Red Algae (not Cyano) Taking Over Tank

Pufferpunk

Pufferpunk

New member
About 80% of my rocks are becoming covered in this red algae. It is wirey & tight against the rocks. More like fur, than hair. There is also another kind on there, that has more if a small, flat leaf.
Here are some pics:


RedAlgae2.jpg


RedAlgae1.jpg
 
Jeni, looks like turf algae. I have the same issue, it comes in with a lot of corlas. Sallylightfoot crabs eat the stuff I have, should work for you too
 
Can you get a better pic? Red macros are hard to identify - makes it difficult to determine what may eat it. Fauchea would be a guess, but I'm just tossing that out there. Reds are tough.
 
Adam, Where do you see cyano? I don't see any slime algae at all in my tank. I have all the above creatures in my tank & it's still there (just added 2 turbos today though).
 
I had a cyano problem a while ago and it often will hold up in places where there is macro algae. If you take your finger and rub that part of the rock, some cyano will come off. I could be wrong.

As an aside, I have that same macro in my tank and have been looking for ways to get rid of it ... I will try those hermits. Anyway to get them locally? If not, if someone orders, let me know and I will take 6.
 
I had that exact algae, that exact color. Some sort of turf. Absolutely nothing ate it. Dr. Ron when he was here (hope his name isn't censored) swore a longspine urchin would eat it. Didn't touch it. Certainly no hermits and I tried them all. Sea hare ignored it. Then I saw a margarita snail munching on it -- I had 2 at the time. I ordered 30 and that took care of it in a week. Get a lot of them because above 77deg they don't last long. But they'll plough through it. Make sure you have nassarius so when they die they get eaten fast.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9509303#post9509303 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ostrow
a margarita snail...I ordered 30...Get a lot of them because above 77deg they don't last long
Click to expand...

I have had 6 of them living at 78 degrees in a 12 gallon nano for months. Are you sure about the temperature tolerance?

Best darn snails I have ever had in a tank.
 
I always wondered why my margarita only lasted a month.

PA also has Margarita snails (Or had them, not sure if they have any since the move).
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9509643#post9509643 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nmprisons
I am going to have to buy a few ... anyone seen any for sale in the city?
Click to expand...

I saw some at Living Seas on Friday and I saw some at Downtown Pets, on Michigan Ave, on Saturday. I managed to stay out of reef stores the whole day today, but then I spent half the day at the Shedd. Do you think I may have a problem?
 
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Darn! I just placed a huge order for fish/inverts/corals. Probably too late to order those snails now. I did order 5 Mexican turbos though. I took 2 from my other tanks & dropped them in. They look pretty busy.
 
I also had similar stuff. It would grow so thick that when I removed the stuff it was like pulling up an algae carpet. The only thing that worked was an urchin similar to the one in the link below. There were two issues with the urchin though. 1. it would pick-up and attach to itself anything that wasn't secured to the rock. 2. once the algae was depleted, it began to munch on the coraline algae. This urchin took care of my algae problem within 1 to 2 weeks. Anyway, that's what worked for me. Best of luck.

http://www.garbled.net/reef/pics/full/urchin.jpg
 
Well lucky me, I did just order one of those! I'll also move my other urchin into that tank, just in case he has a taste for red algae.
 
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