This is odd...

[Willow]

cheato can grow quite well in your tank, you do not need a sump for it. only problem is it can grow fast depending on your nutrient level so you need to keep it pruned back or it will overrun. don't add caulerpa to your display as it will infest your rock and possibly go sexual without a 24 hour lighting period.

[OCDP]

thanks Willow.

Will the chaeto attatch to my rocks and spread over them?? I don't want that to happen.

Does anyone feel like explaining how and what it is when macro's go sexual? Or anyone with some good reads on it?

Lastly.. what does calupra (sp?) look like? I have this purple string-like macro on my rocks and it attatches to it like crazy, it's impossible to rip off...

If the chaeto is a good choice, and wont over-run my live rocks... then I am off to find me some chaeto !

[Beverly]

Chaeto does not actually attach to the rock, even after a long period of time, ime. Just keep pruning it back and change elastics once in awhile. However, I have had bits of chaeto, that must have detached from the main "chaeto ball" while pruning, attach to the backs of my tanks. Thought that was kind of weird since it has never attached to the rock it's elasticked to. (Don't know if elasticked is even a word )

I have chaeto and other non-invasive macroalgae in higher flow areas of all our no-skimmer, no sump/refugium, BB tanks. I also try really hard to keep a low bioload and not overfeed.

[Beverly]

Also check your tank for a dead snail or hermit crab. That can foul a small tank very quickly.

I would also suggest throwing on some sort of mechanical filtration and do some serious turkey basting of rock and sandbed. If you have never basted your tank before, be ready for serious cloudiness. Don't worry about the cloudiness, it will not harm your tank. Have done this proceedure in a couple of tanks with sandbed and cyano problems and it is safer than using chemical cures, imo.

Anyway, once the once the tank clears, remove and clean the media in the mechanical filter, then baste the rock some more. Also gently basted the sandbed where the cyano grows, not so much as to cause a sand storm, but enough to loosen the cyano and some of the detritus into the water column. When the tank clears again, clean the filter media again. Your skimmer may also need the collection cup cleaned more frequently during basting, so keep an eye on it as well.

Do this basting and filter media cleaning thing at least once a day for as long as the tank gets cloudy during basting. By the end of the basting period, you will have exported tons of detritus which helped fuel your algae problems.

Once you get things under control with the large water changes, continue basting and cleaning filter media in your tank before doing weekly water changes of at least 15%.

[OCDP]

Bev,

Thanks a bunch for all the suggestions, you're always such a big help! Your method sounds great and I am definitely going to do that.

I always thought that when you turkey baste the rocks and sandbed, that the junk that comes up is harmful.. and can cause ammonia spikes or something nasty.. that's why I tend not to do the rocks but only the sandbed, and just very gently.

Would an AC500 or something similar be sufficient for running carbon in?? If so, I can get one of those for fairly cheap.

Thanks again Bev, and everyone else

[TheReefGeek]

The stuff (settled detrius mostly) you turkey baste is harmfull. That is why you want to get it off the rocks and/or sandbed (I only baste my rocks, I have critters to turn over my sand) and then suspended in the water, where filters can pick it up, then when you clean/replace the filters you remove the junk.

[Beverly]

Scott,

I baste my rock every week the day before water changes. Nothing happens except that some of the crud actually makes it into the foams in our mechanical filters That's why cleaning the foams on our weekly water change day is so important becuase it exports the crud.

In your case, most of the crud has already degraded into nitrate and phosphate. But don't let that stop you from de-crudding your tank with the method I described.

Using an AC500 might be over kill due to the amount of flow it will add to your 20g tank. Maybe an AC300 might be more in tune with the size of your tank. Don't use carbon in it, use foam. The foam will collect the crud way better than carbon and you can easily clean the foam, then begin the basting cycle again. And make sure you clean the foam as soon as the tank clears so the crud is exported asap.

When I used this technique on our first tank, a 75g, I basted that poor tank sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. Even basting into the sandbed did not cause any problems, and of course, that's where most of my cyano was. Basting the sandbed broke up the cyano, sent it into the water column along with LOTS of crud, and all was sucked into the foams. Once I realized how safe it was to baste sand and rock, I made it my mission to baste and clean the foams as often as I could

Since that bad cyano outbreak in our 75g years and years ago, I always baste my rock (and sandbeds, when we had them) before every weekly water change.

HTH

[TheReefGeek]

Bev, do you use anything special to clean your foams, or just elbow grease?

How often do you replace your foams?