purple turf algae pest or not ?

Reeferjones · Oct 30, 2019

Hows it going everyone.
just going through my first case of turf algae. is this stuff detrimental to the tank or corals ? To be honest I kind of think it looks cool. as long as it isnt going to get in the way of my coral. Thoughts ?

Isaac Alves · Oct 30, 2019

If its a Cladophora species, a form of turf algae that I have in my tank. I like it a lot. As far as I've read over the past couple of years it's considered a sign of health in a tank. It shouldn't spread like wildfire; it will add to live rock and provide good hiding places to tiny inverts. If you need to control it I know Sea Hares will eat it, and some urchins. If I recall, there is no known fish species that will eat this readily, although some evidence of rabbit fishes munching on it; supposedly its not a tasty algae. Very tough to remove manually too...I've tried once.

Do you have a picture?

brandon429 · Oct 30, 2019

what you should do is pick a section of it you try and eradicate/leave the other parts if its nice looking.

if you can't beat and make that one area stay clear, you're dealing with a selected invader for your tank. practice controlling it in at least one area, lift the rock out and kill it off somehow, see if it stays gone