The red turf algae battle
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Got it - did the older tank have algae issue or is the algae unique to the new tank?
Did your lighting change between old/new tank?
I ask because the brownish slime on the rocks looks like the start of hair algae - in my experience that tends to happen often in newer tanks built with dead rocks that are leaching phosphates.
You would have a better idea about the red splotches though - hard to tell if its turf, cyano, coralline.
Did your lighting change between old/new tank?
I ask because the brownish slime on the rocks looks like the start of hair algae - in my experience that tends to happen often in newer tanks built with dead rocks that are leaching phosphates.
You would have a better idea about the red splotches though - hard to tell if its turf, cyano, coralline.
The older tank had dino and red turf. That's why I nuked it. And while at it, I upgraded to a new nice 190 gallon tank and bench. I nuked the stones in soda and re-started 4 weeks ago. The darker brown spots are my worry. Could it be red turf algae again? Does it spread by spores (air)? Then those might be in the room infecting my new tank... By the way, if you happen to encounter dino. H202 3% 4 ml/gallon 3 times a day with min 4 h between doses combined with UVC took it out easy. Would be a dream to find a cure like thath for red turf...
DesertReefBoy
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that doesn't look like red turf algae. looks like a new tank cycling to.Nuked my tank with caustic soda and did a re-start. Do sussspect the red turf terror is on its way back... If so, it spreads by spores. If it didn't manage to survive the soda bath?
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Yea - that is why I asked about the age of the tank.
Its hard to tell what the red splotches are but the brown stuff just looks like new tank, new rock.
In my experience, hair algae seemed to solve itself assuming you are using clean water and don't have some massively over stocked/over fed tank. Eventually the rocks quit leeching nutrients and things settle down. But that is a separate topic =)
Sure the light brown is silica algae and it's most wellcome. And as you say it's perfectly normal and nothing I worry about. Nor hair algae. But the darker spots? Begining of red turf? Only algae no one have a solution for... That's why I try to find out if it spore spread. The plan is to se if it rids with Vibrant in an early stage. Plus Polyfilter. A nother thought is herbivor fishes might be better than cuc. Acc. to a report, they far outperform urchins in eating turf algae in the wild.
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I used an entire bottle of vibrant in a fairly heavy dose - I nearly killed some of my LPS corals in the process.
It completely obliterated the bubble algae I had, I'd strongly recommend it for that. It also made it so I never had to clean my glass over the course of the month I used it.
It did nothing to the turf algae.
Here is a better shot at one of the rocks I nuked with peroxide this past weekend. You can see it is covered in snails -- all the algae is completely white and I don't think it is coming back. Time will tell. The first round of peroxide, everything turned pink but then recovered within a few weeks. On the bottom right of the picture you can see the skeleton of a coral that is covered in the mat of red turf -- as well as the snail shells =). That was all over the rock prior to peroxide.
Here is a before and after of a rock I did not treat.
Before:
After:
The top right of the picture is the same frag plug -- the turf has been receding a bit and generally thinning out. I attribute this to lower lighting and the work of my clean up crew. Coralline is coming back in its place. Its obviously a slower process - but its a slow process hobby. That original picture was originally taken 11 months ago. I'm not claiming that is 11 months of progress, more realistically that is the change in the past 3 months ish.
It completely obliterated the bubble algae I had, I'd strongly recommend it for that. It also made it so I never had to clean my glass over the course of the month I used it.
It did nothing to the turf algae.
Here is a better shot at one of the rocks I nuked with peroxide this past weekend. You can see it is covered in snails -- all the algae is completely white and I don't think it is coming back. Time will tell. The first round of peroxide, everything turned pink but then recovered within a few weeks. On the bottom right of the picture you can see the skeleton of a coral that is covered in the mat of red turf -- as well as the snail shells =). That was all over the rock prior to peroxide.
Here is a before and after of a rock I did not treat.
Before:
After:
The top right of the picture is the same frag plug -- the turf has been receding a bit and generally thinning out. I attribute this to lower lighting and the work of my clean up crew. Coralline is coming back in its place. Its obviously a slower process - but its a slow process hobby. That original picture was originally taken 11 months ago. I'm not claiming that is 11 months of progress, more realistically that is the change in the past 3 months ish.
Ha ha ha, youre right. It's a slow process hobby I also tried peroxide (3% and 9%) on turf covered rocks. Almost al died, but slowly came back. Do you have any tangs? I don't and I think I might have missed an important piece there in fighting red turf. I have a reef tank friend with 750 l and he has 5 or 6 tangs of different spicies. Found a well grown but eaten patch of red turf right under an anemone... Might it be that cuc can't handle full grown turf? They need to have it cut down in length to go at it? I hear you regarding Vibrant. Will try it now in the start.I used an entire bottle of vibrant in a fairly heavy dose - I nearly killed some of my LPS corals in the process.
It completely obliterated the bubble algae I had, I'd strongly recommend it for that. It also made it so I never had to clean my glass over the course of the month I used it.
It did nothing to the turf algae.
Here is a better shot at one of the rocks I nuked with peroxide this past weekend. You can see it is covered in snails -- all the algae is completely white and I don't think it is coming back. Time will tell. The first round of peroxide, everything turned pink but then recovered within a few weeks. On the bottom right of the picture you can see the skeleton of a coral that is covered in the mat of red turf -- as well as the snail shells =). That was all over the rock prior to peroxide.
Here is a before and after of a rock I did not treat.
Before:
After:
The top right of the picture is the same frag plug -- the turf has been receding a bit and generally thinning out. I attribute this to lower lighting and the work of my clean up crew. Coralline is coming back in its place. Its obviously a slower process - but its a slow process hobby. That original picture was originally taken 11 months ago. I'm not claiming that is 11 months of progress, more realistically that is the change in the past 3 months ish.
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My tank is only 65g so no tangs.
With a larger tank I'd for sure have a tang - a lot of the larger mixed reef owners are fairly vocal about how they run high nutrients and believe they avoid algae issue in large part to hungry tangs prowling the tank.
I'v 100% definitely seen my urchins AND my various snails eating the algae - they just never successfully 100% removed it.
That is why I am hoping the combination I mentioned previously will help things trend in the direction I want.
Its definitely a difficult algae to deal with -- but I also don't believe it is impossible to eradicate without removing every rock and basically restarting the tank. =)
Will see how things progress - I'm interested to see how these "cleaned" rocks go over the next few months. So far I haven't seen noticeable regrowth on the one I cleaned ~30 days ago.
With a larger tank I'd for sure have a tang - a lot of the larger mixed reef owners are fairly vocal about how they run high nutrients and believe they avoid algae issue in large part to hungry tangs prowling the tank.
I'v 100% definitely seen my urchins AND my various snails eating the algae - they just never successfully 100% removed it.
That is why I am hoping the combination I mentioned previously will help things trend in the direction I want.
Its definitely a difficult algae to deal with -- but I also don't believe it is impossible to eradicate without removing every rock and basically restarting the tank. =)
Will see how things progress - I'm interested to see how these "cleaned" rocks go over the next few months. So far I haven't seen noticeable regrowth on the one I cleaned ~30 days ago.
Lunella coronata crowned turban shell, coronate moon turban.
I ordered Astralum Calcar but now I see i've got this one.
https://www.reeflex.net/tiere/2965_Lunella_coronata.htm
Gone! I am sure I have red turf. Started and looked exactly the same så this time. Se pictures how it started out last time and ended up in pic 2. So spuerred turban and moon turban like to feast on the turf dread
Emerson
Active Member
Bump.
Would love to hear more recent developments. I'm struggling with this pest (RTA) for the past 6 months. Continued scrubbing with a brush, urchins, and snails (trochus, turbos [maybe not the right species], and crabs). I recently started Brightwell Razor with MicrobacterClean. It's been less than a week, and maybe I'm seeing what I want to see, but there seems to be a little progress.
I'm getting an order of different kinds of snails from ReefCleaners.com next week. Photos later, updates to come.
Would love to hear more recent developments. I'm struggling with this pest (RTA) for the past 6 months. Continued scrubbing with a brush, urchins, and snails (trochus, turbos [maybe not the right species], and crabs). I recently started Brightwell Razor with MicrobacterClean. It's been less than a week, and maybe I'm seeing what I want to see, but there seems to be a little progress.
I'm getting an order of different kinds of snails from ReefCleaners.com next week. Photos later, updates to come.
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