red turf algae

Are you running GFO on your tank? Sometimes that will make algae look darker / brown, although you did say it doesn't look like this in real life with those pictures.

If you have algae growth, you don't have zero phosphate. Either your kit is faulty, the method of testing is faulty, or it is bound up in the algae. Try ramping up the flow in the tank, specifically taking a turkey baster or powerhead and blasting off the rockwork to get the detritus in suspension.

Looks like you have more picking to do, and the new snails should really help.
 
ok, i pulled out a bunch more of the growths. it is very time consuming because my finger pinching pulls so little out every time!

i found some serious clumps accumulating in the over flow teeth so i made sure pull that out, and scrape the walls. i added 23 astrea turbos, and did another small water change.

i am starting to think i should just purchase the daylight T5s...
 
the fight continues. i think the new snails are slowing the progress.

i am starting to lean towards the daylight T5s. maybe i should just order them now?

i have a toadstool and a yellow fiji leather that are not extending polyps for about 2 weeks now. is this light related? or could it be flow related? i temporarily removed the one modded MJ that was pointed right at them because it was covered in the algae and making noise.
 
It could be a combination of issues. Do you run carbon actively on your tank (in a phosban reactor or canister filter) by any chance? Let's try to reduce any possible pollutants in the water via carbon.

I hope the snails help, but you need to continue picking off as much as possible by hand. Remember every pinch, you need to rinse your fingers off in a bowl of water out of your tank to avoid releasing portions back into the tank.

The leathers may be closed down because your hand is in the water frequently. It could be bothered by the algae. It could be parameter related. I doubt lighting would make it close down, unless your lighting was so dim it was dying. It could just be closed up because they do that some times, usually to shed. It could be chemically affected (alleopathy from other corals/anemones in the same system). It could be due to a fish nipping at the polyps.

I think they like lots of flow. I have a huge Toadstool leather directly under a VorTech pump and it seems to like the pounding it gets. Here's a picture of my reef from two nights ago:

fts_121408.jpg
 
beautiful as always!

- carbon, i have a small sock in the sump. how much should i be running for a 150 - 180g system ? i had some in the phosban reactor, but since but some phos media in there to help pull the PO4 out of the water to fight the algae.
should i run chemi-pure?

- i do pull out large amounts, but some always gets away from me. usually by the end, i start getting frustrated and pull off a lot , fast , and dont put it in the container. a lot of it gets caught in the over flow teeth where i can easily grab clumps. or it gets pulled down into the sump were it gets skimmed or dies in the fuge.

im thinking they want their direct flow back. i will get that going tonight hopefully.
 
Carbon works best in a reactor of canister filter. For your size tank, 1.5 to 2 cups. I would change it weekly for now, to strip the water clean.

Any floaters can reattach elsewhere. If you had a filter sock on the drain line to capture it during your picking sessions that would help, but anything that lands loose in the reef can appear later as more growth. So better to dip and rinse, then pinch again.

I know it is a horrible task, but once you've gotten it under control, it really is resolved. You may have to do this task for 30 minutes every day for 14 days in a row, but think of what it will look like once it is gone. That may be enough motivation to keep you going. ;)
 
yea i think every 2 days or so might be better than weekly. one problem is that i can really not reach the bottom layer of rocks. there is small % of the stuff there, luckily the bulk of it is higher up.

is 2 cups one sock full ?
 
The phosban reactor can hold 3 cups. Just grab a measuring cup.

And you definitely want it in the reactor. How long has the phosphate absorbing media been in that reactor? When I ran both, I used two reactors instead of combining them.

What is the PO4 measurement today?

Pick daily, not weekly. Not every other day. If you jump all over this with a vengeance, you'll get it under control. There are no magical cures unfortunately.
 
but i like magic! heh

ok i will step it up to daily.

the PO4 , i will test again, but is consistently testing at zero, with new good tropic marin kits. This time i switched from phosBan to PURA PhosLock. it is maybe a month old. it is in the bag, in the reactor. when you run carbon , do you run it in a sock or just fill the reactor? last time i had it in a sock, in the reactor.
i also noticed that some companies now sell combination media like phos media with ammo media and carbon media , etc. so shouldn't mixing phos media and carbon be ok ?
 
The carbon in my reactor is loose, sitting between the two sponges included with the reactor.

Carbon isn't good nearly as long as GFO, which is why I don't see a benefit to combining them in the same reactor.

You and everyone else in this hobby wants magical solutions. I'm the same way with aiptasia. I don't want to have to Joe's Juice them daily. So once a month I hit all I can see, and then get annoyed when I see some or many over the next few weeks. Why didn't they all just go away? ;)
 
good news!

we have won the battle at Rose Mille hill, but not the war!

something (s) decided to clean the entire rock clean today! i spent the last few hours concentrating on the other side of the tank.
i used a filter sock during the operation, and added my missing modded MJ back into the mix.
also, the toadstool had full polyp extension and the fiji had partial PE , and better color.
things are looking up!

on a side note, since you brought up aip, it has not really been much of a problem for me. i have maybe 2 that my peppermints refuse to eat. i also have a pleasantly colored variety of majano, that spread all over....
any way, my brother told me he found a great solution, hypodermic needles with vinegar. heard of it?
 
Sure have. That can be one way of dealing with them. I've tried quite a few methods myself. But like I said, I usually do it once or twice, then sit back instead of staying on top of it.
 
marc, i'm back!

good news is, the newly added turbos are surely and steadily removing the last of this second algae attack.

bad news is some of the original red turf came back, but that is also receding now.

the reason for this post is, now i have two new macro algae's sprouting up in my display sand bed. one of them looked like lilly pads (zoanthid size) on 2" stalks. there were about 4 of them, possibly all gone now. the other one looks like olive green fern plants growing off of a common root, that is spreading out a few grains of sand deep. this one seems to be thriving. i can get a pic tonight. any idea what it/they are?
 
right, i was looking for that slideshow.

i think that is correct on the first one.
Acetabularia sp. - Mermaid's wine glass


2nd one may be:
Caulerpa sertularoides - one of seven species of 'feather Caulerpa.' Photo courtesy of Marc Levenson (melev).
or
Bryopsis sp.


i also have this stuff sprouting up
Neomeris sp. - caterpillar weed, spindle weed. Photo courtesy of Ryngill.

are they pests? action taken? manual removal?
 
Neomeris annulata is pretty, and in most cases it is a pretty bit of algae. I've only known one person that hated it, as it burst into his tank like mad.

annulata.jpg


However, everyone in our club asked for some because they liked it. :lol:

Bryopsis and Caulerpa are both algaes we don't want in our tanks.
 
ugh,
well it was almost definitely feather caulerpa. i got what i believe to be all of it out last night. but i found on another rock bubble algae and red bubble :eek2:
i have gone years with no algae, not even cyano, and now in the last 6 months my tank is growing all kinds of stuff. not sure why either...
and my cheato is still not really growing. although i think may have found a clue. my SG was at nearly 1.030. i am guessing that may be inhibiting the growth of the cheato? i have been slowly dropping it down.
 
For posterity, I would have furthered the all above good advice with the following:

Hand place a turbo snail (or other, but Turbo's seem to be more friendly to the process) right on the algae you want him to eat. In my limited experience they always cooperate and it's much easier than plucking. :)

As always, YMMV. Good luck!

-Matt
 
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