Red turf like Algae

[pjb9166]

This is not cyano. The algae seems to be strongly rooted. At first we only had a small patch of it on one of the rocks. Now it has spread. The system is only seven months old. But the rock is from our previous system and overall is going on five years old. After having to breakdown our old tank the rock was stored in the sump at a school with a marine science dept for a year. The algae seems to be strongest on the mature rock. I’ve reached out on some of the FB groups and no one seems to have a clue. I’m asking for a experienced hobbyist to chime in. Someone who has actually dealt with this and has had success at beating this type of algae back. The pictures attached are not the best. But will give you an idea of the growth over the past two or so months. Thank you in advance for any real help you can provide.

 

[Jekyl]

@vetteguy53081

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ahhh, this nightmare stuff. I dealt with this for months . Known as Gelidium, its is also expressed as Red Turf Algae, or Red Wiry Algae. removal is difficult. Do the best you can with scrubbing and scraping. net any fragments of the algae which can spread in the tank. This process can be boring but if you do the process, it goes away for good. If you can take the rock out, all the easier and better. Some cleaners that will help after you pull and scrub it are Emerald Crabs, tuxedo and pencil urchins, and large turbos.

 

[pjb9166]

Ahhh, this nightmare stuff. I dealt with this for months . Known as Gelidium, its is also expressed as Red Turf Algae, or Red Wiry Algae. removal is difficult. Do the best you can with scrubbing and scraping. net any fragments of the algae which can spread in the tank. This process can be boring but if you do the process, it goes away for good. If you can take the rock out, all the easier and better. Some cleaners that will help after you pull and scrub it are Emerald Crabs, tuxedo and pencil urchins, and large turbos.

Thank you. Finally someone that can actually provide some actual insight. Unfortunately I’ve tried the brushing/scraping. All that seems to do is spread it like wild fire. I’ve even tried spot treatments of Hydrogen peroxide. The only reaction I’ve gotten is that is slightly turned pink and then recovers with a vengeance. If I was to remove the rock. The entire rock work would have to come out in one piece as it’s cemented together. That also means exposing all our spas to air for lengths of time. Our purple tang munches on the stuff all day. The Trocus snails won’t touch it. We did recently add two blue tuxedo urchin to the tank. But they don’t seem to want to go on top of the rock work where the Algae is.

 

[brandon429]

I would for sure take that job

the top frag holder ledge has the growth as a representative sample and it has coralline so it mimics rock surface as a model

remove it for test work outside tank

leave corals on

they dont die in air for 30 mins straight, have video of that it’s common, but we do only a test model first.

on algae spots place 3% peroxide from a new bottle not the old one as single drops on tuft, not a dip. No application on whole rock, it’s precisely putting a drop of peroxide on the algae tuft


on tufts only, not the rock area around it. Precision



Only tufts wet on that single test area, let sit one to two minutes then rinse off and leave the test area alone, for a reason.
Only test half the rock this way, the other half gets a rougher test

find other side of frag rock, take pocket knife and literally scrape out the algae but only from its anchor spot, actual minor damage to the anchor by knife tip, rinse the former mass away. Put peroxide on the cleaned spot with zero actual mass in place (hold fast kill model)

you didn’t scrape the good areas of the test ledge rock rack, only the tufts of this side away plus peroxide.



now in five days time: has the untouched but treated algae turned bright pink


has the scraped area grown back or stayed sharp clean

The only reason my reefbowl 1 is that evil algae. I have spent a lifetime training for its demise heh

dont experiment with your main rock, know which methods work before application


the main rock is perfect, aged, you want to keep that but minus the target, this is an obligate hitchhiker. A reef can’t have this unless it is directly imported as a twig or unapparent growth so don’t bother trying to starve it, no bad parameter caused it. It’s a bad hitchhiker.

no param adjusting can work and no random dosing of general treatments is worth the harm. You want direct surgical action. By running it only on the mini rock, you know how the big rock will respond.

 

[pjb9166]

I would for sure take that job

the top ledge had the growth as a representative sample and it has coralline so it mimics rock surface as a model

remove it

leave corals on

they dont die in air for 30 mins straight, have video of that it’s common, but we do only a test model first.

on algae spots place 3% peroxide from a new bottle not the old one as single drops on tuft, not a dip. No application on whole rock


on tufts
Only tufts wet on that single test area, let sit one minute then rinse off and leave the test area alone, for a reason.


find other side of frag rock, take pocket knife and literally scrape out the algae but only from its anchor spot, actual minor damage to the anchor by knife tip, rinse the former mass away. Put peroxide on the cleaned spot with zero actual mass in place (hold fast kill model)

you never did anything to the nontarget areas of this tiny test rock, that’s key.


now in five days time: has the untouched but treated algae turned bright pink


has the scraped area grown back, or waiting for you to glue some lps there. The only reason my reefbowl 1 is that evil algae. I have spent a lifetime training for its demise heh

dont experiment with your main rock, know which methods work before application


the main rock is perfect, aged, you want to keep that but minus the target, this is an obligate hitchhiker. A reef can’t have this unless it is directly imported as a twig or unapparent growth.

no param adjusting can work and no random dosing of general treatments is worth the harm.

A ton of info there. I’ll have to take the time to piece it all together

 

[brandon429]

i edited back in some steps. all that work above is on two halves of the frag rack alone, up top above the main rock.


we want to see if the red algae target melts away itself in a week after treatment, or if total surgery is needed


you would then access the whole rock setup in the air, mist corals with a bottle, we could keep them alive two days this way you'll be working for 30 mins or so. but only after we see if its not killed more easily just by external topical application of peroxide. if you scrape this without peroxide you mass frag it, its a requisite hitchhiker.

it must be chemically burned to be beaten Ill find a thread we did one in, sec

 

[brandon429]

ID Request - Red Plants and Spikey Plant

How about a Tang or two, mine eat this algae like crazy.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Ben Pedersen]

There's a UFO in your tank... or is that the Millennium Falcon?

Red turf algae is horrible stuff.. Tangs eat it.. My experience is that the only way to really get rid of it is to decrease phosphates. Regular water changes with RO or PhosBan can help.

 

[pjb9166]

There's a UFO in your tank... or is that the Millennium Falcon?

Red turf algae is horrible stuff.. Tangs eat it.. My experience is that the only way to really get rid of it is to decrease phosphates. Regular water changes with RO or PhosBan can help.

Wish I had a problem with Phosphate. It’s something I’ve had to dose. Even dosing I don’t get a reading on my testing. Just to make sure the test kit I was using was still good.