red turf algea help

[A Young Reefer]

So I am currently fighting with the toughest type of algae I ever got yet . has anyone defeated red turf algae with success if so how. my cuc crew constantly trims it down but the base stays forming a mat like structure. a hydrogen peroxide dip isn't an option unfortunately .

 

[maleks.reef]

pics? age of tank?

 

[A Young Reefer]

 

[A Young Reefer]

Tank is 9 months old , successfully combated the ugly stage corals are growing and happy . Haven’t attached photos at the very beginning since I have asked for an ID before and it appeared to be red turf algae .
Asking for help on how to get rid of it , Thank you in advance !

 

[ggNoRe]

I was able to beat it. I can mostly credit it to stability, weekly water changes, and a lot of work manually cleaning. It went from red, then to green, then to a bunch of grunge and detritus. Now rocks are clean again. This whole process took several months. You can see details in my build thread if you like. Also, I found top crown snails to be amazing at eating this and trochus work as well.

 

[A Young Reefer]

I was able to beat it. I can mostly credit it to stability, weekly water changes, and a lot of work manually cleaning. It went from red, then to green, then to a bunch of grunge and detritus. Now rocks are clean again. This whole process took several months. You can see details in my build thread if you like. Also, I found top crown snails to be amazing at eating this and trochus work as well.

Can you provide more details on the manual cleaning please . I have tried brushing and scraping it but it won’t budge it’s strongly attached to the rock , moreover I am running a low nutrient system and have a mix of turbo and trochus snails . I guess patience is the key .

 

[ggNoRe]

Yes, in it's red form it was mostly just about patience. As it started to change color and die off slowly a lot of work with a tootbrush and turkey baster helped to keep the system clean.

 

[MBruun]

I don't belive that CUC do anything but trimming turf algeas.
I had like 7 months with a LOT of turf algeas in different colours (still have a few but that's not a problem) and tried all kind of bacteria product with no lock.
The turning point for me was daily dosing of live phyto and phosphate remover, and after like 2 months the algeas disappeared. I dosed (slowely ramping up) 1:1000 of the total water volume.

 

[A Young Reefer]

I don't belive that CUC do anything but trimming turf algeas.
I had like 7 months with a LOT of turf algeas in different colours (still have a few but that's not a problem) and tried all kind of bacteria product with no lock.
The turning point for me was daily dosing of live phyto and phosphate remover, and after like 2 months the algeas disappeared. I dosed (slowely ramping up) 1:1000 of the total water volume.

I have heard that tuxedo urchins can totally remove them of the rocks ,does anyone have enough info on that ?

 

[ggNoRe]

I have heard that tuxedo urchins can totally remove them of the rocks ,does anyone have enough info on that ?

I decided not to go that route as they move stuff around too much. But I can assure you top crown snails do indeed eat red and green turf algae. Wish I took a picture as you could see clear as day a crystal clear rock with the top crown while the rest of the tank looks like it was covered in a red velvet blanket.

 

[A Young Reefer]

T

I decided not to go that route as they move stuff around too much. But I can assure you top crown snails do indeed eat red and green turf algae. Wish I took a picture as you could see clear as day a crystal clear rock with the top crown while the rest of the tank looks like it was covered in a red velvet blanket.

Will give them a try , thanks .

 

[xabo]

Yeah, I just went through it:

Pulled all of the rock and used this:

This is the rock today:

Nothing else worked for me. You can read more on it here:

The red turf algae battle

Wanted to post about this in the event others start looking for ways to battle this crap -- I found it hard to find a lot of meaningful content anywhere. What my rock work looks like: My tank is more or less completely overrun with red turf algae. I have always operated under the assumption...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ggNoRe]

T

Will give them a try , thanks .

Did you try top crown snails? Those guys did WORK on my rta.

 

[A Young Reefer]

U

Did you try top crown snails? Those guys did WORK on my rta.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any around where I live visited 4 different stores and couldn’t find any. I live out side the us so ordering something online is out of the question. Will keep an eye out looking for them.

 

[ggNoRe]

The bigger Astraea Turbo Snails and Trochus snails also seemed to help for me. Hopefully you can get some of those. Another thing I did to help speed up the process was turkey baste the rocks from time to time. Only thing I would advise is just do a little at a time as it will kick up a lot of detritus which can hurt your livestock if it is overbearing.

 

[A Young Reefer]

The bigger Astraea Turbo Snails and Trochus snails also seemed to help for me. Hopefully you can get some of those. Another thing I did to help speed up the process was turkey baste the rocks from time to time. Only thing I would advise is just do a little at a time as it will kick up a lot of detritus which can hurt your livestock if it is overbearing.

I have them both, they only seem to trim the algae down but not fully remove it from the "roots".
thanks again for your tips.

 

[xabo]

Something else I found is if you let salt sit on effected rock for a short time it will turn the algae an orange color that will turn white in a couple of days and the snails will take care of the rest.

 

[A Young Reefer]

Update:
I am successfully being able to eliminate it using a blue tuxedo urchin.

 

[Oerussc]

I have been battling red turf algae for a few months now in my mixed reef. Using turbo snails, starry blenny, and a Kole tang and seem to be making some headway. Staying up on weekly water changes as well. All of the rocks were completely covered 3 weeks ago, starting to see bare rock now.

 

[A Young Reefer]

I have been battling red turf algae for a few months now in my mixed reef. Using turbo snails, starry blenny, and a Kole tang and seem to be making some headway. Staying up on weekly water changes as well. All of the rocks were completely covered 3 weeks ago, starting to see bare rock now.

Blue tuxedo urchins is what worked for me.