Blue Dictyota battle - help :(

carriej

carriej

New member
Well.

About a month or two ago I seen some kind of pretty, sparkly blue macro in my tank. Upon getting some (bad) advice on it I left it in as I was told it would not spread.

wrong!

When I realized it was spreading, I took tweezers and removed all I could find. It keeps coming back, however. A lot of people think it's pretty; and honestly it is but I don't want it to take over. It is now sparsely throughout the tank and I am growing a bit concerned.

I have been reading and I have seen two suggestions, a naso tang, and algaefix. Algaefix is not available in Canada (like most of the good things) and I wasn't planning on adding a naso to my system. To clarify, would this be a regular naso; or would a blonde naso also work? Apparently it is not very tasty.

I have also seen some claims about a rabbitfish; but I would rather not go there either. I have a good size scopas, but he doesn't seem to have any interest in it at all.

Any help, advice, etc from someone who has actually battled this algae from the depths of the seven hells feel free to post some advice!
 
Naso tang is the only thing that I could fine that would eat it. I tried every crab and snail I could. I tried starving it and lights out periods but nothing works. IMO it's the absolute worst algae you can get. Manual removal will be never ending and any piece that breaks off will start a new colony. Hopefully someone can give you a solution.
 
Update -

It has almost been completely eradicated. Boiling water kills it... However I can't seem to get it out of my overflow, been too scared to shoot boiling water at it and damage it. However, the DT is free of this crap.

Had to take all my pumps and skimmer apart and completely clean everything though; but I didn't have to rip down my DT.
 
You might look into hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) dosing as well. Many people have had success ridding bryopsis and even dinos using this method (myself included). For full tank dosing 1ml per 10g but some have done 2ml per 10g. Good luck!
 
I had the same problem. Manual removal kept it in check. The only thing I found that ate it
was a Sea Urchin. It got the small pieces that were left behind.
 
Lostinthedark said:
I had the same problem. Manual removal kept it in check. The only thing I found that ate it
was a Sea Urchin. It got the small pieces that were left behind.
Click to expand...

Agreed, along with cole tangs and you will never see it again.

I actually like it a lot, though it is a sign of nutrients if it is doing that well.

I remember a long time ago I had a similar issue with our endemic white tube worms clogging my bio filter and making it near over flow, there were so many of them breeding from a lack of their predators.

Lucky they were valuable at the time or it would have been in the bin for them.

I was keeping feather sea stars at the time and the conditions needed for them was identical to what the tube worms enjoy.
You might find once it is under control, you may miss the blue colour,lol.
 
You do not want this algae, pretty as it is. Look into iridescent blue padina or encrusting blue codium (codium lucasii) if you want blue. This algae is far far too invasive.
 
Well I think it's all gone.

Now I've got a few pieces of bubble algae popping up...

The battle never ends!
 
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