red turf algae

Sandra Shoup isn't posting on RC as much as in the past, so...

Have you been manually picking any of this out of your system, being careful not to release it into the tank? Like green hair algae, each pinch should be removed from the tank, dipping your fingers in a bowl of water to rinse off any bits of algae to avoid reintroducing it into your reef.

You may need a few Large mexican turbo snails.

And there is a possibility that API's Algaefix might help. I just got a bottle but haven't tried it out yet.
 
hi melev, thanks for your assistance here.
not sure if you clicked the link, and sorry i ganked your photo but i gave you credit. anyway, i am thinking that what i have differs from what you wrote about / photographed. the pics dont really match after a second glance.
i had one lone mexican (snail) and wasnt sure if he was doing anything, but yesterday i added 3 more. hopefully i see a decrease in this stuff.
also, i could not remove any of this with my fingers , or with a toothbrush. i think it tries to attack the tips of my ORA green stylo, and definitely in one area of a closed maze brain. other than that, it is not really attacking corals, but maybe inhibiting growth.
 
Let us know what those new snails do. Usually older snails are less inclined to eat what you'd hope, as they are lazy or have found an easier food source. New ones from the LFS are starving and ready to work.
 
hey Melev, just wanted to give you an update
the red turf is nearly completely decimated, thanks to those mexican turbos! there is still some in some hard to reach spots like on some trumpet coral skeleton for example.

i will take an 'after' shot for you soon.

strangely, when this algae dissappeared , i had a breakout of another similar algae, but this one was green and easily tugged off of surfaces. my PO4 tested at zero still, and i have a fuge, but it seems the algae was eating it, keeping it out of the water column. i hadn't been running PO4 media in my reactor for many months, so i put in a fresh bag and that stuff is quickly dissappearing too.
 
I'm glad to hear it is going away. Algae can be so frustrating at time. Keep up the good work. :)
 
melev, i am back
this other stuff i was talking about in the above post did not go away, it came back with a vengeance!

it seemed the niche was filled by this annoying thing. this stuff clings and grows on everything, even my birdsnests and other SPS!1! :flame:

however, unlike the turf stuff, it can be pulled off with a slight tug. there is just so much of it!

what is it? how do i kill it?

i have a large fuge which basically stopped growing cheato after it was growing like mad for a year or so. the cheato in it basically just sits there, not growing. i have not pruned in months.

IMG_2960.jpg


vid
 
First of all, pull out all you can. Let's get that stuff out of your system ASAP. Can you post a picture of your refugium? Perhaps the bulb needs replacing? Or you may need to dose a little iron.
 
hmm i did not think about the bulb in the fuge. it is just a swirly from home depot. the problem with pulling it, is that it comew right back, and the little clumps that i lose float around and get caught on SPS and irritate them, even take root and grow there,,
 
Try turning off the pumps, and pluck it out, rinsing your fingers in a bowl of water outside the tank after every pinch. That avoids any floating portions. You can always siphon some out too.

Blow off all your rockwork to expel detritus accumulations.
 
getting pretty frustrated now marc. on saturday i spent 2 hours plucking out about 90% of the visible gunk.
i was hoping the rest would be eaten, or stop growing.

i had performed a water change , changed out the fuge bulb and now the cheato seems to be growing. also added some fresh carbon.

i was hoping these things together would make the difference, but here wednesday night the stuff is definitely reclaiming lost real estate. would a tang make short work of it?
 
Can we see an updated picture? How many snails do you have now, and are they new additions or are they 'lazy' ones you've had a while now? How old are the bulbs over the tank?
 
i will take an updated pic tonight.

i should have 3 mexican turbos at this point. i had one, bought 3 for the red turf, and one has since been eaten by an electric blue leg hermit. i have ~25 atlantic turbos, various cerith snails and super tongan nassarius. i also have a handful blue leg hermits.

i forgot to mention that the stuff is growing over the coralline algae on the back wall of the tank.

i recently (one month + ) changed out for the first time about half of my 2 year old T5s. the half was the actinics that are on 12 hours. the other half are the 12ks (8 hours i think) and 10k/6500k set (4 hours i think) the other half i was planning on changing out around march.
 
If there was a bulb adding to the problem, I would expect it to be your daylight bulbs. After all, algae grows best under sunlight conditions, which would be 6500K. 10,000K bulbs may have shifted closer in spectrum to 6500K.

Ripping it out by hand as you did is you best bet. Unfortunately, issues like this one are rarely fixed in a day, and you may have to reduce the population daily for a couple of weeks, no matter how much you hate doing it. Once the mass has been removed, what is left could be maintained by your snails.

New snails fresh from the LFS tend to be starving. Your stats show you have a 150g tank. The old rule is 1 snail per gallon, and I tend to buy 100 at a time for my own reef, via www.keyscritters.com - you may need to do the same.
 
If you are dealing with red turf, which your latest pictures don't really indicate, Mexican Turbos (the biggest ones). If it is GHA, Astreas would work. Ceriths may help, and a Sea Hare would be good. Even a Diadema Urchin will help mow down filamentous algae.
 
right, it does not appear to be red turf anymore. it is something new, since the RT is gone.

even if i change the bulbs, the stuff wont just stop growing right?
 
Algae grows when there is fuel. The fuel is nutrients, phosphate, nitrate, and lighting.

Take away one, you weaken it. Take away more than one, you should weaken it more.

The more you remove manually, the quicker the battle. The snails, hermits, etc will help maintain the tank too. With the amount of algae you had in that one picture, it was definitely being fed with PO4 and NO3, even if your tests indicated otherwise. By ripping it out, the values of those tests should change because it is no longer bound up in the plants.
 
i have been reading zero and pretty much everything for over a year now. but i also have a big ball of cheato in the fuge. i used to mail out ziplocked trimmings every few weeks, but it stopped growing around july when i moved the tank. also around when i first saw the red turf appearing (first stuff, not the new stuff). now that i changed the bulb i am getting some growth again, but i am also getting some cyano build up on the top layer. so i churn it every day or so.

i took some pics last night, and idk if my camera is dying but i was really having trouble with the white balance. the lights changed during the pics. keep in mind it is not really as reddish brown as it appears.

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