A Saga: Nikki's 120 gallon

[LakeEd]

Nikki,

Those "Before & After" shots are amazing!!! I know that you've ty-wrapped your rocks together, so for those of us that are just starting out in the Reef world here, how did you manage to clean out your Algae so nicely? Just a guess, but since it took you about 6 hours work... you were in there with a toothbrush and syphon???

 

[NaH2O]

Ed, I was in there pulling with my hands. I had a bowl that I put the fist fulls in, and a siphon running to get the stragglers along with anything else that floated up. The bowl of algae when I was done smelled like skimmate...it was really gross.

The siphon hose went from the tank to a 1 micron filter sock I hung in the sump. It was full of algae as well by the time I was done. I did go back in with a tooth brush and worked at a couple of rocks that seemed to be stubborn. hehehe...little did the rock know I am stubborn, too. There still is quite a bit of algae in there, but it is all part of the New Tank Syndrome process.

 

[LakeEd]

Well, all your hard work was most definately worth it Nikki, because its looking SUPER!

 

[CarlaW]

Do you have any ammonia or nitrites left? That was quite the change. Have you thought of adding some crawly critters? Of course you can only do that if the first 2 levels are down. Now that you have the algae down to low mown grass level the crawlies might be able to take care of the rest.

 

[NaH2O]

My ammonia and nitrites are zero (the nitrites yesterday did increase slightly to 0.01, however)...nitrates between 10 and 25 (remembering off the top of my head). I am still surprised at the amount of detritus coming from the rocks. If I did go with a DSB, then I would certainly want to cure the rock in a separate container. Now that the majority of the algae is gone, I think the detritus removal will go much better.

I added a few snails last week: 15 Trochus, 15 cerith, 15 nerite, and 2 fighting conchs. I did lose a couple of nerite to the mighty siphon....but I wasn't going to dig through all that nasty algae in the filter sock to save them. They took one for the team.

Thanks for the compliments. I worked very hard yesterday harvesting the algae. I almost needed a mask and snorkle for the bottom, and when the siphon hose flipped out of the tank and started to back siphon algae out of the filter sock onto my floor mats....I almost needed to see an attorney - lol (the other half was not pleased at all). Oh the glorious things we do for our reef tanks.

 

[Scooterman]

I almost needed a mask and snorkle for the bottom, and when the siphon hose flipped out of the tank and started to back siphon algae out of the filter sock onto my floor mats....I almost needed to see an attorney - lol (the other half was not pleased at all). Oh the glorious things we do for our reef tanks.

Qestion? Is it that you have a tall tank, How tall is too tall?

FYI Now for the truth, if I don't spill water every time something is wrong, when I move my tank I'm desiging with that in mind lol!

 

[CarlaW]

The answer is concrete floors Scooter, how big of a tank are you designing, this could be worth a thread all it's own!!

 

[NaH2O]

Scott - the tank is 25 inches high. When I reach to the back bottom, I'm pretty much submerged - I can at least turn my head and breathe air...but any deeper and I'd be in trouble.

 

[Knowledgeseeker]

I was wondering what you did to get rid of the hair algea. The picture you posted was very comparable to the same degree of a problem my mom had. She was never able to get rid of it. She would take the rocks and scrub every piece to only have it all come back within a week. She ended up taking her tank down, which was very sad, but she just could not keep up with the huge amounts of hair algea. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

 

[NaH2O]

All I did in the comparison pictures was manual removal of the algae. It has since grown quite a bit, and I need to do some more manual removal. Keeping the nutrients down is a big part of eliminating algae. Right now my live rock is spewing nasty stuff like crazy. I am going through my algae blooms due to the tank being "new". I added a phosphate remover to get the phosphates under control, which as of today, test at zero. I have been very busy this week, and haven't been able to get to my water change, but that should help bring down nutrients, too. Discovering where your nutrients are coming from is an important part of winning the algae battle.

 

[CarlaW]

It is hard to believe that that rock is still spitting out stuff. maybe people with sand beds don't really notice the amount of crap that actually comes out of live rock when it is fresh! In fact, I'll bet my rock is still spitting stuff out, I just don't notice. It's been a while since I was in there with a powerhead, maybe I should get my stuff together and do that!!!!

 

[NaH2O]

Yeah, I am amazed as well. I get in there with a flash light at night and can see areas inside the rock that are almost cleared out, so hopefully not too much longer. There was a lot of sponge material inside this rock that I couldn't get to with a toothbrush prior to LR placement. I am fascinated by the bacterial turgor present in LR, it is amazing! (sorry my dorkiness is showing again )

 

[CarlaW]

I actually wonder what the long term effects are? Has anyone ever looked at this? Does live rock go thru cycles as well, when it gets older in a tank? Even when you say your LR is cured and been in the tank for "x" amount of years, that probably doesn't mean anything!? Just wondering!!!

Bacterial turgor?????????????? Whew it's a little early for that, isn't it????

 

[Knowledgeseeker]

Thanks for the advice about the algea. Besides figuring out where the phospates are coming from, was there something she should have changed with the lighting to help reduce the growth

 

[NaH2O]

With lighting it can be a couple of things. First, if the bulbs are getting old, then they will have a color shift which helps the algae grow. Secondly, if the photoperiod is too long, then this can also have an effect. There are other factors as well....skimmer efficiency, over feeding, types of food, type of water (tap vs RO/DI), age of tank, etc that can play a role in algal growth.

Charlie - you know, those are great questions. I'll start up a thread on live rock, and hopefully get it going tonight.

 

[Scooterman]

Yep good questions Charlie, take a look at Nikkis post on LR when it goes up, I'm sure we all can benifit from it.
Funny thing I was posting on Cooking LR a few days ago.

 

[NaH2O]

Here is a link to the thread: Back to Basics ~Live Rock~

 

[zhenya]

Wowser, just finished reading entire thread...All I can say is-one heck of a job,Nikki! And, congrats on your new tank, it is coming along very nicely.

I remember setting up my first tank six years ago and curing LR in the tank but I never had anything like this to deal with.It stunk for a bit and then it was over I was very unpopular member of the family,though...
My guess on your phosphate problems is that most likely the rock came from some area where it could have been exposed to some run off from the land, or something to that extent. I had started with Fiji rock and had no issues with phosphates at all or any algae for that matter.

Anyhow, sorry for the long winded post. Keep up the great work,Nikki.

 

[Curtswearing]

You definately had Phosphates on your rock. Phosphate naturally adsorbs to Calcium Carbonate LR. Bacteria are able to dissolve this Phosphate. These bacteria die and the phosphate is released. Microalgaes that were on the live rock die and release Phosphates. Sponges that die due the curing process release Phosphates. Nikki also had a lot of rock-boring sponges that went too deep into the rock to remove. The rotting of these sponges definately increased her Phosphate content.

 

[zhenya]

You definately had Phosphates on your rock.

Curt,

I most certainly had some, just not enough to fuel any of the unwanted algae,like this Derbesia for example that Nikki had to battle. Like Nikki,I had also spent some time cleaning my rock and removing all of the sponges and what not. I suppose I was very lucky.

Also, I still believe if rock is collected near the shores is bound to be more rich in algae imbeded in it and many other things(I am not knocking your rock in any way,Nikki, it is beautiful.Just thinking out loud )