Turf & Bubble Algae Control

[sanzz18]

So I have little patches of turf algae in a few areas of my rock scape and a few small little areas of green bubble algae as well. I do have 5 tangs and a foxface. Hard to tell if they are really doing anything.

I can’t take the rock work out to scrub as my aquascape is mostly permanent.

Would like to stick with natural ways to manage this. I know emeralds are pretty good for bubble algae, but worried about it getting opportunistic. I do feed my fish pretty well to keep the tangs nice and fat. I do not know what will help get rid of the turf algae though.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

If you can reach the areas where the bubble algae is, you could always use the trick below to remove it. The turf algae may come off this way, but will take a ton of work.

For turf algae, I prefer a tuxedo urchin or a halloween urchin. They will carry around frags if not glued down, but stay small and are workhorses. They will also eat bubble algae, but not in large amounts.

Video is for zoas, but it works great for other things. Bubble algae for example.

 

[CoralB]

For Turf algae tuxedo urchins , Mexican turbo snails and astrea snails should take care of it . If you trim it a little it might seem to ring the dinner bell .as for the emerald crabs get females , they have much smaller claws and don’t seem to bother coral . Emerald crabs , foxface rabbit fish, can be hit or miss . Manual removal seems to be most effective as far as natural . I’m personally not a advocate for non natural means like vibrant as I had a very bad experience with that product years back. Flux rx is the next one that everyone is pushing but I’ll wait to see more results be for I’d even consider

 

[sanzz18]

If you can reach the areas where the bubble algae is, you could always use the trick below to remove it. The turf algae may come off this way, but will take a ton of work.

For turf algae, I prefer a tuxedo urchin or a halloween urchin. They will carry around frags if not glued down, but stay small and are workhorses. They will also eat bubble algae, but not in large amounts.

Video is for zoas, but it works great for other things. Bubble algae for example.

I will definitely start looking for a tuxedo urchin. What is your thoughts on emerald crabs?

For Turf algae tuxedo urchins , Mexican turbo snails and astrea snails should take care of it . If you trim it a little it might seem to ring the dinner bell .as for the emerald crabs get females , they have much smaller claws and don’t seem to bother coral . Emerald crabs , foxface rabbit fish, can be hit or miss . Manual removal seems to be most effective as far as natural . I’m personally not a advocate for non natural means like vibrant as I had a very bad experience with that product years back. Flux rx is the next one that everyone is pushing but I’ll wait to see more results be for I’d even consider

Definitely going to look for a tuxedo urchin. I am definitely trying to avoid any mind of chemicals unless everything else failed. I never seen emerald crabs sold by male or female so I am assuming just look for claw size?

 

[sanzz18]

Also any obvious reason why I had cyano (during a time where my bitrates were over 50 and phosphate was 0.6 ppm), do a bunch of water changes to lower those nutrients, cyano disappeared, now it is back again. My nutrients as of this past weekend were 0.10 for phosphates and 12-25 for nitrates (hard to sometimes distinguish in the nyos chart but def closer to 12).

 

[IL Reefer]

If you're still dealing with this i figured out a natural non chemical way to kill this

 

[CoralB]

If you're still dealing with this i figured out a natural non chemical way to kill this

Please share with the group !!

 

[Louisethenewbie]

For Turf algae tuxedo urchins , Mexican turbo snails and astrea snails should take care of it . If you trim it a little it might seem to ring the dinner bell .as for the emerald crabs get females , they have much smaller claws and don’t seem to bother coral . Emerald crabs , foxface rabbit fish, can be hit or miss . Manual removal seems to be most effective as far as natural . I’m personally not a advocate for non natural means like vibrant as I had a very bad experience with that product years back. Flux rx is the next one that everyone is pushing but I’ll wait to see more results be for I’d even consider

You mention a bad experience with vibrant… I hope you don’t mind me asking what was it? I’m thinking of using it but would like any information anyone can give beforehand. Thanks

 

[GarrettT]

Variegated urchin for turf and emerald for bubble algae

 

[CoralB]

You mention a bad experience with vibrant… I hope you don’t mind me asking what was it? I’m thinking of using it but would like any information anyone can give beforehand. Thanks

I won’t tell you not to use it as some people swear buy it still to this day and that’s not a road I want to take you down as it’s been covered a lot . My personal experience was the lfs I used to shop at told me it was the miracle cure and totally reef safe . Its a well known lfs with large grow out frag tanks so I figured they would know . so I tried it . Mistake for me as I lost most of my coral . I went back to this store and told them what happened that I followed the directions and lost most of my coral . and the response I got from the guy who raved about it like a cheap used car salesman told me that I was only supposed to use 1/4 of what the directions stated which I was never informed by him or anyone when they pushed it on me . So basically he said it was my fault . I was ticked and I let them know it . They took no responsibility and the rest doest need to be said . But there are a couple threads in this club that would be beneficial for you to read . the threads better explain what a lot of people are saying about this product and as to what it actually might be .