most of what's there.

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I haven't. I have the standard 3% stuff and I've thought about trying it. Honestly, I need a large vat of peroxide at this rate, to dunk everything in. It's on the verge of out of control status.

I'm headed out of town tomorrow for several days, so things will have to idle until I get back. After that I need to start taking some big swings at it to see if I can get this under control. I cringe to think of the big water changes in my future. Who thought a 200g net volume system was a good idea?

 

[clownnut]

have you tried the fluke pill? i know carl did that with some good results. otherwise, long spine urchin will do a good job. after job is done just give it to lfs.