How are you combating the algae in your tank?

[Gumbies R Us]

I feel like most of us deal with some sort of algae issue. Sometimes it’s green hair, other times it’s dreaded dinos. I am wondering what are you doing to combat the algae issues that have arisen in your tank. Photo Credit: thekoralito

 

[luis angel]

Following this to learn!

 

[VinnyBoy]

Clean up crew definitely helps cut it back but I always rely on manual removal, I’m pretty anti chemical. The hard to reach places or rocks I can’t remove I scrub while I siphon at the same time to suck the algae out. The rocks that can be removed I scrub them in the bucket of water I just siphoned out.

 

[Lavey29]

Some algae is good for the tank as part of the overall biome.

 

[Troylee]

Never let it start… never dealt with it….

 

[kiwikoxo]

I am new to the reef tank and I got dinos and then green hair algae! I never did any chemicals, I did some removals but what really saved me was my clean-up crew and phyto and pods!

٩(＾◡＾)۶

• Sand conch for the sand, he ate all my dinos on the sand everyday.
• Carnivore snails for the sand but I feel like my sand conch does better.
• Shrimp to eat leftover mysis
• hermit crabs
• (シ_ _)シ ALL HAIL THE OG the Sea Urchin, excellent help in my GHA!
• Dosing phyto [Nanno] for the pods and I see the pods all over my GHA eating it. Also dosing this have made my nutrients hit zero within 2 weeks of doing it religiously. My NO3 was at 26ppm, PO4 was at .20ppm
• Torchus Snails/ Astreas works great in my opinion. They are slow but eats everything while mexican turbos are a bit faster, they poop a lot, and only eat the GHA short not to the rock.
• I did a small Refuge with a light to grow chaeto, pods and it helps with the nutrients and controlling GHA.

I only got my urchin for a week and he working hard. I still have GHA but its going away cause it not growing anymore due to better nutrient control and pods chowing down on it.


The white circular specks is my pods eating the GHA.

So my Rocks are getting cleaner and cleaner by day! No more dinos! Hope this helps, I am still a beginner! ໒(⊙ᴗ⊙)७✎▤

 

[tbrown]

CUC, dosing phosphates and nitrates as necessary, magnesium levels.... Unfortunately I did have an outbreak of GHA that refused to go away. I tried CUC including a Sea Hare, fish, everything! Finally tried Flux RX with no success. Finally figured out it was a rusty magnet on my glass scraper. Once I removed that the algae went away.

Best method: like @Troylee said - don't let it start. If it starts, find out what's causing it and get something to outcompete it or remove whatever the feed source is for the algae you're dealing with. Probably both.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I feel like most of us deal with some sort of algae issue. Sometimes it’s green hair, other times it’s dreaded dinos. I am wondering what are you doing to combat the algae issues that have arisen in your tank. Photo Credit: thekoralito

My CUC does an amazing Job! I have to renew crew periodically of course. Other than that During my bi monthly WC operation I siphon off what needs it, use a turkey baster to blow the rest into the water column, then after the water change is complete I use DIY coral snow. Works well for me.

 

[GARRIGA]

I've solved it by overdosing NoPox but found that astraea did an amazing job until dinos apparently wiped them out or perhaps the GHA got too long and they starved because I purposely let it grow by intensifying the light as I wanted to see if I could create a GHA Fuge. It's free and might as well put it to use but that failed. Back to astraea and keeping at least one section trimmed.

Want to try a sea hare finally

 

[Naekuh]

I have a bunch of macro in the fuge... a little bit of chaeto, some dragon breathe, and string of pearls.
Lights on about 20 hours... this seems to keep my phosphates and nitrates perfect, without too much.
Chaeto is being limited by the other algae and my fuge lights are not too powerful.

Also the other algae makes great snacks for my foxface and tangs.

As for livestock, i have a lawnmower blenny, sleeper banded dragon goby, foxface lo, and tomini tang. I have a LOT of snails.... Cerith, Astrea, Trochus, and an urchin which is starting to bug me cuz it learned its easier to get algae off the nori clip.

I have only 2 hermits, because i hate hermits, but i have had them since forever. And i reciently seeded my tank with micro bristle stars thanks to @WrasseyReefer who has great micros, and if you ever need them i highly recommend her.

So far my tank is about completed its ugly stage, and i am seeing slight tints of purple coraline.
Also my Baggai Cardinals have just laid eggs, and i am lost in what to do, because i hear if you remove them, the male might drop the eggs.

 

[Uncle99]

Stable water chemistry
A few snails
A yellow tang

 

[Seansea]

Algae scrubber. Boom done. Will never see it

 

[AlyciaMarie Verified Admin]

Since our LFS keeps selling us dead CUC...

 

[tigre44]

How do you handle bubble algae I don’t have enough room for a fox face?

 

[MrGisonni]

Astrea and cerith snails, emerald crabs and some Gracilaria for competition. And of course manual removal when needed

 

[Seansea]

One of these guys will knock it out. Mine ate it all.

 

[Joe.D]

I had a bunch of GHA and Dinos. Spent a lot of time weekly blowing off the rocks and scrubbing. Tang and Foxface didn’t do much to help. Upped my cuc game with tuxedo urchin, Mexican turbo snails, hermit crabs, conchs and other various snails. The addition of the urchin is what really did the trick. He cleaned it up over a couple of weeks. Now I just see a few patches here and there and hit them with a brush when I do a water change.

I’m also dosing Nitrates to keep the numbers up a bit.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

For algae, IMO, herbivores are the best bet, especially fish such as a foxface.

Dinos and cyano, not so much.

 

[Troylee]

For algae, IMO, herbivores are the best bet, especially fish such as a foxface.

Dinos and cyano, not so much.

What do you feel is the best approach for cyano besides chemiclean? I keep getting small patches on my rocks in high flow areas… I keep cleaning them off and they come back after a week.. it has started to die down finally thou. Been using coral snow with bacteria after I clean the rocks and it helps for a few days lol.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What do you feel is the best approach for cyano besides chemiclean? I keep getting small patches on my rocks in high flow areas… I keep cleaning them off and they come back after a week.. it has started to die down finally thou. Been using coral snow with bacteria after I clean the rocks and it helps for a few days lol.

Lower organics, higher flow, manual removal.