I recently moved my 75 gal aquarium and since have had an outbreak of Asparagopsis taxiformis or Red hair algae. I have tried to aide in control by scrubbing rocks (which helped a lot w/a green hair outbreak I had about a year ago), but this crap is so tuff you can't get it off by even doing this. I don't know what I can do besides weekly water changes. This algae is spreading rapidly and has made it's way onto some of my mushroom corals, which I am very afraid it will smother them. My parameters are all good, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, PH 8.3, nitrate is 10 ever since I have moved the tank. I do have DSB of about 4 inches, but did not touch it during the move, I just left it in the tank. Any suggestions would be so great. I have been using ROWAPHOS, which made a huge difference w/my green hair outbreak. It doens't seem to phase this stuff though. I'd take the green hair algae any day over the red! Thx.
Red Hair Algae help!
- Thread starter mnewsome
- Start date
graveyardworm
Premium Member
What kind of herbivores do you have?
Not as many as I should, I'm sure. I have about 15 red and blue legged hermit crabs and maybe 2 snails. I have always had difficulty keeping snails alive, even when my water was perfect before I relocated the tank, so I just stopped buying them. The two I have left have lived the longest of any I've had-about 6 months so far. I have 2 percula clowns and 1 goby (I've drawn a blank on what kind he is!). I did have a cleaner shrimp, but he died during the move. I have a remora hang on skimmer and run carbon and ROWAPHOS thru my canister filter 24-7.
piercho
New member
Not Asparagopsis. Sporophyte stage Asparagopsis is very fragile and goes by hobby name of "cotton candy" algae for it's texture and pink color. Gelidium and Gelidiopsis are examples of tough red alga with strong (thread-like) strands. I've had Diadema (long-spined) urchins graze this type algae, as well as Acanthurus japonica (Powder Brown Tang) and Siganus Lo (Foxface Rabbitfish). If it is Asparagopsis, Mexican Turbos grazed Asparagopsis in my tank, but these snails typically starve in a few weeks in my tank.
