Power Outage Disaster Thread III....updates and questions....

[TomV]

Hi folks....

Well, a small update and some questions (post power outage crash disaster)...

3 feather dusters have popped out of the live rock that was transferred over from the 29 a week and a half ago. So, I guess that this is a good sign that life is slowwwwwly returning. Have also noticed the Caribbean Corallimorphs (the ones with the pink centers and clear legs with white orbs at the ends) seem to be coming back to life bit by bit. And that Ricordea baby has refused to completely disappear. So, right now, it's mostly white with a very tiny mouth that can be seen with a good magnifying glass.

The Hermit Crabs seem to be FLOURISHING!!

So, all in all, seemingly promising signs..

Now, the questions:

- The Tank has taken on a nasty case of brown algae(diatoms), small bits of hair algae, and a mucky mess of what looks like it could have been red slime (which I treated for a week ago). Should I blow the stuff off the rocks?

- If I blow the stuff off the rocks, should I vacuum it out of the tank? Or should I let the skimmer dispose of it? How would I vacuum it?

- Should I feed the tank the phyto I have (since the feather dusters and corallimorph are hanging on? Or are they getting enough food with all the nutrients that seem to be in the water which is seemingly creating the excess algae and only feeding will increase the algae?

- Would increasing the number of hermits help any?

As far as water goes, the readings are all in the green except somewhat high Nitrates and a barely readable (which has gone down sharply) level of Nitrites.


Thanks for reading. And thanks in advance for any advice....

[forestal]

you prob had a cycle and the inverts thrived for an abundance of food, as did the cyano and diatoms.

i would blow the junk off the rocks and siphon or use a fish net to scoop it (works well for me)

i would not start feeding heavily but start slowly and work way up so you don't create a bigger cycle...imo i would wait till the diatoms/cyano stuff has gone before feeding as their presence denotes excess nutrients still..

glad to hear there is a nice comeback

[TomV]

Thanks Dan. I will use the fish net tomorrow when the lights are on after I blow the stuff off the rocks.

The Corals that seemingly survived in force are called Pseudocorynactis.

This is what they look like normally:

[Woodstock]

Wow! That photo is awesome.

I would not add any phytoplankton nor hermits. Focus on doing water frequent large water changes until your nitrAtes are less than 10 ppm. Try to vacuum out the algae and any diterus you can.

[TomV]

Some pics from the slow, but steady recovery....


The first feather duster that showed up. It's growing. It's doubled it's size in the past 5 days from 1/4 inch to dime sized.





The Pseudocorynacti that are rebuilding themselves..






The Third Feather Duster that showed up. It is 1/4 inch size:






The last Ricordea. The same baby that seemingly refuses to go quietly into the night!




THANKS for viewing!