How to rid this red turf algae?

Jakepen · Dec 10, 2016

i believe it's red turf algae, not positive. It's been spreading more than it ever has recently. How do I get rid of it?

Bunnee911 · Dec 11, 2016

Mine took time and frequent water changes. My rock came from a fowlr tank.

Salty1962 · Dec 11, 2016

I started using Vibrant and it's knocked out most of it in a month of recommended treatment dosage. Watch your No3 though, it will getvery low with Vibrant

Fish_BowLisha · Dec 11, 2016

Jakepen said:
i believe it's red turf algae, not positive. It's been spreading more than it ever has recently. How do I get rid of it?

Looks like red slime algae to me. Usually mechanical removal and water quality diligence

cromag27 · Dec 12, 2016

Vibrant seems to be effective on just about every algae type.

Jakepen · Dec 12, 2016

cromag08 said:
Vibrant seems to be effective on just about every algae type.

Yeah not on this stuff yet, still coming in more and more. The only way to manually remove it is to scrape it with a wire brush, and I think that will cause it to spread even more

Jakepen · Dec 13, 2016

Is there a known way to rid it? I mean I'd rather not put all my faith into a new product to handle a nuisance algae. Only some of my faith, as I am also dosing vibrant hah.

DeniseAndy · Dec 13, 2016

If it is true red turf algae, it is a pain as not many cuc go at it. However, I found one guy that loved it. A red tuxedo urchin. Cool cuc member and great at eating it. Stripped my rocks clean and this was on a 210g tank. I had almost every rock infested. However, they have other issues to contend with. They love to take corals and frag plugs and snails around on them.

twilliard · Dec 13, 2016

There is always a way to rid algae

I am not sure what that is in the picture though. Hard to tell the texture.

rockworm · Dec 13, 2016

I had a dark red turf algae in my tank and the only cuc I found to work was mexican turbo snails. I added 6 to a 220g and the algae was gone within three weeks.

Jakepen · Dec 13, 2016

twilliard said:
There is always a way to rid algae I am not sure what that is in the picture though. Hard to tell the texture.

I can get a close up tomorrow. It's literally like turf though, very very short coarse hair like algae.

Jakepen · Dec 13, 2016

rockworm said:
I had a dark red turf algae in my tank and the only cuc I found to work was mexican turbo snails. I added 6 to a 220g and the algae was gone within three weeks.

I've heard turbo snails a few times, I think I would chose a few of these guys over a urchin. Heard urchins like to eat coralline.

twilliard · Dec 13, 2016

Yes some do eat coralline

Thor2j · Dec 13, 2016

I had turf algae in both my tanks, one way worse then yours. Vibrant cleared them both up. Will be glad to provide photos.

kenjung · Dec 13, 2016

Mexican turbo snail will devour this algae. don't get too many 1 or 2 will do the trick.

Jakepen · Dec 13, 2016

Thor2j said:
I had turf algae in both my tanks, one way worse then yours. Vibrant cleared them both up. Will be glad to provide photos.

Really, how long and how aggressively did you dose?

Thor2j · Dec 13, 2016

Jakepen said:
Really, how long and how aggressively did you dose?

2x a week. It's been a month. 80% gone in both tanks.

Jakepen · Dec 13, 2016

Thor2j said:
2x a week. It's been a month. 80% gone in both tanks.

Yeah I'm doing the same, closing in on two months. I have a small bryopsis patch that continues to grow, and this red turf that is still spreading. So far not impressed with vibrant. I'm glad it worked for you though!