Extreme Algae (and pest) Support Thread

[Europhyllia]

Have a you battled with a specific algae or pest for more than 6 months?

Have you spent hundreds of dollars on clean up crew members that ended up not eating your stuff anyway?

Do you own every herbivore known to mankind?

Is your tank full with critters that don't fit your stocking plan but you got them anyway because you or somebody else read somewhere that those would be the answer to your problem?

Do people assume that you have been cut off from internet access for the last 6 months/year/decade/etc. or else you could have looked up what they just looked up and already fixed your problem with the usual suggestions?

Would you give your right foot to live in blissful ignorance of how bad bad stuff really can get?

Are you ready to rip it all out and start over or have you done so in the past?

Then this is the thread for you!

When you get here we are going to assume you have already tried 'everything', considered all options, read all of the stuff on the net and in books.
We're not going to throw the same suggestions at you that we know you've already been through numerous times.
Lay your weary head to rest and don't you cry no more.

We're ready to support you in your starting over. We're you're extreme algae buddies.

[ErikH]

i posted that we need a Pest section. I don't even see a pest section on RC!

How about extreme bacteria?

Cyano,

I used Red Slime Control and here's specifically how.

I dosed for my tank's size, which was 20 scoops@ 1 scoop/10g
I dosed by taking some tank water, adding the scoops to it, shaking it up very well, and then adding it slowly as I could to my sump, in the return chamber.
Turned off my skimmer.
Removed GFO, Removed Carbon

When I woke up (about 18 hours total time) I lowered the water in my sump right above the skimmer's intake, just enough to not allow it to create a suction tornado into the pump.
It would fill the cup about every ten minutes. I just dumped it out repeatedly until it stopped.

Poured the water that I removed back into the sump, and let the skimmer yank out what was left in the removed water.

I then topped off with fresh salt water (maybe a gallon or 5) then i reset the skimmer to normal operating levels, and replace GFO and carbon media. VIOLA!


I have heard many bad experiences with RSC and CC. I have heard of people losing specific SPS and LPS neither of which were lost in my battle, and I had cyano everywhere. I have used this product as a crutch on my system when I was running skimmerless, and I never removed it or water changed. RESULTS MAY VARY, that's all I can say! I have seen some VERY experienced reefers have issues with both of these products. I think the MAJOR THING IS TO NOT LEAVE IT IN YOUR SYSTEM FOR OVER 24 HOURS. ONCE THE CYANO IS GONE, REMOVE THE REMOVER!

Stick to the above plan, I would love to see other people have great success as I have with this dominating and infuriating bacteria. I tried to be specific as possible to see if others have the same success.

[Regric25]

Algae/Pest: Bryopsis

Problem: Spreading like wildfire

Common advice: Get rid of the rock, raise magnesium levels, pluck it, Good luck...

My solution: I have tried 2 of the three common suggestions but it never worked. I first plucked it then threw away the one rock that had it. It started to pop up everywhere in my tank because I plucked it. I don't want to raise the mag levels because I dont want to cause undue stress to my fish/inverts plus in a large capacity aquarium it can get VERY expensive. I ran into a single thread on another forum that said Mollies were really good at eating Bryopsis. I figured I would give it a try plus it would be cool to acclimate a slightly brakish fish to full salt water. I did it and 4 days 95% of my bryopsis is gone! They are small and VERY hardy and inexpensive. They are easy to acclimate and I will be keeping 1 in my tank at all times to keep the bryopsis down. I will pass my other on when its all gone.