Green Turf Algae - Help please...

AJsTank · Oct 1, 2014

My tank is packed with SPS and I haven't lost any pieces for 6 months. Things are going great in that department, but I've been gone on the road for 9 weeks and I've got some green turf algae to deal with. I'll go over my tank so you guys can help me with some suggestions.

About 470 gallons for the system.

I am running GFO, bio-denitrator and a huge refugium with lots of macro algae that gets harvested every other week. The refugium light comes on opposite of my lights and it's doing great.

Parameters have stayed extremely stable and within the desired range for SPS.
Temp swings are from 77-77.3
Radions are running at 90% for 5 hours and then they ramp up and down

I don't have any hair algae, diatoms or cyano. I haven't noticed anything in the water column and it looks clear to me.

Clean up crew is 1 sand sifting star fish and 6 conches for my sand. I have 8 emeralds, about 2 dozen of those huge snails and 30 -40 crabs. I realize I may be low on the crab/snail side, but they don't touch the turf algae anyway and I believe most of my excess nutrients are sucked up by all my SPS. The sand sifting crew does a great job keeping it White.

Since I've been gone, my wife has been feeding the tank and I believe she has been over feeding and that's where the problem started from. But as I read about Turf Algae, it feeds off of very very low excess nutrients and it's difficult to get rid of, so my initial thought of over feeding, may not be where it came from. But I'm not really sure lol

I do have a Naso Tang, but he doesn't pick at algae on the rocks. Personally, I hate tangs and I refuse to put anymore into my system, so tangs are out of the question. It's hard to find any information about people resolving this issue on any of the big forums. I did find a couple people that say Chitons will do the job, but no one can confirm it. Snails, crabs and sea hairs won't touch it and I have not noticed any of my emeralds on it either. It's very hard to get off the rocks and someone suggested using a screw driver so I tried that. I spent about 7 hours on Sunday and got about 5% of it out of the system, but most of it is unreachable. I really don't want to rip into my stack, but I guess that will be a last resort.

I first saw it about 6 months ago on 1 single rock, but I didn't think anything of it and didn't really care it was there. When I got back from Toronto the other day, it had spread like wild fire. I have not changed anything on my tank or added anything since I've been gone which was around the 19th of July.

I read an article of someone doing a black out for nearly 90 days and this algae was still in his system. Kind of frustrated, but I'm tempted to just leave it and keep moving forward with more corals and maybe have them battle it out for nutrients. I have around 60 pieces of SPS with some fairly large colonies.

It would be nice to speak with someone who has successfully eliminated the problem from their tank.

Suggestions? lol

AJsTank · Oct 1, 2014

Here's a shot of the tank I took back around the 1st week of July.

https://vimeo.com/103963366

Bad Company · Oct 1, 2014

When I had a bi-color blenny (found him a new home for space reasons), he mowed down hair algae. He ate so much thee was green poop everywhere. Also, my dwarf angels pick at the rocks constantly..

ReeferRookie · Oct 1, 2014

Take some pics and let us know. Manual removal is best option but a nice clean up.crew helps

AJsTank · Oct 1, 2014

I do have a lawnmower blenny and he eats the hair algae when it pops up, but does not touch this turf algae.. I'll have to grab some pics when I get home.

ReeferRookie · Oct 1, 2014

Okay. Thatll help. Is the algae on ur rocks to or just ur glass ?

AJsTank · Oct 1, 2014

ReeferRookie said:
Okay. Thatll help. Is the algae on ur rocks to or just ur glass ?

It's turf algae. I've been in this game for a long time and I know how to deal with typical hair, diatoms and other algaes. This is my first time ever running into turf though. I know that a typical clean up crew is not going to take care of it. Go search for solutions for Turf Algae. It's hard to find any help on it, anywhere. It's not typical algae.

diablomaster9045 · Oct 1, 2014

I recommend manual removal and adding a few more emeralds ~10 or so and some trochus snails.

ReeferRookie · Oct 1, 2014

I understand i had it. I manually removed it all which is why i asked if it was just on ur rocks. I ran high gfo. And raised my alk it helped a little i used my uv sterilizer 24 7 it also helped but in the end tanking out the rock and scrubbing it off with a quick rinse in some water was the only trick i could do. U may try nualgae i believe its called ? Lots of people swear by it

AJsTank · Oct 1, 2014

diablomaster9045 said:
I recommend manual removal and adding a few more emeralds ~10 or so and some trochus snails.

Yes, that's what I did for 7 hours on Sunday. Most of it is unreachable though. Unless I rip apart my beautifully aquascaped stack.... Maybe I'll increase the Emerald crab count. I physically put my Emeralds, crabs and snails on the algae and they will sit there for hours and not touch it. So I'm skeptical on clean up crew as it is.

AJsTank · Oct 1, 2014

ReeferRookie said:
I understand i had it. I manually removed it all which is why i asked if it was just on ur rocks. I ran high gfo. And raised my alk it helped a little i used my uv sterilizer 24 7 it also helped but in the end tanking out the rock and scrubbing it off with a quick rinse in some water was the only trick i could do. U may try nualgae i believe its called ? Lots of people swear by it

I looked into that, but I'm hesitant. Almost seems too good to be true. I'll do a little more research on it.

merle.mitchell.7 · Oct 1, 2014

There are tons of additives you can try but it's the nitrates that allow the algae to grow (which consume the nitrates). Make yourself an algae scrubber (search YouTube) or buy one. Reduce feedings, lower display lighting and run the scrubber (works good in tank or sump). As above-mentioned, scrubbing the rocks works to get rid or a lot. I did it but kept the rock submerged in fresh saltwater and rinsed it off well using more water and a powerheads when I was done.

AJsTank · Oct 1, 2014

merle.mitchell.7 said:
There are tons of additives you can try but it's the nitrates that allow the algae to grow (which consume the nitrates). Make yourself an algae scrubber (search YouTube) or buy one. Reduce feedings, lower display lighting and run the scrubber (works good in tank or sump). As above-mentioned, scrubbing the rocks works to get rid or a lot. I did it but kept the rock submerged in fresh saltwater and rinsed it off well using more water and a powerheads when I was done.

You're talking about general algae though. This is not normal algae. I have the nutrient export part handled. You can pull this crap out of your tank and put the rock in the kitchen sink and it's still impossible to pull off with a tooth brush or your fingers.

merle.mitchell.7 · Oct 1, 2014

Okay, yes I've had to deal with it. I (and I recruited my wife to help) used a pick and tweezer set to remove it. The little that was left, I managed to bury in the live sand to starve it of light. I have not had it come back and that was almost two years ago. If there is an invertebrate or fish that will deal with it, I didn't find it. Maybe a Sea slug but that's just guess.

AJsTank · Oct 2, 2014

merle.mitchell.7 said:
Okay, yes I've had to deal with it. I (and I recruited my wife to help) used a pick and tweezer set to remove it. The little that was left, I managed to bury in the live sand to starve it of light. I have not had it come back and that was almost two years ago. If there is an invertebrate or fish that will deal with it, I didn't find it. Maybe a Sea slug but that's just guess.

Thank you.

A few people messaged me and said Chitons, so I'm going to try them.

NanaReefer · Oct 2, 2014

Mexican Turbo Snails eat it as well.

CoralHut · Oct 12, 2014

Any luck killing this plague? Trying to find solutions for a customers tank with this.

AJsTank · Oct 13, 2014

Nope. I get the normal non helpful answers every time. Clean up crew, tangs, rabbits, excess nutrient problem, etc etc. None of that stuff will touch it. One person on the "other" forum find me that chitons work, so I'm ordering 15 of them to try out.

CoralHut · Oct 16, 2014

I have tried every type of urchin (long spine, pencil, short spine, royal/pin cushion), trochus snails, turbo snails (zebra, Mexican, margarita), emerald crabs, all manner of hermits, extreme nutrient export (biopellets + GFO, chemipure blue), zapping it with an aiptasia wand, smothering it with epoxy and superglue (grows back through it lol), pouring hydrogen perioxide on it, and raising magnesium to 2400 with Kent tech M. This stuff is hell on earth I tell ya. I have yet to try rabbitfish or Tangs but I would expect them to find it unpalatable.

Let me know if the chitons work and where ya got them from. Really don't want to dismantle this beautiful custom rockwork with extensive carbon fiber rod reinforcment if I don't have to... Haha