janet
Vivid Member
Registered: 05/19/07
Posts: 63
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| | 04/16/08 at 11:00 AM | Reply with quote | #1 |
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I am writing this post to let anyone else with this problem know that you can beat it!!!
A short while back, I was getting desperate. I had purchased a piece of staghorn approx 8 months earlier, that had some red turf algae at the base. Thought nothing of it, slow growing. It started to get long after a few months, thought I would pull some off. It was impossible to pull of the rockwork, and I ended up just pulling/cutting of the thick mass. Unfortunately, after doing this, this stuff started to appear everywhere - on the backs of snails, on my powerheads, sporadically on rockwork throughout the tank, on the back glass over coralline algae. It was suffocating out mushrooms and corals. It looked awful! I was almost ready to throw in the towel.
I do frequent water changes, all my parameters really good. Protein skimmer. UV light. I have read this stuff grows in good conditions.
I purchased 3 long spine urchins, a foxface rabbit fish, and increased my cleaning crew. Still getting more - nothing seemed be working. Foxface not touching it.
THEN....my LFS told me about a new product they were carrying called Coral Snow, in a blue bottle, made by a German company. It is a biological facilitator. One of the things it does is neutralize undesirable acids. The product notes it is a problem solver for some algaes and cyano bacteria. It is harmless to fish and corals. Another customer had success with it and the turf algae in his tank.
This product makes the water cloudly (milky looking) for a while. I added it every night when the lights when out. (You will find your water in the morning is crystal clear).
It has taken 7 weeks, but I am totally free of this algae now. The "Coral Snow" seems to stop the algae dead in it's tracks from growing and sprouting up. It doesn't kill it, but allows what you have to get eatten away. Mine has now been consumed by my red hermits, halloween hermits, 3 urchins, and *****mexican turbo grazers (I brought about 10 of these and I believe these to be the big guns).
It will not happen overnight, but my rockwork is now bare of this stuff, and the corals look great! None has appeared on any powerheads, shells etc. since I started the product. (I used to take the heads off my wavy seas every few weeks and scrap them with a knife to get the turf algae off).
Sorry for the long post, but wanted to give hope to anyone else with this problem.
__________________
120 Gal reef tank with 30 Gal sump and 30 Gal refugium
Lots of live rock, sandbed
pair black percula, pair true percula, blackcap basslet, swissguard, potters angel, powder brown tang, foxface rabbitfish, lyretail anthias (male), ornate wrasse, yellow clown goby, bi-color blenny, yellowtail blue damsel, yellowtail fang blenny, 7 blue chromis, golden dwarf eel.
Numberous SPS, LPS, 4 leathers, sebae anemone, rose bubble-tip (has split) |
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janet
Vivid Member
Registered: 05/19/07
Posts: 63
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| | 04/16/08 at 11:03 AM | Reply with quote | #2 |
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Oops, subject line should read "red TURF algae".....
__________________
120 Gal reef tank with 30 Gal sump and 30 Gal refugium
Lots of live rock, sandbed
pair black percula, pair true percula, blackcap basslet, swissguard, potters angel, powder brown tang, foxface rabbitfish, lyretail anthias (male), ornate wrasse, yellow clown goby, bi-color blenny, yellowtail blue damsel, yellowtail fang blenny, 7 blue chromis, golden dwarf eel.
Numberous SPS, LPS, 4 leathers, sebae anemone, rose bubble-tip (has split) |
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jessef2502
Vivid Member
Registered: 10/21/07
Posts: 489
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| | 04/16/08 at 03:37 PM | Reply with quote | #3 |
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omg. i just got a small colony of neon green zoa's last week and its got a wierd little patch of some brownish/reddish stuff on it. i hope its not what youre talking about. would you happen to have some pictures to post so i can see what it looks like?
__________________
- 100gal. Reef Tank/
14 Green Chromis
2 True Percula Clown Fish
Diamond Goby
Mandarin Goby
Dispar Anthias
Powder Blue Tang
Blue Regal Tang
Yellow Tang
Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
Large Red Linckia Star Fish
2 Cleaner Shrimp
10 Turbo Snails
10 Bumble Bee Snails
14 Red Leg Hermits
Electric Blue Hermit
4 Emerald Crabs
4 Assorted Zoanthid Colonies (100+ polyps each)
Purple Mushroom Colony
Green Mushroom Colony
6in. Crocea Clam
Purple Tip Frogspawn
Green Hammer Coral
Elegance Coral
Colt Coral
White Pink leather Coral?
Green Star Polyps?
Fox Coral
Green Candy Cane Coral
Open Brain Coral
Green Bubble Coral
Bali Sea Fan
Red Coco Worm
Green Pavona
Green Apple Montipora Cap
Birdsnest coral |
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janet
Vivid Member
Registered: 05/19/07
Posts: 63
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| | 04/17/08 at 01:10 AM | Reply with quote | #4 |
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Unfortunately, it's now gone - and before I was too frustrated to want to take a pic of it!!
It is a burgundy red/dark red color and looks like really coarse grass blades. Grows in quite thick. Gets long, and will start suffocating corals, mushrooms etc. Fairly slow growing but will suddenly start appearing everywhere. Easy to break long pieces back, but you cannot pull it off rockwork. Scraping with a knife gets it off powerheads, but you want to do this outside the tank. I think once you try trimming it back, it seeds itself. Look up red turf algea on the internet - when I was researching for solutions I did see pics of it.
The staghorn (encrusted on a piece of rock) that I purchased came from Bali - the staff at the LFS told me this stuff does grow in this area.
__________________
120 Gal reef tank with 30 Gal sump and 30 Gal refugium
Lots of live rock, sandbed
pair black percula, pair true percula, blackcap basslet, swissguard, potters angel, powder brown tang, foxface rabbitfish, lyretail anthias (male), ornate wrasse, yellow clown goby, bi-color blenny, yellowtail blue damsel, yellowtail fang blenny, 7 blue chromis, golden dwarf eel.
Numberous SPS, LPS, 4 leathers, sebae anemone, rose bubble-tip (has split) |
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jessef2502
Vivid Member
Registered: 10/21/07
Posts: 489
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| | 04/17/08 at 05:52 PM | Reply with quote | #5 |
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does the stuff on my polyp coral look like red turf algae?
__________________
- 100gal. Reef Tank/
14 Green Chromis
2 True Percula Clown Fish
Diamond Goby
Mandarin Goby
Dispar Anthias
Powder Blue Tang
Blue Regal Tang
Yellow Tang
Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
Large Red Linckia Star Fish
2 Cleaner Shrimp
10 Turbo Snails
10 Bumble Bee Snails
14 Red Leg Hermits
Electric Blue Hermit
4 Emerald Crabs
4 Assorted Zoanthid Colonies (100+ polyps each)
Purple Mushroom Colony
Green Mushroom Colony
6in. Crocea Clam
Purple Tip Frogspawn
Green Hammer Coral
Elegance Coral
Colt Coral
White Pink leather Coral?
Green Star Polyps?
Fox Coral
Green Candy Cane Coral
Open Brain Coral
Green Bubble Coral
Bali Sea Fan
Red Coco Worm
Green Pavona
Green Apple Montipora Cap
Birdsnest coral |
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janet
Vivid Member
Registered: 05/19/07
Posts: 63
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| | 04/17/08 at 08:35 PM | Reply with quote | #6 |
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Sorry but your picture is a bit too fuzzy for me to make it out. Is it like grass? What you do have there looks very short. Your hermit crabs should take care of it if it is a macroalgae. You might also want to try taking the piece out of the tank, and scrubbing just the affected part with a toothbrush. BTW, beautiful color on your zoa's.
__________________
120 Gal reef tank with 30 Gal sump and 30 Gal refugium
Lots of live rock, sandbed
pair black percula, pair true percula, blackcap basslet, swissguard, potters angel, powder brown tang, foxface rabbitfish, lyretail anthias (male), ornate wrasse, yellow clown goby, bi-color blenny, yellowtail blue damsel, yellowtail fang blenny, 7 blue chromis, golden dwarf eel.
Numberous SPS, LPS, 4 leathers, sebae anemone, rose bubble-tip (has split) |
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jessef2502
Vivid Member
Registered: 10/21/07
Posts: 489
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| | 04/17/08 at 08:54 PM | Reply with quote | #7 |
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hey thanks for the complements on the coral. Its got like a small velrco looking texture. like a red carpet. i think ill try that scrubbing with a toothbrush thing u said. thanks for the help!
__________________
- 100gal. Reef Tank/
14 Green Chromis
2 True Percula Clown Fish
Diamond Goby
Mandarin Goby
Dispar Anthias
Powder Blue Tang
Blue Regal Tang
Yellow Tang
Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
Large Red Linckia Star Fish
2 Cleaner Shrimp
10 Turbo Snails
10 Bumble Bee Snails
14 Red Leg Hermits
Electric Blue Hermit
4 Emerald Crabs
4 Assorted Zoanthid Colonies (100+ polyps each)
Purple Mushroom Colony
Green Mushroom Colony
6in. Crocea Clam
Purple Tip Frogspawn
Green Hammer Coral
Elegance Coral
Colt Coral
White Pink leather Coral?
Green Star Polyps?
Fox Coral
Green Candy Cane Coral
Open Brain Coral
Green Bubble Coral
Bali Sea Fan
Red Coco Worm
Green Pavona
Green Apple Montipora Cap
Birdsnest coral |
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janet
Vivid Member
Registered: 05/19/07
Posts: 63
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| | 04/18/08 at 08:33 AM | Reply with quote | #8 |
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You're welcome. If it starts to grow in like grass, and is totally impossible to pull off the rock, might be turf algae. Whatever you have is small, and looks short. At this stage, my mexican turbo grazers, hermits (red, blue legged, and halloween), urchins, and emerald crabs look care of things.
If it starts to show up ANYWHERE else, get the Coral Snow and you wouldn't have any new stuff appearing.
Enjoy you tank! 
__________________
120 Gal reef tank with 30 Gal sump and 30 Gal refugium
Lots of live rock, sandbed
pair black percula, pair true percula, blackcap basslet, swissguard, potters angel, powder brown tang, foxface rabbitfish, lyretail anthias (male), ornate wrasse, yellow clown goby, bi-color blenny, yellowtail blue damsel, yellowtail fang blenny, 7 blue chromis, golden dwarf eel.
Numberous SPS, LPS, 4 leathers, sebae anemone, rose bubble-tip (has split) |
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Wayne
Vivid Member
Registered: 01/30/08
Posts: 5
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| | 01/23/10 at 02:28 AM | Reply with quote | #9 |
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Hey thanks for the input. I thnk i have the same problem sorta. mine started and i tought it was a bugundy coraline algea, thought it was quite pretty at first , but then it started to cover up my other pieces. its dark red and smooth but when you touch it it wants to disolve. I tried Chem Clean and that gets rid of it but it comes back and I dont think its that healthy for your other animals and corals. I had a nice flame angel that didnt make it after one of the treatments. and a kenya tree coral that almost died but bounced back. after talking with my local shop owner he told me it was a cyano bacteria( not sure of the spelling). its nasty stuff. hope I can kick it in the butt before it really takes off. doing a water change tomorrow and going to try to physically peel the stuff off my live rock. if anyone has any better ideas they will be appreciated.thanks |
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ShaunAtVivid
Registered: 12/15/09
Posts: 128
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| | 01/26/10 at 02:37 PM | Reply with quote | #10 |
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Sounds like a really cool product, I will have to look into it. I have people ask me all of the time how to get rid of this algae. I always recommend the snails, crabs, urchins, tangs, and rabbit fish but this product sounds like it will help all of them get a handle on it. Thanks!
__________________
Shaun at Vivid Aquariums
Happy Reefing! |
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Wayne
Vivid Member
Registered: 01/30/08
Posts: 5
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| | 01/27/10 at 03:12 AM | Reply with quote | #11 |
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I gave my tank another doe yesterday of chen clean, this time it calls for one level scoop for every 10 gals. i have a65 gal reef tank with lots of live rock and dont remember i counted that in so I di half which was 3. the cyano is gone for the moment and the whater is crystsal clean. your suposed to turn off your protein scimmer and compinsate it with air stone. remove your cabon filter. and let cycle for approx 48, dont forget to compincate gal inthe live rock, i think it wasnt so harsh this time and then do a 20% water change and watch iwork. they to repeat once a moth to keep the stuff in line. make sure you check your water oermaiters, before and after. just for something to kill 45 min(lol)..
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Ambassadorhawg
Vivid Member
Registered: 03/30/09
Posts: 66
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