Ulva infestation options?

[jessezm]

Hey folks, so this small leafy algae that I'm nearly certain is Ulva popped up in my 90g frag tank a few months ago. At first I thought, oh great, no more feeding nori sheets to my yellow tang, but he doesn't seem to touch it. So I added a two-spot bristletooth tang. Also doesn't seem to touch it. There's a huge mexican turbo snail and a few astrea snails in there too. Nothing wants to eat it. I really don't want this to become an issue in my DT as it grows so fast. It lays down a thick carpet-like mat and covers frag plugs with frags growing on them, which is part of the issue.

I do remove it manually but that is getting difficult, as there are some rocks in the frag tank with Zoas on them that are hard to scrape clean.

One option is peroxide, and I am getting close to trying that but I would love to find a critter that could take care of this for me. Do you all think a Sea Hare would be a good option for Ulva?

I could also try a rabbitfish or foxface, but I'd like to start with something I can put in the tank sooner rather than later, as I would want to QT any fish for probably longer than I would an invert like a sea hare...

Still, taking any and all ideas!

 

[Crossfire]

I had this exact same problem- ulva all over my rock starting in late May. Seems to be a pretty common problem on here, but I finally got rid of it.

What I did was buy one of those HOB small breeder boxes on amazon for like $10 and a cheap canister filter for like $30 on amazon to pour into it. I used these to create a small refugium on the back of my tank wrapped in led grow light strips that were on all night. Bought some cheato and threw it in. You can probably just grow Ulva in it and letting it out compete the display tank.

I also went in the tank 2x a week with large tweezers and pulled as much as I could. Put the flow on high, pulled as much as I could and used a net to catch all the Ulva being blown around. It looked like an Ulva algae snow storm in the tank. I also added one Mexican turbo snail , 2 blue legged hermits, and 2 emerald crabs. They all helped a lot, not eating it directly but getting anything left behind after I pulled it out. I have no fish in my tank now.

Also, I wouldn't add more fish. Higher bio load= more nutrients for the Ulva to use. Another thing I noticed was I was using aqua vitro fuel about a month or 2 before this started. It works well, but fuels algae growth too. Stopping that helped a lot for me.

To sum it up, lower nutrients with a refugium or algae reactor and water changes, then pull as much out by hand as possible. I wouldn't use chemicals. It will tank a few months but you'll beat it.

 

[jessezm]

Thanks for the response. I actually do have a refugium with Chaeto in it that runs on a reverse light cycle. This is in the fuge section of one of my sumps. Perhaps I would benefit from a larger one, however. As it stands, I have about 350g total water volume in my system with a 150g display, 90g frag tank, 60g cube for easy water changes (no light or contents, just water flowing through), and two sumps. I skim constantly (regal 250 skimmer), and change 20% every 10 days or so. Nitrates are from 5 - 10 ppm, and phosphate is .07 - .11.

I do add acropower, as well as reef energy A and B, which may be the culprit. But honestly, I don't want the nutrients much lower if any lower at all, as I believe these levels have helped with my acros coloring up as well as keeping my LPS healthy.

Which is why I'd rather just keep it in check with some inhabitants. With only about 18 fish in the system, I don't think my bio load is really out of control just yet!

Perhaps I'll try harder to outcompete it with a better light over my chaeto fuge?

 

[Hemmdog]

I finally beat my ulva infestation a few days ago. I dropped nutrients by running my fuge longer so the ulva wouldn’t be able to keep growing. I also stopped feeding any herbivore food/nori sheets and my tang eventually started eating the ulva, he didn’t for awhile. 2 months after its worst point its now completely gone.

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Get 1-2 sea hares... they will eat it all up in a week... then trade them in or give them to someone else who could use them... I defeated ulva with sea hares... havent had it since

 

[jessezm]

Awesome good to know!

 

[SliceGolfer]

Gold Ring Cowries aka Money Cowries love Ulva. I have three in my tank and they mowed all the Ulva away. I leave the wet side of my MP10 detached overnight with the cage removed and the next morning it is picked clean of any nuisance algae. They hide during the day and work overnight. Great natural addition to the tank.

 

[jessezm]

Cowries sounds a little safer than a Sea Hare!

 

[PerplexyHexy]

I didnt have any issues with sea hares... there just over sized sea slugs... just was throwing an option out there thats pretty cheap and effective

 

[Crossfire]

Thanks for the response. I actually do have a refugium with Chaeto in it that runs on a reverse light cycle. This is in the fuge section of one of my sumps. Perhaps I would benefit from a larger one, however. As it stands, I have about 350g total water volume in my system with a 150g display, 90g frag tank, 60g cube for easy water changes (no light or contents, just water flowing through), and two sumps. I skim constantly (regal 250 skimmer), and change 20% every 10 days or so. Nitrates are from 5 - 10 ppm, and phosphate is .07 - .11.

I do add acropower, as well as reef energy A and B, which may be the culprit. But honestly, I don't want the nutrients much lower if any lower at all, as I believe these levels have helped with my acros coloring up as well as keeping my LPS healthy.

Which is why I'd rather just keep it in check with some inhabitants. With only about 18 fish in the system, I don't think my bio load is really out of control just yet!

Perhaps I'll try harder to outcompete it with a better light over my chaeto fuge?

Parameters look good. I agree, it's tough to balance good coral coloration without having algae growth. I found that Ulva isn't a big deal because as bad as it looks now, within a few months you'll pretty much get rid of it all.

Sea hares might be a quick fix, but I was too scared to add one because I read that they release toxic chemicals if scared or if they die. I don't have any experience with them nor do I want to.

My suggestion is to go slow and you'll 100% beat it. I'd use a bit more gfo (I use phosguard which is aluminum oxide) to drop the phosphates to .03. If you don't want to do that just lower your acropower/amino acids and light the refugium with strong lights (red with some blues) for 18 hours. The bet thing is getting in the tank and pulling out as much as you can.

 

[jessezm]

Parameters look good. I agree, it's tough to balance good coral coloration without having algae growth. I found that Ulva isn't a big deal because as bad as it looks now, within a few months you'll pretty much get rid of it all.

Sea hares might be a quick fix, but I was too scared to add one because I read that they release toxic chemicals if scared or if they die. I don't have any experience with them nor do I want to.

My suggestion is to go slow and you'll 100% beat it. I'd use a bit more gfo (I use phosguard which is aluminum oxide) to drop the phosphates to .03. If you don't want to do that just lower your acropower/amino acids and light the refugium with strong lights (red with some blues) for 18 hours. The bet thing is getting in the tank and pulling out as much as you can.

I actually have had sea hares a few times with some success. I just found that with the flow I have, they aren't really happy or comfortable, and tend to end up in places they shouldn't... I've never had an issue with toxicity, even after having one disappear completely which surely means it died at some point. Biggest issue was one taking the long journey to my basement sump, causing some weird water level issues due to the back up in the plumbing, etc etc.

I wish I hadn't sold my Kessil H360! thought I wouldn't use it but I could now. However I'm running one of those mogul based LED spotlights and it seems to be growing chaeto pretty well. I just think I need more of it, and my sump refugium is very space-limited.

 

[jessezm]

I didnt have any issues with sea hares... there just over sized sea slugs... just was throwing an option out there thats pretty cheap and effective

Oh I didn't mean to suggest it was a bad idea, it's honestly what I was leaning toward since they are such voracious eaters, I just wanted confirmation that someone has seen them eat Ulva specifically. But I'll be out of town for two weeks next month so I want to hold off until I can be around to monitor.... Which is why the Cowries seemed like a better idea in the interim. If I can find them.

 

[Crossfire]

I wish I hadn't sold my Kessil H360! thought I wouldn't use it but I could now. However I'm running one of those mogul based LED spotlights and it seems to be growing chaeto pretty well. I just think I need more of it, and my sump refugium is very space-limited.

You know what works really well and is so cheap- those grow led strip lights (4:1 red/blue) you can find on eBay or amazon. I'm new to reef2reef so I don't know if I can post a link, but there are tons of long waterproof grow lights that you can wrap around your refugium and basically turn it into an algae reactor. You can put them on a timer or leave them 24/7 to have all your cheato get light. That's what I do and it's been pretty amazing. Surprising how well a simple DIY light set up works.

Just like me, you'll get rid of the Ulva. It needs a lot of nutrients to grow for months so it'll die out soon. Keep pulling it and it should be gone by the end of October if you don't rush anything. Best of luck

 

[Rakie]

I have Money Cowries and they can't take out the Ulva.

 

[Cherie cook]

If you can take any of the rock out of the tank you can treat with hydrogen peroxide. I took out big rocks, coral and all and swiped all the Ulva with a q tip soaked in peroxide, avoiding the coral of course. Let the peroxide work for a few minutes and returned to tank. No rinsing. I did pick off as much of the bigger pieces of Ulva as possible before I removed rock from tank. The corals did not seem to mind at all.

 

[Hemmdog]

Lasse told me that camel shrimp are known to go after ulva. I haven’t tried that myself though.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Thanks for the response. I actually do have a refugium with Chaeto in it that runs on a reverse light cycle. This is in the fuge section of one of my sumps. Perhaps I would benefit from a larger one, however. As it stands, I have about 350g total water volume in my system with a 150g display, 90g frag tank, 60g cube for easy water changes (no light or contents, just water flowing through), and two sumps. I skim constantly (regal 250 skimmer), and change 20% every 10 days or so. Nitrates are from 5 - 10 ppm, and phosphate is .07 - .11.

I do add acropower, as well as reef energy A and B, which may be the culprit. But honestly, I don't want the nutrients much lower if any lower at all, as I believe these levels have helped with my acros coloring up as well as keeping my LPS healthy.

Which is why I'd rather just keep it in check with some inhabitants. With only about 18 fish in the system, I don't think my bio load is really out of control just yet!

Perhaps I'll try harder to outcompete it with a better light over my chaeto fuge?

Get a stronger refugium light. And make sure you have a lot of flow going through your chaeto.