HELP! please - For removal of turf algae

Sigmund

Sigmund

New member
I have had my reef tank up for about 9 years now and about 2 years in I got some live rock that had a turf algae on it which I believe from the help links in this forum is Cladophoropsis species 1. Best way to describe it in my tank is a very thick shortly cropped green beard growing on the rocks. It grabs onto the rock extremely well, and is not easy to manually remove.

It has stayed under control as I keep my nitrate and phosphate in pretty good control, plus I manualy remove it by breaking chunks of the live rock when it is in an accessible area. However it still tends to grow in some places that I cannot remove it without tearing up the reef.

Has anyone had any success with any species, fish or invert in eating this. I have read certain posts about dosing TechM and other suggestions that I am not fully comfortable with trying. Has anyone had success with Sea Hares or types of snails? Like most reefkeepers I am somewhat of a perfectionist in trying to make things look their best and this has been driving me nuts for years.
 
Is there no one on this board who has any advice with the nuisance algae mentioned????

This is the best resource I know of, if I can't get help here then guess I am going to have to live with it. :)
 
Hi.

I've got the same problem and the battle has been going on for years.
It's killing corals by crawling over them and I've had enaugh of this.

I've had the some of the rocks in total darkness for 3 weeks now and the algae is still there showing no signs of giving up yet.

I took one large rock a few months ago and killed everything on it with boiling water. It's remained free of turf ever since.

Then there are the rocks with corals on them. Sigh....
 
I've got the same issue as well but mine's red. I bought a mexican turbo and it helps a bit but I think I saw somewhere that a "trochus' (sp?) snail removes turf.
Anyway I'm following along to see if someone in the know can help.
 
I'll paraphrase Sprung from his book Algae, A Problem Solvers Guide: Cladophora is not palatable to most fishes. Common in older tanks, especially those with lower alkalinity. Controls are to keep alkalinity above 9 dKH and use phosphate-exporting media.

Diadema urchin is the best general grazer of any algae IME but harsh on coraline algae and will become a problem with sampling coral in most tanks as it's prefered graze runs out. I also had a foxface that would nip at noxious green algae like Cladophora.

Cladophora can be light green to dark green but it's always green. There are numerous tough red turfs but most of these are preferred graze for surgeonfish, rabbitfish, and urchins.
 
I stopped dosing Vodka for couple of months, the turf sobered up and grew faster than ever and got foothold in new areas. Vodka seems to help quite a bit keeping it down.
 
The turf has been in total darkness for a full month now. It's getting a little more light green and perhaps loosing some grip on the rocks
I'm not to optimistic but I'll see in another month.
 
Using epoxy to cover areas of the growth works, it just takes time and patience. Using anyone of the underwater epoxies. Just flatten it out and place directly over the turf algae, leave in place for a week or two and repeat to another area.
 
How does that work for a week or two smtank if mine has been sitting in total darkness for 5 weeks now. It's slowly moving towards lighter shade of green but the foothold is stilll strong.
 
Yet another update after 6 weeks of darkness. It's just waiting for some light to get growing again. The green is still getting a lighter tone to it, but it looks like it will take at least another 6 weeks to die off. I don't think darkness is a good solution to this problem unless you wait for months because it will die off eventually.

My Regal and Foxface do eat it, but it still holds it's shape and some of the color after passing through the fish. This may even be spreading it and the fish don't even make a dent in the algae.
 
I feel your pain completely. I believe I may have the same stuff you have, and its been completely impossible to eradicate. Everyone jumps to the conclusion that its excess nutrients, but I dont think thats the case. I also removed some of my rock from my tank probably close to 3-4 weeks ago, and the stuff hasnt gone away in a tub by itself with a heater and some flow. Ive tried so many different critters and nothing will eat it. Check out my thread if you want more details.

I will follow this thread and you should follow mine in the hopes that maybe one of us will figure it out. Next week I am going to remove as much as I can and have it sent over to someone who sells lots of critters. He will try to feed it to whatever hes got and hopefully identify something that will clean this stuff up.
 
Cladophora is a real nightmare and would make any marine aquariust want to scream. I have, and still am fighting a battle with this stuff. Everyone I have talked with (that includes some really knowledgeable folks) say there is no way to eradicate this stuff.

Here is what does not touch it so far: Tangs, emerald crabs, red legged hermits, turbo snails, increasing alkalinity, a BLOW TORCH (yes, it came back).

I am very close to completely breaking down the tank and replacing all of the sand and live rock. Today, I am introducing a couple of urchins and a sea-hare in hopes of a last minute miracle.

Our tank has been setup for seven years, and always kept within normal reef parameters.

Anybody out there with success stories? Oh, how I long for simple hair algae or red slime.
 
tokitay said:
Cladophora is a real nightmare and would make any marine aquariust want to scream. I have, and still am fighting a battle with this stuff. Everyone I have talked with (that includes some really knowledgeable folks) say there is no way to eradicate this stuff.

Here is what does not touch it so far: Tangs, emerald crabs, red legged hermits, turbo snails, increasing alkalinity, a BLOW TORCH (yes, it came back).

I am very close to completely breaking down the tank and replacing all of the sand and live rock. Today, I am introducing a couple of urchins and a sea-hare in hopes of a last minute miracle.

Our tank has been setup for seven years, and always kept within normal reef parameters.

Anybody out there with success stories? Oh, how I long for simple hair algae or red slime.
Click to expand...

My turf took over from the Bryopsis and played a big role in it's eradication.
I have a Regal tang, Achilles and Fox face that all have the turf on their menu. The Regal eats a lot of it and could keep a small outbreak down. Oddly enough they seem to prefer it over the Caulerpa I put in the tank for them. This could be the effect of the increased vodka dosing and the thorough detritus cleaning I've been doing for the last weeks. The turf in the main has been losing it's deep dark color and has a lighter green to it now.

This color change seems to be a health indication on the turf since the rocks I've had in total darkness had similar change in color.
 
After 7 weeks in total darkness I moved the rocks back to the main tank and the turf left on the rocks is growing again. Darkness is definitely not the way to go unless waiting period of at least 3 months is alright with you.
 
Did the 7 weeks eradicate the turf completely or did you put it back into your main tank while it still have some left?
 
I hand picked all that could be done that way hoping for the rest to die off.
There was a change in color, but little or none fell off.
 
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