Algae.....

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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
Ok, I have algae that is getting out of control. I'll post some pics tomarrow. Question is...Can you help with new ideas of getting rid of it?

Before any one jumps in with the normal algae shpiel. I already know it. Here are my numbers.

SG - 1.026 (35ppt (Calibrated Refractometer))
Temp - 80 f
PH - 8.2
PO4 - .013 (photometer)
NO3 - 0 (API)
MG - Currently unknown (Ran out)
CA - 450 (salifert)
ALK - 3.31 (salifert)

Husbandry. 30gl water changes twice a week. Manual removal of algae that I can get. Blow off rocks once a week. Rinse foods. I have cheato in the sump. I clean sponge on return pump during each water change. Clean skimmer weekly and have set it to a wet skim.

I run RowaPhos and change it monthly along with carbon and change it bi-weekly. I dose ESV B-Ionic at 50ml daily.

My CUC is close to nill. The lion eats any shrimp and the trigger eats any crabs and some snails. There is 11 Bergi nudi's in there tackling the aptasia.

I feed three 2" x 2" dry algae sheets and a small amount (about the size of your pinky nail or less) of rods food daily. Three large silversides (for the lion fish) once a week rinsed in ro well.

I have a decent amount of green hair under my large monti, a ton of what looks like Cotton candy Algae and a managable amount of cyano. Again I will post pics tomarrow.

I have been doing the above for the past five months and the cotton candy algae seems to just get worse....The Green hair has not gotten worse, but also has not recceded...the Cyano has stayed about the same.

I was thinking of getting a couple of sea hares. But I wondered if they would eat the cotton candy algae and/or if the huma trigger would bother them too.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

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nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
imo - the answer... is snails - like Mexican turbos - I am sure you know this johnblake - so I hesitated to post a reply... also being you said, you can't keep snails....

sorry ... if this was not much help, but I saw you bump... and I though my reply... might bump the post again for more help by someone...
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Wish I could help... like you have my photography :)
 
nos2074

nos2074

Member
I'm hesitant to reply to this cause I'm sure you know what you're doing. But I have 5 med to small size fish and feed them that same pinky size of Rods every 3-4 days. I was doing it every 2 days and had a slight out break of HA and cyano. Went to every 3-4 days and shorten my light cycle by 1 hour and it's all almost gone.

I'm sure you already knew this but it worked for me. Sorry if I was of no help.
 
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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
As much as i hate crabs and even though my snails will most likely disappear, I am seriously considering throwing a couple hundred in there anyways.

Just looking for other ways before I do so.

Thanks for the input guys. Every comment is helpfull.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
IMHO it would be a huge mistake to add a SH to this system. They rarely (actually NEVER heard of any species of them) eat your CC algae.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
I don't know.... it sounds like you're doing a LOT of things right...maybe the "System" is the problem... messy fish don't do well in a Reef tank.... maybe just the wrong combination... :dunno:
 
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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
Well I finally found out what it is....Asparagopsis taxiformis and appaerantly large Pacific turbos will eat it up.
 
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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
Well I picked up a dozen mexican turbos (golfball size) today. We'll see how it goes. With a little help from me, I hope they can take care of this dreaded stuff.

I have gotten the name of this algae wrong in the above posts. So if I ever find the real name I will correct it.
 
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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
Well this algae is a species of callithamnion. For months I have tried to ID it and could find nothing that resembled it other than "Cotton Candy" (callithamnion) algae. Although many see cotton candy algae as pink, it does come in other colors. That is what threw me off to begin with. I have noticed that many people have a hard time ID'ing this algae, I think for the same reason.
 
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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
The turbos are starting to take care of it. I will post pics of some of thier progress later on today.

Here are some pics of the progress in just a weeks time..

here is a shot around a milli. They have cleared the base of the coral.

milli.jpg


And a section of the wall they cleared. There is many more patches like this also.

wall.jpg


The entire base and rock near this acro was covered in thick algae. You can see how they have done thus far..

acro.jpg
 
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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
burning2nd said:
increased proper water changes... less food.. better export.
Click to expand...

Not to be a jerk but please read all the posts.

Water changes are twice a week at 30gls each so thats 60gls per week on a system with approx 120gls.

Skimmer is a Reef Octo DDNW-250 which is plenty of skimmer for my bio load and water volume.

My feeding is also in the first post which is not really overfeeding.
 
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