Dealin with Algae and the aging process in a nano

[Anonymous]

Good Morning Folks,

My nano is humming along, and is prety healthy. A couple of weeks ago some hair algae came and went. Now it is back and I have what looks like cyno growing on the oposite side of the tank out of a hole in one of the rocks. I am certain that this is just part of the maturation process of the tank, but it is still ugly.

I don't want to mess up the photo period for my nice healthy corals, and there definitely is not room for a tang. What would you-all suggest for algae control criters in a nano.

Currently all fish corals, and remaining invertibrates are healthy (some of the crabs canibalized each other, and ate snails while algae was at a premium in the tank)

Inhabitants.

Green shrooms
Star polyps
Colt Coral
Clown Gobi
Yellow-tail blue damselfish
pepermint shrimp
5 nassarius snails
2 Turbo snails
1 Hermit (he is the champion gladiator)

I don't think my cleanup guys can keep up, and I am quite cautios of my bio-load, however, I would like to deal with this as naturally as possible without pissing my polyps off too much.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[tazdevil]

I plucked out my hair algae, and the sargassum that I had come in as a hitchhiker has been growing well enough to outcompete the rest. As far as the cyano goes, sounds like a nutrient issue.

 

[Anonymous]

I figured so, but I am not absolutely certain it is cyno. It dwells only on the rock, and is dark purple. It is also in a high flow area. It is not coroline (some of that is finaly growing). It just looks similar. Wish I had a camera.

I have a 30% water change scheduled for this evening, along with a turkeybaster storm. Hopefully that will help clear out any excess nutrients.

Thanks

 

[brandon4291]

I recommend stepped-up water changes and detailed manual removal of existing colonies. Coralline algae will be very tough to remove and feel like sandpaper when you touch it. Cyano tends to come off in sheets, as in you siphon the end of a certain patch and most of the patch will come off together all at once. it would be the easiest to remove out of the considerations. Hair algae uses attachment structures (rhizoids or hyphae can't recall) and is tougher to remove after it is allowed to establish. Consider the sources for your rock and coral frag additions, yes most of these algal spores are ubiquitous (available everywhere--air, surfaces, water etc) but it doesn't help to import whole, established colonies matured to the sexual reproductive phase. Much better to restrict the sporulation/growth right from the start with nutrient control.

In your case, decent skimming may help and is the easiest way to deal with fish bioload. I'd recommend weekly water changes in the order of 50% or more-as much as your corals will stand- to fight the existing growths. Algae doesn't regrow quickly in pristeen water (changed frequently) if you were able to scrub it down to a bare surface during the removal.

I for one tend to get lost in the daily balances these nanos can reach, we put off nano-specific service habits and try to catch up when things go awry. I'm just as guilty as anyone, I attribute loss of the reefbowl to laziness as much as that dastardly heat spike.

Brandon M

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. It is now in recession. I did not manually remove the hair it sort of bleached and died, and got eaten and so forth. The cyno came out by syphoning, but I think there may be some hiding inside the rock still.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, the hair has stayed gone, but the cyno keeps trying to creep out of the rock. I have done a couple of 50% water changes, and everything looks OK on the tests (not testing for phosphates). I am wondering, if something decided to crawl into the rock and die (like a snail) could this be causing the problem. I am not getting any amonia or nitrate spikes so I assumed that this was not the case.