fighting algee for more then a year with no success

[Or167]

Hi All,
I am fighting this algee for more then a year with no success (it's a stringy brown algee), my nitrates are 8 and phosphate 0.
I have mexican Turboes that will not tuch it, my tank is 20G so tanks / foxface are not relevant.
Any help / advice will be appriciate.

 

[Ippyroy]

It sounds like it may be dinos and I think I see bubbles on it. Does it sort of resemble snot?

 

[Or167]

It sounds like it may be dinos and I think I see bubbles on it. Does it sort of resemble snot?

Thank you for the help, the picture is misleading, the algee is thin and stringy (it is not dinos, dinos you can blow with a turkey buster), Any thoughts ?

 

[SMSREEF]

That algae looks kinda red/maroon in the pic. I don’t think Dino’s.

Manual removal should help. You can pull a rock, manually remove what you can, and spot treat with peroxide. If you have the right CUC they should eat the new growth.

Adding an urchin will likely help. I would try to get a red tuxedo urchin. Also know it will eat coralline algae too.

 

[KrisReef]

Welcome to Reef2Reef.

Is this just growing on the rock or does it spread across the sand (presuming you are cleaning if off the sand?)

 

[Hermie]

man lol I'm dealing with something simliar and the only thing that works is manual removal or an urchin; then once its manually cleaned get some more snails and they can keep it from coming back.

 

[homer1475]

Looks to be cotton candy algae.

 

[Or167]

Welcome to Reef2Reef.

Is this just growing on the rock or does it spread across the sand (presuming you are cleaning if off the sand?)

Only on the rocks, it does not spread across the sand

 

[Or167]

Looks to be cotton candy algae.

Looked at it abit more, it might be "cotton candy algee", any advice how to eliminate ?

 

[KrisReef]

Only on the rocks, it does not spread across the sand

If your sand had lots of nutrients it would. Having this stuff only growing out of the rocks suggests your rock is acting as a nutrient sink. (It looks like there is caulurpa sprouting from off of it.

Anyway, others mentioned that you should pull the rock from the tank, remove the algae (scrape it to bare tock) and then touch up the area with peroxide to kill the algae.

That should help get this under control. Good luck!

 

[Or167]

Can I take each rock outside and treat with peroxide or you recomend dosing peroxide into the tank ?

 

[SMSREEF]

Can I take each rock outside and treat with peroxide or you recomend dosing peroxide into the tank ?

Take it out. Remove what you can and then spot treat.

 

[laverda]

Hydrogen peroxide is pretty much guaranteed to kill it if your remove the rocks and just pour some over it. What filtration do you have.

 

[Or167]

Will it kill the coral ? I am using an algee scrubber (the algee scrubber is new and it reduced the growth but did not eliminate the algee) & skimmer

 

[Reef - Tripp]

Remove the stone carving with a brush and water from the aquarium then soak it with hydrogen peroxide, let it act for a couple of minutes and return it to the aquarium, if you cannot remove it, manual extraction and a urchin will help

 

[brandon429]

Pour around the corals be exacting. Use dropper or a small mist bottle


pre scrape with a knife first, to clear off all the mass you can get, clear the way like a dentist exacting around teeth so the peroxide has less target mass to work on, leaving only holdfasts in the rock for it to work on. If you work out side the tank and fix the rocks, we can do a sandbed clean to catch up bits and pieces and then assemble back a clean skip cycle tank.

 

[SMSREEF]

Will it kill the coral ? I am using an algee scrubber (the algee scrubber is new and it reduced the growth but did not eliminate the algee) & skimmer

You still have algae after a year because you disregard answers.

 

[Or167]

Pour around the corals be exacting. Use dropper or a small mist bottle


pre scrape with a knife first, to clear off all the mass you can get, clear the way like a dentist exacting around teeth so the peroxide has less target mass to work on, leaving only holdfasts in the rock for it to work on. If you work out side the tank and fix the rocks, we can do a sandbed clean to catch up bits and pieces and then assemble back a clean skip cycle tank.

Thanks , will try and update upon progress.

 

[brandon429]

The red turf algae battle

I'm curious, how old is your tank? It's brand New, but the rocks are from my former 1.5 year old tank

www.reef2reef.com

theres a similar job, we always have a comparative work thread before the run to see. More than one way is used here
one person was pulling the rock and putting baking soda paste and one used aiptasia x to burn it off

Peroxide after detail knife tip precision lift out scraping is best pls take pics we want to use them in our peroxide thread.

red algae has this effect with peroxide: takes about nine days to kill off

gha is dead within 48 hours usually but this tough algae is better armed...it takes a little over a week for areas contacted by peroxide to turn pink and die off

so when you’ve detail scraped nicely and rinsed off the mass, some red pigmentation might remain. That will bleach out in a little over a week after peroxide sits on it in the air a few mins. Clean what you can, contact burn the rest it will work great.

 

[Or167]

The red turf algae battle

I'm curious, how old is your tank? It's brand New, but the rocks are from my former 1.5 year old tank

www.reef2reef.com

theres a similar job, we always have a comparative work thread before the run to see. More than one way is used here
one person was pulling the rock and putting baking soda paste and one used aiptasia x to burn it off

Peroxide after detail knife tip precision lift out scraping is best pls take pics we want to use them in our peroxide thread.

red algae has this effect with peroxide: takes about nine days to kill off

gha is dead within 48 hours usually but this tough algae is better armed...it takes a little over a week for areas contacted by peroxide to turn pink and die off

so when you’ve detail scraped nicely and rinsed off the mass, some red pigmentation might remain. That will bleach out in a little over a week after peroxide sits on it in the air a few mins. Clean what you can, contact burn the rest it will work great.

Thanks, I have a lot of work to do, will update on the progress