Red algae nightmare

[Bezoar]

Well I've been battling this stuff for going on 5 years now. Based on Julian Sprung's algae guide I think it is Asparagopsis, or possibly Polysiphonia. I'm at a loss on how to get rid of it since nothing eats it and it grows relentlessly everywhere. Originally I thought it would resolve as my system stabilized but I haven't made any changes in years. Most of the corals have grown well (but not all, and some have STN'd over the years) but overall the tank has done well except for this algae. Here are a few picks of what I'm dealing with:

It even overgrew my Refugium which I have since taken completely out of the system:

Here are my water parameters:
Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates - 0
Phos - 0
SG - 1.026
Temp 80.2
pH - 8.1
Ca - 390
Alk - 12

Water change, always with RO/DI - 40 gallons every 2 weeks (total system 310G, display 210G

Flow - closed loop Reeflo Hammerhead, two Tunze 6100, return pump Iwaki MD70 (total flow ~ 13000gal/hr or 60x tank turnover)

Lights are 250 watt 15000K XM metal halides x 3, VHO actinics x 2 (last changed in May)

I change activated carbon once a month and the only additive is my calcium reactor.

Skimmer: Deltec AP902

I have a diadema long spined urchin, mexican turbo snails, nothing eats this stuff. I only have 3 fish and the bioload is quite lite. To increase my flow I took out 2/3 of my rock which has been cooking in complete darkness for over a year but I'm afraid to add it back as it will just get reinfested. I have no idea what to do to get rid of this stuff so I'm open to suggestions from anyone who has successfully rid themselves of this algae.

 

[GrimReefer82]

uv sterilizer and manual removal is all i can think of. maybe a micron filter to filter out spores while you are removing it.

 

[Bezoar]

I have filter bags for the return lines already. Has a sterilizer worked for algae? My understanding is it will kill free floating organisms but will do nothing for the algae already adherent to the rock. Scrubbing the rock clean hasn't worked, it always comes back.

 

[driftin]

I've been removing this from my system. Not totally gone, but I've taken a huge chunk out of it and I see very little left.

I have and am:
- wet skimming to try to remove nutrients
- regularly changing out phosban media
- manually removing as many tufts of it as possible. In your case I wouldn't worry about a little getting loose in the water column; you have it everywhere already anyway
- doing frequent water changes by (1) siphoning detritus and this algae directly out of the live rock and off this algae, and (2) following that up by blowing out the live rock with a powerhead and then siphoning the detritus etc out of the water column. To do the water changes I have attached a 1/2" acrylic tube to my flexible tubing, which allows me to get into nooks and crannies and keeps the siphon running slow enough to be easily controlled. I'm doing about 15% weekly in this manner - very targeted water changes.
- increased flow within the display tank. I'm surprised to see you have this on your sand bed?
- feeding very slowly through a feeding tube to get as much to the fish as possible

I have also noticed in some areas of my tank cyano has grown on top of this algae. Where I see that I let the cyano be. In a couple days the cyano disappears, and there are no remnants of the algae left behind. I think that's part of my tank's cycle, as this algae dies off.


The targeted siphoning made a big difference for me. I noticed this algae grew in places where detritus had collected, and is really good at catching detritus in its strands. Take away that food and it slowly dies off.

 

[driftin]

By the way - starting up your fuge again with another macro algae may help outcompete this algae.

 

[Bezoar]

Even the macroalgae in my refugium couldn't compete with this stuff, it grew twice and fast as the Caleurpa and was so intertwined when I pulled it out it took the macroalgae with it. Yes it even grows on my sand bed, which I do siphon out with my water changes. Manual scrubbing has not worked as the clumps would come off easily but the filamentous strands are tenacious. Even with my Tunze streams aimed right at them they could not be blown off or siphoned. I switched out my Ampmaster 3000 with the Hammerhead to see if the higher flow would help, but it made no difference. I haven't tried Phosban yet since my phos has always been 0, but I'll give it a try anyway. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

[DT's_Reef]

Have you tried using Mexican hermit crabs? (darker gray legs, red/orange antennae.....very drab looking).

I find they eat all the algae/crap off my rocks. I put 30 in my 85g tank and within days they made tremendous progress on my rocks. Two weeks later they're sparkling clean, and they keep working away.

Obviously, they won't be the complete solution, but maybe they'll help turn the tide, with you managing nutrients and harvesting by hand.

Is your sand in good condition? Does it possibly have a ton of nutrients? Some people will periodically vacuum a portion of their top layer of sand.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

Are your running any tangs in your system? If so stop (I know this sounds bad) feeding them a lot (like once a week) and the will begin to eat the algae... PLease keep in mind to watch your tangs and be sure they eat it or their stomachs are not becoming pinched. If they don't begin to eat after a few weeks then you need to feed the tangs more or there health will be in danger. I have battled hair algae and ended up using this route and as long as the tangs are healthy they will survive and begin to eat it. JMHO

 

[ChrisKirkland]

Remember the nutrient that is NOT showing up in your tank is actually locked up in the algae its self. If you were to go lights out for like 4-5 days and test the H2O after the algae dies I would bet it will show the nutrient after the dead hair algae releases it.

 

[Bezoar]

I have a Tomini tang but it has never taken any interest in this stuff. I only feed him twice a week now. The cleaner crews did well with some of the other algae blooms early on but have never touched this stuff, not even the mexican turbos. I can't tell if my urchin eats any since he only comes out at night but he sure can't keep up. I manually pull out clumps of this stuff every 2-3 weeks and it keeps coming back.
Keep in mind my tank has been running for 5 years, if anything was going to eat this stuff, it would have by now.
The sand could be a nutrient trap but I vacuum it out with each water change so I'm not sure what else to do other than pulling the entire sand bed out and going bare bottom. I tried that in the refugium first, pulled out all the sand so only the macroalgae was left, but no joy, it still grew just as fast.
And I left the lights off for as long as two weeks (which my SPS barely survived) and the algae didn't even look like it was dying. This stuff is hardier than anything in the tank. The most frustrating thing is not knowing the cause so cleaning it out is a stopgap at best.

 

[Peter Eichler]

I'd suggest giving Mexican turbo snails another try. I had similar issues in my frag tank. This algae seems to do well even when nutrients are low so the typical methods weren't doing much. I got fed up with it back in march and added about 6 large turbos to my 30 breeder, along with a dozen or so cortez red leg hermits. Within a few weeks they had the algae on the run. After a couple months you'd never know it was even there.

 

[njdevilsfan]

buy 5 small urchins
not the long spine the whitish ones that carry dead snail sheels on there back
i put 2 in my 210 and 2 weeks they have cleaned every rock in the tank
also use filter socks (chane then every 3 days)while they are working
i got the idea from another rc member
it is the best thing i have done for my tank in 5 years

 

[driftin]

The abililty of this algae to grow on almost no nutrients is why I target siphon detritus out of it directly. At first it'll look like you're just cleaning the algae, but after a couple water changes you'll see clumps of this stuff getting sucked up as it loses its grip on the substrate.

I forgot to mention, I dabbled in dosing VSV for a while and that did contribute to knocking this stuff back. When I stopped dosing it started to come back until I started to follow the above methodology religiously.

 

[otrlynn]

Hmm. I don't have any experience with this algae, but it sounds like you have tried a lot of strategies. Since you already have some live rock cooking (which presumably would be algae-free by now) have you considered a tank break-down and re-set up using new sand and the cooked rock? It looks like you have some large colonies of coral in your tank and I guess moving them to new rock would involve a major effort...

 

[DT's_Reef]

I forgot to mention in my prior post that I had the exact same stuff in my system for 2 years. Lots of it everywhere.

Is it my imagination, or is the stuff thriving more in your refugium as opposed to your display?

If someone didn't already mention it, your alkalinity is really high. I would easy it very slowly back to 8.

Also, have you checked your magnesium level? I found it helped my system significantly have a normal 1350-ish level.

Lastly, you'd be surprised at how many hermits do not eat algae significantly. I tried black/white stripped legged, scarlet, blue leg, big claw, etc., and none worked until I tried the plain old grey legged red/orange antenna critters. Like I said before, they're not going to solve your problem, but they may keep your rocks clean enough to keep the cleared areas from coming back.

Overall, whenever I've had a big issue like yours, in the end it's always been something really basic like low magnesium, protein skimmer not really performing like it should, or really low alkalinity. It's never been something like pH or temperature (unless your temp was in the high 80's lol).