Candy Cane coral with hair algae

[iloveswfish]

I have a candy cane coral that has hair algae between the heads, i have tried to cut the hair algae and used a tooth brush but it comes back. i have read you can use hydrogen peroxide but i am nervous that it could kill the coral can somone give me some advise.

 

[twilliard]

The question at hand is "what" is feeding the algae

 

[iloveswfish]

i am not sure my levels are all fine.........this coral and the rock are the only ones that have the hair algae on it.

 

[dsfdsfisch]

I had same problem a month ago. peroxide dip and no more hair algae. Corals are growing great. No harm to them.

 

[Tab28]

Algea eats phosphates. If you have algae you more than likely have phosphates. Unless very high you will not get a reading using tests. The algae in your tank is consuming it, so there is not enough left for the tests to read. I had this issue for years with phosphates reading less than 0.02 but i had algae. I carbon dosed and used GFO. After a few weeks the algae started to disappear. Once all gone I stopped dosing. My phosphate level started to rise since there was no algae to consume it.

 

[brandon429]

My take is different

I have seen algae grow in tanks with perfect po4 simply because it was brought in, or getting sunlight on that side of the tank, many reasons.

The peroxide is perfect because you lift out the coral and use a dropper only to apply to the algae intertwined not the flesh of the coral

Algae doesn't grow on the polyps, it may be touching them, but its growing up from the skeletal areas which you just dribble some peroxide on, wait a minute in the air, rinse and put back in. Its impossible to kill corals with peroxide when you never put it on the coral just the skeletal areas. Post a pic of your coral

If it grows back fast, look for nutrient issues. If it doesn't, you had the same kind of opportunistic temporary algae that grows on pure testing natural reefs with no nutrient issues merely awaiting a grazer to eat it up. Reefs with absolutely perfect waters still grow algae for grazers to eat by the ton, ergo not all algae is a po4 issue. The fact your algae is localized means this is likely the case, peroxide can be a cure quite easily in these settings., not a bandaid, at least thats what our combined 300 pages of peroxide work shows.

The number of times we have collected before and after pics of a candy cane coral infested then cleaned of algae in 36 hours and posted the pics in giant peroxide threads is about 250 examples found easily with a key word search. If you'll post before and after pics,we w add another making 251
B

 

[brandon429]

Even though your problem is small, here is a local thread where we used the predictions involved in those big p threads to rid an entire tank of gelidium.

http://reef2reef.com/threads/id-request-red-plants-and-spikey-plant.205051/

Instead of just on one rock and a candy cane like yours, it had spread. Lucky you are considering action early on.

 

[twilliard]

Hi Brandon I see you don't take pm's so i figured I would ask here.
I have one single spot of bryopsis in my tank.
removal of the rock is not an option.
with ALL flow off can I nuke this sucker with peroxide without hurting my refugium macros.
in other words in tank treatment
thanks!

 

[brandon429]

hey! what error is the private message giving because I do accept them but I've been waiting on replies from people that have not come, perhaps it's too full and I need to delete some old ones!

we do have success treating that type of algae but it's a little more resistant than other types can you post a picture of your setup so we can see if it would work okay

the number one goal is to not use peroxide if it seems like it won't work so from those pics we can get a good idea and we have done lots of in tank treatments

 

[twilliard]

Here is a picture of the rock with the algae

 

[brandon429]

ha, attack! but need fts to look for sensitive organisms, these:

lysmata and blood shrimp cousins
anemz, condys heteractis sebae etc which isnt contraindicating it just sets dosage limits they get mad

decorative macros for obvious reasons.

That's about it, all else tolerates lower runs.

But that spot, nah its opportunistic not indicative of po4 issues if fts doesnt show madness.
in the caymans, a parrotfish would fix that right up lol meaning nothing about po4.

so we cheat, see if it works, the for sure is we make the trial run safe off full tank pics. It'll be safe trial, sustainments range, no foul in trying.

so how to attack
imo:

take brown medicine pill prescription bottle plastic and empty, no lid, small hole drilled in bottom, simple. any small plastic container, its a capture bell.

inverted chem bell over that particular spot no pumps on see where going? its cheapo concentrator bell to slow spillage into tank.

still tank no pumps

use injector diabetic syringe, or pipette, be creative, inject into the drilled hole while the bell is capped over the target

inject slowly, the bell holds your cheat a critical delay time, is key vs dumping equally in tank like everyone does

put your concentrator over the target preferably around the zos not over them, save contact f9r them later hit obvious no zo area as a test, wait to proceed, you don't need full fix one go, take easy. That's the trick, don't nail your whole tank seeking one off cure nobody promised.
Max dose into the bell housing is one mil for each ten gallons of tank water, hold in place a few mins pumps stilled.

For what I can tell, it is inert/fully broken down within a day, w a water change in hours.

Who says must be peroxide tho? creativity wins. inject the bell with tech m, appro for bryopsis and not harmful as a bleed off we know, see where going? its the concentrator that is the win, the chem cheat ranges. Both chems are being lessened to the overall tank and maximized to the target and we fix a bunch of these kinds of tanks never asking about po4:
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/268706-peroxide-saves-my-tank-with-pics-to-prove-it/page-59

a reference thread is ok to use as relevant imo we can work here but reference our friends at nr lol
enjoy a safe run post after pics

 

[twilliard]

Thanks Brandon!