Well, not being able to stop looking at my LR, aquascaping and all the little critters that came with the LR, I noticed the dreaded bubble Algae. At first I thought to myself, just leave it there and take care of it once the tank cycles. Then I started doing some research. Everywhere I read, the vote is to get it out of the tank without breaking the bubble. It was just too many bubble to try to hand pick off. Besides, I had a so many bristle worms, I didn't want to take the chance of getting stung.
So, I take my rock out and rise it in tap water. I fill my sink up with hot tap water and place all my live rock in the sink. Almost all my little critter died. I began the scrubbing process. I scrubbed and scrubbed until I could see no more bubble algae. I rinsed the live rock again to get rid of any spores that may have been released. I put the live rock back in the tank and shut off the lights. Only a few bristle worms and other worms deep inside the rock survived the process.
The next day, I went to observe my live rock. I noticed there were still some bubble algae albeit not as many as previous. I took all live rock out of the tank again and repeated the process. Some of these bubbles are just plain out right difficult to remove. I had to do the process at least three more times before all noticeable bubbles were removed.
Not happy with my aquascaping skills, I took the rock out of the tank again and tried to break the big base rocks into smaller sections. Dang these rock just wont break. I hit the rock with all my might with a hammer and it would not break.
Now I'm thinking, my rock has been out the water for at least 10 minutes. I try to rig my AquaClear 202 powerhead as a pump into the tank so that I could remove the stock pump. No success in this. Water at this point is all over the floor and I almost destroyed my flat screen T.V. in the process (I didn't shut of the power before trying this.).
I finally hook the stock pump back up and settle for the PH to be placed inside the display area. I put all my rock in the tank. It's now been about 15 minutes that my live rock has been out of the water. All sign of life is no longer on the rock. I think I have too much rock because I don't see how I'm going to include any low light corals in the future. I like how I aquascaped the tank. But I miss my little tiny shrimp and limpet snails that used to run around the tank.
Finally, the tank is settling again. The lights are off and I probably have set myself back by a few weeks of cycling. I called my LFS to ask them how to prevent and control the bubble Algae and they suggested a hermit crab, despite that tank is cycling and ammonia levels are 0.50. I don't believe a hermit crab would survive this plus, hermit crabs don't eat bubble algae.
Sorry for the long post. But this is my story of the day. I'm eager to learn and I'm eager to do this right. I don't want to get 6 months down the road to learn that I didn't take care of something in the early stages of the tank and it causes expensive repair such as pulling out a nice looking live rock and having to get rid of it.
Well I have to go to work...thank god that I only have to work 2 hours today because I can't seem to keep my eye out of the tank.
:alice
So, I take my rock out and rise it in tap water. I fill my sink up with hot tap water and place all my live rock in the sink. Almost all my little critter died. I began the scrubbing process. I scrubbed and scrubbed until I could see no more bubble algae. I rinsed the live rock again to get rid of any spores that may have been released. I put the live rock back in the tank and shut off the lights. Only a few bristle worms and other worms deep inside the rock survived the process.
The next day, I went to observe my live rock. I noticed there were still some bubble algae albeit not as many as previous. I took all live rock out of the tank again and repeated the process. Some of these bubbles are just plain out right difficult to remove. I had to do the process at least three more times before all noticeable bubbles were removed.
Not happy with my aquascaping skills, I took the rock out of the tank again and tried to break the big base rocks into smaller sections. Dang these rock just wont break. I hit the rock with all my might with a hammer and it would not break.
Now I'm thinking, my rock has been out the water for at least 10 minutes. I try to rig my AquaClear 202 powerhead as a pump into the tank so that I could remove the stock pump. No success in this. Water at this point is all over the floor and I almost destroyed my flat screen T.V. in the process (I didn't shut of the power before trying this.).
I finally hook the stock pump back up and settle for the PH to be placed inside the display area. I put all my rock in the tank. It's now been about 15 minutes that my live rock has been out of the water. All sign of life is no longer on the rock. I think I have too much rock because I don't see how I'm going to include any low light corals in the future. I like how I aquascaped the tank. But I miss my little tiny shrimp and limpet snails that used to run around the tank.
Finally, the tank is settling again. The lights are off and I probably have set myself back by a few weeks of cycling. I called my LFS to ask them how to prevent and control the bubble Algae and they suggested a hermit crab, despite that tank is cycling and ammonia levels are 0.50. I don't believe a hermit crab would survive this plus, hermit crabs don't eat bubble algae.
Sorry for the long post. But this is my story of the day. I'm eager to learn and I'm eager to do this right. I don't want to get 6 months down the road to learn that I didn't take care of something in the early stages of the tank and it causes expensive repair such as pulling out a nice looking live rock and having to get rid of it.
Well I have to go to work...thank god that I only have to work 2 hours today because I can't seem to keep my eye out of the tank.
:alice