[Myka]

I finally won the battle against Valonia in my 90 reef. It was very much plague proportions. So in April I ditched the Zeovit additives and was just using Bak and Start. Then in June I ditched Zeovit completely, added a PhosBan reactor with 300mL of GFO, and added 8 small Emerald crabs. Nowadays you would be hard pressed to find any Valonia in my 90. I even had the dread red bubble algae which make the green stuff seem easy! I would manually prune the Valonia (and Caulerpa) a couple times a month when I was home, but I never got anywhere near all of it. The Emerald crabs aren't very hardy though, I think I only have 2 left in the reef now. I did re-home 4 of them due to their huge size. So I guess that's only two that are unaccounted for.

So, I recently did the same thing with my Zoa tank. On Oct 3rd I added a bag of carbon passively, on Oct 10th I added 2 small Emerald crabs and a Phosban reactor with 60mL GFO. I have already noticed a difference. I'm going to add a couple more Emeralds as soon as I can find some small ones...I'm not sure either of the Emeralds are still in there. Could just be hiding.

Valonia survives off very little nutrients. People starting off ULNS will find Valonia is the last algae to leave. The red stuff is even worse. I found adding the large number of Emerald crabs was the straw the broke the camels back. Not many of the Emerald crabs will actually eat the Valonia. I think the secret is to just keeping adding a couple here and there until you have enough in there that will eat it and can keep up.

Oh, and yes Tony I had Caulerpa in both tanks as well, although it is gone in the 90 now, and on its way out in the Zoa tank.