Ulva.... ugg worse than everything else

rcillig

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ok so first off about a year ago I had dinos terrible and after getting help here on the forums I did win that battle. It took about 4 months to get rid of them totally. I know I made mistake along the way and because of my boneheaded moves infected a few tanks with it. But after that was gone, everything was great.... till about 3-4 months ago. I had Bryopis in the same tank and it just took over like a weed and after a few weeks of a month not sure but someone told me about Reef Flux and wahtca know that stuff was gone within a few weeks. Now to the current plague of mine... I got Ulva or AKA Sea Lettuce and it grows faster than anything, I currently learned that hydrogen peroxide kills it pretty quick. I wanted to ask before I started up dipping or spraying plugs or rocks whats the good and bad for using peroxide. I got just a normal 3% spray/bottle solution from Walmart. It's mostly on frag plugs and racks almost all Zoa's, but there are a few Duncans, Acans, and at least 1 Torch. The goal is to clean every plug and rack as I move them to a different tank.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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here are direct ulva jobs to consider from our logs :)
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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those before and afters were ulva-eradicating gold.

do a test rock first, put back in main tank and evaluate it a week or so before upscaling the big job. however you plan on hitting the target, lift out a bad rock and do that test on it, set back in tank among the untreated and watch for growback nubs

if none in a week, hammer time take pics for us pls we need them for examples right there above to help others
 
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rcillig

rcillig

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thanks, ya ill make sure i get pics, here is one I took a week or so ago when I was trying to identify it... I pull most of it out and it grows back so fast....
 

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Cell

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Lol I was trying to grow some in my sump awhile back after picking some off of a trochus, but the dang hermits kept wiping it out.
 

Beau_B

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If it's growing that fast your nutrients are out of whack.

I run it in my sump along with caulerpa and chaeto. The ulva is quick to grow if there are "new" or abundant nutrients but the other two macros out compete it as nutrients become more scarce and the system has aged.

I also had an experiment where I put a couple chunks of dry rock into a 20L for a hospital/frag tank. One piece, was "newer" marco-style rock that had been in another system for awhile but taken down. The other piece was 20+yo Fiji rock that came out of the DT sump. I threw a little mix of algae in to seed with pods (I was housing a mandarin pair for awhile).

After about 2mo the "newer" rock was positively covered in ULVA. I'm talking full lawn. The Fiji had none. Now 6+ mo later without any true intervention, the "newer" rock is cleared off and caulerpa is growing well. The chaeto disappeared. Only inhabitants now are frags with a couple hermits and a snail.

I'm convinced the ulva was eating the nutrients out of the rock and once it was gone... no more ulva. Bet your rock is new...
 

Tamberav

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Ulva seems easy to control with a cuc. It is delicate and delicious stuff for just about everything. Urchins, emeralds, hermits and algae eating fish will snack on it.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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normally I recommend ripping out all invasions before they have a chance to take over. but the fact is ulva cannot beat even haphazard peroxide application, its so thin and whispy we can just cheat zap it any old time. grow the heck out of it for feed, no risk can cheat at any time. its a nice looking plant, literally no other invader looks this nice. I want some for my reefbowl not joking, but all we get here in lubbock is dinos and gha nobody gets ulva as an invasion out here in the sticks, never even seen it in person. I would personally infect my tank with it right into the rocks, it'd be nice to have some plants that fight to live in a challenging pico reef, to diversify it a bit better over just hardscape. and if it tried to act up, it gets the dr evil button
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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you'll be happy to know what was formerly the #1 worst invader for you just got moved to last place. 0% concern, but only bc we got lucky on the match to peroxide. its the #1 weakest most non tolerant of peroxide invader I know of.
 
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rcillig

rcillig

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Okay, so first off my cuc won't touch it, snails, crabs or yellow tang, scopas tang or bristletooth tang, and lawnmower benny. I tested a few plugs, took them out, sprayed them for about a minute, then rinsed and put them into a different tank and today they are clean and opened up. So that is the process I'm going to use. Thanks a ton, guys and also maybe I just got a lazy cleanup crew, I got no idea....
 

Beau_B

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That's really weird that nothing is eating it. I had some stray pieces of ulva in my DT before introducing a purple tang; it ate it right down to the rock.

H2O2 should clear you up though!! Good luck.
 

darkcurrent

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Okay, so first off my cuc won't touch it, snails, crabs or yellow tang, scopas tang or bristletooth tang, and lawnmower benny. I tested a few plugs, took them out, sprayed them for about a minute, then rinsed and put them into a different tank and today they are clean and opened up. So that is the process I'm going to use. Thanks a ton, guys and also maybe I just got a lazy cleanup crew, I got no idea....
I have an Ulva invasion and my cuc won’t touch it. I introduced an algae blenny and that guy won’t touch it either. Now I have to feed algae pellets to keep it fed
 

Cell

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I have an Ulva invasion and my cuc won’t touch it. I introduced an algae blenny and that guy won’t touch it either. Now I have to feed algae pellets to keep it fed
Sounds like your LMB trained you well.
 

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