Dude, you took the words out of my mouth! I’ve never understood floating bags to equalize temps, to then pour the bag into a bucket on the floor and super slowly drip, allowing the temps to change again. I float, clip the bag to the rim, and use a syringe to put in 10 or so ML of tank water in every :15 or so. Temps stay at tank level, and I still slowly introduce tank water for chemistry reasons. It’s a little more stair-stepped than a true drip, but I’m also not swinging the temps back and forth.
I have this exact problem. 0 nitrates 0 phosphate. OMG, my tank is 3 years old. I love that you share your problems. It's so hard to find help, it just seems like all the other videos are people that have HUGE tanks. Thanks for helping us beginners and nano tank enthusiasts!!!
Ha, thanks Emmanuel! I'm glad you like these edits! Start work on next Tuesday's video tomorrow! Who knows what's going to be happening in this studio... but I'm sure there will always be something!
My urchin does not hide. He has one small snail shell and two tiny rocks he uses as hats other than that he is always in the open. Despite having hiding areas and plenty of shells to choose from to use as hats
I always test salinity in the bags too. If it is very close to your display tank you can acclimate much faster without ill effects in my experience (e.g., 1.024 to 1.026 sg). If there is a larger difference then you will want to do it for longer.
One thing to remember when floating bags-plastic allows for air exchange when outside of water- but become sealed when floated. There were times when I owned aLFS where someone would forget to open a bag-if bag was on counter or in styro- no issues, but if in a tank-often times there would be losses.
I've never heard that before Scott, thanks for bringing that to my attention? Is it really true? Not that I don't believe you, but I'm just trying to understand why it is the case! I think it may be time for me to do a bit of research! Thanks again!
@@MyFirstFishTank Of course it is true-its a repeatable experiment. When you are getting in hundreds of bags of fish at 2am-mistakes happen sometimes. I will say that all of my experiences with this were not marine- it was also fresh water fishes. If bag is opened and rolled down- no problems, if it is left overnight on counter- no problems, but if sealed in tank- sometimes an issue. Of course I havent done lab testing-but among the wholesalers and business owners it was a known syndrome.
Maybe try a sea hare, small lawnmower blenny or baby tang(lfs sometimes have tiny 1-2" tangs, usually blue hippo, you can re-home it later). Also, if your phosphate is 0.00 and your nitrate is 1.0, then they are unbalanced. They should be somewhat close to a ratio of 1:10, e.g. phosphate at 0.10, nitrate at 1.0. An unbalanced ratio can favor algae over plants/corals.
I like all of those ideas. I actually just added a lawnmower blenny a couple days ago so we'll see if that works. And I do like the tang idea. You are right that a small one would probably work alright, just rehome when it gets bigger. I need to get a bigger tank in this house, say 220 gallons, just so I can have lots of different fish. I'll just make it a fish only system!
In my 50 gallon, I went through a huge GHA outbreak. My fault was not acting quickly enough when it first started. Even with a tank covered in GHA, I still had normal or slightly above levels of phosphate. The GHA was consuming the high phosphate levels. In my case it was due to overfeeding. I dosed Vibrant and got serious with regard to manual removal. I found that crabs, urchins, snails etc won't tackle the longish out of control GHA. I attached a bent toothbrush to my siphon hose and scrubbed the rocks and vacuumed up the GHA. The most effective animals I found were Mexican Turbo snails as well as the Astraea snails. But you still should manually remove the long stuff. Now after a couple of months of removing, scrubbing, etc, my tank is nearly GHA free. I have not changed my feeding amount. I also daily dose NoPox and use carbon and occasionally chemi-pure blue. I also installed a 25 watt UV after a having a huge algae bloom and run that 24/7 and a 3-4 times tank turnover. That was a purchase I've been very happy with. Now I have to drop in a sheet of dried seaweed to keep the snails from starving.
This is such great info Rob, thanks for taking the time to write it all out. I've also found that nothing really eats the long stuff, so I think I'll do what you did, minus the vibrant for now. Just a whole bunch of manual removal, upping my CUC game, and just staying on top of it. I do have a UV sterilizer on my Quarantine tank, and I love it because it keeps the water super clear! What brand sterlizier did you go with for the 50 gallon?
@@MyFirstFishTank Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizer (25 Watt, 3/4 Inch) which I actually purchased from one of your sponsors Marine Depot. I don't have the space under this corner tank for a sump so I use a AquaMaxx 1.5 HOB skimmer and an Oase Thermo Pro 350 canister filter. I have the canister filter drawing water from an overflow box and the return from the filter flows through the UV before hitting the display. I don't run any biomedia in the canister. I do use Chemipure, carbon, phosguard or purigen in the filter depending on the circumstances. Water is ultra clear. The one benefit to using Vibrant is that it tends to make the GHA weak and wispy making it easier to remove. My LFS in St Augustine FL has been in the business for a while and the owner regularly uses Vibrant without harm. I have stopped after getting the tank nearly free and clear. My take on GHA algae is that a small amount in a tank is not a bad thing. Gives the CUC something to eat. One benefit of owning a decent canister filter is you can move it if need be from tank to tank. Say if you used Chemi-clean. Just load it up with carbon and use it temporarily to remove the after effects. I ended up with GHA in the soft corals such as GSP and where I could remove the rock i.e my GSP island, I pulled the rock soaked the rock for 5 mins in a 30% solution of hydrogen peroxide and water i.e. 70% water and used a fine soft bristled tooth brush to remove the GHA. For quickly removing it from the wall of the tank I found a test tube brush with long bristles to be the best. It grabs on to the GHA and one can pull out gobs of it without it blowing all over the tank.
Yeah, that all seems like sound advice for sure. I haven't used vibrant in the past, but I have use Brighwell's Razor and it worked well. The problem I had with it is it zeroed out my NO3 and PO4 and I didn't dose anything back in and sure enough, I had a cyano outbreak the first time and a dino outbreak the second time. Have you found it necessary to dose NO3 and/or PO4 during a vibrant treatment?
@@MyFirstFishTank I have never dosed NO3 or PO4. I haven't had any outbreaks of Dinoflagellates, I have had Cyano but I cleaned that off as well when I did my weekly 15% water change. While I keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible, I don't have a problem sticking my hands in for this stuff. I just wash my hands in RODI before sticking them in the tank. I also vacuum a portion of the sand bed on each water change. I replenish the sand on a periodic basis. I have a wrasse in this tank. I've used emerald crabs in the tank or at least had until I added a silver belly wrasse but that said I would have to have about 50 to come close to the benefit of a half dozen Mexican Turbo snails and Astraea snails. Urchins in my experience don't consume GHA, especially anything more than a light coating. I will be setting up a 120 gallon next month so I will see how that one goes but one thing I have learned form this go round is to get on the GHA right off the bat and to have the right CUC. As you know, it a balance but to be honest I only test salinity, PH and Phosphate on a regular basis. One can tell just by looking at the algae forming on the glass if one's nutients are going out of whack. BTW I also changed up my flow. In addition to the flow from the HOB, Canister. I have two Reefwave 25 Gyres on this pentagon tank. One located at the surface at one side and the other on the opposite side mounted vertically set up to pulse. The nice thing about the Reefwaves besides producing more flow that I can handle and being quiet, is one can turn each side of an individual pump to cover a wider area. I also believe this is a factor in keeping Cyano under control.
Okay Rob, you have to send me pictures of this setup! If you wouldn't mind of course. contact at myfirstfishtank.com. I need to see this build! Thanks for all of the tips and advice. Super helpful, not only for me, but for others as well!
I use peroxide. Spot treat with a syringe, turn of all flow for 15min while doing it. Algae will start to bubble and die off a few hours later. Never had an issue with it. Doesn't hurt fish or algea. It might causes a bacteria bloom if your tank isn't used to carbon dosing. UV filter can help or slowly introduce carbon.
No3 and phosphate s are being absorbed by the algae. Always when u have algae blooms the disappear. I would flux rx and do water change. Also when they ship multiple fish Or inverts together they will try to reduce stress by using black bags so when acclimated they don’t get stressed out some get stressed out more then others when the animals are in blackout bag the are in night mode so no stress
Yeah, good advice for sure! I'm going to try some natural methods first. Manual removal, algae blenny, astrea snails. Then I'm thinking about using Brightwell's Razor. Thoughts?
Yeah, I've used Razor in the past and it worked like a charm. I'm just trying to keep things more natural for a month or two to see if I can use manual removal and a cuc to take care of business. Only time will tell!
Came across this old video on my journey to irradiate GHA from my 25 gallon! Went through diatoms then Dino’s and my nutrients zeroed out, now GHA, a bit of cyano and a bit of dino. Fun times. Was thinking of getting an urchin to turn the tide of my battle! Did it work for you?
Nicely done. I have the exact same problem in an IM 25 lagoon and I'm about 2 weeks away from giving up and coming to the conclusion that small tanks are not worth the effort. I do not advise any novice, such as myself, to start with anything less that a 40 gallon.
I hear you for sure! I've given up on tanks before due to hair algae. It is so frustrating. I'm sure you've tried it all, but Brightwell Razor has helped me in the past. If you follow the directions it will turn the hair algae to nothing, and then it can be easily removed. It's a short term fix. The long term fix is just staying on top of it with nutrients, lighting, and clean up crews. It's sooooo frustrating!
@@MyFirstFishTank I have an IM 20 and what I do is have a mini refugium in the back and just let the hair algae proliferate there and than there is less in my main display area while I remove it grows in the back where I want it.
Could also consider an algae scrubber. Likely the new live stock increased your nutrients which prompted the algae growth. Now the algae is consuming all nutrients. Santa Monica makes a variety of units that can fit in any tank set up.
Yeah for sure. I mean it has to be a mix of higher nutrients and a slowly dying clean up crew! I've never tried one of the santa monica scrubbers but have always been interested!
I run a bigger model on my huge heavily stocked fish only and it along with a few other measures keep nutrients in check and no nuisance algae. Only clean glass about once every two weeks! Love it!
I think an algae scrubber would take him completely the wrong direction. He already has 0 detectable nitrates and phosphates, so clearly excess nutrients is not his problem. I think he needs to INCREASE the nutrient level in his tank by tuning his skimmer down a bit, it’s at least worth trying. My nano tanks always look way better when there is clearly detectable nitrates and phosphates in the water.
have a 90 gallon that was covered with GHA. Tried everything. It was long and covered the entire rock scape. Put in 3 tuxedo urchins and they cut it down significantly. Added 3 more and problem solved
Quick question seeing them in the tank: I've heard bumblebee snails can help against vermetid snails. Have you any experience of this? Phosphates/Nitrates may well be 0 as it is being "used" by the algae so it's not registering, not that they haven't "increased". A quick thought but one people should bear in mind, Patience. Balance changes with additions and you need to be sure you give time for a new "balance" to be reached. Changes, including the addition of cleanup crew, needs to be done slowly with enough time to allow things to work. You may think something isn't working but it can often be you need to simply give things time. Always think of a pendulum, you don't want the movement to be extreme or instead of one direction, you'll too often end up on the far off the opposite side.
Yes, yes, and yes! Patience cannot be overpreached and still something I'm trying to master. I'm getting better, but I'm still a long way from the zen master I want to be. You know, I've never had vermitid snails. I'm thinking my quarantine has been able to weed them out so I can't give any experience there!
@@MyFirstFishTank Think my vermetid came in on a snail shell so worth checking carefully when introducing new ones. Think my wrasse sorted them out as have not seen any recently.
Yeah, I've heard the same thing. Some people say they've never had an issue, and some people have nothing but. I'll be watching this one closely. I'm hoping that providing plenty of food may help satiate his thirst!
I've had my aquarium for 12 years. First 7 years were awesome! I'm not saying I never had ssues ofc, but I remember algea being a minimum problem. I had red slime a few times and brown jelly swiped across my massive fields of bi-color frogspawn. Anyway last 5 years I got this long ugly brown hair algea and I have tried all kinds of things to get rid of it. Nothing has worked and in addition my remaining frogspawn looks okay but it's been very pale in color and it's never fully expanded anymore. I can't seem to figure out what's going on. I recently got some cool macroalgea but the hair algea is already growing on them to... I think I should have quit 4 years ago lol.
I think you have a big chance of having killed your urchins already. Urchins should never get exposed to the air as they are often not able to pump the air back out of their housing that quickly. When they are crawling to the top of your aquarium on their own, its a different story as they will climb back down in their own pace. So in case some of your urchins will die soon without any other obvious reason, that is most likely the root cause
Thanks for the comment Benjamin. I didn't know that. One of the urchins did die, but the other one is still going strong. So I'm assuming that when you transfer them to a new tank, just do it as quickly as possible? This is my first time with urchins so I have a lot to learn!
@@MyFirstFishTank Well, here is how I always do it: After acclimatization in the bag/box (or in whatever it comes) I pour out most of the water to the sink but keep enough water in the bag so that the urchin is still fully under water. Then put the bag in the tank and let the tank water flow into the bag/box, so that the urchin is not exposed to air at any time. Of course the downside is that you will always introduce some water from the bag to your tank but this way you can be sure that the urchin will not die because of air trapped inside his housing. If I am not mistaken, this also applies to starfish but I could be wrong here. At least I am doing it the same way for starfish as well. Btw: I just recently stumbled across your channel. Great content and great videos! Really like the way your videos are made. All the best from Germany!
That makes good sense to keep things under water. And, as long as you drip acclimate and remove most of the water before introducing the urchin to your tank, you really do minimize the risk. Thanks for taking the time to write back! And thanks for watching from Germany!
This just isn't true. Have you ever seen urchins in the wild? They are out of water at low tide loads. In academia when breeding urchins they are out of water for long periods of time and even injected with potassium chloride to stimulate breeding. If the urchin died it was definitely not from it being out of water.
@@trojon What you are saying is true to some extend. The difference is, that in nature the urchins leave and enter the water in their own speed allowing them to get rid of the air inside. Kind of like if you stop breathing before you put your head under water. When you expose them to the air while putting them into the tank, they can't just turn upside down under water to get rid of the air. I also saw some videos where people recommend to put them into the tank with their mouth facing upwards. Nevertheless, if you have not experienced any negative effects doing it the way you do, there is nothing wrong with continuing like this. I just know that I haven't lost a single urchin since I do it differently. Maybe I just prefer to be on the safe side
If you can find them I have actually seen a black and pink sea hair. The regular ones are a little on the ugly side, but the do work. Just might have to find a new home after a few weeks. They might starve
Well I would say so myself. I put one down in my sump to mow down hair algae in there and after he was done he made us eat to my Cheato and dragons tongue macro algae. After that I returned him to my LFS.
I had hair alage in my 300 gallon and got rid of it in like 4 months just by running 2 cups (or 4 of low) high capacity GFO in a reator at around 50 gallons per hour flow in the sump. Took the phosphates for 1.5 to .1. Ran the first 2 cups for 2 weeks and the second 2 cups for 6 week. Now I runit for 8 weeks before changing GFO. The algae shrunk up to very little. Nitrates were/are still 35 ppm so not low. It seems hair algae loves phosphates more than nitrates. I would do GFO. + hermits. Snails are too wimpy and die easier. The best by far are sea slugs to remove it fast. like 1 week in a 300 galloon.
Manual removal & a good CUC should do the trick instead of resorting to chemical removal. I might add a few more snails and try some cerith snails 🐌 as they are good at getting into crevices. The urchins are definitely a good addition 😊
Hair algae is a pain in the butt. I have had great success with Sea Hares over the years. I think I have owned around 10 of them over the last 12 years. They are hair algae eating machines. I have never had an issue with one releasing toxins after they die. My LFS in Huntington Beach always has them in stock. They help control any algae in their frag tanks.
I've heard that they can be so successful that you have to re-house them when they've finished their work. Have you ever found that to be true? Will they eat Nori?
@@MyFirstFishTank I have returned and donated some sea hares once there was no more algae for them to eat. However, I currently have one in my 150g that has been in there for almost 2 years. The tank has not had any algae problems in over a year. I think he eats uneaten fish food. I have never tried to feed nori to one. My tangs usually eat the nori before anything else can get to it.
Love my urchins. The only thing that I don’t like about them is the pick up or knock over anything that is no secure. ( Think frags on frag rack ) Sometimes they make me laugh with the things they pick up. Hermits aren’t really good for eating algae, they are good for eating detritus.
Yeah I've heard that! I'm hoping that with just anemones they'll get along just fine! I have a couple of unsecured pieces of live rock, but nothing tippy and at risk of falling... famous last words probably! And agreed on the hermits for sure! I think manual removal and snails are likely my best bet! Although I just got a sailfin blenny so maybe she'll help?
Awesome! Well, some bad news. In the last week one of the urchins has already died. Never really made it to the new system. But the second one is still doing great!
Are you overskimming? On smaller tanks like those it’s easy to do I would think. It’s pretty widely agreed now that having SOME detectable nitrates and phosphates is a good thing, so maybe cut down on the skimming or remove any chemical media (Chemipure/Phosban etc) other than carbon. When my nitrates and phosphates are undetectable in my nanos I very quickly get crazy dinos or hair algae, but it resolved itself within a few days of me removing the Chemipure Blue I had in the back chamber. As for the glass, copepods do wonders.
True true, but what's strange, is it's only the nuisance algae growing right now! The snails are doing a great job of taking care of the film algae! I'll keep working on it!
One day I was in your neck wood looking for a LFS and my first fish tank came up on the gps and we followed it and i think it went to your house. We were dumb founded. this was way before I started watching your videos. Been to Zen and odyssey LFS a few times. Is there any more LFS around there. I go there frequently.
Hey Alex, yeah you probably did! I really need to invest in a PO Box! Zen and odyssey are super close by. There is also Lighthouse in Indio. But that it for the valley. You either have to head out toward Riverside or Temecula. I've been to several in Temecula. A bit of a drive, but a nice drive over the mountain!
So live aquaria has two facilities, one in LA and one is wisconsin. The urchins definitely are algae killers, but both of mine died in a pretty short time.
Hey, thanks for watching Paul. Here are the links to the ones I'm using in the states. Love them and I'm sure they have a UK equivalent. amzn.to/3oZK5Cb and amzn.to/3irlMui
@@MyFirstFishTank thanks so much for the swift reply... if you ever have a moment please do stop by my channel and let me know what you think of my tanks... I really love watching your videos 👍👌🙌
Looks like Dino because of the bubbles, I get it when my parameters are pristine, zero nitrates and phosphates. I am careful to add neo nitro and neo phos when it happens. I still get patches of it but by dosing right away, I keep it under control. My snails and hermit crabs won't touch it.
hey! I've got a question for u :) at 0:45, what are all of your corals in that reef tank (especially the ones that look like bubbles), and are they beginner friendly? they are so beautiful! thank you i love ur videos!
So the first coral is from the euphylia family, specifically a frogspawn. Euphylia are relatively easy, and include hammer corals and torch corals. The big pink one is a bubble coral, and is also easy but requires low flow. The big finger looking thing is a leather coral. Pretty much all of the corals I have are beginner friendly.
Thanks for the tip. I've used brightwell razor and dr. tim's something or other that I can't remember. And they did work great. The only issue I has with the razor was it zeroed out my nutrients and then I got cyano one time and dinos the other time. And then with the Dr. Tim's, when I stopped dosing it, my no3 and po4 went through the roof, and it took me a while to realize it was because all of the sudden the beneficial bacteria level tanked. So my question for you. Any tips for avoiding the cyano/dino outbreaks?
@@MyFirstFishTank i wouldn't dose brightwell every day small amounts. For cyno more flow. More time for the tank to balance out. I would test po4 daily at the same time even twice a day. To see how po4 is being consumed. You should not be at 0 . Po4
Noob here, not trying to be snarky, just trying to learn. Why no quarantine, just straight into the tank? I'm also reading that you're supposed to add one (or pair of) new critters at a time. If you're buying a cleanup crew that all came from the same tank at the LFS can you quarantine them together? Love your videos! Thanks.
Hey David, thanks for the questions. I always recommend quarantining new fish for sure! The only exception to this is the first fish you add to a new tank, because if you don't plan on medicating like me, then if the fish get sick, you just have to wait 72 days before adding new fish. So it's a gamble for sure. I have 2-3 quarantine tanks set up and ready to go at all times. When you are reading adding one fish, that's probably because the tank has not been cycled. The goal with a fish cycle is to use the fish to produce waste and ammonia. But if you cycle your tank first, then you can add more than one fish. In an ideal world, you would quarantine all livestock, including inverts. While they aren't susceptible to the same diseases as fish, they could still carry something in the water. The tricky part with quarantining inverts is how to feed them. Especially algae grazers will need supplemental food while in quarantining.
i son’t get it, he mentions his nutrients are almost undetectable but adds an anemone? lol. the plan of attack is always not to add anything until you get a hold of those issues right?
The reason why you have low nutrients is because it is all going into the hair algae. You probably have more phosphates and nitrates than your tests are showing because the hair algae is absorbing them as fast as they are available.
Sea Hairs (slugs) are 100x better than snails and crabs. Its not eve close. 2 sea hairs in 10 day ate all the algae in a 300 gallon. Something 50 hermits could not do, snails failed too. But GFO prevents that algae in the first place.
I could, for sure. But I'm pretty much running a 7 hour photo period and the PAR just isn't that much. I like to mess with the lights as a last resort since it will affect all of the other corals as well. I'm glad you've had luck with emerald crabs! I have one in there now so we'll see what happens! Thanks for watching and adding your two cents!
Dude, you took the words out of my mouth! I’ve never understood floating bags to equalize temps, to then pour the bag into a bucket on the floor and super slowly drip, allowing the temps to change again. I float, clip the bag to the rim, and use a syringe to put in 10 or so ML of tank water in every :15 or so. Temps stay at tank level, and I still slowly introduce tank water for chemistry reasons. It’s a little more stair-stepped than a true drip, but I’m also not swinging the temps back and forth.
That is exactly what I think! Great minds think alike!!!!
I have this exact problem. 0 nitrates 0 phosphate. OMG, my tank is 3 years old. I love that you share your problems. It's so hard to find help, it just seems like all the other videos are people that have HUGE tanks. Thanks for helping us beginners and nano tank enthusiasts!!!
Definitely will help, urchins are 24/7 eating algae,are very pretty and colorful too.
Great video 👍
Finally Matt is back with his weekly crazy video edits ! Lol thank god my I’m off tuesdays ! Lol
Ha, thanks Emmanuel! I'm glad you like these edits! Start work on next Tuesday's video tomorrow! Who knows what's going to be happening in this studio... but I'm sure there will always be something!
My urchin does not hide. He has one small snail shell and two tiny rocks he uses as hats other than that he is always in the open. Despite having hiding areas and plenty of shells to choose from to use as hats
I always test salinity in the bags too. If it is very close to your display tank you can acclimate much faster without ill effects in my experience (e.g., 1.024 to 1.026 sg). If there is a larger difference then you will want to do it for longer.
You know, that is a really good idea that I had not even thought of. I have a new shipment coming today, and I'm going to do just that! Thanks Tyler!
Love the sound track!
Thanks! Me too!!
My urchin has eaten 2 entire frags of zoas.
Good share!
Thank you! Cheers!
One thing to remember when floating bags-plastic allows for air exchange when outside of water- but become sealed when floated. There were times when I owned aLFS where someone would forget to open a bag-if bag was on counter or in styro- no issues, but if in a tank-often times there would be losses.
I've never heard that before Scott, thanks for bringing that to my attention? Is it really true? Not that I don't believe you, but I'm just trying to understand why it is the case! I think it may be time for me to do a bit of research! Thanks again!
@@MyFirstFishTank Of course it is true-its a repeatable experiment. When you are getting in hundreds of bags of fish at 2am-mistakes happen sometimes. I will say that all of my experiences with this were not marine- it was also fresh water fishes. If bag is opened and rolled down- no problems, if it is left overnight on counter- no problems, but if sealed in tank- sometimes an issue. Of course I havent done lab testing-but among the wholesalers and business owners it was a known syndrome.
Oh that's so interesting. I would have never known! Thanks for sharing!
Smooth like and subscribe transitions i was not annoyed 1 bit by it so i liked and subscribed
thanks!
Your knowledge, tanks, and video editing are all well done. New sub
Maybe try a sea hare, small lawnmower blenny or baby tang(lfs sometimes have tiny 1-2" tangs, usually blue hippo, you can re-home it later).
Also, if your phosphate is 0.00 and your nitrate is 1.0, then they are unbalanced. They should be somewhat close to a ratio of 1:10, e.g. phosphate at 0.10, nitrate at 1.0. An unbalanced ratio can favor algae over plants/corals.
I like all of those ideas. I actually just added a lawnmower blenny a couple days ago so we'll see if that works. And I do like the tang idea. You are right that a small one would probably work alright, just rehome when it gets bigger. I need to get a bigger tank in this house, say 220 gallons, just so I can have lots of different fish. I'll just make it a fish only system!
In my 50 gallon, I went through a huge GHA outbreak. My fault was not acting quickly enough when it first started. Even with a tank covered in GHA, I still had normal or slightly above levels of phosphate. The GHA was consuming the high phosphate levels. In my case it was due to overfeeding.
I dosed Vibrant and got serious with regard to manual removal. I found that crabs, urchins, snails etc won't tackle the longish out of control GHA. I attached a bent toothbrush to my siphon hose and scrubbed the rocks and vacuumed up the GHA. The most effective animals I found were Mexican Turbo snails as well as the Astraea snails. But you still should manually remove the long stuff.
Now after a couple of months of removing, scrubbing, etc, my tank is nearly GHA free. I have not changed my feeding amount. I also daily dose NoPox and use carbon and occasionally chemi-pure blue. I also installed a 25 watt UV after a having a huge algae bloom and run that 24/7 and a 3-4 times tank turnover. That was a purchase I've been very happy with. Now I have to drop in a sheet of dried seaweed to keep the snails from starving.
This is such great info Rob, thanks for taking the time to write it all out. I've also found that nothing really eats the long stuff, so I think I'll do what you did, minus the vibrant for now. Just a whole bunch of manual removal, upping my CUC game, and just staying on top of it. I do have a UV sterilizer on my Quarantine tank, and I love it because it keeps the water super clear! What brand sterlizier did you go with for the 50 gallon?
@@MyFirstFishTank
Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizer (25 Watt, 3/4 Inch) which I actually purchased from one of your sponsors Marine Depot. I don't have the space under this corner tank for a sump so I use a AquaMaxx 1.5 HOB skimmer and an Oase Thermo Pro 350 canister filter. I have the canister filter drawing water from an overflow box and the return from the filter flows through the UV before hitting the display. I don't run any biomedia in the canister. I do use Chemipure, carbon, phosguard or purigen in the filter depending on the circumstances. Water is ultra clear. The one benefit to using Vibrant is that it tends to make the GHA weak and wispy making it easier to remove. My LFS in St Augustine FL has been in the business for a while and the owner regularly uses Vibrant without harm. I have stopped after getting the tank nearly free and clear. My take on GHA algae is that a small amount in a tank is not a bad thing. Gives the CUC something to eat.
One benefit of owning a decent canister filter is you can move it if need be from tank to tank. Say if you used Chemi-clean. Just load it up with carbon and use it temporarily to remove the after effects.
I ended up with GHA in the soft corals such as GSP and where I could remove the rock i.e my GSP island, I pulled the rock soaked the rock for 5 mins in a 30% solution of hydrogen peroxide and water i.e. 70% water and used a fine soft bristled tooth brush to remove the GHA. For quickly removing it from the wall of the tank I found a test tube brush with long bristles to be the best. It grabs on to the GHA and one can pull out gobs of it without it blowing all over the tank.
Yeah, that all seems like sound advice for sure. I haven't used vibrant in the past, but I have use Brighwell's Razor and it worked well. The problem I had with it is it zeroed out my NO3 and PO4 and I didn't dose anything back in and sure enough, I had a cyano outbreak the first time and a dino outbreak the second time. Have you found it necessary to dose NO3 and/or PO4 during a vibrant treatment?
@@MyFirstFishTank I have never dosed NO3 or PO4. I haven't had any outbreaks of Dinoflagellates, I have had Cyano but I cleaned that off as well when I did my weekly 15% water change. While I keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible, I don't have a problem sticking my hands in for this stuff. I just wash my hands in RODI before sticking them in the tank. I also vacuum a portion of the sand bed on each water change. I replenish the sand on a periodic basis. I have a wrasse in this tank. I've used emerald crabs in the tank or at least had until I added a silver belly wrasse but that said I would have to have about 50 to come close to the benefit of a half dozen Mexican Turbo snails and Astraea snails. Urchins in my experience don't consume GHA, especially anything more than a light coating. I will be setting up a 120 gallon next month so I will see how that one goes but one thing I have learned form this go round is to get on the GHA right off the bat and to have the right CUC.
As you know, it a balance but to be honest I only test salinity, PH and Phosphate on a regular basis. One can tell just by looking at the algae forming on the glass if one's nutients are going out of whack. BTW I also changed up my flow. In addition to the flow from the HOB, Canister. I have two Reefwave 25 Gyres on this pentagon tank. One located at the surface at one side and the other on the opposite side mounted vertically set up to pulse. The nice thing about the Reefwaves besides producing more flow that I can handle and being quiet, is one can turn each side of an individual pump to cover a wider area. I also believe this is a factor in keeping Cyano under control.
Okay Rob, you have to send me pictures of this setup! If you wouldn't mind of course. contact at myfirstfishtank.com. I need to see this build! Thanks for all of the tips and advice. Super helpful, not only for me, but for others as well!
I use peroxide. Spot treat with a syringe, turn of all flow for 15min while doing it. Algae will start to bubble and die off a few hours later. Never had an issue with it. Doesn't hurt fish or algea. It might causes a bacteria bloom if your tank isn't used to carbon dosing. UV filter can help or slowly introduce carbon.
No3 and phosphate s are being absorbed by the algae. Always when u have algae blooms the disappear. I would flux rx and do water change. Also when they ship multiple fish Or inverts together they will try to reduce stress by using black bags so when acclimated they don’t get stressed out some get stressed out more then others when the animals are in blackout bag the are in night mode so no stress
Yeah, good advice for sure! I'm going to try some natural methods first. Manual removal, algae blenny, astrea snails. Then I'm thinking about using Brightwell's Razor. Thoughts?
@@MyFirstFishTank ok never try it I always go with half dose
good call on the half dose!
@@MyFirstFishTank Try Vibrant 9 weeks it'll be gone, ua-cam.com/video/jDUbzs8j3Y4/v-deo.html
Yeah, I've used Razor in the past and it worked like a charm. I'm just trying to keep things more natural for a month or two to see if I can use manual removal and a cuc to take care of business. Only time will tell!
Came across this old video on my journey to irradiate GHA from my 25 gallon! Went through diatoms then Dino’s and my nutrients zeroed out, now GHA, a bit of cyano and a bit of dino. Fun times. Was thinking of getting an urchin to turn the tide of my battle! Did it work for you?
Eradicate* lol
Blenny’s like to munch on algae ! Especially the lawmower kind but he’s strictly veggie *vroom vroom*
:-)
Nicely done. I have the exact same problem in an IM 25 lagoon and I'm about 2 weeks away from giving up and coming to the conclusion that small tanks are not worth the effort. I do not advise any novice, such as myself, to start with anything less that a 40 gallon.
I hear you for sure! I've given up on tanks before due to hair algae. It is so frustrating. I'm sure you've tried it all, but Brightwell Razor has helped me in the past. If you follow the directions it will turn the hair algae to nothing, and then it can be easily removed. It's a short term fix. The long term fix is just staying on top of it with nutrients, lighting, and clean up crews. It's sooooo frustrating!
@@MyFirstFishTank I have an IM 20 and what I do is have a mini refugium in the back and just let the hair algae proliferate there and than there is less in my main display area while I remove it grows in the back where I want it.
Could also consider an algae scrubber. Likely the new live stock increased your nutrients which prompted the algae growth. Now the algae is consuming all nutrients. Santa Monica makes a variety of units that can fit in any tank set up.
Yeah for sure. I mean it has to be a mix of higher nutrients and a slowly dying clean up crew! I've never tried one of the santa monica scrubbers but have always been interested!
I run a bigger model on my huge heavily stocked fish only and it along with a few other measures keep nutrients in check and no nuisance algae. Only clean glass about once every two weeks! Love it!
I think an algae scrubber would take him completely the wrong direction. He already has 0 detectable nitrates and phosphates, so clearly excess nutrients is not his problem. I think he needs to INCREASE the nutrient level in his tank by tuning his skimmer down a bit, it’s at least worth trying. My nano tanks always look way better when there is clearly detectable nitrates and phosphates in the water.
have a 90 gallon that was covered with GHA. Tried everything. It was long and covered the entire rock scape. Put in 3 tuxedo urchins and they cut it down significantly. Added 3 more and problem solved
Really! That is awesome and great to hear!
Quick question seeing them in the tank: I've heard bumblebee snails can help against vermetid snails. Have you any experience of this? Phosphates/Nitrates may well be 0 as it is being "used" by the algae so it's not registering, not that they haven't "increased". A quick thought but one people should bear in mind, Patience. Balance changes with additions and you need to be sure you give time for a new "balance" to be reached. Changes, including the addition of cleanup crew, needs to be done slowly with enough time to allow things to work. You may think something isn't working but it can often be you need to simply give things time. Always think of a pendulum, you don't want the movement to be extreme or instead of one direction, you'll too often end up on the far off the opposite side.
Yes, yes, and yes! Patience cannot be overpreached and still something I'm trying to master. I'm getting better, but I'm still a long way from the zen master I want to be. You know, I've never had vermitid snails. I'm thinking my quarantine has been able to weed them out so I can't give any experience there!
@@MyFirstFishTank Think my vermetid came in on a snail shell so worth checking carefully when introducing new ones. Think my wrasse sorted them out as have not seen any recently.
Dose. Very rarely do I put my hands in tank. But you gotta get that down or they wont eat it. Bora a few tangs.
yeah, for sure. Maybe a small tang would be the answer!
Maybe the algae is consuming your phosphate so when you test they are at zero. So the algae is masking the elevated phosphates.
Exactly!!
Emerald crabs are reef safe with caution Matt I’ve tried emeralds went totally horrible lol ripped apart softies zoas/gsp/clovespolyps etc
Yeah, I've heard the same thing. Some people say they've never had an issue, and some people have nothing but. I'll be watching this one closely. I'm hoping that providing plenty of food may help satiate his thirst!
You proably have them starving give ‘em food scrub
@@Jam617_ then it wouldn’t be a clean up crew … feeding emerald crabs lol I don’t even feed my corals you think ima be feeding crabs lol
@@MyFirstFishTank Yea I had one eat a bunch of zoanthids.
I've had my aquarium for 12 years. First 7 years were awesome! I'm not saying I never had ssues ofc, but I remember algea being a minimum problem. I had red slime a few times and brown jelly swiped across my massive fields of bi-color frogspawn.
Anyway last 5 years I got this long ugly brown hair algea and I have tried all kinds of things to get rid of it. Nothing has worked and in addition my remaining frogspawn looks okay but it's been very pale in color and it's never fully expanded anymore. I can't seem to figure out what's going on. I recently got some cool macroalgea but the hair algea is already growing on them to... I think I should have quit 4 years ago lol.
I think you have a big chance of having killed your urchins already. Urchins should never get exposed to the air as they are often not able to pump the air back out of their housing that quickly. When they are crawling to the top of your aquarium on their own, its a different story as they will climb back down in their own pace. So in case some of your urchins will die soon without any other obvious reason, that is most likely the root cause
Thanks for the comment Benjamin. I didn't know that. One of the urchins did die, but the other one is still going strong. So I'm assuming that when you transfer them to a new tank, just do it as quickly as possible? This is my first time with urchins so I have a lot to learn!
@@MyFirstFishTank Well, here is how I always do it: After acclimatization in the bag/box (or in whatever it comes) I pour out most of the water to the sink but keep enough water in the bag so that the urchin is still fully under water. Then put the bag in the tank and let the tank water flow into the bag/box, so that the urchin is not exposed to air at any time. Of course the downside is that you will always introduce some water from the bag to your tank but this way you can be sure that the urchin will not die because of air trapped inside his housing. If I am not mistaken, this also applies to starfish but I could be wrong here. At least I am doing it the same way for starfish as well.
Btw: I just recently stumbled across your channel. Great content and great videos! Really like the way your videos are made. All the best from Germany!
That makes good sense to keep things under water. And, as long as you drip acclimate and remove most of the water before introducing the urchin to your tank, you really do minimize the risk. Thanks for taking the time to write back! And thanks for watching from Germany!
This just isn't true. Have you ever seen urchins in the wild? They are out of water at low tide loads. In academia when breeding urchins they are out of water for long periods of time and even injected with potassium chloride to stimulate breeding.
If the urchin died it was definitely not from it being out of water.
@@trojon What you are saying is true to some extend. The difference is, that in nature the urchins leave and enter the water in their own speed allowing them to get rid of the air inside. Kind of like if you stop breathing before you put your head under water. When you expose them to the air while putting them into the tank, they can't just turn upside down under water to get rid of the air. I also saw some videos where people recommend to put them into the tank with their mouth facing upwards. Nevertheless, if you have not experienced any negative effects doing it the way you do, there is nothing wrong with continuing like this. I just know that I haven't lost a single urchin since I do it differently. Maybe I just prefer to be on the safe side
I have used a sea hair in the past. They are kings of mowing down hair algae
I need one badly! Time to start looking for a local reefer who has one!
If you can find them I have actually seen a black and pink sea hair. The regular ones are a little on the ugly side, but the do work. Just might have to find a new home after a few weeks. They might starve
Yeah, that's what I hear. Can you feed the hare nori?
Well I would say so myself. I put one down in my sump to mow down hair algae in there and after he was done he made us eat to my Cheato and dragons tongue macro algae. After that I returned him to my LFS.
@@MyFirstFishTank yes they will take if the tangs dont first lol.
I had hair alage in my 300 gallon and got rid of it in like 4 months just by running 2 cups (or 4 of low) high capacity GFO in a reator at around 50 gallons per hour flow in the sump.
Took the phosphates for 1.5 to .1. Ran the first 2 cups for 2 weeks and the second 2 cups for 6 week. Now I runit for 8 weeks before changing GFO. The algae shrunk up to very little.
Nitrates were/are still 35 ppm so not low. It seems hair algae loves phosphates more than nitrates. I would do GFO. + hermits. Snails are too wimpy and die easier. The best by far are sea slugs to remove it fast. like 1 week in a 300 galloon.
would diamond goby be safe to have with a tuxedo urchin along with cerith snails and Trochus Snails
Manual removal & a good CUC should do the trick instead of resorting to chemical removal. I might add a few more snails and try some cerith snails 🐌 as they are good at getting into crevices. The urchins are definitely a good addition 😊
I have so many new snails arriving today, so we will see if it works! One of the urchins has already died so I hope the second one makes it!
Perhaps the zero phosphate and nitrate is due to the algae taking it out first. Refugium may help.
Hair algae is a pain in the butt. I have had great success with Sea Hares over the years. I think I have owned around 10 of them over the last 12 years. They are hair algae eating machines. I have never had an issue with one releasing toxins after they die. My LFS in Huntington Beach always has them in stock. They help control any algae in their frag tanks.
I've heard that they can be so successful that you have to re-house them when they've finished their work. Have you ever found that to be true? Will they eat Nori?
@@MyFirstFishTank I have returned and donated some sea hares once there was no more algae for them to eat. However, I currently have one in my 150g that has been in there for almost 2 years. The tank has not had any algae problems in over a year. I think he eats uneaten fish food. I have never tried to feed nori to one. My tangs usually eat the nori before anything else can get to it.
Excellent to know that one can survive for so long without any visible hair algae!
Love my urchins. The only thing that I don’t like about them is the pick up or knock over anything that is no secure. ( Think frags on frag rack ) Sometimes they make me laugh with the things they pick up. Hermits aren’t really good for eating algae, they are good for eating detritus.
Yeah I've heard that! I'm hoping that with just anemones they'll get along just fine! I have a couple of unsecured pieces of live rock, but nothing tippy and at risk of falling... famous last words probably! And agreed on the hermits for sure! I think manual removal and snails are likely my best bet! Although I just got a sailfin blenny so maybe she'll help?
Arrr Iv got one of those urchins....and a long spine urchin and a multi colour urchin and they are the best at eating all algae
Awesome! Well, some bad news. In the last week one of the urchins has already died. Never really made it to the new system. But the second one is still doing great!
One is still a beast at eating algae, with mine I feed them nori aswel
Nice, I may have to do that soon!
Are you overskimming? On smaller tanks like those it’s easy to do I would think. It’s pretty widely agreed now that having SOME detectable nitrates and phosphates is a good thing, so maybe cut down on the skimming or remove any chemical media (Chemipure/Phosban etc) other than carbon. When my nitrates and phosphates are undetectable in my nanos I very quickly get crazy dinos or hair algae, but it resolved itself within a few days of me removing the Chemipure Blue I had in the back chamber.
As for the glass, copepods do wonders.
Upgrade ur refugium you must outcompete that damn nuisance algea !
True true, but what's strange, is it's only the nuisance algae growing right now! The snails are doing a great job of taking care of the film algae! I'll keep working on it!
I'm in Beaumont CA where do you go for saltwater stuff
One day I was in your neck wood looking for a LFS and my first fish tank came up on the gps and we followed it and i think it went to your house. We were dumb founded. this was way before I started watching your videos. Been to Zen and odyssey LFS a few times. Is there any more LFS around there. I go there frequently.
Hey Alex, yeah you probably did! I really need to invest in a PO Box! Zen and odyssey are super close by. There is also Lighthouse in Indio. But that it for the valley. You either have to head out toward Riverside or Temecula. I've been to several in Temecula. A bit of a drive, but a nice drive over the mountain!
is that a weed plant in the background lol
I loved my top hat urchin until he ate my peppermint shrimp that melted shell was soft.
So, did they help with the algae? Also, the only Live Aquaria I found ships out of Wisconsin?
So live aquaria has two facilities, one in LA and one is wisconsin. The urchins definitely are algae killers, but both of mine died in a pretty short time.
Great vid!!
What app and smart sockets are you running? I need similar but am over in the uk
Hey, thanks for watching Paul. Here are the links to the ones I'm using in the states. Love them and I'm sure they have a UK equivalent. amzn.to/3oZK5Cb and amzn.to/3irlMui
@@MyFirstFishTank thanks so much for the swift reply... if you ever have a moment please do stop by my channel and let me know what you think of my tanks... I really love watching your videos 👍👌🙌
Will do for sure!
Bit late to the party here, but isn’t taking urchins out of the water a big nono because of potential air bubbles that’ll end up killing them?
Looks like Dino because of the bubbles, I get it when my parameters are pristine, zero nitrates and phosphates. I am careful to add neo nitro and neo phos when it happens. I still get patches of it but by dosing right away, I keep it under control. My snails and hermit crabs won't touch it.
Yeah, I have some no3 and po4 waiting if it ever gets too low again!
hey! I've got a question for u :) at 0:45, what are all of your corals in that reef tank (especially the ones that look like bubbles), and are they beginner friendly? they are so beautiful! thank you i love ur videos!
So the first coral is from the euphylia family, specifically a frogspawn. Euphylia are relatively easy, and include hammer corals and torch corals. The big pink one is a bubble coral, and is also easy but requires low flow. The big finger looking thing is a leather coral. Pretty much all of the corals I have are beginner friendly.
@@MyFirstFishTank thank you so much!
you could try dosing bright well s bacteria starter in small amounts daily or every other day this will help with the bad algae.
Thanks for the tip. I've used brightwell razor and dr. tim's something or other that I can't remember. And they did work great. The only issue I has with the razor was it zeroed out my nutrients and then I got cyano one time and dinos the other time. And then with the Dr. Tim's, when I stopped dosing it, my no3 and po4 went through the roof, and it took me a while to realize it was because all of the sudden the beneficial bacteria level tanked. So my question for you. Any tips for avoiding the cyano/dino outbreaks?
@@MyFirstFishTank i wouldn't dose brightwell every day small amounts. For cyno more flow. More time for the tank to balance out. I would test po4 daily at the same time even twice a day. To see how po4 is being consumed. You should not be at 0 . Po4
Cool, thanks again!
Noob here, not trying to be snarky, just trying to learn. Why no quarantine, just straight into the tank? I'm also reading that you're supposed to add one (or pair of) new critters at a time. If you're buying a cleanup crew that all came from the same tank at the LFS can you quarantine them together? Love your videos! Thanks.
Hey David, thanks for the questions. I always recommend quarantining new fish for sure! The only exception to this is the first fish you add to a new tank, because if you don't plan on medicating like me, then if the fish get sick, you just have to wait 72 days before adding new fish. So it's a gamble for sure. I have 2-3 quarantine tanks set up and ready to go at all times. When you are reading adding one fish, that's probably because the tank has not been cycled. The goal with a fish cycle is to use the fish to produce waste and ammonia. But if you cycle your tank first, then you can add more than one fish. In an ideal world, you would quarantine all livestock, including inverts. While they aren't susceptible to the same diseases as fish, they could still carry something in the water. The tricky part with quarantining inverts is how to feed them. Especially algae grazers will need supplemental food while in quarantining.
You have to put inside blenny or scopas tang brother 😊. They like algae by theway
Yeah good idea for sure!
Outcompete the nuisance algae with a chaeto reactor or turf scrubber set to a reverse photo period.
Yeah, thinking about an algae scrubber. But going to try some manual removal and additional clean up crew first. Think it will work?
Blows my mind you just dont drive to the local store to get that stuff..
i son’t get it, he mentions his nutrients are almost undetectable but adds an anemone? lol. the plan of attack is always not to add anything until you get a hold of those issues right?
Why the glove if the water is past your wrist?
Good question. I can't remember. It might have been because I was worried about accidentally touching the coral with my hand. Maybe? I can't remember!
The coloured bags if to stop aggression so fish cant see other fish
The reason why you have low nutrients is because it is all going into the hair algae. You probably have more phosphates and nitrates than your tests are showing because the hair algae is absorbing them as fast as they are available.
You are definitely correct on this front!
Mine within a week had a hole nothing inside
Sea Hairs (slugs) are 100x better than snails and crabs. Its not eve close. 2 sea hairs in 10 day ate all the algae in a 300 gallon. Something 50 hermits could not do, snails failed too.
But GFO prevents that algae in the first place.
emerald crabs are good for algae but they will mess with your corals also
what is that green incrusting coral in the softie tank ???
Start dosing microbacter 7 weekly
An excellent idea! In fact, I dose it after every water change now!
What is that big soft coral in the middle of the tank?
Brightwell aquatics microbacter is the best way to go
I actually use it frequently. How do you use it?
Is that reasonable to keep them more than one hour in the bag?
Did the urcin help for the algea ?
What temperature should I keep my 75 gal fish only tank
Dude... where is everyone's grass? You need a huge yard!!!
Reduce the amount of UV light?
that happened to me
yikes
Maybe try cutting back on your light schedule. Edit, ps . I have had great luck with emerald crabs.
I could, for sure. But I'm pretty much running a 7 hour photo period and the PAR just isn't that much. I like to mess with the lights as a last resort since it will affect all of the other corals as well. I'm glad you've had luck with emerald crabs! I have one in there now so we'll see what happens! Thanks for watching and adding your two cents!
Get a sea hare!! Things are awesome for hair algae...
That's what everybody keeps telling me, so I think I need to get me a sea hair!!!
@@MyFirstFishTank yeah my urchin doesn’t touch the hair algae... but then sea hares are fun to watch and find each day lol
Is there a reason you wear gloves?
I’m baffled 😮 aren’t you something to do with marines depot 🤷🏻♂️😀
Yes, I collaborate with them every week. But I'm still My First Fish Tank, just a collaborator with MD!
@@MyFirstFishTank got you 👍keep up the good work love your vids and were you live 😀👍🏴
Man oh man I’m back
Woot woot! Welcome Back!
Have you ever tested for silicates?
Yeah, I just did actually! Check out the video! ua-cam.com/video/U2tvWSU4O6A/v-deo.html
GHA does it consume silicate then ??
Bro your really over thinking this lol
What app and power bar does this??
I can't remember which power bars were in this video, but here are the ones I currently own. amzn.to/3HZqpbw. That's my favorite!
@@MyFirstFishTank thank you so much
Jesus dude get a cheap NIST certified thermometer. Walmart meat thermometer??
That's hilarious, because I now have two meat thermometers that I use!!
I’ve never acclimated any of my fish and they are fine and alive that’s just a waist of time and a myth !
To each their own