Help identifying strange algae

[jagermaier]

Originally Posted by TheNewGuy

fragit dan and jagermaier, is chemiclean fine for reef tanks? no harm to coral?

monocus, Ive had aiptasia problems right from the start. the LR i got was from a tear down of someone elses tank, so i got all the good and the bad with it. a matted filefish destroyed the problem last year around this time, but it came back. I just added the filefish on the 26th, so it wont be too long and he will have it under control (hopefully). Im using api kits for everything except phos (hannah checker), and mag (elos). nitrates show 0 and have for a very long time.

A Berghia nudibranch will better rid your tank of aptasia as it eats ALL of the aptasia so it does not regenerate. Just my opinion though...

[FragIt Dan]

+1 on the chemiclean, no problem for reef tanks. I use it on several without problem, as already mentioned, take your skimmer offline. I opt to remove the skimmer cup and leave the skimmer on to increase aeration, but this is with an in-sump skimmer and it leads to lots of foam in the sump. Also, carbon comes out during dosing. I'll turn the skimmer back on (replace the cup) for a few hours before my water change and turn it down a bit, and empty the cup (will be every couple of minutes for the first bit). When it calms down I do my water change. I'm under the impression this takes a lot of the crude out prior to the water change so gives me a cleaner tank in the end. Then the old carbon goes back online and gets changed the next day. It is also a good idea to inoculate your tank with a bacteriological product like MB7 afterwards as the chemiclean will wipe out a lot of the bacteria in your tank, bad AND good,
Dan

[Baldy]

Originally Posted by jagermaier

A Berghia nudibranch will better rid your tank of aptasia as it eats ALL of the aptasia so it does not regenerate. Just my opinion though...

I tried berghia nudis a while ago. i got 12 from a place in the US. they all arrived alive, and i carefully placed them throughout the tank as the webside instructed using a pipette. cost me around 250$ for them. and six months later, there was no change. tried the matted filefish, and 2 months later, no visible aiptasia.

i got rid of the first filefish as i suspected him of nipping some zoas. hopefully this one will behave =P

[Baldy]

just did some reading on chemiclean. The oxygenation issue has me a little worried. I have a flame hawkfish and have read that they require oxygen rich water. that and i dont want to lose any coral.

any reccomendations or personal experiences that would help out?

[jagermaier]

Just throw a couple of power heads in the display tank to aerate the water during the process and you will be fine, you do not have to worry about the corals...they will be fine!

[Baldy]

man, at times all this makes me want to pull my hair out! (made more funny by the fact im bald =P). I am reading up on chemiclean. and it seems for some reason like every time i research nutrient reduction methods, or algae control, i come back to carabon dosing. I want to try vodka dosing, but biopellets are a carbon source as well. If results from vodka are anything like they were from biopellets, im not going anywhere near them!

maybe this is a topic for a new thread.

[jagermaier]

Bio pellets works fine, you just have to be patient as it takes time for them to have full benefits from them.

[Baldy]

it took a month or 2 for them to start working, but after they kicked in on my system, all growth stopped, the emerald palys in the above picks bleached, all zoas melted, but i had no algae =S. took them off, and things are starting to grow again. including the algae =/

[monocus]

who told you to place them in different areas of your tank?i always tell everyone to place them in a shotglass and sink it in one area and let them crawl out on their own in one area.there is a guy in alberta that sells berghia(i think in calgary).i sell them for $14 each and with shipping(around $4o to alberta)

[gobytron]

Before you get chemical, try and increase your air/water mix.
A power head blowing across the surface of your tank often does the trick.