Algae on coral - how to remove?

beesnreefs · May 30, 2021

This Wilsoni frag has hairy algae growing off the top. I tend to pull off as much as I can by hand when I do maintenance but within a couple weeks it looks like this again:

It is growing off the tippy top part of the skeleton.

Is there anything I can do to remove all this algae without killing the coral? Can I safely do a hydrogen peroxide dip? Something else?

Thanks!

Spsfreak27 · May 30, 2021

You can pull off as much as possible and then take a small hobby paint brush and paint on some hydrogen peroxide to that area. The peroxide will kill the algae

Timfish · May 30, 2021

First I would GENTLY remove as much as I could holding the plug under water and use a good pair of tweezers to pull off hte bryopsis. Then I would get a syrenge with a couple milliliters of H2O2 and CAREFULLY apply tiny amounts to the spots the algae is attached, again holding it under water. If your concerened about applying H2O2 directly then give the frag a 2 minute bath with 5 or 6 parts aquarium water and 1 part H202.

rockdiver · May 30, 2021

I have some clove polyps with gha all thru them would this method work for that?

Spsfreak27 · May 30, 2021

rockdiver said:
I have some clove polyps with gha all thru them would this method work for that?

With those you can just dip them in a peroxide dip.

rockdiver · May 30, 2021

Think I will try it today

Spsfreak27 · May 30, 2021

rockdiver said:
Think I will try it today

Just make sure to do a cup of tank water and about 10ml of peroxide or until you see bubbling coming from the algae on the plug

rockdiver · May 30, 2021

Ok tks
Guess my daughter used it all so I have to go get some lol what about coral dip would this do anything ?

Timfish · May 30, 2021

rockdiver said:
I have some clove polyps with gha all thru them would this method work for that?

If you can remove them then SPSFreak27's recommendation will work fine. Using a syrenge has teh advantage of being used in tank on colonies that are attached to aquascaping that would be impractical to remove. The coral dip is intended for parasites. I've never tried it specifically for algae but I suspect it won't work as well as H2O2.