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how to get rid of macro?


jason7504

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tangs need lots of swimming room though..was your 32g longer? because i dont think they would be able to swim that much in a 34g cube..length is more important for them than gallons

 

Nope, it was a cube.

 

The little guy had plenty of room to swim around in, and was a happy little fishy (One of my favorite fish, extremely smart).

 

I would say that if he did grow to about 4 inches while I had it up though I would have removed him. He would have been too big at that point.

 

 

Ricky Soutas Jr.

-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

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Nope, it was a cube.

 

The little guy had plenty of room to swim around in, and was a happy little fishy (One of my favorite fish, extremely smart).

 

I would say that if he did grow to about 4 inches while I had it up though I would have removed him. He would have been too big at that point.

 

 

Ricky Soutas Jr.

-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-

 

was it hard to remove him? im planning on getting a 6-line wrasse though

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IME raising the MG to 1500 did nothing to harm the algae. I got above 1800 before I started seeing any effects. Some people report better results with Kent's Tech M as the magnesium addative, but there is no real reasoning behind this and even the chemist at Kent thinks it's odd, but does state there magnesium is probably more pure. There is a very very long thread about using magnesium to remove bryopsis on Reef Central titled, "Finally an easy solution for bryopsis" or something to that affect, if you care to read a few thousand posts on it. Personally I don't think you have bryopsis.

 

Getting an exact ID is not important, most all algae respond the same way, and are treated the same way. Some fish will eat, some they will not. Sometimes it depends on the individual speciment of the fish. Your foxface might mow it down, mine won't touch the stuff.

 

Personally I would not get a fish to control it in a tank that size. IME tangs do not eat that kind of algae, I have had it before myself. My foxface also ignored it. Emerald crabs pulled at it a bit, but they were no real cure. JME

 

The no light thing does work well IME. I would pull as much algae as you can out. Really get it all. The take a brush to the rock. You can do this out of the tank if convient, but you can also do it in the tank as well. Kill the lights for three days, watch your skimmer (skim wet if you can) then do as large a water change as possible. 50% is a good start.

 

When the lights go off the algae dies back, but it also releases many of it's stored nutrients and it's spores back into the water. Doing a water change you can kind of vacuum the rock and remove as much of this as possible, but there is going to be some left. Not doing the water change after the light break is just helping the algae spread about the tank. Algae spreads out of direct growth or be releasing spores and then growing. JME

 

If you fixed the cause of the problem, then no lights can significantly give you a leg up on the algae but it's just a good start, it will take a bit of good husbandry and some patience to beat it. Once you do though, it's a nice life. ;)

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IME raising the MG to 1500 did nothing to harm the algae. I got above 1800 before I started seeing any effects. Some people report better results with Kent's Tech M as the magnesium addative, but there is no real reasoning behind this and even the chemist at Kent thinks it's odd, but does state there magnesium is probably more pure. There is a very very long thread about using magnesium to remove bryopsis on Reef Central titled, "Finally an easy solution for bryopsis" or something to that affect, if you care to read a few thousand posts on it. Personally I don't think you have bryopsis.

 

Getting an exact ID is not important, most all algae respond the same way, and are treated the same way. Some fish will eat, some they will not. Sometimes it depends on the individual speciment of the fish. Your foxface might mow it down, mine won't touch the stuff.

 

Personally I would not get a fish to control it in a tank that size. IME tangs do not eat that kind of algae, I have had it before myself. My foxface also ignored it. Emerald crabs pulled at it a bit, but they were no real cure. JME

 

The no light thing does work well IME. I would pull as much algae as you can out. Really get it all. The take a brush to the rock. You can do this out of the tank if convient, but you can also do it in the tank as well. Kill the lights for three days, watch your skimmer (skim wet if you can) then do as large a water change as possible. 50% is a good start.

 

When the lights go off the algae dies back, but it also releases many of it's stored nutrients and it's spores back into the water. Doing a water change you can kind of vacuum the rock and remove as much of this as possible, but there is going to be some left. Not doing the water change after the light break is just helping the algae spread about the tank. Algae spreads out of direct growth or be releasing spores and then growing. JME

 

If you fixed the cause of the problem, then no lights can significantly give you a leg up on the algae but it's just a good start, it will take a bit of good husbandry and some patience to beat it. Once you do though, it's a nice life. ;)

 

i just bought some epsom salt to raise my mag..that wont work as well? so then should i raise mine to 1800? that wont hurt the ionic balance in my tank?

 

well i tried scrubbing some of the algae off but its really hard to get off because its roots seem to be deeply embedded or something..

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I've had problems with epsom salts. I've tried using them twice, and each time I've had a cyano breakout right after -- I think it's the sulfur (epsom salts are magnesium sulfate) that caused the problem. Now, I stick with magflake (magnesium chloride) and don't have any problems.

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Don't use just epsom's salts. It will screw up your ion balance. There needs to be more chloride than sulfate in the mix. You need to mix it with magnesium chloride. The bulk reef supply website suggests a 5 cups magnesium chloride to 3 cups magnesium sulfate ratio dissolved in 1 gal of water. It does not all dissolve, but shake it up and add it to the tank/sump.

 

I too have been adding some magnesium sulfate (epsom's salts), and am experiencing a cyano outbreak... Maybe there is a coincidence. If so, I will live with the cyano long enough to battle the bryopsis, then get everything back in order to fight the cyano.

 

dsoz

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I saw no ill effects from raising the Mg myself. If you read the thread on RC few have had problems.

 

I would not use epsom salts, it is incomplete. I use a bulk product for Mg now that I got at Waves, I used the TechM for the Mg boost. Raise it slow, in 50ppm or 100ppm intervals depending on how conservative you are.

 

Tweezers will pull the algae IME.

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ok well then im glad that i posted that i got some before i used it..would DT's pure Mg work good to raise my Mg?

 

Read the bottle. What is the source of the magnesium? Is it magnesium sulfate, magnesium chloride, magnesium carbonate, magnesium acetate, or magnesium something-or-other-ate?

 

If it is the chloride, or a mix of chloride and sulfate then go ahead and use it. Make sure you test (or have a store test) your water for how much Mg there is first. Then go slowly up (100 ppm per day at most) to the desired level. (16-1800). Use a reef calculator to determine how much to add each day. Test often to see how good you keep on track.

 

Try to make a habit of not adding anything to your tank that you don't (or can't) test. You can really screw up your tank if you do.

 

dsoz

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Read the bottle. What is the source of the magnesium? Is it magnesium sulfate, magnesium chloride, magnesium carbonate, magnesium acetate, or magnesium something-or-other-ate?

 

If it is the chloride, or a mix of chloride and sulfate then go ahead and use it. Make sure you test (or have a store test) your water for how much Mg there is first. Then go slowly up (100 ppm per day at most) to the desired level. (16-1800). Use a reef calculator to determine how much to add each day. Test often to see how good you keep on track.

 

Try to make a habit of not adding anything to your tank that you don't (or can't) test. You can really screw up your tank if you do.

 

dsoz

 

i think its mostly chloride..i can't find any Mg around besides DT's and some at Rose City

 

i cant find a Mg test kit around here besides salifert but i guess i will have to spend the 30 so i can test for it..because it will be like 25 anyway with shipping for most online places..yeah i dont add anything that i dont test for..have learned my lesson from my past tanks..:D

 

i also ordered the Saphire Aquatics Nano media reactor to help keep my phosphates at 0, (even though it has been 0 for weeks) and to help kill the macro in my tank..it should fit in my return chamber :D

 

i will try to battle the algae with the media reactor, Mg increase up to 1800 and i will pull the algae if it gets to long

 

im also thinking of adding 1 turbo to see if he will eat up some of the algae..i dont want him knocking over some of my corals because i have a few that aren't glued down and dont want to yet..do you think i should get one to try?

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I have gotten two turbos to go in my new tank, but when they are in there they stop moving and will just sit there. I then move them over to my 75g and they crawl all over the place. I put them back in the 40b, and they just sit there and freeze up. Back in the 75 they crawl all over... I don't know what their problem is.

 

A turbo is worth a try. They are algae eating machines. They do knock things over so you need to check your tank twice a day (or more) to make sure corals have not fallen into other ones. Securing the corals down sure helps with the piece of mind when it comes to snails. A little superglue gel goes a long way to hold corals down from snails, but it is weak enough if you want to move it yourself.

 

dsoz

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When we had an out break of macro in our tank last summer, here is what I used to get rid of it.

 

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yeah but that would kill everything else on the rock and i can't recycle my tank now that i have fish and corals..

 

if i did keep my low nitrate and phosphate levels wont the macro still grow because of the light?

 

im going to start the increase in Mg trick this week tho

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  • 2 weeks later...

According to the thread on RC that I read, increasing the magnesium only affects bryopsis to the extent of killing it off. Chaeto should do just fine with an increase of magnesium. If it doesn't do well, you can always get more again.

 

I don't know why, but in my sump/fuge of my new anemone tank, all the chaeto died off. I had to remove several handfulls of mushy chaeto before I left on spring break. The dying chaeto may have helped fuel the other algae that was blooming in the display. What didn't have hair algae growing on it had a cyano problem that didn't stop. I finally got fed up with it and got some "red slime remover." It took two treatments, but I think that the cyano is getting under control. There is still some in the sump, so I may do another treatment just to get it out.

 

dsoz

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Jason, awhile back I posted a pic of a large patch of hair algae I had in my tank. I was asking for help on this as well. I added a yellow tang, small short spine urchin, emerald crab, and a strawberry crab. All the hair algae was gone in two days and hasn't come back. I also increased my water changes though since my stock level has gone up, so that may have helped as well.

 

I didn't read all 8 pages of this thread, but have you tried an emerald crab and/or a small urchin? They ate mine very quickly.

 

HTH

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Jason, awhile back I posted a pic of a large patch of hair algae I had in my tank. I was asking for help on this as well. I added a yellow tang, small short spine urchin, emerald crab, and a strawberry crab. All the hair algae was gone in two days and hasn't come back. I also increased my water changes though since my stock level has gone up, so that may have helped as well.

 

I didn't read all 8 pages of this thread, but have you tried an emerald crab and/or a small urchin? They ate mine very quickly.

 

HTH

 

well i can't get a tang because my tank is too small..and i dont wanna get any crabs or urchins because they can nibble on corals or kill snails...i do weekly 15% water changes too..and i run a media reactor...

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From what I've read, emeralds love caulpera. Might be worth looking in to. I have emeralds in both my tanks and haven't had any problems with them. They really help out with the various forms of algae (bubble mainly) and haven't bothered anything else in either tank.

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