Ulva problem

[ryudo80]

I have a lot of ulva in my reef tank display. None of my clean up crew are touching the ulva except for me manually removing them by hand when they get large enough. It even grow to become large pieces that's on snails shells moving around the tank. I have tuxedo urchins that mainly eat other algae such as Coralline algae. I have recently gotten two turbo snails but they don't seem to eat it either. I picked up them and placed them on the rocks covered with ulva and they would just move away. I have other snails that supposed to eat algae as well but I don't see them near the ulva. My whilte tail and yellow tangs are not interested either. They would pick at it once in a while to remove a piece of the rocks for fun but then just let it float around. I wonder if I should stop/reduce feeding nori to force them to eat the ulva. Is there a known fish or snail that better than what I have at eating ulva?

 

[tbrown]

@08TRDOFFROAD just found a Scopas eating his.

What size tank?

 

[ryudo80]

Isn't that similar to the current tangs I have? I don't think I can add another tang in my 4ft tank.

 

[tbrown]

Scopas is different than a white tail. White Tail is, I believe, a Bristle Tooth Tang in the Kole family.

It is, however, a Zebrasoma which Yellows are also Zebrasoma tangs.

4' tank is likely too small, especially for a third Tang and a second Zebrasoma.

@Fish Styx any recommendations for that annoying Ulva that's been going around?

 

[painter1982]

My yellow tang would eat it when I had a bad outbreak. I didn’t feed nori during that. I did feed the normal pellets during meal time. I had to remove the rocks that I could and place in a dark bin of heated saltwater. It didn’t fully go away until I upgraded my tank. I think it was like a huge water change in a sense. But the remaining turned clear and died off.

 

[Fish Styx]

Please, no more fish. If it were me, I would manually remove as much as possible and then add some Mexican turbo snails and Pitho crabs.

 

[ryudo80]

Maybe I'll try not feeding nori for a week and see if they go after it. Yeah I have been removing some rocks from tank but it's all over so it was hard to control by rocks removal.

I do have 2 turbo snails but they don't eat it.

Also my 2 tangs are smaller in size about 3 inches. I am not sure if that matters in terms of eating ulva. They do love their nori.

 

[ryudo80]

An update on my ulva problem. I have stopped feeding nori every day to about once a week. The tangs are still fine. They still get seaweed extreme pellets every day. They do occasionally nip at the ulva and pull pieces of rocks but they don't seem to eat it with the same enthusiasm as the nori. However, my rocks are clearing up mainly due to the turbo snails and tuxedo urchins. They took their time to get to the ulva but eventually they did. They preferred to ulva themselves rather than me dropping them there.

 

[tbrown]

An update on my ulva problem. I have stopped feeding nori every day to about once a week. The tangs are still fine. They still get seaweed extreme pellets every day. They do occasionally nip at the ulva and pull pieces of rocks but they don't seem to eat it with the same enthusiasm as the nori. However, my rocks are clearing up mainly due to the turbo snails and tuxedo urchins. They took their time to get to the ulva but eventually they did. They preferred to ulva themselves rather than me dropping them there.

I assume you mean they're carrying around the little Ulva pieces like hats?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just an fyi, my yellow tang and one spot foxface love ulva. I grow it in my refugium, and when I’m planning to be away, I rubberband bunches of it to small rocks and put it in the display. They eat it all in a few days, acting like a perfect vacation feeder for them. :)

 

[daikaijureefer]

how long has your tank been up? I had some ulva that was taking over a spot in my display, at first I thought it looked cool, but was worried it would become problematic, so I plucked it out a few times. I noticed my emerald crab scraping the bits of ulva off the rocks that I missed. After a few weeks, it was all gone, and hasn't been back and that was last November. I think as long as you keep at it, it will go away. it helps if your nutrients aren't out of whack and feeding it, obviously.

 

[ryudo80]

My tuxedo urchins do wear pieces of ulva as hats along with small dove snails. I've tried to take the decorations off from time to time but I have given up.

I hope to train my two tangs to eat the ulva. My yellow tang is from biota so I think it doesn't know what to do with the ulva. It kind of copy whatever the white tail does. So as soon as the white tail eats to the ulva regularly, the yellow tang should start eating it too.

My tank is about 1.5 years old. My phosphates is rather high at around 0.45ppm or so but my corals are happy at this level especially the torches, growing multiple heads with thick flesh bands