I thought I was going to breeze through with no ugly algae stage at all and then all of a sudden there it was! Ha ha, I guess it could be a case of 'pride goeth before a fall'.

Yes, I believe Samson would tolerate mollies. I have heard of other seahorse keepers with mollies. The fry provide free food for ponies too. Maybe I should give them a try.

Algae is sneaky. I think mollies could help. My only concern would be that they are rather busy fish, and might bother Samson. Males constantly chase females for spawning. Maybe start with one and see how it goes? Then I would recommend one male to three females to spread out the harassment.

Good to know. Thanks Michael!

How are things going Michael?

Things are going well, thanks Kevin. More algae export over the weekend. I keep removing algae I don't want, and favoring the ones I do want. It's gradually working. Some new algae was introduced attached to the rock that the Turtle Weed came on. I think I may add a Molly or two, to see if they can help me with it.

More pics, please! How's the back wall doing?

Hey ThePurple12! I've been taking pics but none have been good enough to post. All blurry. I plan to work on the tank this weekend, so I'll try again.

The back wall is really coming along. It's gradually getting greener and greener as more of the petticoat, feather and fern caulerpas spread around. I'll try to get some pics.

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in a while - a water change. Why? I apparently still have excess calcium and I'm getting calcium deposits on the seagrass blades again. Hopefully this will lower the concentration enough to stop this from happening anymore. If not, I'll do another one.

I also did an algae export. Next, I'd like to get the sand bed completely free of caulerpa. Their holdfasts make pulling out long pieces difficult. So you end up pulling short segments, making it all the more tedious. I got some out yesterday and today I'd love to get the rest. This will not only look better in my opinion, but it will facilitate pulling out shoal grass, which I'll be sending to vlangel. Also, I worry that the caulerpa may choke out my grasses with it's runaway growth.

Today was day 3 of sand bed caulerpa removal. Almost done! It's tedious, back-breaking work. I should be done tomorrow. I may add some sand when I finish. I'm still thinking I may add some mollies to help with algae removal.

I went weeks without doing anything to the tank. I think I was in a Corona funk. Zero motivation. Now I'm paying the price. It'll be a huge relief to get it done! Despite the uglies, the tank is doing well. The back wall is getting more and more 'petticoat' coverage, which looks pretty sweet!

We need a pic after all this work!

Fo' real! I'll be ready to show it off tomorrow, hopefully. It won't really look much different. Just different than it looked for the last month or so, which I haven't posted pics of. I'm so vain!

Ha ha, not too many of us run for the camera when our tanks are in major need of TLC. I will look forward to those pics. I am especially interested in the petticoat algae on the back wall.

Exactly! Nothing to see here. As much as I love to show off my tank, I'm not crazy about showing it in less than optimal condition. I didn't work on it yesterday, so I'm not quite there. Assuming I do work on it today, I should be able to get pics, maybe tonight.

I'm happy for you that the tank is doing so well. I understand not wanting to take pics when the tank doesn't look the way you wish. I have a couple videos that are cool, but my tank is a mess, so I feel apathetic about processing them. They have to be worth the effort.

I know what you mean about the corona funk too. I sometimes put things off as well...then again, I'm the king of procrastination!

Is there anything in nature that would take up the excess calcium? Maybe you need an oyster...

That's pretty much it, Kevin. Overall, the tank's doing well. But it doesn't look that great. I've got some ugly brown and red algae that came in on the turtle weed rock. I'm also regretting adding the fern and feather caulerpas. They're fine on the back wall, but very difficult to remove from the sand bed. Their runners are too delicate. So when I try to pull them, they break. In v1, I had caulerpa racemosa peltata. It had robust runners, so it was much easier to remove in large clumps.

So much of the ugliness was caused by me. Then it really got ahead of me with the funk. So now, as I struggle, I'm filled with regret for my mistakes. I have added a molly to help with algae removal.

Apparently, I don't have much in my tank that takes up calcium. Mainly I added it to increase bicarbonates for the grasses. Plus I wanted to see if I had any calcium-using sponges that would benefit. I do have one yellow sponge that is growing well, so maybe that's a small plus. But seeing the grasses go from green to pale yellow is not cool. So another water change is in order.

Have you read this thread? It's pretty cool
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=620824

It's a bummer all the seagrass people are gone.

Thanks, ThePurple12. Yes, I have read all the old helpful posts about three times over the years. Maybe I'll read them again! Great info in there for sure.

Yeah it does kinda suck there aren't more people on RC doing grasses these days. Reading Samala's and others' threads blew my mind when I first read them. They really broke new ground.

So what I'm doing is really nothing new or innovative. I'm just riding on their coattails!

Finally some pics! I took these this morning, so there's some glare here and there.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=81204
The full width shot. Note the whitish coating on a lot of the seagrass. That's the calcium. Also see the nearly full coverage on the back wall. Ironically, there's less coverage where the light is brightest. You may be able to see the Dalmatian and Silver Mollies in the top right corner.


http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=81205
End shot. Papillon surveying the jungle.


http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=81207
Pretty good shot of one of the Neon (Allen's) Damsels.


http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=81206
The caulerpa coverage at this end is ridiculous.


http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=81203
Manatee and Shoal grasses.


http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=81208
This one shows the fairly lush back wall coverage.

Those shots are amazing Michael. The tank looks terrific!
I love the petticoat and even the feather caulerpa on the back wall. Such a lush aquascape, I love it.

Thanks for the encouraging words Dawn! I've been struggling lately, with the work to get algae under control and the motivation to do it. Getting the tank somewhat cleaned up and taking some pics has boosted my enthusiasm. Yay!

The two new mollies are eating algae, so that helps. I'd love to get a dwarf angel fish to go after it, but I don't dare spend that kind of money in these uncertain times. My wife would kill me!

I am going to give Ulva Intestinallis another try. It's like regular Ulva but stringy like spaghetti and moves nicely in the current. The last time I tried it, it disappeared overnight. This time I'm starting with more of it (two cups), and also the Tuxedo Damsel that I think removed it is gone, so I have high hopes. I will be putting it at the top of the fake wall again, in the bare spots in very bright light. In the wild this plant grows in quite shallow depths, and is often exposed at low tide, so I think it can handle it. Fingers crossed!

Looking great. Love the back wall, I might have to try something like that in my seahorse tank.

Thanks ThePurple12. The back wall is coming along well. I really don't like cleaning the back glass. So much so that I made a fake wall. If you are interested, I put a link to my fake wall build thread in the first post of this thread. Most people put rocks and rubble in theirs to simulate a reef wall. I skipped the rocks and sanded mine down to simulate a mangrove mud bank.

When I restarted this tank, I decided to cover the left end wall too, to hide a new wave box. It was a smaller wall, but a bit more complex.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=79931

http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=80012

I love your ‘rock’ work Michael- remind me, it’s all black pond foam, right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks neil2006. Yes, it's all black pond foam. I did add some silica sand to the original, back wall to give it a little brownish warmth. Also there are 20+ plastic bottles in there to provide caves for royal grammas I kept in a harem of seven.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=65230

http://reefcentral.com/forums/pictur...ictureid=73063