Turf algae kicking my butt

[b4tn]

I am loosing this battle! I am trying to get my scrubber to outcompete what’s in the display but the stuff is spreading like wildfire. Nitrate is showing 0 and phosphate is between .02 and .03 it’s hard to tell. My scrubber is going for 16 hours alternating light schedule. I have reduced feedings to once every other day. Should I scrub as much as I can off the rocks till the scrubber catches? This stuff is attached good and does not just pull off?

 

[NS Mike D]

looks like your zoas are winning the war for you. I used hydrogen peroxide with some success but it annoyed the heck of my soft corals so I stopped. i'm focusing on keep my no3 and po4 in balance and letting my emerald crab keep it mowed. It's working a rock as I type this. I'll observe it on a heavily infested rock for two or three days, trimming it back but not totally removing it, then moving in to another infested rock.

I can live with that for now as my long term goal is to focus on coral health and letting the corals out compete the turf algae for nutrients and space.

 

[Tahoe61]

Are you sure that is Turf Algae? Looks more like GHA or Byropsis to me.

An Urchin or Abalone will take care of it. What does your Cuc consist of?

 

[b4tn]

It’s very fine. If I try and grab it it falls apart in my fingers. I can’t pull it off the rocks. The only way to remove it is to scrub with a stiff tooth brush. My CUC is lacking right now. The algae started from a massive die off when my son over fed and caused a cycle while I was gone for a month. Parameters are back to normal but all this started. I want to get more cleaners (I have always done snail only) but it’s too cold to order more from reefcleaners right now.

And yes my zoos are going strong. They grew like crazy before this outbreak also.

 

[Tahoe61]

Turf algae is wiry and you can to rip it off to remove it, it comes off in mats.
Check out the link below and you'll see a comparison of algae and possible remedies.

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

 

[Josh@ClearWaterScrubbers]

I am loosing this battle! I am trying to get my scrubber to outcompete what’s in the display but the stuff is spreading like wildfire. Nitrate is showing 0 and phosphate is between .02 and .03 it’s hard to tell. My scrubber is going for 16 hours alternating light schedule. I have reduced feedings to once every other day. Should I scrub as much as I can off the rocks till the scrubber catches? This stuff is attached good and does not just pull off?

Run your light cycle 24/7 until it clears up. Then cut it back.

 

[Kayvon]

I'm currently battling turf algae as well. I have extremely low nutrients and it's still thriving. Been trying Vibrant for about 5 days now. 2 doses/week. It might be working, but I need some more time to observe.

 

[brandon429]

Turf algae is beaten best by the rasping method, and any other method is total risk for your tank because it involves a delayed partial water action, while the invader sits in place, collecting detritus for on-site breakdown and fueling, regardless of what you water params read or what changes you make to them. anyone who doesn't want turf algae in their tank, lets use the invasion and fix as an example in our algae challenge threads. holler. we need a fresh round of cured after pics.

the specific way to participate is you take action on one single test rock, not your whole tank. using our special approach. If that rock behaves in such a way as to be cured of brush algae, you upscale, and you never go back to purposefully farming it ever again.

I want to strongly recommend that nutrient controls are not used to battle organisms that run independently of tank nutrient systems. If you transplant this algae into your tank, it grows, its a vectoring and quarantine issue and never a nutrients one, with obligate hitchhikers.

I have no doubt that several methods can cause it to recede/decline and bleach. However, those don't always sustain once the dosing is stopped I promise this occurs in large algae control threads as a pattern. rasp and be done, or farm it more days, easy choice.

 

[mcarroll]

Do you have an LFS where you can get some snails in the mean time? I need to look up where in MD that is....

I'd hold off of doing any treatments for this stuff until you regroup on the CUC.

Try H2O2 in a small 1 or 2 mL syringe instead and just treat the base of a small patch of algae growth. It'll be gone very soon after. You can treat at least one patch a day like that...possibly more depending on your tank.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

That yellow tang should be ashamed of himself. When started watching your video was going to say put a tang in there, then saw him swim in front of the camera.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

I am trying to get my scrubber to outcompete what’s in the display but the stuff is spreading like wildfire.

@b4tn still using the L2, correct? I wish my customers would tag me when they're having issues, that's what I'm here for!

My scrubber is going for 16 hours alternating light schedule.

Based on this post:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...ics-algae-scrubber.293235/page-5#post-4363028

What intensity are the LEDs set at?
{thread above says 3 o'clock}

What duration?
{I mentioned going to 20 hours}

How much flow are you running on the scrubber?

How often do you harvest?
{I think every 2 weeks?}

How aggressively do you clean the screen?

How much are you feeding on an average daily basis?

What other filtration do you have in play?

Should I scrub as much as I can off the rocks till the scrubber catches?

You can pull algae off, but I wouldn't scrub the rocks, at least not all of them and not aggressively - you can remove the periphyton layer and kick off other things like dino outbreaks, so be careful of that.

If I try and grab it it falls apart in my fingers. I can’t pull it off the rocks. The only way to remove it is to scrub with a stiff tooth brush.

That's most likely GHA

The algae started from a massive die off when my son over fed and caused a cycle while I was gone for a month. Parameters are back to normal but all this started.

This explains it - what you could be seeing here is a short-term depositing of nutrients into the rock, and now that you've lowered the nutrient level in the water column, those nutrients are getting pulled out. The algae is opportunistic and it's got a fuel source, flow, and light...so those are the perfect conditions.

This is, IMO, a temporary situation, the scrubber will eventually beat it back out. You will want to keep in mind that as the problem abates, if you have cranked up the scrubber as part of that process, you might have to dial it back a bit.

 

[wattson]

sea hare time

 

[SaltLifer]

I have similar stuff. I'm beating it right now but the last 2 water changes I have gone in with a tooth brush and scrubbed everything I can reach. Then suck it all out with the water change and change the filter sock the next day to get the leftovers. Mine was nutrient related though, now that my nutrients are in check, the growback is minimal.

 

[Cory]

Your three best wepons:

Diadema sea urchins
Sea hare
Lettuce nudibrach

 

[b4tn]

I put a sea hare in there he munched on he algae once and then stopped eating and was not interested in it. I am nervous about an urchin because I only have a 75g and don’t want him mowing over everything.

@Floyd R Turbo I took the scrubber offline and fed it on another system while I treated with fluconazole for 21 days. It had little to no effect. I have added GFO to my reactor and put the scrubber back online. The scrubber I have running per your previous recommendation and it is growing The nice thick dark green stuff that really adheres to the cement on he screen. I am not very concerned about starting a mini cycle by scrubbing the rocks. I have probably 50 lbs of rock in my sump along with the 180 lbs in the display.

Today I scrubbed half the rocks in the display hard to remove all traces of GHA and the other half I pulled off as much as possible without scrubbing. After a couple hours of cleaning I removed a fist full of GHA from my filter sock and replaced it with a clean one. I think between the scrubber, manual export with daily filter sock changes, some elbow grease, and time I will beat this.

 

[PaulS]

I went through the same thing. Tried the sea hares with no luck. Several people told me with that much algae you might not be getting the right results with you phosphate and nitrate test kits. Also saw that on a BRS video about bad results. I ended up using fluconazole and two weeks later it was all gone and a month later nothing has come back. Did not effect any inverts or corals. Mine did not look like to briopsis to me but I was not positive. Good luck

 

[puffy127]

I'm going through the same exact thing. I too have a Turbo L2 on my 75g which I was harvesting quite a bit of algae from, but it couldn't keep up with the turf in the DT. I too took it offline for 21 days while I treated with fluco. Fluco killed all the turf algae (and the nutrient spike STN'd one of my acros). This lasted a few weeks, but now the turf is back same as before.

 

[b4tn]

I finaly beat it. I ran GFO and carbon, put the scrubber back online running it almost 24 hours a day with light intensity almost all the way up. I scrubbed all the rocks with a toothbrush every day clearing off all the algae and after an hour or so I would change my filter sock that was full of all the scrubbed algae. The scrubber is still growing thick algae but took over. I think the key was removing its hold in the display. Now that all the GHA is gone the next battle is with bubble algae. There was a ton of it under the GHA that I have yet to tackle but I will probably try the same method.

 

[puffy127]

How long has it been under control?

 

[b4tn]

I want to say about 3 weeks now. There where some patches I could not get the toothbrush to in the back of the rock work and even those have withered away.