Myka vs Valonia Round 672

[Myka]

Thanks for the links Mike, I will take a look!

Originally Posted by Oscar

I am thinking of getting a sea hare to help out with the hair algae, I have read somewhere that some people have seen them eat valonia as well.

Your rocks look like they have a lot of detritus settled on them. Do you blow them off with a turkey baster? I find that is a key part of battling hair algae. Although I don't see any hair algae in the photo of your Pencil Urchin. You should be able to get rid of the hair algae without getting a Sea Hare. Have you read the Guide in my signature?

[Myka]

UPDATE:

I know I have talked about this on other threads, but figured I would record it here too as the battle continues...

So I have made a couple dramatic changes to my tank in the last 6 weeks, and have noticed a huge DECREASE in Valonia!

I changed my lighting to 2x250w DE MH. It currently has crappy Coralife 10000K bulbs that it came with, and crappy reflectors. That's ok because I don't want too much PAR, or my LPS will get roasted. I started the lighting slowly with two 1 hour spurts, eventually getting to two 2 hour spurts, and then going to one 4 hours spurt this was over the course of 3 weeks. That was too much and a couple corals started bleaching, I've knocked it back down to two 2 hour periods.

The other thing I changed was I started some Zeo additives. I bought the Zeo Nano Power package. The Pohl's Xtra and the Amino Acid LPS ran out after only 10 days, but I am carrying on with daily dosing (1 drop per day) of the Coral Vitalizer and the Sponge Power.

Now, I don't know if it's these changes or something else going on, but there sure is a HUGE difference in the Valonia. Worth a shot for anyone else giving it a try. I know from talking to a few people using the full Zeo system that Valonia was the last algae to disappear. So that's why I figured I would give the Nano pack a shot.

OR

Maybe the change on bulb Kelvin I made in December (I think it was?) when I was just running T5s finally did the trick? Or maybe the Emerald Crabs finally caught up? Or maybe the Kole Tang has actually been doing some trimming? I have no idea really...all I know is that SOMETHING is working!

[saltyrigger]

The reef shoppe in Lloydminster has emerald crabs

[StirCrazy]

sorry I missed this thread untill now. Emerald crabs are the key, 3 of them in your tank, and remove the large one manualy. Don't worry about popping them unless they are going sexual, they are a single cell algae from what I have read. There were bigh threads on them on RC and here about 7 years ago. for my tank I had them pretty bad, I poped all the big ones and then let the emerald crabs clean up the rest.

Steve

[Myka]

That's interesting about them being single cell organisms. I do have 2 Emerald Crabs in there already, and I suck out as many as I can during waterchanges. It really is getting a lot better lately!

Originally Posted by saltyrigger

The reef shoppe in Lloydminster has emerald crabs

This tank is still in Kelowna, BC. I do have to make it to The Reef Shoppe though!

[MMAX]

First of all, NO TANGS your tank is too small. Wait a minute, where have I heard that before?

[Myka]

Someone said to me the other day, "My tang has more swimming room in comparison to his size right now (3" Sailfin in a 60 I think it was) than he will when he is full grown in my 180g." I had no comeback. He was right. Similarly, I have noticed that my Kole tang has more swimming room in my 33g than he will when he's full grown in my 90. This is an interesting approach, although I'm not entirely sure which side of that fence I'm on since it encourages people to keep large fish in small spaces with little follow through in upgrading. You know, the upgrade that is always planned but never happens?