Nightmare Red Cotton Algae: Took over my tank

Hey Guys,

mmgm, glad to hear youre rid of that stuff. Those snails kick butt!!! Only problem is having to pick them up all the time when they fall. Guess that red hair algae is intoxicating. :)

Thanks again for all youre help.
Waldo
 
Pictures are something ive been meaning to do. Hopefully in the next couple of days. We have super bowl party preparations.:)
 
Hey guys,

I have had this problem for a few months now and I have been looking a post like this for a long time. I am thrilled about the results you have had with this snail mmgm. Congrats!

Is this the snail you are referring to; Jumbo Mexican Turbo Snail
(Turbo fluctuosa)? http://www.etropicals.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=1293&N=0

Does it have to be this species of Turbo? I hope I can get this snail as I am on the verge of giving up although I know it is difficult to get lifestock from the Mexican Gulf (I currently live in Finland). Or does this snail come from other parts of the world as well?

Btw my parameters are fine as well; I have 0 nitrate, 0 phosphate, 0 silicate but still this algae grows like mad.

Any views on the use of Iron to tackle this problem?

Good luck to the rest of you and thanks Arconom for finding a key to this disaster!
 
That is THE snail!!! A real workhorse! I put 50 in my 180 gal, and in 2 weeks...all gone!!:) I probably lost about half to crabs and falls. You have to right them when they fall. PIA but well worth it.

Good luck,
Waldo
 
I have alot of various snails in my tank, and these Mexican turbos seem to be the only ones that eat the red hair algae.

Waldo
 
Unbeleivable Snail story

Unbeleivable Snail story

So my tank is looking great and I am ecstatic that the Red Nightmare is no longer a problem.......:D

BUT :lol: I get home from work yesterday at 10:00 pm and first thing I notice....... THE TANK IS SILENT..........:lol: No water flow at all........ and I have over 30 fish in my display tank...:lol:

I go down into the garage only to find the powerstrip shorted out and all pumps are off with water all over the floor........:lol:

Can you beleive a Mexican Turbo snail worked it's way into my 55 gallon refugium and got stuck in the overflow that leads to the sump? As a rersult the 55 gallon fuge filled to the top and overflowed onto my powestrip that the pumps were plugged into?

Thank God I did not loose any fish or coral...... I have to say screens have now been installed on the 1 inch overflows in that fuge..... All other overflows in my system are inch and a half which is big enough to handle a run away snail.....


Sometimes you just can't win...... but in this hobby you have to take the good with the bad...... The larger the system the more you stand to loose...... (and gain too)...... :D

Thought I would share this story with this group......:D
 
mmgm,

Great to see you have a good attitude about youre accident.:) It certainly IS a TRYING hobby.:) I coinsidently just moved all my power strips away from possible floods and have just noticed a problem with my overflow in my fuge.

I, unfortunately have my fuge drilled in the side, close to the top, and when I increased the flow into it, the level rose above the hole!

I had to back it down to keep my fuge from overflowing. I then thought, it would not be good if one of those snails got stuck in there. :)

Sorry bout youre misshap! Hope an auto topoff didnt lower the SG! I am using a simple float switch (mechanical) in my sump with a gravity fed storage container with fresh topoff water.

BTW, all but a small tuft or two of the algae were eaten away to nothing!:) I hope it doesnt grow back easily!

Waldo
 
I am wondering, for everyone that has used the turbo method and had success with it, did your algea look like the algea in these pictures?

So far all I have heard about the algea everyone is fighting in this thread seems to be a soft cotten like algea, whereas the pictures I posted the algea strands are not super thin like cotten strands would be.

I am just looking for a solution to my red algea problem like every one else.

8468Algae2.jpg

red_algae.jpg
 
Kevin:

My algae did not look anything like the stuff you posted..... Not sure how to answer you with this one.....:confused:
 
Re: Unbeleivable Snail story

Re: Unbeleivable Snail story

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6698757#post6698757 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mmgm
......I have to say screens have now been installed on the 1 inch overflows in that fuge..... All other overflows in my system are inch and a half which is big enough to handle a run away snail.........
Click to expand...

Great thread! Dire conditions at the start, a hard fought battle, and the evil red nightmare is banished at the end!

BTW even my twin 1.5" fuge drains into my sump have screens on them!
 
Re: Re: Unbeleivable Snail story

Re: Re: Unbeleivable Snail story

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6797035#post6797035 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
Great thread! Dire conditions at the start, a hard fought battle, and the evil red nightmare is banished at the end!

BTW even my twin 1.5" fuge drains into my sump have screens on them!
Click to expand...

Thanks... I hear you about the screens....Just don't want them to get clogged also......:lol:

It's all OK now......:bum:
 
The picture wth the hairy almost purple-color algae above was from my tank. I now have no algae whatsoever to speak of in my main tank (220 gal). Three tangs, a lawnmower blenny and two turbos plus a growing number of small snails of some sort keep it totally in check. FWIW, I have observed the lawnmower blenny eating the hairy red-purple stuff. I have also observed the turbos. I avoided the mexican variety since my tank temp is 80-82 and they are cooler water animals.

Have you guys considered what would happen when your 50-70 snails begin to die-off from starvation? They are big animals and pollute quite a bit when they die.

Now this said, I do still have the red stuff in my overflow - where light gets to it but no snails/fish, and some in my fuge. Somehow it manages to grow on my Caulerpa. No biggie - I pull it out when I prune back the Caulerpa.

FWIW, I have not found a limiting nutrient for this algae. I have reached nitrate-limited and phosphate-limited lack-of-growth for my caulerpa and have to balance heavy feeding of the tank to generate enough nitrates/phosphates to keep the caulerpa growing. The fish don't seem to mind :). With my current feeding regime, I rely in the DSB and caulerpa to control nitrates and I run a small fluidized bed filter filled with ROWAphos to control phosphate. I have found that removing too much phosphate causes the caulerpa to go sexual, while not removing enough allows cyano to bloom. I run a skimmer but don't heavily skim.

I'm at a happy place now.
 
I have a Regal Blue, Yellow and Sailfin. I haven't seen any of those three eat the red hairy stuff - but they totally knocked anything else out that may have thought of growing - except for some sort of reddish-brown leafy stuff that doesn't grow too fast and the Grammas use it to build nests. They don't eat that. The LMB occasionally nibbles at it. As far as fish go, the LMB was the best eater of the red stuff. The turbos worked great as well, but as I said, what do you do with them when they've eaten it all and start starving to death?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6807623#post6807623 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TXLewis


Have you guys considered what would happen when your 50-70 snails begin to die-off from starvation? They are big animals and pollute quite a bit when they die.
Click to expand...

I'm not too concerned about this due to the size of my system (800 + gallons) and because I'm running a MTC 3000 skimmer with 2000 gph pump...... So far not too many snails have died..... I guess there is much to feed on with a system this large....

I have the same situation where the red stuff seems to grow on my caulerpra...... but this is minimal and I pull it off whem I trim the Caulerpra back......

Tank looks best it's ever been...... Just taking my good old time slowly stocking this big baby......:D Can't afford to go too fast and it's more fun to take time doing this..... I'm being very selective about what I put into the tank.....:D
 
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