What's the first thing you do when you see it? Panic?

[Eagle_Steve]

What’s algae?

Joke, but all tanks are very herbivore heavy. I haven’t seen algae in years. My seaweed, mimic and puff check blennies eat all forms of algae. Even bryopsis. Best fish for a frag tank lol.

But, if it did come up, I would figure out the cause and work it out slowly.

 

[walloutlet]

This is a funny topic, I used to freak out with my old tank and being inexperienced cause it felt like I lost control.

Fast forward 8 years and I’m back in the hobby, new tank setup and I’ve been pacing to get to the “ugly stage” so I know something will grow and survive. Lol! This past week after probably 5 months, it’s happening... it’s finally happening.

So now, test water and do nothing. Let the natural course go through.

 

[HuduVudu]

100% Paleo sand and Marco rocks - Oh - and keeping ALL of my fingers crossed - all of them. All the time...

What is Paleo sand?

Marco rocks are not live rock.

Tampa Bay Saltwater is live rock. You can also get live rock from Live Rock and Reef.

 

[Privateye]

At first sight I just go "Hmm. let's keep an eye on it and check my chemistry." If there are no obvious clues, it often clears up shortly.

 

[Lightspeed]

So long as it is not out of balance with the display, i do nothing. Ocean isn't free from algae, i refuse to run around trying to make a sterile system dosing all sorts of chemicals chasing your tail, so long as parameters are in check, i just let the cuc handle it.

 

[92Miata]

In a new, dry rock, unestablished tank? Kill it with fire.

In an established tank? Buy another herbivorous fish.

 

[markfmvl]

algae is a normal part of all the reefs of the world. there are a lot of herbivores on the reef. as long as it doesn't crowd out corals or get out of hand it is food for them. ( tangs and cleanup crew)

 

[Anihiel1]

Algae???? What is algae?? I bought a baby tang who i was blissfully unaware was actually a hyperactive puppy going through a growth spurt. He neverrrrr stops eating. Nori, flakes, frozen, picking at the rocks...now I have to give the crabs algae sticks and he tries to steal it from their claws. If a large cheese pizza fell in the tank he'd eat that too.
#WhatwasIthinking

 

[Klaas]

I selected other.

With a Tomini, Purple, Hippo tang, and a Foxface there shouldn't be anything other than film algae in the display. For that I have an army of Astrea, trochus, nerite, and cerith snails that keep the film algae under control. So If there's any algae growing in there, I'd have to wonder if there was a problem with the algae crew.

My 6 big Tangs don’t like to eat hair algae. Neither do my various snails. During water change I harvest the hair algae when it become too much. Luckily it just grows in the rear corners of my tank so it’s easy to remove. If it’s in the rocks I spray it with Peroxide. That works too. Then I’ll try to keep Phosphate at around 0.03- 0.06. My nitrates are already very low. At 0.5.

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

If I see algae in my system I think "Hey, that means the tank is making it's own food!" Algae is a natural thing to have in a system, and a little isn't going to do anything bad. Same with so called "pests". Sure, some like aptasia and red bugs will wreck things, but those weird little crabs and vermitid snails you spot at night are a part of the clean up crew. This applies similarly with algae. I think it is a bad idea to flip out when you see algae, it is a great food for your critters, a hiding place for copepods, and more biodiversity for your ecosystem. My system has done significantly better with the different types of algae I got from my TBS rock.

 

[Tamberav]

Tell myself...eh..it's fine I will do a water change tomorrow.. (and actually do the water change a few days to a week later).

Algae in my case is usually cyano which means some debris built up that I need to flush out of the sand or rock.

 

[WallyB]

I PANIC AND FREAK OUT...At first.

Then I do the ALL of rest of the choices, after I calm down from the Panic Attack.

 

[Tastee]

In my first tank (65g) algae taught me a lot. It made me do lots more research and reading, invest In better test kits and really start to get a ‘feel’ for my tank. My main issue was one of the GHAs. It killed several LPS and even though I got on top of it 18 months ago, the inroads it made then on my Favia still now looks to be fatal - been gradually getting taken over. Everything else is fine. In that tank I dosed Flucanozole towards the end of my 9 month journey to get on top of it and that seemed to be the last jigsaw piece that got me to stability. Oh, and also introducing Money Cowries, really love those snails. Been really stable for 18 months (except for the poor Favia). The (small) CUC and herbivores (LMB, YT, Sixline Wrasse) keep everything in check.

Early this year I setup a new, larger tank (130g). This was started with dead rock from a past aquarium - had been sitting in a plastic bin for 5 years so I’m pretty sure it was really, really dead. I seeded it with some LR from my first tank. Within 3 weeks I had GHA on every rock surface. Given how dead everything else was, it clearly came from my LR. This time it didn’t bother me. I just kept an eye on parameters, stocked the tank with herbivores (BT, YT, two Blennies) and a CUC - not many, just a Cowrie and about 4-6 Trochus and Turbo snails. 3 months later tank was clean and 4 months since then, still clean.

The smaller tank has some Caulupera algae growing in the back of the DT that I am keeping an eye on. For now I’m happy with it as it’s doing a job of nutrient export, and I don’t have a lit Refugium I can move it to. It’s started to grow quite a bit lately so I will probably pull it out - don’t want it going sexual and spreading everywhere. As it is however it’s quite pretty.

 

[Doctorgori]

what I do next depends on the age of the tank and the type of original rock...
I’m convinced some algae outbreaks are a phenomena associated with less biodiverse “ dry rock. I have a few tanks and I’ve noticed in the dry rock tank absolutely no bugs on the glass even after 1 yr.
Sure you can get ala carte CUC and bottled microbes but some of the heavy lifting is done. by the hitchhiking critters you don’t directly pay for; critters under 2cm but over 1mm
...anyway, last algae outbreak in my 60g is being solved now; I just added a vey old piece of branch rock w/ pom pom xenia...Finally seeing algae consuming pods

 

[Bpb]

There’s always a little here and there. No big deal

 

[hart24601]

I blast it with a few ml of peroxide

 

[Nasabeau]

I disagree with the opening thread in my tank, because my tank is still very very new (talking up and running less than two weeks) and I expect some diatom blooms right now that should go away on their own from what I've been told. however my plan for the future is to get more snail if the ones I have aren't getting rid of the algae faster than its growing.

 

[Paul B]

id like to work that tank remotely if you want to, some details stand out in your description, mainly the willingness to directly access, we can work wonders with that

Brandon, I think you should write a book.

 

[brandon429]

I like web posts that allow perma editing though lol

nobody wants to read about gha buzzsawing with peroxide / old news

 

[Iversonforever3]

tbh I think hand removal helps a lot .. I get 1 piece of bubble Algae and I get scared... then I got some long tweezers and remove it .. it’s been months and no more. I don’t have a emerald crab because they are scarier than the bubble algae lol. Best thing to do is just spend time examining your tank come to R2R for help