Help me id persistent algae

[OscarHaglund]

Hi everyone. I have been battling persistent algae for half a year now. A few months back i used fluc to get rid of bryopsis nd that worked well but did not seem to do much with what i have now.

Nitrates are 0.5 and phos 0.02 (obviously used up by the algae). I have a chaeto fuge thats only at less than 10% now due to me worrying about 0/0 values. Should i increase this and not care about bottoming out?

Tank is 300l total volume and my herbivores include 20ish hermits, 3 tux urchins, foxface, scopas and tomini. None of the fish seems to like or even understand that this is food (they won’t even touch nori on a clip)

 

[Timfish]

Turf algae of some kind. Gettin rid of it around corals is a hassle and patience is needed. It doesn't help the algae is dumping DOC into the water that can cause hypoxic conditions for the corals. If you can remove a rock a coral is attached to I would GENTLY scrub it in a bucket of aquarium water (with a thin toothbrush or thin NYLON brush used for clenaing guns) then wait a day or so for the coral to recover then dip in a 6:1 ratio of aquarium water to H2O2.

You might try this first but it should be quicker to get rid of the algae if you can start by removing a lot of it first. I would also get a syrenge and a large bore (10-20 guage) needle and carefully apply H2O2 to hte locations the algae is growing around corals waiting several days between application. The most H2O2 I would use in a day would .2 ml per liter

Defintley raise your PO4 . FWIW .03 mg/l is the minimum, .5 mg/l is acceptable and even .9mg/l might not be an issue.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi everyone. I have been battling persistent algae for half a year now. A few months back i used fluc to get rid of bryopsis nd that worked well but did not seem to do much with what i have now.

Nitrates are 0.5 and phos 0.02 (obviously used up by the algae). I have a chaeto fuge thats only at less than 10% now due to me worrying about 0/0 values. Should i increase this and not care about bottoming out?

Tank is 300l total volume and my herbivores include 20ish hermits, 3 tux urchins, foxface, scopas and tomini. None of the fish seems to like or even understand that this is food (they won’t even touch nori on a clip)

This is derbesia algae very similar to Bryopsis and is one of the more challenging of algae due to need of its complete removal. Removal is best accomplished by taking the rock out of tank and placing in a container of tank water. Then you will want to pull as much as you can by hand and discard. With a dental pick (see below at Harbor freight) or small crochet needle, pull the roots off the rock. YOU MUST GET EVERY ROOT OR IT WILL SIMPLY RETURN !!
After you are done return rock to tank and reduce white light intensity and even hours of white light and add the following cleaners which will help with control. These guys will consume bryopsis but not as fast as bryopsis can grow - They will never keep up.
Pin cushion urchin, Chiton snails, pitho crabs, and larger astrea snails

This procedure is not as bad or time consuming as it seems. Assure phosphate levels do not become elevated which helps feed this algae