How to get rid of algae: what is your goal for managing algae?
- QUESTION OF THE DAY
- Thread starter Peace River
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Floyd-
Well-Known Member
Only thing I dont want at the moment is bubble algae. I suck out a bunch once a week but I cant get ahead of it. I tried crabs but they ate my corals so manual removal is the only way. I dont really want to shove a chemical into the tank if I can avoid it.
Waters
"...in perfect isolation, here behind my wall."
Other than Coralline (on rocks only) my goal is 0 algae in the tank.....which as of right now I have achieved. I accomplished by using a healthy CUC (Urchins, snails, fish), quick Coralline growth, and tank balance.
Narideth
Fishaholic
I have one tank that just reached a beautiful clean balance after a dyno and algae outbreak due to my own lack of knowledge, and another that I've been struggling to balance for many months. I'm trying to work the long game here, and a little algae would be fine.
A little.
Just a little.
I have three urchins and a host of snails + phyto dosing trying to balance the problem tank while I consider some nutrient export options, but ultimately I go in every few weeks and rip out everything/dip what rocks can be removed for the time being. I think it's slowly showing some progress. The growth has slowed at least, and that's a positive in my book.
A little.
Just a little.
I have three urchins and a host of snails + phyto dosing trying to balance the problem tank while I consider some nutrient export options, but ultimately I go in every few weeks and rip out everything/dip what rocks can be removed for the time being. I think it's slowly showing some progress. The growth has slowed at least, and that's a positive in my book.
I'm literally in the middle of a battle with GHA. It's not really bad yet but it will be if I don't address it now. I've got a lot of Coralline on the rear glass and rocks and I'm good with that. The GHA is starting to show up on in random locations. I'm physically removing it and pulled some rocks out to dip in peroxide but it keeps showing up in other places. I've yet to spot treat in tank with peroxide but I may not have a choice.
It's very frustrating because I test and my Phos is .03ish and Nit is 10 or below but I have algae growing so it's giving me false readings on my nutrient values. I've been feeding the same amounts for years and slowly been trying to stabilize my values for "optimal" conditions for a mixed reef (does this exist? lol) and as always in this hobby, curveball inbound.
I don't want to dose anything that will hurt any of my corals so I'm avoiding that at the moment. I've got 3 fish that eat algae and added a bunch of new snails (3 different kinds).
You got any urchins?
I’d maybe try spot treatments of H2O2 …its a chemical, but then again it isn’t…try a syringe full, turn off pumps, watch out for your shrimp…
Floyd-
Well-Known Member
Yes emerald crabs. Walked right over the sea of bubble algae and ate my corals. They were in the tank for less than 48 hours before I took them back to the shop.
Maybe I can try that. 3% straight up? I have no shrimp, only snails and one urchin.
Nope no urchins at this time but they are always an option. Thanks for reminding me about them. Syringe application of H2O2 is on my "next step" of attempts to knock it down some.
yeah it really helps if you can either lift the rock out OR turn off flow and then very slowly push out the peroxide over the bubble algae (even better, if its the big “banana” type, use a needle and inject it)
… IME it isn’t all that deadly to corals but shrimp seem sensitive to it
HomebroodExotics
Well-Known Member
Algae is part of the process. Doesn't bother me. I don't scrub Rocks and never will. I think it's one of the most ridiculous things a person could do. Just grow the coral faster than the algae and there won't be a problem.
McCarrick
Active Member
Be careful with hydrogen peroxide and the urchin. My urchin died after using peroxide on algae. Maybe it was a coincidence and maybe it was a sharp nutrient spike due to the sudden death of the algae but I'd follow it with a decent sized water change to be safe.
Despite sky high, perfect, low to no nutrients, high light, low light, trace elements, no trace elements, algae, through millions of years of evolution, will find a way to survive in your tank. With that being said, I’ve always believed that you can’t get rid of it 100%, you can only manage it.
CamoFan
Active Member
I've come to accept I have hair algae and fortunately nothing too serious. It's on a few rocks so I scrape it with a wire bottle brush and let my clean up crew finish it off. I have a conch running around the bottom scooping up whatever he can find, snails for the glass and hermits for the rocks.
The tank stays relatively clean and I don't have to worry TOO much about algae.
The tank stays relatively clean and I don't have to worry TOO much about algae.
I don't mind algae.. unless it's bryopsis. I've had temporary success in beating it back but I just can't kill it for good. I've done fluconazole treatments, I've tried lettuce nudis, ninja star snails but nope. Somehow always gets reintroduced to my tank or survives. Anything else I couldn't care less about!
Most types of algae are controlled by dwarf angels, urchins, and snails however bubble algae continues to be a problem. I have emerald crabs but they don’t seem to help much I manually remove on occasion but the 55 gal tank is 11 yrs old so corals are well established and I hate to go in I invariably break off some of them when I do.
I try my best to maintain as little HA and especially bryopsis, as possible. When the black / brown strands start showing up, I will do my best to beat them back. Sometimes they make an appearance when I have done a lot of coral pruning or there is an imbalance in the system, but they can also just take over for no reason at all. When this happens, it is IMO, it is important to be proactive, especially if you have small coral frags struggling to establish a foothold. Once coral encrusting dominates the rockwork, it is a whole lot harder for any type of algae to establish a foothold. Pruning the algae down to bite size strands, will assist the algae grazers in a system. There used to be a product called the 'algae mower vac' which was amazing for dealing with small patches of algae. I have a very old one, that is barely limping along. Wish it was a product that was still being manufactured.
Toolfan333
Community Member
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I just added more snails to deal with algae and invested in a couple algae scrapers.How to get rid of algae: what is your goal for managing algae?
Nuisance algae needs to go! It needs to be eradicated, right? Or does it? Certainly, the goal for some reef keepers is to get rid of all nuisance algae, while others deal with it as it shows up and try to make sure that it doesn’t get out of control. Still others focus more on establishing balance because quickly removing one type of algae can create an opening for another type of algae to fill the new gap in the ecosystem. Whether you use snails, urchins, tangs, chemicals, or some other way to combat nuisance algae, what is your goal for managing algae? Are you a hunt-it-down-and-kill-it type or do you take another approach? Please let us know in the following thread.
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formallydehyde
Active Member
I have a small separate tank dedicated to growing bryopsis for a hungry lettuce slug, which has been a lot of management to keep it growing as fast as she'll eat it. That's what's meant by this question right? 
In seriousness I only remove algae if it's blocking my vision, irritating a coral, or messing with pumps. From what I've read, and observed myself, it seems like a big part of "dreaded" pest algae outbreaks is due to a lack of competition from micro and macro algae. I partly credit the fact that I've never had a big cyanobacterial or dinoflagellate bloom (knock on wood) with using dechlorinated city water that definitely has silicates in it. If I introduce dry rock into the tank, the first thing that happens is it gets tinted brownish by diatoms before the green microalgae and coralline algae show up. It never gets gunky and nasty looking.
Bubble algae really only appeared in my tank after I made the mistake of running a carbon filter with GFO in it at the same time as introducing astrea snails, who ground the algae on one of my live rocks down to nothing. It literally only appeared on algae-bare surfaces at first, then starting appearing elsewhere. Since getting rid of the GFO it's mostly been limited to a couple little isolated patches and stopped appearing in random spots seemingly out of nowhere.
In seriousness I only remove algae if it's blocking my vision, irritating a coral, or messing with pumps. From what I've read, and observed myself, it seems like a big part of "dreaded" pest algae outbreaks is due to a lack of competition from micro and macro algae. I partly credit the fact that I've never had a big cyanobacterial or dinoflagellate bloom (knock on wood) with using dechlorinated city water that definitely has silicates in it. If I introduce dry rock into the tank, the first thing that happens is it gets tinted brownish by diatoms before the green microalgae and coralline algae show up. It never gets gunky and nasty looking.
Bubble algae really only appeared in my tank after I made the mistake of running a carbon filter with GFO in it at the same time as introducing astrea snails, who ground the algae on one of my live rocks down to nothing. It literally only appeared on algae-bare surfaces at first, then starting appearing elsewhere. Since getting rid of the GFO it's mostly been limited to a couple little isolated patches and stopped appearing in random spots seemingly out of nowhere.
I manually clean all algae from glass and substrate. I like to change things slowly and observe. I found that algae seems to like high flow areas so I changed my power head direction and also have a lot of bristle worms which I decided to leave alone. Lately I have noticed a huge difference in the amounts. I don't like the idea of clean up crews as I believe right or wrong that they will eat themselves out of food supply then die and rot. I now have Coraline which I also avoid scraping off. So answer? If its working why mess with success.
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