Turf Algae - Zoo Polyps Closed!

[Amador]

Hey all, I am in the recovering stages of a turf algae infestation. Unfortunately, I have some algae growing in between some of the polyps of my zoos, to the point that they are irritated and will not open (for over a month now). I have tried manual removal (to limited effect), and my snails do eat the stuff but don't ever seem to eat it off of the zoos.

What more can I do to remove this stuff? I have considered putting the affected zoos in my fuge and leaving the lights off for 4-5 days to try and kill the algae. Would this work?

 

[rsteagall]

Got a pic of turf algae... sounds like what i have on a colony in qt.

 

[hexedagain]

I had a few outbreaks of algae on some of my zoas. I put them in my tank with my foxface, and within a matter of minutes, he had them sparkling clean. No more algae. This is the best method I have come across. Although I have just noticed my brown turbo snail is an algae cleaning machine, and he cleans zoas also.

 

[stoneroller]

Elbow grease. I spent an hour or so picking algae with tweezers, scraping down to the rock, and using a magnifying glass on a 10 polyp frag. That seemed to have worked pretty well.

Another chap told me to bump up the calcium. I did. Don't know if it helped or not but it hasn't returned; could be other factors I reckon.

 

[impur]

This stuff is pure evil. Is it the red stuff? It has started growing everywhere in my tank, on the overflow, rock lifts, pumps and worse of all its covering all my rocks and frag discs. My corals seem to be able to fight it back, zoas just cover it and after a couple months, yes months, of no light it starts to fade. I need to cook all my rock now.

To give you an idea how evil this stuff is, i soaked my pumps in 100% vinegar and scraped off all the turf algae. That algae sat in the vinegar for a week straight. Then i decided to try something, i glued a small tuft to a rock, put it in the tank, and 2 days later it had doubled in size!!!!!

 

[Amador]

Wow, crazy! Mine is brown and fuzzy and seems to be dying back a bit since I started running some Phosban. There are residual clumps here and there (like on the zoos) that I am trying to get rid of. Thanks for all the tips guys!

 

[hexedagain]

Can you post some pics of the colonies?
If it is what I am thinking it is, when this has happened with my zoanthids, I have either just taken my finger and rubbed the algae off, or in extreme cases I have used a (new) very soft toothbrush to scrub it off. Be careful with the toothbrush, if your polyps are weakened, they might be hurt by it.
Just a thought.
And again, my foxface cleans any algae off of my zoanthids.
I have a colony with a little algae on it, I will take pics and then move it into the tank with my foxface. Then I will post after pics of it.
It's amazing what he does to hair algae.