How would you remove algae from spa coral?

[cjtabares]

My bubblegum digi has algae growing on its tips. I was wondering if there was a safe way to remove this algae.

 

[Formulator]

You can use a toothbrush, but unfortunately the algae is the least of your problems. That coral is not healthy and has burnt tips or is in slow tissue necrosis. The algae is growing on dead parts. What are your parameters?

 

[cjtabares]

You can use a toothbrush, but unfortunately the algae is the least of your problems. That coral is not healthy and has burnt tips or is in slow tissue necrosis. The algae is growing on dead parts. What are your parameters?

It was not looking too good, starting to color back up. Tank is about 6 months old.

 

[Formulator]

It was not looking too good, starting to color back up. Tank is about 6 months old.

Looks spot on to me. Lighting and flow? If you think you already corrected the problem, you actually may just want to cut the dead tips off and dip in a lugol’s iodine solution. The algae will continue to come back and potentially irritate the healthy tissue next to it. The part covered by algae is completely dead coral skeleton. It will not recover.

 

[cjtabares]

Looks spot on to me. Lighting and flow? If you think you already corrected the problem, you actually may just want to cut the dead tips off and dip in a lugol’s iodine solution. The algae will continue to come back and potentially irritate the healthy tissue next to it. The part covered by algae is completely dead coral skeleton. It will not recover.

I have a AI Prim HD, and 2 ATI blue plus, think the par there was about 300 when I measured, I have an mp10 and Maxspec jump 2000, want to add a little more but I think that spot gets some pretty good random flow.
I will probably clip them off and see how it goes.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

300 is plenty for digitata. My bubblegum digi starts to grow horizontal and growth slows greatly when it gets into about 300 par.


Frag the dead tip off. If your water is as shown above, the Digi will heal and grow back. Move it down to about 200 par and give it some time. They grow like weeds once they take ahold. I've also seen it grow slowly around 150 par. It's not exactly easy to kill so don't be too concerned about placing it too low.