How picky should I be with trying to remove algae from my new coral frags?

kmcgillz · Jul 13, 2018

Just received a shipment of 24 frags. Placed them in a QT tank for acclimation and observation. Plan on dipping them once they all look happy and stable. After a couple of days in the QT tank, I notice that the small bit of algae present on the plugs and at the base of some of the corals is starting to grow a tiny bit. I plan on removing the frags and putting them on new plugs when I go through the dipping process. There are some pieces that have algae on the substrate they are attached to and it appears there is some growing directly on / in between the clove polyps (see images..) How picky should I be in trying to remove every last spec of algae before placing in my display tank?

(Display has been up for 10 weeks. Currently only has a couple of clowns and a goby living in it. No algae spotted to this point...)

Thanks for the input!

DLHDesign · Jul 13, 2018

If it goes into your DT, assume it will spread throughout the entire tank. If you're okay with that, or think you have the resources to keep it under control (clean-up crews, competitive algae, fish that will eat it, etc.), then you can be a bit looser with your frag cleaning. If you're not sure or don't want to risk it, you would want to deal with the algae in the QT. There are things like Vibrant that may be able to help on that end (assuming adding a CUC or the like to the QT isn't enough to handle it).

kmcgillz · Aug 3, 2018

Am I’m being crazy thinking I’ll be able to get every last spec of algae off of these drags before I put them in my DT? I’ve been using Vibrant for about 3 weeks and have added a couple of hermit crabs and a tailspot blenny to my QT tank, and they haven’t cleaned the algae off yet. I’m just nervous to put them in the DT because it’s been up for nearly 4 months and doesn’t a noticeable speck of algae anywhere!