Ideas/Advice for recovery

Tommy Gun · 07-05-2008, 11:19 AM

Hello fellow fish addicts!

Well, as I am sure many of you know and/or have experienced, we just went through an amazingly rainy month of June here in the mid-west...or at least a large part of the mid-west anyways. Fortunately my home stayed pretty dry on the inside and Lake Michigan didn't empty itself but based upon my calculations we spent just shy of 4 days without power with one instance being a little more than two straight days in the dark. The good news is that I haven't lost any fish (FW or SW) because of this ordeal, including my prized Sebae anemone...which is fantastic IMO.

However, my best guess right now is that the power outages and subsequent lack of water movement resulted in the death of a lot of unseen organisms in my tank...particularily bristle worms, which I am still finding all over the place. As you can guess, this has also led to a lot of nitrate build up that I couldn't really start addressing until about a week and a half ago when my city lifted water restrictions and my job has settled down (a foot of rain = drainage issues = the landscape company I work for turned into a madhouse). Anyways, now I am seeing HUGE amounts of Bryopsis algae and an amazingly rapid increase in the population of Aiptaisia anemones that I nearly had under control after a few months of 'war'.

So obviously I am looking to find a good way to deal with these two very extreme problems and even though I realize I am not going to do it overnight, I would like to figure out the fastest or more importantly, the most effective ways of dealing with these issues. My current advantages are the fact that starting today I am moving (sold my house before the next one is ready) so I will have the opportunity to pull a lot of this algae off by hand in the process and I only have two green chromis, a clownfish, my Sebae anemone and a few corals...meaning I could add some helpful critters without pushing any limits. I am also going to get a chance to remove the rest of the dead bristle worms as well. My disadvantages are that I can't really do a huge water change at once because I worry about causing osmotic shock and I am about to stress my fish by moving them (although I have a decent plan and know some tricks to reduce that stress).

I have read a couple of suggestions and have also been given advice from some people who feel they are 'experts' (although I disagree to some extent) and I wanted to bounce them off of you to gain some more knowledgeable feedback:

One LFS employee who I think knows what he is talking about 75% of the time not only suggested that I employ a naso tang to help eat any of the bryopsis that I cannot remove by hand, but also offered to let me borrow one.
- To this point, I have had some very bad luck with tangs - primarily with tangs and ich - but I haven't added any new fish to my tank for nearly six weeks and the tang has also been in a tank without anything being added for nearly 6 months...which isn't a guarantee that ich isn't present, I know, but I feel the odds of disaster would be somewhat lower anyways. Obviously this isn't a that puts a quarantine tank into the mix and hence, I am leery
I have been told and also read in a couple different places that a chocolate chip starfish can be handy for aiptasia control...however, which I could quarantine my corals for a long period of time, I would literally need a 55 gallon or larger aquarium to house my anemone because it is so big. Do you think that a chocolate chip star would pose that much of a threat to this anemone that is literally a foot to a foot and a half across?

Of course, any other suggestions/comments/advice/experiences you could share with me would be extremely well appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

TG

Judge · 07-05-2008, 11:53 AM

Sorry about all the flooding but glad no losses in your tanks. I had quite a few Aiptaisia's but my Peppermint's got all but one. I have left him alone temporarily..more out of curiosity considering all the talk about them. I've also heard that something I believe is called Joe's Jungle Juice..or something like that works really well on them. No personal experience there. As of late...like yesterday I am definitely the wrong person to comment on TANGS. I believe there was a response to Orb about her SW endeavor and a Chocolate Chip being aggressive and once it started there was "no stopping it". IMO I would not want to take the risk on the star, I would lean more towards the Tang if I had a choice. I also have heard that some people bought Peppermints just for ridding their tank of Aiptasia but they would not eat them.

hell on wheels · 07-05-2008, 08:17 PM

For aiptasia I had good luck like Judge with the peppermint shrimps....They took care of all but one....the one was large....I left it, just to see....It is now a lot bigger, but just hangs out and looks cool.....It has made its homebase right in the front of the tank, for everyone to see......The thought of Joe's juice for the last remaining one did cross my mind, but for now it is cool....If I see any signs of spreading....I will try my hand at the Joe's juice.

As for the Naso Tang....I have one.....he is zero help....only eats whats on the vegi clip....

houff · 07-06-2008, 02:33 PM

stay away from CC starfish they will eat your cleaning crew then corals. what i did after outage was take a lg turkey baster to blow things out of rock. then took a old canaster filter put extra sponges in it and hooked the intake to vac head and spent 3 hours sweeping out rock. when it looked clean did a 25% water change every 3 days till natrates were back to norm.

chadf · 07-06-2008, 04:54 PM

I had a huge aiptasia outbreak when my tank was a few months old. I killed about a hundred of them over the course of a month using Elimiaptas made by Tropic Marin. For several months now I have been 100% aiptasia free, I haven't cut feeding at all or anything else. There is a possibility that peppermint shrimp will turn to corals like zoas and the like for food just a FYI for everyone.

For the nitrates, I would just cut back on feeding as much as you can and do lots of water changes. If you have phosphates get rid of them and you'll have a much easier time getting rid of the bryopsis. The tang and mexican turbo snails will also help but you'll have to manually trim it down for the snails to touch it. HTH

Tommy Gun · 07-06-2008, 05:21 PM

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I am embarassed to say that despite all of my babbling, I forgot to mention that I have had three peppermint shrimp in this tank for at least two months but just lost one from my recent move. However, I did purchase them from an LFS that had them mislabeled as glass shrimp. Do you think I might have been wrong and have a look-a-like shrimp that isn't fond of aiptasia? I know that using livestock to solve problems is iffy at best, but thought I would ask anyways.

I have also used Joe's Juice in the past but my major problem there is that I can't find a place to buy it locally so I am at the mercy of websites and the USPS. For the time being, I am borrowing a chocolate chip starfish and as I type this, I can see that it is attacking one aiptasia right now. Still, I am very leery about what it could do to the anemone I dearly want to keep so my plan is to use some acrylic I cut and shaped to quarantine it when I am at work...only quarantined in the same tank.

I think the Naso Tang idea is out...I just don't have enough confidence in my tank to be adding new fish because I just moved half way across the county and as I mentioned, tangs and my tanks never seem to mix well.

The best news is that now I don't have to pay for city water anymore so making RO water just got a whole lot cheaper. I plan to see what changing 10 to 15 gallons of water every other day will get me as far as lower nitrates.

Anyone ever use or make your own phosphate reactor? I was thinking that, if I found a reliable plan, I would try to make my own and throw it on in an as-needed basis. Would it be worth the effort?

Nereaga · 07-06-2008, 06:01 PM

Hey Tommy,

IMO, just buy a phosban or kent reactor($30-40), a very small pump($15), one that is 100gph max and has a valve to control flow. I would then look into getting a quality phosphate/silicate remover.

I somehow have phosphates in my water column. Even though I use RO/DI water. I assume it my rock leaching phosphates, even though I have tried to "cook" it.

When my phosphate media gets used up, I will start to see algae grow. I just swap out media and all is good for another month. You would be amazed at how well it will choke out your algae. That and regular water changes should keep it contained. It has for me for about 7 months now. Keep doing what works!

I also attribute my skimmer to keeping organic matter to a minimum....

Brad

Tommy Gun · 07-06-2008, 06:28 PM

It is kinda killing me because I can't really figure out where this phosphate is coming from. It is minimal and I have a lot of other things I need to address, but like you Nereaga, I exclusively use RO water so I know that I am starting out on the right foot. This move is going to be good for me since I can get back to square one and set up a more proactive maintenance schedule. While the tank is pretty far away, it can be seen by anyone who is walking by when my curtains are open so now I have added pressure as there are quite a few fish fans here...although I think only one other dabbles in saltwater. Got a reputation to uphold

What, in your opinion, would be a quality phosphate/silicate remover?

Nereaga · 07-06-2008, 06:42 PM

I started using kent power phos but it was a HUGE pain in the butt to clean. I now am using Ferric Oxide or GFO pellets to soak up my excess nutrients.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Carbon..._88/index.html

You could also look into more expensive media that is rechargable. I forget the link for that though.

Brad

Tommy Gun · 07-07-2008, 12:47 PM

I might be interested in rechargable media if that is possible primarily because it might be cheaper in the long run, right? I looked at one LFS on my way home from work today and they have rechargable nitrate media and actually told me what store to go to to find a better selection. Here is my next question though...

What is the advantage and/or difference between using a Phosphate reactor versus placing the media in a cannister filter?