Scott's 26g Bowfront

Scott · 04-23-2006, 08:18 PM

I decided to go ahead and start a thread for my tank.

I've been battling an ongoing hair algae problem for a number of months. Typically I just go in and pull it out by hand. Well, after the chat last night...Gwen suggested to me that I pull the rocks and scrub the HA off.

So, that is what I've been doing today. With this, I decided to try something a bit different with my aquascaping when I put everything back in. I split up a few rocks and actually picked up one other dead one off the shelf.

So here goes the pictures....

Here is the tank right before I started to remove rocks. You can see all the HA.

Here is the tank after I removed some of the rock and placed some in the tub.

Here is the tub with some rock. I used a toothbrush and a tile brush to scrub with.

Here is the tank with some of the rock back in after scrubbing. It's real cloudy as I decided to add just a little more LS in some areas....it was a bit thin toward the middle and back.

And, here's a pic of everything back in....and somewhat arranged. We'll see how this works.

I can see some HA left on a few rocks, so it looks like I'll have to scrub one a little more. but with any luck it'll just die. With all of this, I ended up doing around a 20% water change.

I'll post another pic either late tonight or tomorrow once it's cleared up and no longer cloudy.

DJGonzo69 · 04-23-2006, 08:35 PM

Wow Scott looks very good...I don't see any green!!! good work man.
-john

***Rob*** · 04-23-2006, 08:44 PM

thanks for starting thread..
we all know HA happen, so don be afraid to post pictures. i think it will be great for us to learn how you win the battle..

Scott · 04-23-2006, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJGonzo69

Wow Scott looks very good...I don't see any green!!! good work man.

Thanks, but once the water clears some more...you'll see a few strands on the right side. Might even be able to make them out in the photo. There's some on the rock that the blue shrooms are on, and the one where the green shrooms are. Those were really bad, but I did what I could without ripping off the blue shrooms.

Marauder-m · 04-23-2006, 08:45 PM

Those picture take me back. Thats what my tank looked like for about 3 months. I ended up getting a whole lot of trocus snails. It was great watching them mow all the HA down. Literally, they would cut a path through it, eating off the base. The top of the HA would then float off and I'd remove it. Pretty soon the coraline got established and that was the end of the HA.
If I had to do it all again I would have seeded some coraline onto my new LR so that it would get a head start. I have a couple of small rocks with coraline well established. I scratch them all over any new Live Rock that goes in and it really helps to get the colour into new LR.

Scott · 04-23-2006, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob

thanks for starting thread..
we all know HA happen, so don be afraid to post pictures. i think it will be great for us to learn how you win the battle..

Yeah, I was debating if I should just turn it into a HA tank!

But it was Gwen's suggestion last night in chat on pulling all the rocks and scrubbing them. It did take some time, I just hope it was enough.

I still think my aquascaping isn't the greatest. But I can say that the wrasse and dottyback are having a blast with all the new nooks to check out.

Now I just need to get another batch of saltwater going for another water change tomorrow. Which reminds me....I need to get my database up and running again so I can log everything there. LOL

Scott · 04-23-2006, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marauder-m

I ended up getting a whole lot of trocus snails. It was great watching them mow all the HA down.

Thanks for the reply...I may look into some of those snails.

Quote:

If I had to do it all again I would have seeded some coraline onto my new LR so that it would get a head start.

Hmm...this could be something I can try. I've got at least one smaller sized rock covered with purple coraline.

Marauder-m · 04-23-2006, 09:02 PM

My experience has been that you only need to stratch the two rocks together lightly. No need to strip the small rock, just get a few flecks onto the new rock, spread nice and evenly.

christensonjes · 04-24-2006, 02:14 AM

Whats with the ice cream container?

kj_yoda · 04-24-2006, 09:39 AM

Scott, Looks great. I have to find the link, but a friend of mine's brother had a DIY algae removal tool. It is easy to make and is a toothbrush with a 1/4" inside diameter tube attached to when you scrub, you remove the algae in one easy step

Quote:

Originally Posted by christensonjes

Whats with the ice cream container?

That is what I was going to say.

Scott · 04-24-2006, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by christensonjes

Whats with the ice cream container?

This always comes up.

I had a leather coral that ended up as a snack to a nudibranch.
finger coral - white spot

Anyways, I decided to clip the remainder of the coral at the stump and attach it to a rock, so it wouldn't flap around. Needless to say, I learned out first hand that you can't superglue a soft coral...as it slimes and can get away from the superglue within a few days. So, I put it in the cup to see if it would attach to some live sand. As that didn't work, I then used a rubberband to hold it to a rock....but I learned again first hand that the rubberband wasn't as loose as I thought it was, and the coral split.

So, now the cup has a bunch of pieces of rock in the bottom so hopefully the two pieces of leather will attach to some of them. Currently one piece is actually starting to attach, but the other hasn't yet. Probably due to the fact that the Clowns love the cup!

Anyways, that's the story of the cup.

Scott · 04-24-2006, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kj_yoda

Scott, Looks great. I have to find the link, but a friend of mine's brother had a DIY algae removal tool. It is easy to make and is a toothbrush with a 1/4" inside diameter tube attached to when you scrub, you remove the algae in one easy step

Thanks Kevin.

I've heard a few people talk about stuff like this. I need to go get some tubing so I can do this, as I picked up two firm toothbrushes for scrubbing rocks.

V · 04-24-2006, 11:19 AM

i love the bowfront tanks. something about curved glass that makes it kinda sexy.
i would love to own a circular tank, 360deg view. anyways, scott i didnt see any anenems for the clowns, are they using that cup as a safe house instead?

and ive just noticed Marauder-m is from melb also.
abit slow these days, sorry!
lets us know in a pm what LFS u use

Scott · 04-24-2006, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by veriann

i love the bowfront tanks. something about curved glass that makes it kinda sexy.
i would love to own a circular tank, 360deg view. anyways, scott i didnt see any anenems for the clowns, are they using that cup as a safe house instead?

Yeah, I do like the bowfronts. 360 would be a cool one too.

No, I don't have an anemone for the clowns. One day I'd like to get one though.

They are the funniest clowns, as soon as I put the cup back in the tank after scrubbing the rocks, there was a clown in it before I even got my hand out of the water. They just love that cup. I'd suspect that they decided to host it or something. but they do allow the wrasse to check out the cup, and I've even seen the dottyback in there once. but typically it's just the clowns, one will sleep in the cup overnight while the other clown goes up to the top left of the tank and sleeps between the side glass and the powerhead.

christensonjes · 04-24-2006, 01:35 PM

You should try to glue the leather again. I got a frag of a leather coral and glued it to a rock, worked on my first try.