Algae

[jinners]

Hey, its quite often that we hear about algae.....

but is there any surefire way of reducing or removing algae?

I've tried phosguard, DI water reduced feeding and limiting my actinic blue lighting to 3 hrs.

BUT hair algae is still on the glass, and "brown" stuff is on the sand...

any help?anyone?

[anakjoh]

I've heard that snails are very good in controlling algae - there's an article in reef central online mag

[jinners]

yeah...but snails "input" alot....and "output" alot too......

tried it for my two feet...then had like alot of snail sh*t ard

btw...how many snails are idea for a 4 footer?

[Tanzy]

Algae will surely grow on the glass. As long as it is not covering the LR, it's ok. I find that increasing circulation helps a lot with dinoflagellate or diatoms on the sand.

[Sinn]

i think the coralline algae in my rocks has all died off..

any way to 'introduce' coralline algae?

does coral have coralline algae in em?

[Tanzy]

You can borrow a small piece of coralline algae covered rock to seed your tank, or offer to clean people's tanks and siphon the coralline algae that you scrape off then pour it into your tank.

Some corals that come with a lot of LR might have coralline algae, but most don't becauses they are just broken heads from coral colonies.

Also, you must find out why it died off. Light is a rare problem cause they grow very well in dim light. It might be low alk or calcium.

[eprouve]

Tanzy, do you mean that Algae growing on LR is not good? Does snails get rid of hair algae growing on LRs? Mine is just about to grow out of control.

[Tanzy]

Depends on what type of algae. Green ones bad! Calcareous/coralline algae good!

I employ snails and one urchin to clear the green algae. They do a very good job on the rocks. Hermit crabs clear detritus that fuel algae growth, but only on the rocks. They don't touch the sand and can't climb glass.

I suggest you try to remove as much of the green stuff manually as possible. Watch the water quality, especially phosphates and nitrates, cause green algae love it. Snails won't eat hair algae that is too long and tough.

[jinners]

tanzy,

how big is ur tank?and how many snails do u employ to tackle the algae?

[Tanzy]

It's a 4' 75gal. I have a mixture of about 20 snails.

[onghm]

Hi Tanzy,

Care to elaborate on your mixture of snails ?

Is it different species for different type of algae ?

THanks

[Tanzy]

I don't know much about snails. Most came with the LR, I added some trochus later. They seems to eat all types of green algae as long as they are not too long.

[BlueTerror]

i read that Calcium supplements really help in the growth of coraline. They also say that scraping it off the rock and circulating it in the tank helps in the spread of coraline algae.

What do u think?

[Sinn]

my hermit crab climb up to the top of the glass...

just dont ask me how...

he just did it

[Tanzy]

i read that Calcium supplements really help in the growth of coraline. They also say that scraping it off the rock and circulating it in the tank helps in the spread of coraline algae.

What do u think?

High calcium and alkalinity will certainly help with good lighting that is not too intense. I'm not so sure about the scraping off your own rocks bit.

[EbiTank]

had a really bad red slime algae problem and took many hours to manually remove them and came back after 3 weeks even after i improved the water circulation.

i heard that the ultralife red algae remover works wonders, you may wish to try, but that means introducing more chemicals into the tank...

[pospeh]

I don't think there are any chemical additive you can add that will permanently solve your red algae problem (which sounds to be like cynobacteria from your description of "red slime"). It is actually a bacteria, not algae.

To get at the root of the problem for any algae problem, including cynobacteria, you need to reduce your bioload on your tank, or alternatively, get more efficient filtration. You need to remove the nitrates and the phosphates that are in your system. Water changes are also a good temporary solution to reduce the amount of nitrates and phosphates in the water.

[newdamsel]

IMO

Perhaps, the best way is to add more algae??? Buy a bunch of nice looking ones which you can trim easily and hope that they strip ya water clean of nitrate and phosphates.. i think its better than the ugly unmanagable ones...

I solved my dino, and reduce diatom problem by throwing 2 big bunch of bryopsis in my sump...

millionth of a cent

[Rayfish]

I am new in this forum, but want to share my experience with you guys and have funs here.

I agree with pospeh about the solution for algae bloom. I used to have the green hairy algae and red slime algae, but I investigated and tried several methods to solve:

1. Improve the water movement in dead-spot area. It will reduce the chance for red slime algae.

2. Imrpove the water quality, such as the Phosphate, Nitrate and Silicate. By using the DI water, some good quality products liked Rowaphos, Contraphos and AZ-NO3.

3. Reduce the overfeeding

4. A powerful skimmer

5. Regular replacement of MH or VHO bulb

6. Biological method, such as keeping tangs, snails and hermit crab.

But, someone using the chemical products must pay a bit attention because some chemical products do contain antibiotics which will kill the algae but also nitrifying bacteria, and some will cause side-effect to the fishes and corals too.

[Tanzy]

Old FL or PL bulbs to not contribute to algae problems because unlike MH they do not undergo spectral shift. The phosphors don't change. They just get dimmer with age.

[wedgee]

Old FL or PL bulbs to not contribute to algae problems because unlike MH they do not undergo spectral shift. The phosphors don't change. They just get dimmer with age.

Ooooh our wise turtle has spoken...i thought all along that they do shift spectrum to reddish side...Thanx for info Tanzy!