Getting rid of turf algae/GHA...ugh

[Zeal]

SO I have a couple localized areas of GHA or Turf Algae on random rocks/frag plugs not sure why they're on these random things.

Ive tried CUC and nothing really seems to eat it.

I did a peroxide dip, kinda worked but it came back after about a month.(I scrubbed it)

Not sure what else I can do.

I have Chemipure, Seachem Matrix and Cheato.

I will admit I dose Red Sea A/B Twice a week and Aquavitro Fuel as well(Alternate)

I feed my coral Benepets Reef Food twice a week and my fish daily.

I believe the excess amount of nutrients is causing this spike in random algae.

If I stop all feeding of corals and just my daily feeding of fish could that possibly help as well as going back to doing weekly water changes instead of bi-weekly water change? My phosphate is a 0.3 and last time I tested it was 0.16-ish

 

[Rjukan]

Following. I am dealing with a similar problem. I dont want to use any chemicals on it, instead I've removed the rock that was most affected, and scrubbed the rest. Like you I'm going to keep up on more frequent water changes, and I put my skimmer back on line.

I'm sure cutting back on your feeding schedule will ultimately help the situation. What types of nutrient export do you use besides water changes?

 

[Zeal]

Following. I am dealing with a similar problem. I dont want to use any chemicals on it, instead I've removed the rock that was most affected, and scrubbed the rest. Like you I'm going to keep up on more frequent water changes, and I put my skimmer back on line.

I'm sure cutting back on your feeding schedule will ultimately help the situation. What types of nutrient export do you use besides water changes?

I also have a skimmer that I run 24/7 but other then that and the water change that's about it

 

[flchamp89]

Vibrant for the win.

 

[Zeal]

Vibrant for the win.

I bought some.. scared to use it. Don't want a cyano and dino outbreak

 

[flchamp89]

I bought some.. scared to use it. Don't want a cyano and dino outbreak

IDK every tank is different. I think it works best before algae gets excessive. Dose to tank volume not tank size. Keep your export up. The skimmer will help. Worked well for me.

 

[Hermie]

I have some too and at this point I am just not worrying about it... I have hermits, mollies, and going to add more amphipods soon, but as long as it's not taking over, I just look at the algae as "copepod homes"

just offering my perspective

 

[Zeal]

IDK every tank is different. I think it works best before algae gets excessive. Dose to tank volume not tank size. Keep your export up. The skimmer will help. Worked well for me.

I have a 40G Nuvo AIO. With the rocks and all the other stuff its maybe 30G(?) I haven't had a single real issue with algae since I got the tank just recently its been the turf/gha. So I don want and dino or cyano

 

[Zeal]

I have some too and at this point I am just not worrying about it... I have hermits, mollies, and going to add more amphipods soon, but as long as it's not taking over, I just look at the algae as "copepod homes"

just offering my perspective

That's literally exactly what I have. But some is on my Zoa plugs and Clove Polyps... that I don't like.

 

[Dennco2000]

Scopas tang saved my frag tank... only fish in there, it even cleans out the algae scrubber as best as it can get to.

 

[flchamp89]

Dip toothbrush in peroxide and brush

 

[Zeal]

Dip toothbrush in peroxide and brush

Cant some on my main rock structure(very little). Some on a random rock and some on the live polyp frag. Not sure how peroxide will treat the clove polyps..

 

[Tastee]

One thing that did help me to clear this in my system was to add Money Cowries (snails) to my CUC. I have 4 in my 65g system and they are machines!

For me what worked was letting the tank mature, getting nutrients in balance (initially PO4 was a bit high), running a dose of Fluconazole (Reef Flux in my case) and then adding the Cowries to the CUC. I already had a Lawnmower Blennie and a Yellow Tank as well as a Hermit, a few Trochus and a single Turbo snail, a Sand Sifter Star and a Coral Banded Shrimp. It is the Cowries that do the heavy lifting on the algae.

 

[Hermie]

if you want to go the H2O2 route in a safe manner, you can load up a syringe with H2O2 and then attach a plastic tube to it, when you put the syringe in the water, just let it over on the algae, so that the tube envelopes the algae, you don't even have to push on the syringe, but just let the H2O2 in the tube mix into the algae and if you are worried, then suck up the tank water back into the syringe/tube. It's a way to control H2O2 delivery

 

[fish farmer]

I added a Chaeto fuge in my sump, did more WC while pulling and siphoning what I could, added a lettuce nudi which worked the best, some various snail and recently added Mexican turbos which took care of some red algae nothing would touch. I also cut back on feeding as well.

My tank would look like this if I didn't do these things.

 

[JOKER]

Recommend an ATS myself. Minimal daily AWC combine with the scrubber take care of my problems.

 

[Zeal]

Recommend an ATS myself. Minimal daily AWC combine with the scrubber take care of my problems.

What’s ATS?

 

[mspad]

How often do you do water changes?

 

[amazongb]

What’s ATS?

Algae Turf Scrubber

 

[Zeal]

One thing that did help me to clear this in my system was to add Money Cowries (snails) to my CUC. I have 4 in my 65g system and they are machines!

For me what worked was letting the tank mature, getting nutrients in balance (initially PO4 was a bit high), running a dose of Fluconazole (Reef Flux in my case) and then adding the Cowries to the CUC. I already had a Lawnmower Blennie and a Yellow Tank as well as a Hermit, a few Trochus and a single Turbo snail, a Sand Sifter Star and a Coral Banded Shrimp. It is the Cowries that do the heavy lifting on the algae.

I like the idea of the money cowries.