Help with red fuzzy algae

Chin_Lee · #1 01-29-2006, 08:16 AM

My tank is starting to get infested with this algae.

I have a yellow and purple tang in there and they are not doing much to alleviate the problem. My observations to date:
1) it prefers to grow in high light areas
2) high flow doesn't deter its growth
3) I am running rowaphos in phosban reactor and last i checked, my phosphate is almost undetectable. Come to think about it this algae is actually doing better since I started my phosphate reactor.
4) manual removal with a toothbrush seems to work well but only on pieces of liverock that I can remove from the system to do so.

So the questions that I have are:
Does anybody else have this problem and if so, how was it managed?
Does anybody know what this algae is called or if its even an algae?
Does anybody know of an animal (fish/invert) that will eat this algae?

Please help if you can - this algae is making my tank highly undesirable.

Ruth · #2 01-29-2006, 01:32 PM

Chin I had that crap in my fuge on my 230g and it is bad stuff. It had totally covered everything in there and was starting to choke off my chaeto which was infested with it. I should have taken a picture as it was just nasty. (I just noticed that I have some started in the fuge of my 190)
Anyway I managed to get it under control by picking as much as I could by hand and putting a sea hare and some of the large (huge) Mexican Turbo snails that I got from James and Wendell at OA. Regular snails won't touch the stuff and I have never heard of any of the herbivor fish touching it either. There was a thread on RC a while ago about it but I can't remember what it was called - it might have been red cotton ball algea or something like that.

Johnny Reefer · #3 01-29-2006, 01:32 PM

My best guess is Wrangelia argus.

http://translate.google.com/translat...l%3Den%26lr%3D

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog...ng_072698.html

On the second link...note the third Q&A down.

HTH and cheers,

StirCrazy · #4 01-29-2006, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

So the questions that I have are:
Does anybody else have this problem and if so, how was it managed?
Does anybody know what this algae is called or if its even an algae?
Does anybody know of an animal (fish/invert) that will eat this algae?

Please help if you can - this algae is making my tank highly undesirable.

turbo snails eat it like crazy but you want the ones colected from mexico (which I think are the ones J&L always get unless they have changed.

this is that one I had a while ago that took over my tank in two weeks. the turbo's had it gone with in three weeks.

Steve

Jason McK · #5 01-29-2006, 04:08 PM

I believe when OA had that algae in there tanks they finally discovered Turbo Snails went nuts for the stuff. I think it was the ones that had the spiral red stripes on the shell, but I'm sure most Turbos will take it out.

J

OCDP · #6 01-29-2006, 04:49 PM

That's good to know as I have the same algae taking over a few rocks in my tank. Sea Hare doesn't touch it.

Ruth · #7 01-29-2006, 04:51 PM

My Sea Hare was all over this stuff so maybe they are hit and miss.

S-B · #8 01-29-2006, 05:22 PM

I've had this same algae for close to a year now, my turbo's haven't touched it . maybe the mexican turbo's will ?

Salinity Now · #9 01-29-2006, 05:48 PM

Here is a great article on the infamous red algae. And oh yeah, I had a run in with it as well. I think mine was due to "old fluorescent bulb syndrome" aka. "too lazy to buy new bulbs"

. I don't think that is what caused it initially, but I think that is what contributed to its quick growth. I have since cleaned my rock and waiting for it's unsightly return

. I'll be picking up some turbo's here shortly as well. From the article it sounds like their the only things to stop this red beast.

http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2003_issue3.pdf

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #10 01-29-2006, 06:29 PM

J&L has lots of large/med sized turbos right now. 25% off - clean-up crew sale ends Monday.