Algae: what is it, how do I get rid of it...

T

taekwondodo

New member
What is this called - I searched and couldn't find any reference to a "purple beard algae" (or any similar combination).

The stuff looked awesome when it started out, but now its on every rock.

How do I get rid of it (or control it, at best)?

I have a 20G w/refugium-sump, chaeto, good lighting, etc...

94672P1010150b.jpg
 
doesn't look like briopsis to me. I have some stuff like that which hermits and snails don't touch. Cooking your rock would help get rid of it, but you don't want to have to do that.... Maybe a lawn mower blenny?
 
Cooking won't help unless I cook all of it - and then if there is some of this stuff in the tank it will come right back (and it just isn't practical). It was only in one spot until I removed as much as I could from that spot - and little shreds of it flew around seeding other spots in the tank...
 
Ah, the horrible pink fuzz! Get some of those golfball sized "Mexican turbo" snails. They love the stuff. They might knock over some stuff that's not glued down, but they will get rid of that stuff once they find it. Aquatic Gallery in Milpitas had a bunch of them when I was there last month. They usually go for about $3/snail. Seriously, you might only need one.

V
 
I called Dr. Le and described it to him - although he didn't give it a name, he looked at the picture and said he was familiar with it and knew how to get rid of it. Based on his recommendations, we're going to give the "royal urchin" a try...

I let everyone know how it goes.
 
Um, I suggest the mexican turbos first, just because urchins will eat coralline.

If the algae is pink and fuzzy, or red and stick like, the mexican's will eat it. (confirmed in my tank). I can also confirm that the (random) urchin in my sump is cleaning the corraline off my sump wall (which is exactly what I want him to do in the sump!)

If you are going to Aquatic Gallery, pick up a mexi-turbo while you are there picking up the urchin!

V
 
I second that! Mexican turbos did wonder for turf algae in my tank. An urchin should also work, but hopefully it won't run out of algae to mow.
 
Well, I have had the urchin and three Mexican turbos for two months - and neither of them are touching it.

Open to more new and exciting solutions ;)

Thanks all!

- Jeff
 
That stuff started sprouting in my tank, I got some more blue leg hermits and they cleaned it out.

As for urchins, I useto to have a pincushion (Lytechinus vaniegatus) and that thing ate all sorts of algae, my tank was clean. I gave the urchin to a freind who had a 55g literaly covered in hair algae (bryposis?) the urchin cleaned that tank out too, might be a bit big at max size for a 20g.

My algae is coming back so I tried a blue tuxedo urchin, this guy eats nothing but halimeda, and coraline it seems. He also decorates him self in zoos.... useless...
 
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