I really like the magnet idea myself. That's a great idea. As far as doors go, I would make a simple framed square, and get a piece of smoked acrylic for the middle. Would look sweet.
So a couple days after my big cleaning spree and 50% water change everything is looking up. Water parameters are spot on and corals are starting to open back up. Especially the star polyps, frog spawn and torch. Unfortunately there is still plenty of hair algae to go so I added 5 more snails, I'm thinking about picking up an emerald crab to help and I just added some GFO.
Any tips for removing stubborn hair and bubble algae without removing rock?
One week today since the big clean and change and I had to make a few more changes and additions!
Added a turbo snail, and two new corals today as well as a new heater and power head. I think I'm getting a much better spread on my flow and this heater has already proven to be much more stable than the two little 25's I had before.
New Candy Cane Coral
New Red and Purple Acan on the left
Nice side view with most corals and new Turbo.
Does any know what this growth is? Not the hair algae but the thicker dark blades as well as the smaller bright green? I'm guessing they are both some type of Macro but have no idea what?
I still have a big spot of cyano algae on my sand right in the middle and some hair and bubble algae on the rocks and sides but hopefully a couple more weeks of reduced feeding, a few water changes, and slightly shorter light cycle will take care of those.
For the hair algae, get a sea hare. It will CLEAN your tank of any nuisance algae in next to no time at all. I'd recommend getting one thats still relatively small. Otherwise, you'll have to supplement it's feeding with algae sheets
Those are cool but I would definitely be worried about starving it. I think I've successfully removed about 90% of the hair algae that was in my tank and what little is left seems to be clearing up as well. After a few more water changes I think it'll be gone. I've reduced lighting and feeding and I'm running some chemi-pure elite in the HOB filter (Filter is empty, just for water flow and carbon) and it seems to all be working.
I do still have some bubble algae and a nice little spot of red cyano. Any thoughts on those? I've seen that hermits will eat cyano?
I have heard mexican hermits eat the cyano. In my tank, they don't bother with it. It seems to come in spikes. Try some more flow and look for the phosphate source.
Thanks for the feedback guys! I've done everything I can to get the phosphates in check and I'm testing 0 but of course phosphate tests are always terrible. I'm not seeing any new algae growth just getting rid of what was there. The cyano is at the bottom of a little cave in between some rocks and it's really tough to get flow in that area. I guess on my next water change I'll try to manually remove most of it and see what happens.
Bumping your Magnesium slowly up to about 1800ish will do the trick. Once you hit the magic death point, you'll literally be able to see the hair algae start to turn this ugly white color. Just be careful with dosing mag. Take your time, and make sure you have a test kit for it! Or, you can try installing a algae scrubber in the sump?
No sump for a scrubber. I do plan on having a sump when I switch over to the 20g but still don't think I'll have room for one. I have some mag supplement but I'm hesitant to add it since I don't have a test kit for it yet. I think I'll go pick one up this week so I can start adding. Thanks for the tip!
They make ones that can sit internally in the tank. And are relatively small. A lot of my local reefers use them, and have great success with them. And yeah, you should never dose anything without being able to test for it :p
Here are some updated Pics about 3 days after adding my Kessil A160. The tank looks great and corals seem to love it! I'm running in at about 14000K.
FTS
Emerald Crab on top of Hydnophora
Macro Algae
Frogspawn & Trumpet
Trumpet and some Zoas
Torch, Mushrooms, and a few scattered Zoas
Green Star Polyps
Kenya Tree and Acans
My clown kept laying down in the GSPs. Not sure what she's doing.
Still have some remnants of hair and cyano algae but all in all I think the battle is almost over. CUC seems to be doing a good job and the extra TLC and water changes has been helping!
Finally got everything moved over to the 20g! Everything looks clear and healthy. Made the mistake of not using baffles in the sump so I have plenty of bubbles (even without a skimmer). I also got two Jebao RW-4s because I wanted to get some alternating flow going but even on the slowest setting it is way too much flow with two so I'm only using one. Also my camera is pretty bad so the pics aren't super clear. Also the kenya trees are unfortunately taking over!