Red Turf Algae help

[brutus187]

Does anyone have any idea on how to get rid of this stuff. It started off in a small patch and has now moved around the tank.

water peramiters

PH: 8.4
Nitrate: 10 (can't seem to get it lower)
Nitrite: 0
Ammo: 0
Phosphates: 0
Calcium: 460
Alk: 7 (i am bringing this up slowly)

[StirCrazy]

is it whispy kinda like cotton candy? if so the only thing I found that will work is the turbo snails from the mexican area.

Steve

[brutus187]

i guess you could say it's kind of like cotton candy. I picked up a few turbo snails and they don't even want to touch it! how do you know if they are the mexican kind?

[fencer]

I got turbos and they don't touch the stuff. I usually end up plucking the stuff off (carefully) when it gets larger. If it gets on your acros it will be hard to remove.

[Keana]

I've also got the stuff and its a nightmare! So far the only things I've seen eat the stuff are sally light foot crabs and pencil urchins.

Bye, Keana

[brutus187]

i've got a pencil urchin, but i banished him to my sump lol. he was being a pain and knocking over all of my rock work. i'll throw him back in (directly on a spot of turf) and see if i can get him to target feed.

[Aquattro]

I've used the mexican turbos successfully for this stuff, saw some at J&L yesterday.

[Doug]

Keep in mind, that if any snails are going to eat the algae, it usually requires hand trimming first, so its short. Snails seldom eat long algae, at least IME.

[Aquattro]

Gotta disagree with you Doug. I just had a dozen astreas gobble down some algae that was approaching 2 inches in length. Hand trimming is still a good idea to remove it though, since any algae that goes in a snail also comes out of the snail

[brutus187]

any idea on how to tell if the turbos i bought are mexican? The only place that had turbos in at the time was a LFS in my town...and they didn't even know "mexican" turbo snails existed...they though all were the same.