Macroalgae overrun

[AaronFReef]

Hello all. My tank is being overrun with macro allergies. I have a Dino problem that I’ve been battling on and off that I’m getting the upper hand on right now but the day off it has caused on my SPS skeletons has caused room for macroalgae is to grow in. Also a snail that came in right at eight nice red grasHello all. My tank is being overrun with macroalgae‘s. I have a Dino problem that I’ve been battling on and off that I’m getting the upper hand on right now but the day off it has caused on my SPS skeletons has caused room for macroalgae‘s to grow in. Also a snail that came in right it nice read gracilaria or something similar that is overrunning my rock. I have a macro similar to chaeto or caulerpa growing off of my rocks as well. It’s fleshy and grows in thick tubes off the rocks to flattish blades.

I have around 100 margarita snails thanks to a successful spawn the few in my tank had as well as two trochus, four nassarius, and a cerith. Display is 25g. My nutrients run low like 1-5 ppm nitrate and 0.10 ppm PO4 or lower hence the Dinos.

I’d like to keep the macro at bay but already had a yellow tang outgrow the system and don’t want to put a tang in such a small lagoon tank again. What can I do to beat it back? I’ve done hermits that we’re poorly labeled and they killed most of my snails. If there was a species that was low risk and would help I’d do it. Open to other suggestions for how to beat it back. Pruning seems almost impossible with it growing on skeletons and the red gracilaria being so tightly growing to the rock.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

An urchin would help with the macro. They can't get into the smaller places or help with your coral plugs though. Eventually you would probably have to give it supplemental feeding because I believe it would consume everything.

Margarita snails are a cooler water species so it surprises me that they would spawn in your tank. I'm not very familiar with them other than they usually do poorly in warmer tanks like what coral are kept in. Other snails like trochus and ceriths would do better and help with hair algae on the rocks and plugs. If you get enough ceriths they will keep the sand clean too.

You could try an emerald carb but keep in mind they are carbs and will eventually eat something you don't want it to. I don't think there is any other option besides chemical or manual removal of the rock for a peroxide dip. Also, run GAC for any dino toxins if you aren't already
Use smaller amounts and change weekly.

 

[AaronFReef]

I was quite surprised about the margarita snails as well but here we are at 8 months of them in the tank and they’re still doing great. It’s really odd.

I’ll consider an emerald again. I kicked one out earlier because he was popping zoas off the rocks for funsies.

I don’t really have much that I’d call hair algae. It’s almost all large macro algae’s about the thickness of chaeto. I think the snails are consuming anything smaller right now.

I’m really liking the emerald crab right now and could give up some zoas to save my SPS. I’m sold.

 

[AaronFReef]

What is a bigger risk to my inhabitants be they zoas or snails: emerald crabs or a select species of hermit?

 

[AaronFReef]

With me actively fighting dinos right now, should I avoid using Vibrant to try and rid myself of macros?

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

Hermits go after snails more while emeralds go after zoas. I think hermits are the bigger risk to other livestock due to them wanting the snail shells. You can add more empty shells but sometimes they just want THAT shell the snail is in. Usually when I hear of emeralds bothering zoas it is not that they eat or kill them but more irritate them by walking on them or plucking them off the rocks to get to algae. I have heard the zoas still live once plucked but they roll around with the current.

I would avoid Vibrant until the dino situation is resolved.

 

[AaronFReef]

Hermits go after snails more while emeralds go after zoas. I think hermits are the bigger risk to other livestock due to them wanting the snail shells. You can add more empty shells but sometimes they just want THAT shell the snail is in. Usually when I hear of emeralds bothering zoas it is not that they eat or kill them but more irritate them by walking on them or plucking them off the rocks to get to algae. I have heard the zoas still live once plucked but they roll around with the current.

I would avoid Vibrant until the dino situation is resolved.

Thanks. Yeah my previous emerald was caught in the act snapping zoas off at the base and letting them float around the sand bed. My hermits killed all my snails. Can’t win em all hah

 

[AaronFReef]

I got two very small emerald crabs last week and they have been doing work cutting down the forest of bryopsis like macroalgae on my corals. Thanks all.

 

[living_tribunal]

I find it interesting that you're having an algae outbreak during a dino outbreak. Dino occurs when nutrients are essentially non-measurable. Algae needs nutrients to grow.

You need to get rid of the dinos using every method possible if trying to get rid of them fast. If you catching it early then you need to raise your nitrates and phosphates. Measure them asap and see where they are at.

 

[AaronFReef]

Thanks @living_tribunal . My phosphates I maintain between 0.03 and 0.10 ppm using Polyp Booster to up it and chaeto to reduce it (until I pulled the chaeto last week). My nitrates are very stable between 2.5 and 5 ppm. The macro I shouldn’t say is an outbreak as much as an un-predated organism in my tank until the crabs. So it had just slowly begun to creep over everything. The Dinos hanging off the macro as epiphytes was a large part of the mass. It could be squirted off with a blaster and reveal the macro was half or so of the mass of it.

 

[living_tribunal]

Thanks @living_tribunal . My phosphates I maintain between 0.03 and 0.10 ppm using Polyp Booster to up it and chaeto to reduce it (until I pulled the chaeto last week). My nitrates are very stable between 2.5 and 5 ppm. The macro I shouldn’t say is an outbreak as much as an un-predated organism in my tank until the crabs. So it had just slowly begun to creep over everything. The Dinos hanging off the macro as epiphytes was a large part of the mass. It could be squirted off with a blaster and reveal the macro was half or so of the mass of it.

I don’t know if you have Dino’s if your nutrients are that high. They don’t usually pop up nor flourish when nutrients exist. Do you have a clearer picture to see what’s growing in your tank?

Have you ran the algae in your microscope to determine what type of Dino it is?

 

[AaronFReef]

I don’t know if you have Dino’s if your nutrients are that high. They don’t usually pop up nor flourish when nutrients exist. Do you have a clearer picture to see what’s growing in your tank?

Have you ran the algae in your microscope to determine what type of Dino it is?

Yes @taricha ID’d them as coolia with some amphidinium in the dinoflagellates master thread. But you’re right it is curious that it seems to buck the trend. Tests verified using ICP and duplicate brands of testing though and near daily testing so I think I’m just an outlier. I did feed aminos heavily which feeds dinos according to taricha.

 

[AaronFReef]

 

[living_tribunal]

Ya that’s them :/ did you increase nutrients after identifying the Dino’s?

 

[AaronFReef]

Thanks. Yeah I did a bit on nitrate. It had bottomed out when they showed up again due to me going on vacation and not feeding as heavily while I was gone. It never fell below 2.5 ppm though.

 

[living_tribunal]

Thanks. Yeah I did a bit on nitrate. It had bottomed out when they showed up again due to me going on vacation and not feeding as heavily while I was gone. It never fell below 2.5 ppm though.

Ah I see. How long ago was that?

If you just started dosing nutrients to combat the Dino’s and then the algae popped up, let the algae grow. Having Chaeto on the rock beats dealing with Dino’s any day of the week. Caulerpa would be a whole nother can of worms.

It needs to outcompete the Dino’s.

When I had Dino and dosed nutrients, hair and film algae basically swapped places with the Dino’s.

If that’s what you think is going on then let it keep going, eventually the algae will win.

Keep turkey basting the Dino’s as much as possible and run a little carbon in the water to remove the Dino toxicity. If you haven’t already, run a uv sterilizer which will make a small dent every time you turkey bast and push the Dino’s into the water column.

If things are getting bad, and it’s small amphidinium (I think those are the ones that die fast from blackout unlike the others that can survive up to 9 days), then do a blackout.

Hydrogen peroxide is up to you. We don’t have hard data on it but anecdotally it helped with me.

You really have to hit Dino at all angles.

 

[AaronFReef]

I have a 55 watt Jebao Uv plumbed to a cobalt mj600 right in the display which knocked out my previous amphidinium strain of Dinos back in early summer. This time the Dinos are doing more damage with less effect from the UV. I baste the rocks and corals (where the SPS have necrosed) multiple times a day. I’ve stopped doing coral feedings and aminos and pulled the chaeto. I measure nutrients and keep the nitrates to around 5 and the phosphate above 0.05 ppm.i run a cup of carbon in a reactor off the return manifold. I’ve done two blackouts for 36 hours which really helps temporarily. I’ve dosed a little silicate to get the diatoms going which may have helped rid the prior dino along with the UV.

And still the darn things persist. Seems like dinos are a real problem in modern tanks from reading around....

 

[living_tribunal]

I have a 55 watt Jebao Uv plumbed to a cobalt mj600 right in the display which knocked out my previous amphidinium strain of Dinos back in early summer. This time the Dinos are doing more damage with less effect from the UV. I baste the rocks and corals (where the SPS have necrosed) multiple times a day. I’ve stopped doing coral feedings and aminos and pulled the chaeto. I measure nutrients and keep the nitrates to around 5 and the phosphate above 0.05 ppm.i run a cup of carbon in a reactor off the return manifold. I’ve done two blackouts for 36 hours which really helps temporarily. I’ve dosed a little silicate to get the diatoms going which may have helped rid the prior dino along with the UV.

And still the darn things persist. Seems like dinos are a real problem in modern tanks from reading around....

They are indeed, we live in a low nutrient society and this is a side effect. Your keep nutrients up so maybe wait another 2-3 days? They should have started perishing by now imo. Maybe call the reef squad.

 

[AaronFReef]

They are indeed, we live in a low nutrient society and this is a side effect. Your keep nutrients up so maybe wait another 2-3 days? They should have started perishing by now imo. Maybe call the reef squad.

Sorry, the reef squad?

 

[kireek]

Just do it ! #reefsquad Ready for combat?