Very difficult algae

ClownFish664 · Jun 20, 2023

Hi all, I have this algae here and I got an urchin and 6 trochus snails to deal with it but they won't touch it.

I had the urchin first and he ate some but then stopped.

I got the snails and one of them had hair algae on it. The urchin destroyed the hair algae on his shell but still won't touch this stuff. The snails also have not eaten it.

I have tried manual removal only for it to come right back within a week!

Phosphate - 0.08 -0.1 (last checked at 0.1)
Nitrate - 10

Any help on identifying and eliminating this pest of a an algae!

Waterbox 20 cube
Radio xr15 g6 blue
Using TM bacto-pellets and a skimmer.
Not dosing aminos or supplements
Feed vitalis pellet food (roughly 10 pellets a day)

mjgonereefing · Jun 21, 2023

I don’t know how you would feel about it on a small tank but I’ve had great luck with a UV sterilizer and algae

Shibaken3 · Jun 21, 2023

there are many ways to remove hair algae.
increase cuc
improve source of water ( use rodi water)
manual removal weekly
The last option is chemical

usually, hair algae take steady work and months of work to be removed. IMO

ClownFish664 · Jun 21, 2023

Mig

mjgonereefing said:
I don’t know how you would feel about it on a small tank but I’ve had great luck with a UV sterilizer and algae

Might be worth a shot. I've been at it for months on end at this point. Thank you

ryshark · Jun 21, 2023

ClownFish664 said:
Hi all, I have this algae here and I got an urchin and 6 trochus snails to deal with it but they won't touch it.

I had the urchin first and he ate some but then stopped.

I got the snails and one of them had hair algae on it. The urchin destroyed the hair algae on his shell but still won't touch this stuff. The snails also have not eaten it.

I have tried manual removal only for it to come right back within a week!

Phosphate - 0.08 -0.1 (last checked at 0.1)
Nitrate - 10

Any help on identifying and eliminating this pest of a an algae!

Waterbox 20 cube
Radio xr15 g6 blue
Using TM bacto-pellets and a skimmer.
Not dosing aminos or supplements
Feed vitalis pellet food (roughly 10 pellets a day)

Sounds and looks like lyngbya to me.

ClownFish664 · Jun 21, 2023

Shibaken3 said:
there are many ways to remove hair algae.
increase cuc
improve source of water ( use rodi water)
manual removal weekly
The last option is chemical

usually, hair algae take steady work and months of work to be removed. IMO

I have added as much cuc as I thought would be suitable as if anything 7 trochus (one quite large one) and an urchin in a 20 gal covers a lot of surface area. This is what's making me think is may not be hair algae. I've been battling it for nearly 6-7 months at this point, manual removal with a little bit of pipe and pinching method, try the cuc don't touch it, it only ever reduces when I remove it and within a week it's right back again. It's slimy to touch and has loads of weird white stuff under it too though I assume this is sponge.

ryshark · Jun 21, 2023

ClownFish664 said:
Hi all, I have this algae here and I got an urchin and 6 trochus snails to deal with it but they won't touch it.

I had the urchin first and he ate some but then stopped.

I got the snails and one of them had hair algae on it. The urchin destroyed the hair algae on his shell but still won't touch this stuff. The snails also have not eaten it.

I have tried manual removal only for it to come right back within a week!

Phosphate - 0.08 -0.1 (last checked at 0.1)
Nitrate - 10

Any help on identifying and eliminating this pest of a an algae!

Waterbox 20 cube
Radio xr15 g6 blue
Using TM bacto-pellets and a skimmer.
Not dosing aminos or supplements
Feed vitalis pellet food (roughly 10 pellets a day)

I had the same thing in a previous tank and everything was a losing battle. If I got it again, I’d try microbacter CLEAN.

ClownFish664 · Jun 21, 2023

ryshark said:
Sounds and looks like lyngbya to me.

If it is that, what on earth gets shut of it? I've never seen this type before

ClownFish664 · Jun 21, 2023

ryshark said:
I had the same thing in a previous tank and everything was a losing battle. If I got it again, I’d try microbacter CLEAN.

Thank you, I will give it a shot!

ryshark · Jun 21, 2023

ClownFish664 said:
Thank you, I will give it a shot!

Read some of the recent threads in R2R on “Lyngbya” It sounds like diligent dosing of MB Clean for several weeks can have a positive impact.

I never finish anythi · Jun 21, 2023

Hard to see anything under blue lights . Take a pic under whites so we can actually see what you are dealing with .

ClownFish664 · Jun 21, 2023

I never finish anythi said:
Hard to see anything under blue lights . Take a pic under whites so we can actually see what you are dealing with .

Will take some pictures when I get home tonight. I didn't think about that to be honest, pretty stupid of me haha

DannoOMG · Jun 21, 2023

Did you have the clean up crew before you had the algae problem or after?

ClownFish664 · Jun 21, 2023

DannoOMG said:
Did you have the clean up crew before you had the algae problem or after?

Had half of the snails. Added the other half and urchin after

DannoOMG · Jun 21, 2023

One thing I noticed is these critters are good at algae prevention more than fully grown algae removal. Makes a big difference. I had to pull my rocks out and scrape the algae off and then I treated the spots that had algae on it with peroxide. After 10 minutes I would rinse the rocks in tank water then put them back in the tank. Once you get it to a point the clean up can stay ahead of it things start working out.

Also can I ask what foods you are putting in the tank? Mysis, reefroids etc...

ClownFish664 · Jun 21, 2023

DannoOMG said:
One thing I noticed is these critters are good at algae prevention more than fully grown algae removal. Makes a big difference. I had to pull my rocks out and scrape the algae off and then I treated the spots that had algae on it with peroxide. After 10 minutes I would rinse the rocks in tank water then put them back in the tank. Once you get it to a point the clean up can stay ahead of it things start working out.

Also can I ask what foods you are putting in the tank? Mysis, reefroids etc...

Ouch, that would be a rough time. I mean I can get around my rock Scape enough to Syphon it ouch with the pinch method. I would ideally want to avoid having to pull ym rock and corals.out.

I feed vitalis marine pellet and that's pretty much it. I feed frozen mysis once a week or once every 2 weeks but that's pretty rare. I don't feed roids or coral pellets anymore, I used to during the early stages when I had no phosphate at all but stopped about 2 months before this algae popped up.

Only additional thing I do is carbon dose with TM bacto balance, elimi np (currently using to try reduce phosphate) and that's it really

Isaac Alves · Jul 1, 2023

Any updates? I’m dealing with a similar looking algae.

ClownFish664 · Jul 2, 2023

Isaac Alves said:
Any updates? I’m dealing with a similar looking algae.

Hey, yeah I stopped dosing tropic marin elimi-np (infarct I stopped carbon dosing all together but still using the pellets) and started using microbacter clean, less than a week into these changes and it's starting to reduce.

ryshark · Jul 2, 2023

ClownFish664 said:
Hey, yeah I stopped dosing tropic marin elimi-np (infarct I stopped carbon dosing all together but still using the pellets) and started using microbacter clean, less than a week into these changes and it's starting to reduce.

Nice, glad you tried the MB Clean.