Red Hair Algae - throw rock away or fight it?

[Deserter23]

I have red hair algae on about 40% of my live rock. I've read in various forums that this stuff is near impossible to defeat. The only recommendation I heard was to buy 50 turbo grazers. Can I get some advice from people who have experience with this algae so I can save some time?

Thanks so much.

 

[Deserter23]

And if I throw the rock with algae on it, should I also get rid of the rock in my tank which does not currently have algae as it may be seeded?

 

[bluenassarius]

pull it out and use a torch to burn the rock. you'll have to recure it but you won't have the algae.

 

[sfsuphysics]

What's red hair algae look like? Is it tough like turf algae? Or poofy? Sorry but algae names get thrown around almost as often as zoanthid names.

I get the poofy stuff in my sunlit growout tank, had a rock (ok lots of rocks) get covered with it, didn't know what to do so I grabbed the rock tossed it in my softie tank, and between the fish (2 dwarf angels, foxface) and hermits that rock was sucked down to the coraline algae clean!

 

[-=Zepplock=-]

Just add snails man

 

[crispyreef]

Power washer! That will work.

 

[Psionicdragon]

ya, what is red hair algae?

 

[sfsuphysics]

hahaha, power washer.. I actually tried that with rocks once, man 1500 PSI really bites into soft rock

 

[Dyngoe]

A good scrubbing with a toothbrush and a 5-10 min dip in RO water should kill all of the algae. Of course you will need some good snails and perhaps a Tang to make sure the spores you dislodge when you move it don't seed and grow somewhere else.

That said, it really depends on the size and location of the rock. If it is small and useless for your structure, then cleaning it off as said before and letting sit to dry for a few weeks will guarantee that the spores are dead. But, remember that once you move it you WILL dislodge the spores and "seed" it on other rocks. So, have a good cleaner crew available for that.

 

[miracles38]

I had the red hair algae that was like cotton balls. It took awhile to get rid of it, but what I did was manual removal mostly every day and I bought a lot (I mean a lot) of chaetomorpha and filled my refugium as full of it as I could. I also fed less to my fish and I was able to clean it out completely with 1 or 2 months. I still get a little bit in my fuge, but it is all gone from my tank.

 

[teachermark]

Snails have always taken care of any algae problems i've had. I have 4 or 5 different types of snails.

 

[Lordhelmet]

same here, snails urchins tangs, and a fuge full of cheato.

 

[malate]

Couple of reccomendations:

1. how long have you had your lights, may need to change them

2. shut lights off for a few days so algea can't photosynthesize (spelling?)

my dad had a red algea (cyano) problem so we shut off the lights for a few days and changed the bulbs

Good luck!

 

[juaninsac]

Asparagopsis sp.

This stuff is pretty easy to trim back by siphoning it off the rocks IME. Diadema urchins will eat it as well.

 

[flinka]

Does the algae look and feel like red "brillo pad" fibers? If it does, then it likely is red turf algae. Had a bad breakout of it, tried everything including scrubbing but it still came back. The only thing that worked was Mexican Turbo snails.

In your Oceanic 37G, two or three should do the job just fine. I used two in my 20L and in less than a week it was all gone and not a trace of it since (6 months or so).

 

[Mr. Ugly]

I didn't have much in the way of herbivores in my tanks before. I got the really tough red algae and the brillo pad stuff in one tank. The other tank had low flow, and got a bunch of the soft cottony algae.

Sea hare was really good for the tougher algae, and went for it first before other types. I had a Tomini that didn't touch the stuff. I got a Foxface that did a good job, and the Tomini started eating the algae too after the Foxface showed him, haha. Helped to add a couple mjmods too. Turbos and Astreas didn't help much for me.

The cottony algae grew in my prop tank while I was waiting for a yellow tang to get out of hypo. I removed as much algae as I could by hand, replaced the frag racks, added more flow, and added the tang. That pretty much took care of it.

 

[Deserter23]

Yes I have the tough red hair algae that feels like the brillo pad stuff. I'm going to try the Mexican Turbo snails and make sure my fuge is running full with chaeto. I'm considering a sea hare but I've heard those are like playing with fire .

Thanks for the advice I feel reassured I can beat this stuff.

 

[Ti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10150346#post10150346 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by juaninsac
Asparagopsis sp.

This stuff is pretty easy to trim back by siphoning it off the rocks IME. Diadema urchins will eat it as well.

That's pretty bad.
Take the rock out and kill it.

 

[Deserter23]

I went to Dolphin Pet Village and the only "Turbo Snails" they had were gigantic. Seriously the size of a big jawbreaker. Are these the snails you guys recommend? When I was looking at these things at dolphin I remembered someone on ReefCentral advising that I buy 50 Turbos and they'd eat all the algae. That's why I figured there was no way the large snails at Dolphin could be the "Turbo Snails" people have been recommending me.

The only other snails they had were astreas and nassarius. I have some astreas which just suck glass and I dont have a sandbed to support the nassarius. Although I have no sandbed, my nitrates are in check and I do 5 gallon changes fairly often. I also have a EuroReef CS-6 skimmer running (although semi-dry cause I'm lazy).

Dolphin recommended I just buy some blue legged hermits, so I bought a dozen. Figured they can't hurt. Would love to hear which snails people recommend and maybe a pic or description since everyone seems to call these things by different names.

Thanks a ton.

 

[Deserter23]

Here are a few pics of the types of algae I have.