Red Algae Choking out Zoas

Pufferpunk · Mar 18, 2007

I seem to have a lot of red algae growing in my tank. One kind is kind of flat/leafy & the other kind is kind of hairy/wirey. It covers almost a lot of my rock. It looks to be choking out my zoas. Anyone know what it is & what I can do about it?

ficklefins · Mar 18, 2007

Can you take a pic?

Pufferpunk · Mar 18, 2007

I was afraid someone was gonna ask that... I'll try tomorrow. My camera is iffy about good macro shots.

Pufferpunk · Mar 18, 2007

Here are some pics. Looks like 2 different red algae species. One is linda wirey & the other has more of a flat "leaf".

Pufferpunk · Mar 18, 2007

Here's a couple of pics of it growing in my tank:

Randy · Mar 18, 2007

I had a few different kinds of algae growing in my frag tanks and added some left handed hermits they knocked it out in a few days.I am not going to tell you that they will do the same in your tank, but they don't cost much and worth a try.

d.grcich · Mar 18, 2007

A sea hare should mow through it allso. Mine took care of the red algaes. Just make sure you have sponges over your pump inlets. They are dumb and will get sucked up everytime.

Pufferpunk · Mar 18, 2007

I have bought about 6 seahares in the past 3 years. Every one has died in a day--including the one I bought last week. I have probably 25-30 hermits, 3 sally lightfoots, 5 emeralds, 20 snails & just added 2 Mexican turbos today. something better eat it!

d.grcich · Mar 18, 2007

Pufferpunk said:
I have bought about 6 seahares in the past 3 years. Every one has died in a day--including the one I bought last week. I have probably 25-30 hermits, 3 sally lightfoots, 5 emeralds, 20 snails & just added 2 Mexican turbos today. something better eat it!

Wow sea hares dieing in a day! Whats up with that? Mine lasted a few months untill I took the sponge off to clean and forgot to put it back on for a few hours. Sure enough my guy found it and he was in pieces. Rest in Peace little dude:angel10:

Pufferpunk · Mar 18, 2007

Yeah, I don't get it either. I take at least an hour to drip acclimate them. They start out munching down on algae & then I never see them again... Actually, I did find one huge one--man did it ever stink!

Stixbaraca · Mar 18, 2007

Looks like cyano to me. Clean out the skimmer more regularly, and cut the nutrients to the tank a bit

Pufferpunk · Mar 18, 2007

Isn't cyano a red slime? This stuff is like hair. Nothing slimy at all. Is there more than 1 kind of cyano?

Pufferpunk · Mar 19, 2007

Any other suggestions as how I get rid of this stuff before it takes over everything??

impur · Mar 20, 2007

I'm fighting this stuff too. To put it plainly, its the devil! It grows on my plastic rock lifts, overflow, my pumps, my rock, my frag discs, eggcrate...EVERYTHING!!!

Why do i call it the devil? Well, last week i soaked my Seio in 100% vinegar for a few hours. I used a brush to get all the remaining algae and coralline off it. In the bottom of the bowl there was some of this algae, about 4 tufts the size of half a dime. I didn't think anything about it and went on doing my maintenance. A few days later i finally got to dumping the vinegar. Deciding to do an experiment, i took 2 tufts of this red turf algae and glued it to a frag disc and put it in my tank. After a week, the algae had doubled in size and was spreading out over the disc!! I just can't believe how hard it is to kill this stuff.

If someone finds a solution i'm all ears. The only thing i've heard with hit and miss results is an urchin.

My zoas will spread out only where this stuff is not covering the rock or frag disc. They do grow over it, but very very very slowely. A polyp has to grow and cover the area this algae is. Then after a month or so of no light (since the polyp shades the algae) it finally dies away and the zoa spreads to that area.

Here are some other pics

atlfishes · Jul 12, 2009

Are there any new solutions for this stuff?

RaddReef319 · Jul 12, 2009

My wife actually figured out how to kill it. She had about a square foots amount spread out over her live rock and now it's completely gone. I adopted her method and it kills it every time. Load a syringe or pipette (preferably) with Dt's magnesium, turn off water flow, and cover the algae. It kills bryopsis overnight but this red stuff takes about 2-3 doses. But, it does kill it as I had many tufts of this stuff that is now bare rock! I had it growing among zoas and the Dt mag does nothing to the polyps but zaps the algae. Hope this helps

RicksReef · Jul 12, 2009

I had the same problem in my 225 reef display tank 2 months ago. This red algae grows faster than you can remove it. I tried to vacuum it out. I tried to shovel it out. I grew back each time. The solution for me was a 20 %water change and the addition of 5 tiger conch. The conches ate the red algae like it was candy. My tank was completly cleared of the red algae within 3 weeks. Also, I suspended use of all additives while the conches were working overtime. Hope this info helps you get rid of this red menace.

Reef Goddess · Jul 16, 2009

The wiry one is called turf algae, its a real pita. Red sea sailfin tangs like it and maybe cerith snails as well.
Your best bet is to start running a phosban reactor to slow the grow. That worked when I had this algae a long time ago. Sea hares don't really like tough macro algae like that.

gilmour01 · Jul 16, 2009

i've got the same stuff in my tank as well. my sunset monti seems to be able to over grow it with ease so maybe you could invest in a tank full of sunset montis...wink wink.

i havent found anything that readily eats it. my tang picks at it a little, but not enough to get rid of it.

Cuda · Jul 16, 2009

Will Right handed hermits work? :bigsmile:

Randy said:
I had a few different kinds of algae growing in my frag tanks and added some left handed hermits they knocked it out in a few days.I am not going to tell you that they will do the same in your tank, but they don't cost much and worth a try.