Clean algae from zoa frag

[lastlight]

Seems a person needs to wait a long time in this hobby to know anything for certain. The exact same algae that I was trying to eradicate on 3 separate frags has returned on all of them. I'm not sure if I should continue dipping or increase the concentration. The zoas fully open within hours/a day as it is. This is an insanely intrusive algae that threads between polyps and chokes the colony. It spread from frag 1 to frag 2... a single tendril of the stuff that snaked to a neighboring zoa colony. It will even fuse nearby sand and try to choke it!

Thinking perhaps I should just play it safe and get rid of them...

[ashr]

I say add a clean up crew. They always clean mine up

[lastlight]

My tank currently has no hermits or snails but I'm contemplating that idea thanks.

[kien]

Your problem is that you hate yellow tangs :-). Such nuisance algaes would have no chance in hell of surviving in the same tank as my yellow tang

[BigAl07]

Keep in mind that the "Algae" is possibly only the symptom and may not be the actual root (pun intended) problem. This isn't always the case as some algae are super efficient and will thrive in a fairly low nutrient system but usually algae is the symptom and not the cause.

I'd continue the dipping but also address the tank as a whole with:

• a) As mentioned above boost your Clean Up Crew greatly
• b) evaluate type of foods being used
• c) evaluate amount and frequency of feeding
• d) evaluate fish load
• e) evaluate water change amount & frequency
• f) evaluate over-all tank bio-filtration and manual filtration methods

Algae is best attacked from several points all at the same time. I've often found that my "Dips" work best immediately following some type manual removal (scrubbing, picking, cutting, pulling LOL). I just dipped some new frags over the weekend and I scrubbed them with a metal brush (looks like a tooth brush but it's metal bristles) immediately before a 5 minute dip in 50/50 solution (and this was SPS ). That night both SPS have great polyp extension and last night looked better than ever. I build a "Rack" to elevate as much of the SPS out of the solution as possible but some always gets ON the coral itself. To date I've had no ill effects of this process.

[lastlight]

Thanks I agree the fact that an algae can grow indicates it has what it needs in the tank to do so. That's not my concern (a lot of my new rock is leaching nutrients and has some algae on it whereas all my established rock looks clean) and I know I have to wait it out as I did not cook the new rock.

This is a very specific type of algae found nowhere else in the tank... literally. It is on 2 frags and nowhere else. It's also where it keeps re-appearing. I'm looking for the dip to kill it in these two locations and regardless of nutrients in the water if something can kill this algae where it exists mission complete =)

I will maybe try a stronger dip and update this thread later. I'll try and take a pic of this algae as well. Thanks!

[BigAl07]

Keep us posted. Just remember this algae is a VERY old organism surviving ICE, Fire, Floods and everything else yet still thrives. It's a battle that may have a long time-line for you

[mseepman]

So Brett, did you every beat this algae?