Ulva in my DT?

jbilliel

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Algae Barn was out of Chaeto for a long time so I went with Ulva instead in my refugium. The Ulva is growing well, but noticed that the small pieces were clogging my sump bubble filter so I put a piece of egg crate and screen in my refugium to prevent this from happening. This is working fairly well, but I am noticing a bloom of what looks like ulva growing from the rocks in my DT. It that a thing? The tangs seem to be nipping at it here and there, but not enough to keep it back. The PO4 levels in the tank were a bit high .17ppm and I have brought it down to .04-.07 with the refugium and BRS GFO. Is the only way to stop it to lower the phosphates even more? I am turning my refugium on longer and with more intensity to help, but in the meantime what else should I do? I didn't realize that this would be a problem. Perhaps this isn't a problem? The tank is about 4 months old... I also tried Vibrant and that doesn't seem to be doing anything to it

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
 

mav3rick478

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I would let it run its course but having ulva grow in your display isn't a bad thing so long as your take can keep it under control. It's a great macro to feed herbivores.

I would stop using vibrant or anything else on such a young tank, let it mature naturally otherwise you'll end up with more problems down the road.

Are you using RODI water, did you start with dry rocks or live rock? How much do you feed and what's in your tank?
 
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jbilliel

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Yes I am using RODI water, but the tank is new and started with Dry rock so we are for sure in the ugly period. I will stop using the Vibrant
 

mav3rick478

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If the ulva gets to be too much you can always prune it and ship some to me to feed to my bicolor Foxface, lol. Or just put it in a bucket of saltwater and feed it to you tangs.

I wonder if you could freeze it and feed it later on?
 

Mr Fishface

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Shouldn't be an issue in your dt. Fish love it and what i know of ulva is that its not too hard to remove if need be. But of all the algae to have in a dt, that would be a premium one to have because it'll get eaten well.

I don't believe algae holds up well to freezing typically. I could be wrong, but for some at least they just turn into a pile of mush. Never froze ulva though so maybe its different. Could always look into how to dry it into sheets too. Just another thought.
 
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jbilliel

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I am going to stop feeding my tanks nori and make them eat the Luca off the rocks! Sounds like I shouldn’t worry too much about it. I will keep an eye on it and if it gets out of control do something about it then.
Thanks all!
 

SashimiTurtle

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So, I can tell you first hand that ulva is a horrible thing to have. Vibrant doesnt kill it, fluconazole doesnt kill it... my tomini tang could care less that it's there. Snails cant put a dent in it. The only thing I've found that kills it is dirrect application of hydrogen peroxide, out of the tank. Im testing 1ml/10g dose now... just started today.

Nutrient levels always test near or at 0, last ICP test came back 0.01 NO3 and 0.02 PO4, tank is 2 years old.

Kill it with fire dude. It wil take over and choke out corals.

20200403_190030.jpg
 
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mav3rick478

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So, I can tell you first hand that ulva is a horrible thing to have. Vibrant doesnt kill it, fluconazole doesnt kill it... my tomini tang could care less that it's there. Snails cant put a dent in it. The oblit thing I've found that kills it is dirrect application of hydrogen peroxide, out of the tank. Im testing 1ml/10g dose now... just started today.

Nutrient levels always test near or at 0, last ICP test came back 0.01 NO3 and 0.02 PO4, tank is 2 years old.

Kill it with fire dude. It wil take over and choke out corals.

20200403_190030.jpg
I'm surprised your Tomini Tang doesn't like the Ulva but then again my Foxface doesn't like nori. I wouldn't dose or use peroxide in the long run, I used it before to try and get rid of Bryopsis and all it did was unbalance my tank's bacteria and I ended up with cyano.

A good natural algae eater is a Lettuce Nudibranch, doesn't bother anything, small in size and inexpensive. That sucker ate all my Bryopsis in a week!
 

SashimiTurtle

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I'm surprised your Tomini Tang doesn't like the Ulva but then again my Foxface doesn't like nori. I wouldn't dose or use peroxide in the long run, I used it before to try and get rid of Bryopsis and all it did was unbalance my tank's bacteria and I ended up with cyano.

A good natural algae eater is a Lettuce Nudibranch, doesn't bother anything, small in size and inexpensive. That sucker ate all my Bryopsis in a week!
I just did a re-scape and removed the rock that had most of it. It was one of the CaribSea coral towers. I didn't like the shape and it took up too much room. I'm much happier now, but I also got rid of 90% of my problem just removing that rock. I'm certain it will come back tho, it attaches to new rock easily, coraline and biofilm severely dampen its spread.

The peroxide dose wont be a long term solution. Just seeing if it will kill it off, or at least slow it down.
 
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jbilliel

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Hmmm... I may need to get some more algae eaters for the tank as I don’t want this to get out of control
 

AlgaeBarn

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Algae Barn was out of Chaeto for a long time so I went with Ulva instead in my refugium. The Ulva is growing well, but noticed that the small pieces were clogging my sump bubble filter so I put a piece of egg crate and screen in my refugium to prevent this from happening. This is working fairly well, but I am noticing a bloom of what looks like ulva growing from the rocks in my DT. It that a thing? The tangs seem to be nipping at it here and there, but not enough to keep it back. The PO4 levels in the tank were a bit high .17ppm and I have brought it down to .04-.07 with the refugium and BRS GFO. Is the only way to stop it to lower the phosphates even more? I am turning my refugium on longer and with more intensity to help, but in the meantime what else should I do? I didn't realize that this would be a problem. Perhaps this isn't a problem? The tank is about 4 months old... I also tried Vibrant and that doesn't seem to be doing anything to it

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
This isnt a very common occurance. We can set you up with a severely discount urchin pack, this will help erridicate the ulva in the DT. Please DM me
 

TriggerFinger

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I rubberbanded some Ulva to a rock in my DT a few days ago...thinking I made a huge mistake. Oh no. Let us know if the urchins take care of it! I may be needing one too
 
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jbilliel

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Will do - I was looking at my DT this morning and its growing everywhere like wild fire! I hope to get this taken care of soon. I will report back.
 

0utworld

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Unpopular opinion here, the overgrown ulva in my DT has prevented a lot of other nuisance algae for me, including dinos I had early on and bubble algae that was growing on frag plugs. My rocks are covered with ulva and my corals don't mind it at all. I definitely think that it's necessary to remove them if they grow too large, but I'd rather deal with ulva than dealing with GHA or bubble algae. Also, the ulva has provided a safe haven for my copepods, which has been feeding my rainford goby quite well. I'm not saying ulva growing in DT is good, but I haven't seen any negative effects and it adds a little natural aesthetic to my rocks.
 
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jbilliel

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I have purchased two urchins to see how they do. Hopefully the tangs plus the urchins will be enough to get it under control. Now I need to go glue all the coral down!
 
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jbilliel

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I can't believe how much two small sea urchins consume! After two days the tank looks totally different! So far they have been a great add to the tank.
 
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