Cures for Red Turf Algae

Bob the Bass · Jan 31, 2019

I have recently been tasked with restoring a red sea 525 to it true potential. The tank has been running for a few years and all fish are healthy, and so is the algae.

As you can see the Red Turf Algae (RTA) has basically taken over the whole tank. I have read that Mexican turbo snails and red sea urchins have some success at beating this back, but I'm looking for faster and permanent solutions.

Does anyone have experience with using fluconazole to kill this algae? I have used flucon on bryopsis before with fantastic results but idk if it works on this.

Also heard of some using H2O2 with some success, does anyone recommend this? At what dosage?

Thanks in advance.

Ubergroover · Jan 31, 2019

wow...I have used peroxide, but I am not a fan. Its a fine line between effective and excessive. Fluconazole may work, but with that amount your going to need to bee diligent in removal of the dying material, or it could get nasty quick. I think if you could find a natural predator that eats it you would better off. if not then fluconazole. Peroxide is will kill more than algae. My 2cents

Ubergroover · Jan 31, 2019

might help

https://www.livingreefs.com/threads/red-turf-algae-battle-breakthrough.34790/

Bob the Bass · Jan 31, 2019

Ubergroover said:
might help

https://www.livingreefs.com/threads/red-turf-algae-battle-breakthrough.34790/

Thanks that turbo snails really did the trick for him.

anit77 · Mar 1, 2019

@Bob the Bass
Any update on your battle?

Turbo's have done nothing to dent my problem. My 220 has about 50% of what was in your pic. There's way too much rock in my system to remove and treat without a complete reboot.

Bob the Bass · Mar 8, 2019

anit77 said:
@Bob the Bass
Any update on your battle?

Turbo's have done nothing to dent my problem. My 220 has about 50% of what was in your pic. There's way too much rock in my system to remove and treat without a complete reboot.

They are making progress but not as much as I would like. I also dont want to remove and scrape too much rock to avoid a cycle. Still open to ideas on how to get rid of this stuff.

BellaCoop · Mar 8, 2019

When i had an out break I added more Turbo's and added 2 Tomini Tang. Also i would scrub it with a tooth brush and be very OCD on my water changes.

calistyle · Mar 8, 2019

I had some before and just used a syringe to hit it with h202. Once it went from dark red, to bright red/light orange the turbos mowed through it.

calistyle · Mar 8, 2019

I had some before and just used a syringe to hit it with h202. Once it went from dark red, to bright red/light orange the turbos mowed through it.

Bob the Bass · Mar 9, 2019

calistyle said:
I had some before and just used a syringe to hit it with h202. Once it went from dark red, to bright red/light orange the turbos mowed through it.

Interesting, did you notice any nutrient spikes in the tank as a result of all the algae dying?

wangspeed · Mar 9, 2019

If it were me, I would use Vibrant and then let Mexican turbos work on it. Just make sure you find them a new home once it’s all gone. You don’t want a dead turbo in the house. [emoji1785]

OceanJack · Mar 11, 2019

I have had this, I did everything I can and Turbos are the only thing that would control it....

Now, keep in mind that controlling is the only success I've read and experienced myself. In order to completely eradicate it, I did a full reboot. Bleaching everything and starting with new rock, now I am EXTREMELY careful and maybe a little too paranoid when I buy frags or transferring fish.

I would just honestly reboot at this point if you're looking for a permanent solution. Good luck!

Matt Carden · Mar 11, 2019

I have by my last count 7 different nuisances attacking my tank fighting for dominance. I am hoping it will all balance out soon. My point is, you need something else to compete for nutrients. Some live rock from KP, TBS, or gulfliverock.com (where I got mine from) which will give you plenty of diversity to compete for nutrients.

anit77 · Mar 12, 2019

I've used Vibrant for two months dosing once a week. The RTA laughed at it.
I'll try targeting it with h2o2 and see how that goes.

OceanJack · Mar 12, 2019

Vibrant won't touch RTA, the only thing that would work as a permanent solution is to do a reboot.

I've battled it for 2 years to no avail, dosing the H2o2 just stressed my corals out over time. Flucanzole won't touch it either, I've tried natural methods like a tuxedo urchin and mexican turbo snails but they will only control it.

You can take your rocks out and scrub them but the RTA is also elsewhere in your system, don't spin your wheels with dosing honestly.

If you were to take the rocks out and scrub them with H2o2 you'll kill on the rocks but not in your system....then you'll see that familiar patch again in 2 weeks. I've consulted with other reefers and pros and none of them had a solution that would work.

anit77 · Mar 14, 2019

The strange thing is that in my Frag tank doesn't have any. It's plumbed through a common sump as the display.

I'll be moving some time later this year and I'll do a reboot at that time. I'll salvage the corals that I can and run them in a separate system while I get the new one up and running. While I do that I'll completely nuke all the rock in the current tanks. There's some nice Pukani that I most definitely want to reuse. From there on out I'll QT all the coral for much longer than I have been and detach all plugs and throw them in H2O2 from a while before reusing them.

OceanJack · Mar 14, 2019

I know it sounds pretty far-fetched that nothing will eradicate this algae, but the short answer is that I've searched high and low before coming to the conclusion that I needed to do a reboot.

Nothing will harm your corals in the interim, the real problem comes when the RTA will grow fluffs and cover your corals for light.

As for your frag tank not being infected, I think it has to do with the RTA not making it to that side yet. Unless you disturb or try to brush it, I don't think it'll reach that part of your system. it would probably be best to use some sort of mechanical filtration between the two tanks to prevent any RTA from reaching that.

It's the worst feeling ever when you see your beautiful tank just decimated by this red hell.

powpow · Mar 17, 2019

I dealt with this once before. Do you have a CA reactor? If yes, turn it off. Stop dosing for phosphates, use a phosphate reactor. The only fish that eats this stuff are tangs, like the powder brown. But they don't kill it. I had also shifted from T5 to LED. Good luck - this stuff sucks.

DesertReefBoy · Apr 3, 2019

I had this in my 90. It covered 80% of my rock. It never really bothered any of my coral it was just a eye sore for me and it was almost impossible to glue new frags down to. I tried turbos with no luck. My tang gang (blue, yellow, purple and blue eye kole) would pick at it but did nothing. I ended up trying urchins. I bought a few tuxedo urchins and they LOVED IT. Sadly I ended up getting dinos due to trying to strip my nutrients and ended up tearing my tank down and selling it to buy a larger tank. If I run into it again I would buy a dozen or two tuxedo urchins and once they got it under control would sell a few.
Lastly while I was setting up my new tank I took a few of the rocks I had and put them in my holding tank as a biological filter for the fish I wanted to keep. I kept no lights on the tank other then lights from the room shining in. I did notice the red turf alage started to die off. I don’t know if it would have come back if lights were introduced but maybe doing a few week blackout could be a option as well if there are no corals in the tank.

Bob the Bass · Apr 4, 2019

DesertReefBoy said:
I had this in my 90. It covered 80% of my rock. It never really bothered any of my coral it was just a eye sore for me and it was almost impossible to glue new frags down to. I tried turbos with no luck. My tang gang (blue, yellow, purple and blue eye kole) would pick at it but did nothing. I ended up trying urchins. I bought a few tuxedo urchins and they LOVED IT. Sadly I ended up getting dinos due to trying to strip my nutrients and ended up tearing my tank down and selling it to buy a larger tank. If I run into it again I would buy a dozen or two tuxedo urchins and once they got it under control would sell a few.
Lastly while I was setting up my new tank I took a few of the rocks I had and put them in my holding tank as a biological filter for the fish I wanted to keep. I kept no lights on the tank other then lights from the room shining in. I did notice the red turf alage started to die off. I don’t know if it would have come back if lights were introduced but maybe doing a few week blackout could be a option as well if there are no corals in the tank.

powpow said:
I dealt with this once before. Do you have a CA reactor? If yes, turn it off. Stop dosing for phosphates, use a phosphate reactor. The only fish that eats this stuff are tangs, like the powder brown. But they don't kill it. I had also shifted from T5 to LED. Good luck - this stuff sucks.

I added 10 turbo snails when I first started this thread and honestly I am almost clear of RTA. I also have a tuxedo urchin, emerald crab, and Striated Surgeon Fish in the tank that all seen to pick at it, however these critters were there before the turbos so I account most of the irradiation to the snails.

I do not have a calcium reactor but have been running GFO and Carbon in the BRS dual reactor. The lights I have are two Radion 15s and I run a nyos 220 quantum for skimming. There is a small refugium in the sump (~1-2 gallons of volume) that I have chaeto growing in but I havent seen much growth there so I believe the common denominator was the Turbo Snails.

I was not dosing anything during the time between my adding the 10 turbo snails and now and I never manually scrubbed the rock work. I am now dosing for alk and am using NO-POx to reduce my phosphates.

I have before/after pictures I will post soon. Hope this helps anyone else dealing with this nuisance.