Do You Quarantine Algae?

[Forsaken77]

I was interested in seeing if anyone QT's newly purchased algae being there could be a lot of possible pests in it. I was looking to buy some Clean Ulva from Algae Barn and they have this disclaimer after the description:

"PLEASE NOTE: We go to great lengths to treat, quarantine and remove any unwanted parasites, hitchhikers, and other organisms from our Macro Algae. However, we do not guarantee that this item is completely and totally free of anything unwanted. This is because sometimes spores, eggs, etc can remain viable but not visible, despite our strict quarantine procedure. As a result, we always recommend that you properly quarantine anything new that you are adding to your tank."

This makes it sound as though the algae isn't grown, alone, in a clean enviornment, imo. So do you QT your algae purchases, and how do you go about it?

 

[mich2599]

I was interested in seeing if anyone QT's newly purchased algae being there could be a lot of possible pests in it. I was looking to buy some Clean Ulva from Algae Barn and they have this disclaimer after the description:

"PLEASE NOTE: We go to great lengths to treat, quarantine and remove any unwanted parasites, hitchhikers, and other organisms from our Macro Algae. However, we do not guarantee that this item is completely and totally free of anything unwanted. This is because sometimes spores, eggs, etc can remain viable but not visible, despite our strict quarantine procedure. As a result, we always recommend that you properly quarantine anything new that you are adding to your tank."

This makes it sound as though the algae isn't grown, alone, in a clean enviornment, imo. So do you QT your algae purchases, and how do you go about it?

I didn’t QT mine. It was growing with just LR at the store. I think many people do like a freshwater dip but i’m not sure.

 

[Subsea]

The disclaimer does not mean that they have mixed algae culture tanks. They grow monoculture.

Only if you have an obvious pest will you know anything after qt. I have had live rock that was dormant for four years. Following some major aquascaping, differrent macro would start growing. Numerous spores are dormant, each with differrent incubation periods.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Yes, I quarantine algae.

 

[Subsea]

I don’t quarantine anything. With respect to macro, I have had a live rock for 5 years with no macro visible, then after major aquascaping Red Grapes grew everywhere on it. Even if you dipped macro, I will assure you that a pest like Aptasia will not be harmed. In trying to prevent nuisance micro algae from coming in with macro algae, I used hydrogen peroxide in a weak dip at 1%. It killed everything.

 

[Forsaken77]

Yes, I quarantine algae.

What is your procedure? Just leave it in a separate little bowl/tank with light and flow? How long?

 

[Forsaken77]

I don’t quarantine anything. With respect to macro, I have had a live rock for 5 years with no macro visible, then after major aquascaping Red Grapes grew everywhere on it. Even if you dipped macro, I will assure you that a pest like Aptasia will not be harmed. In trying to prevent nuisance micro algae from coming in with macro algae, I used hydrogen peroxide in a weak dip at 1%. It killed everything.

I was more concerned with parasites and hitchhikers than other algae. I wasn't referring to the culture itself, but how the culture is kept.

 

[colin obrien]

I didn’t QT mine. It was growing with just LR at the store. I think many people do like a freshwater dip but i’m not sure.

that's exactly what I do with my macroalgae, I also rinse them off under the faucet after.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

My procedure is to put it into a qt tank for 76 days, with quick rinse on the way on and out of qt. My primary concern is fish disease.

 

[mcarroll]

I think this is just fear of the unknown.

If you looked around in your tank with the aid of a microscope for a little while and then look at your macroalgae under the microscope for a little while you'd be a lot less worried about the macroalgae.

 

[Subsea]

I think this is just fear of the unknown.

If you looked around in your tank with the aid of a microscope for a little while and then look at your macroalgae under the microscope for a little while you'd be a lot less worried about the macroalgae.

Bravo. You hit the nail on the head. Reef tanks are not sterile. Sixty percent of food on the reef is sequestered by bacteria and moved from one food chain to another.

As a proponent of natural systems, I use bacteria, algae and sponges as biofilter.

Twenty five year old tank with 75G Jaubert Plenum on top and 30G Ecosystem Cryptic refugium.

After 45 years as a reef keeper, I have seen much attention focused on quarantine. IMO, for long term success, fish immune systems as determined by gut cavity bacteria should be paramount.

Elimination of “all parasite” is a non reality. Let’s focus on ich. Many years back, scientific papers on ich said the dormat

 

[Forsaken77]

I think this is just fear of the unknown.

If you looked around in your tank with the aid of a microscope for a little while and then look at your macroalgae under the microscope for a little while you'd be a lot less worried about the macroalgae.

It's just that I couldn't find any of their procedures online of how they clean and sterilize their algae. I've gotten algae from ebay with parasites in it (not pods) and since then, haven't bought any. So if it's grown with fish, it has the potential to be carrying fish disease. If it's not grown with fish, and just fed, then I'd feel more comfortable.

I thought the "Clean" algae was basically saying it's pest-free, until I read that nice disclaimer that negates the clean factor, lol .

 

[Subsea]

If you settle for clean, meaning pest free for fish with 99% assurance, then a 1 minute fresh water soak is your best choice.
As I tried to point out, no one treatment works for everything. While a fresh water dip discourages/eliminates ich, it will not deter Aptasia.

 

[Jeff_H]

I’m one of the people that QT’s anything wet that is goes in the tank. I started with dry rock, dry sand, dip all corals, and QT all fish and inverts. I even QT’ed my seed coraline alage for 76 days. For the first year the only thing I found in my tank that I didn’t internally put there was pineapple sponges.

When I purchased my ‘so called’ clean Chaeto, I QT’ed it for 16 days to avoid introducing any free swimming ich, but after 2-3 months of adding it I started to find apitasia. I’m still battling them, but that’s another story.

Personally, I would QT any macro alage long enough to give any nastys enough time to get big enough to see, unless someone has a protocol to kill them with a dip or other method. Lesson learned for me!

 

[Forsaken77]

I’m one of the people that QT’s anything wet that is goes in the tank. I started with dry rock, dry sand, dip all corals, and QT all fish and inverts. I even QT’ed my seed coraline alage for 76 days. For the first year the only thing I found in my tank that I didn’t internally put there was pineapple sponges.

When I purchased my ‘so called’ clean Chaeto, I QT’ed it for 16 days to avoid introducing any free swimming ich, but after 2-3 months of adding it I started to find apitasia. I’m still battling them, but that’s another story.

Personally, I would QT any macro alage long enough to give any nastys enough time to get big enough to see, unless someone has a protocol to kill them with a dip or other method. Lesson learned for me!

Did you get it from the place I mentioned?

 

[Skep18]

Did you get it from the place I mentioned?

+1 for interest.

I also assumed "clean" macro algae came with the unwavering assurance that it was indeed clean, free of pests/parasites, etc. This assumption was supported by the inflated price tag. I figured that's what people were paying for. I read the disclaimer and immediately was disappointed... I totally understand the, "you should QT everything" argument but if that's the case, why the big price tag?

 

[Forsaken77]

+1 for interest.

I also assumed "clean" macro algae came with the unwavering assurance that it was indeed clean, free of pests/parasites, etc. This assumption was supported by the inflated price tag. I figured that's what people were paying for. I read the disclaimer and immediately was disappointed... I totally understand the, "you should QT everything" argument but if that's the case, why the big price tag?

Well AlgaeBarn is currently reading the thread, so hopefully they can respond.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Well AlgaeBarn is currently reading the thread, so hopefully they can respond.

Hey, I full intend on answering the many questions raised by this thread, and posing some of my own questions. I am helping the team packup the remaining orders for the day and then I will respond!

 

[Forsaken77]

Hey, I full intend on answering the many questions raised by this thread, and posing some of my own questions. I am helping the team packup the remaining orders for the day and then I will respond!

Thank you for potentially clarifying things. Much appreciated

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Thank you for your patience.

To start, I'd like to ask, what do you define as a pest/parasite? Now, Imagine you took a poll of 1000 reefers. I would guarantee you that while some of the results are consistent (aiptasia, red bugs, ich, velvet, etc), there would be MANY items that you, personally, would likely not define as a pest.

For example, green palys or xenia. When you start, they are awesome, easy to care for, and cool to look at. Many advanced reefers will consider these pests and will actively avoid adding them to their tank. Unfortunately, we live in a world that we have to protect ourselves from lawsuits and litigation. I don't know what YOU define as a pest.

Now, consider that you have thousands of people from different backgrounds viewing our guarantee. Everyone is going to interpret it differently. Are you going to try and sue us and claim that we gave you hair algae? Are you even sure that we gave that to you? We try to interact with our customers a ton, and we have had some customers do some rather inane things that we would rather keep private.

We have a great product and we guarantee that you will be satisfied or we will refund you. We encourage you to look through your macroalgae when you make a purchase from us. Not happy with it? (this list of people who have contacted us saying they don't like our macroalgae to amounts to a total of 5 people (does not include DOAs)) . Email us and we will get you taken care of. We are going to ask questions, to see if it is something related to your preferences, or if it was a blunder on our end. And if it was our fault, how we can prevent it from happening again.

One thing we will take away from this thread is that people want even greater assurances. We believe our clean macroalgae is game changing. We scoured the market and compared the quality of our macroalgaes vs various distributors, online retailers, ebay sellers, and other growers, and we only found a 1 grower/seller that ever came close. We go through ridiculous lengths to have the cleanest macroalgae in the industry. We believe in continuous improvement and we have recently been able to move into a larger facility which will allow us to focus more of our efforts and resources on continuing to grow the cleanest macroalgae in the industry.