Turf algae

[chewy tabacca]

Hey guys, I have read a bunch on this and from everything I have read there is pretty much nothing I can do. Been using agent green, nitrates are 0.25 Phosphate is 0.03 (red sea) and 0.039 (Hanna checker) I have scrubbed a bunch of it but it does not want to come off.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

I've seen urchins keep green turf algae at bay before.. IME, short-spined urchins performed the best. You could also use a toothbrush dipped in hydrogen peroxide and scrub some off (but be sure to rinse the rock thoroughly after scrubbing.)

 

[brandon429]

agreed it can be beaten, and the biosystem preserved on it. if we have to run rocket fuel 35% on it to burn it off that w change the color palette to whiter for a while but it wont make it recycle, and it will kill the invader. 3% has about a 75% chance of working just fine and its not super caustic/instantly blinding to a human eye with one errant drop etc.

 

[chewy tabacca]

So a little updated, today I stopped feeding my tangs, (blond Naso, yellow, blue, and sailfin) also bought 2 short spiked urchins, the tangs are starting to graze on it already, we will see what progress the urchins make over night

 

[chewy tabacca]

Anyone following along, I think I may have trouble shot the problem, I believe trace elements were a little hight which was feeding the algae. I haven't dosed for a while and it seems to be going down. Also with the 2 new urchins and the tangs feeding non stop. Probably another week and it will be gone. So I am going to hold off on dosing trace elements for another week and see if it completely goes away. Hopefully this will help people that have the same problem.

 

[Cherub]

have you tried fluconazole? I have bryopsis and turf and both are dying, i'm on my second week

 

[chewy tabacca]

have you tried fluconazole? I have bryopsis and turf and both are dying, i'm on my second week

No I haven't tried anything really, I tend to try and find the root cause and cure that. I got my trace elements test kit today, was reading up on it and it was saying over dosing can cause unwanted algae growth. That was the only thing I have changed was dosing, so I am guessing that was the problem.

 

[Cherub]

my issue is too many vacations

 

[chewy tabacca]

my issue is too many vacations

Must be nice lol

 

[xCry0x]

Interested in your success. I have had a nasty red turf algae infestation for going on 2 years. Cannot seem to beat it. It covers most of my rockwork.

I just did a two month long vibrant cycle and managed to finally knock out all the bubble algae I had in my tank. The red turf didn't seem to give a crap.

Debating buying a new cleanup crew from reefcleaners. My crew is down to an army of trochus snails, two turbos and an emerald crab.. plus my homicidal blue leg hermits that kill every cerith I add to the tank.

Tank is only about 66g - otherwise I'd probably get a tang since it seems many people view them as a key to keeping tanks algae free even while running higher nutrients.

 

[chewy tabacca]

Interested in your success. I have had a nasty red turf algae infestation for going on 2 years. Cannot seem to beat it. It covers most of my rockwork.

I just did a two month long vibrant cycle and managed to finally knock out all the bubble algae I had in my tank. The red turf didn't seem to give a crap.

Debating buying a new cleanup crew from reefcleaners. My crew is down to an army of trochus snails, two turbos and an emerald crab.. plus my homicidal blue leg hermits that kill every cerith I add to the tank.

Tank is only about 66g - otherwise I'd probably get a tang since it seems many people view them as a key to keeping tanks algae free even while running higher nutrients.

I have three Tangs, I stopped feeding them for a week now, and they have been hitting it hard. I also bought 2 short spined urchins but I don't know if they are really doing much. I have 3 emeralds that don't seem to really be doing to much to it. It has almost disappeared though. I finally got my trace colour test kit from red sea. I was reading the instructions and it says if you over dose it will cause nuisance algae. I was dosing very small amounts of trace colours since I didn't have the test kit and that may have been the problem. My turbo hasn't touched it. I have about 10 blue legs I still don't know what they really do but walk around in shells. I have also been doing 25% water changes once a week. My PO4 has always been around 0.02 and my NO3 is about 0.3. It never really changes. I have also been using agent green periodically with keeping calcium at 410 which is alot of dosing due to the fact that agent green bonds to calcium on a molecular bond. All the changes have seemed to be helping.

In short. Water changes, stopped dosing trace elements until it goes away, and agent green with heavy calcium monitoring.

 

[chewy tabacca]

This is the only comparison photo I have

I also included a full scale of it as of today.

 

[xCry0x]

Yea interesting.

What has killed me is that my tank is stripped of nutrients.

I rarely have to clean the glass, SPS are all pastel colors, my goniopora I had for years died, having to actively target feed my acan and favia to keep them alive since the water is *too* clean. The algae doesn't seem to care though!

 

[chewy tabacca]

Yea interesting.

What has killed me is that my tank is stripped of nutrients.

I rarely have to clean the glass, SPS are all pastel colors, my goniopora I had for years died, having to actively target feed my acan and favia to keep them alive since the water is *too* clean. The algae doesn't seem to care though!

Not to sure, maybe agent green. I know crabs and especially urchins will tear into. Urchins tear up algae