Furry algae on my candy cane coral

[Spectuhcle]

I have a furry dark brown color algae on my candy cane coral and I think it's negatively impacting it's health as it keeps getting smaller. Is there anything I can do to make the algae go away? Algae has been there for about 2 months and I think it is growing slightly. I have a Magnificient Fox Face and a Hippo Tang that won't touch it, neither do the snails, hermit crabs or urchin. The frag has been in the tank for about 6 months and it glued in so pulling it out to dip would be possible but not easy. Any advice would be appreciated!

Parameters:
Phosphate 0.05 (I dose phosphate in order to keep it from bottoming out)
Nitrate 13ppm (I'm aiming for 10 and it's on it's way down from a peek of 15)
Alk 9.0
Calc 410
Mag 1450

 

[tzabor10]

Try taking a picture in full light or use a flashlight.

 

[mikerosi]

Drop your phosphates to .1

 

[Spectuhcle]

Sorry here's the coral in full light

 

[Spectuhcle]

Drop your phosphates to .1

Sorry phosphates are at 0.05 I mistyped in the original post

 

[tzabor10]

Looks like GHA. Get a turbo snail , blue legged hermit and emerald crab.
Your tank is growing things. That is a good thing. Just not the best thing

 

[Spectuhcle]

Looks like GHA. Get a turbo snail , blue legged hermit and emerald crab.
Your tank is growing things. That is a good thing. Just not the best thing

I have 5 or so blue legged hermit crabs but I can definitely get more. I will look into a turbo snail and emerald crabs. Thanks!

 

[Rjukan]

Get your hands wet and use a soft bristle toothbrush and clean it up.

Sorry here's the coral in full light

Is that the only spot with such a concentration of that type of algae?

 

[kevgib67]

Look into if you can dip candy cane coral in 3% hydrogen peroxide, 2/1 ratio of tank water and hydrogen peroxide. It has done great for my zoa frags, but zoa can live through a lot. If you find that you can make sure you rinse before putting it back in your display.

 

[nsteinca]

Manual removal of the algae also couldn’t hurt. I’d pull it out of the tank and use a pair of tweezers to pull off as much of the algae as possible. It’s not fun, but we’re the best clean up crew our tanks have

 

[Spectuhcle]

Get your hands wet and use a soft bristle toothbrush and clean it up.



Is that the only spot with such a concentration of that type of algae?

As far as I can tell yeah

 

[Spectuhcle]

Manual removal of the algae also couldn’t hurt. I’d pull it out of the tank and use a pair of tweezers to pull off as much of the algae as possible. It’s not fun, but we’re the best clean up crew our tanks have

It's super glued to the rock so it wouldn't be the easiest thing to do but I might end up going that route

 

[Spectuhcle]

Look into if you can dip candy cane coral in 3% hydrogen peroxide, 2/1 ratio of tank water and hydrogen peroxide. It has done great for my zoa frags, but zoa can live through a lot. If you find that you can make sure you rinse before putting it back in your display.

How long would you keep it in that solution before returning to the tank?

 

[kevgib67]

How long would you keep it in that solution before returning to the tank?

For my zoas I do 8 minutes, the algae won’t disappear until about day three. Just do your research and make sure it is fine for your specific lps.