Help with Algae

[Ian Baxter]

I just picked up this Biocube 32 from someone and it’s been up and running for 3 years. It has a ton of, what looks like GHA, and some Bryopsis on the rocks. There is a Lawnmower Blenny and I added an urchin (he’s put in major work). The previous owner did 5g weekly water changes and I am keeping those going. I have the refugium set up for the back and plan to install. I only have the API test kit as the other tests arrive on Thursday, so I don’t have any parameters to share. Any advise on getting rid of it?

I have a UV sterilizer I can install as well as the Coralife skimmer. I had the skimmer running for about 2 days and the micro bubbles are insane.

 

[saltypepper]

Add a few more pincushion urchins. Did that from my old 90g back in 2013. When they are done donate them to someone else.

 

[Ian Baxter]

Add a few more pincushion urchins. Did that from my old 90g back in 2013. When they are done donate them to someone else.

I forgot to mention that I plan on picking up another urchin today and maybe some turbos if I can find some. Should probably go with 2 more urchins.

 

[saltypepper]

I found the uglier the urchin for some reason the better the do. Had one beautiful one in that 90 and it would hardly go on the rocks that had the algae while the mutter colour ones devoured the algae. Maybe that’s just that me be silly

 

[Reef Wizard]

That first pic kinda looks like bryopsis and second is GHA I can confirm you are correct on that.

Manual removal CUC and reduce lighting helps

 

[Ian Baxter]

I found the uglier the urchin for some reason the better the do. Had one beautiful one in that 90 and it would hardly go on the rocks that had the algae while the mutter colour ones devoured the algae. Maybe that’s just that me be silly

That's funny. I had a really cool Halloween Urchin several years ago in my 120 and he was a beast. I just never had algae this bad. I know the LFS has some small ugly ones.

 

[Ian Baxter]

That first pic kinda looks like bryopsis and second is GHA I can confirm you are correct on that.

Manual removal CUC and reduce lighting helps

It was hard to get a good pic of the bryopsis, but it looks identical to the photos in the nuisance algae thread.

 

[saltypepper]

It was hard to get a good pic of the bryopsis, but it looks identical to the photos in the nuisance algae thread.

If you have some bone cutters or something similar use them to scrape against the rock we’re the bryopsis is then syphon it out of the tank.

 

[Lemons]

That first pic kinda looks like bryopsis and second is GHA I can confirm you are correct on that.

Manual removal CUC and reduce lighting helps

Yup i agree,

For bryopsis you can take out the rock and spray peroxide on it then rinse and return the rock.

Or you can do fluconazole.

 

[Ian Baxter]

Yup i agree,

For bryopsis you can take out the rock and spray peroxide on it then rinse and return the rock.

Or you can do fluconazole.

I assume the peroxide would hurt the corals?

 

[saltypepper]

Or you can do fluconazole.

I would hate to see you use an antifungle on an algae. To me that’s like treating a virus with antibiotics

 

[Reef Wizard]

I assume the peroxide would hurt the corals?

If you use any chemicals be very careful it could cause dinos

I try not to add anything like that and manually remove and let nature do the rest

 

[saltypepper]

I agree with @tomtheturkey about the natural way

 

[Reef Wizard]

I just picked up this Biocube 32 from someone and it’s been up and running for 3 years. It has a ton of, what looks like GHA, and some Bryopsis on the rocks. There is a Lawnmower Blenny and I added an urchin (he’s put in major work). The previous owner did 5g weekly water changes and I am keeping those going. I have the refugium set up for the back and plan to install. I only have the API test kit as the other tests arrive on Thursday, so I don’t have any parameters to share. Any advise on getting rid of it?

I have a UV sterilizer I can install as well as the Coralife skimmer. I had the skimmer running for about 2 days and the micro bubbles are insane.

If all that GHA is on the back might just be able to scrape it off and might be easier to get a holding bin and scrub the bryopsis off since its only a 32g rocks shouldnt be too bad. Just make sure corals stay wet for any extended period of time

 

[Ian Baxter]

If all that GHA is on the back might just be able to scrape it off and might be easier to get a holding bin and scrub the bryopsis off since its only a 32g rocks shouldnt be too bad. Just make sure corals stay wet for any extended period of time

I'll give that a try and see how it goes. Thanks.

 

[Lemons]

I would hate to see you use an antifungle on an algae. To me that’s like treating a virus with antibiotics

Fuconazole has a neat side effect where it does kill most hair algae and bryopsis, you can look up tons of posts about success using it.

But I agree good ol elbow grease is always preferable to chemical solutions.

 

[Lemons]

I assume the peroxide would hurt the corals?

Nope!

For the zoas? Highly unlikley to do any harm to them, 3% isnt strong enough to do any cell damage to the zoa's but strong enough to damage the algae.

If you had acros or something else i'd be a little more hesitant but i actually dip any fresh zoa frags i get in a 50/50 mix of 3% and SW to prevent stuff like this from happening!

Just rinse them off in fresh SW and you're good!

 

[TX_REEF]

is the rear panel of the tank clear? if so, you could add an upflow algae turf scrubber, that would do wonders in nitrate elimination and starving the display algae to death.

something like this would work, there are also guides online on how to make your own for significantly cheaper:

HOG.5 Hang-On-Glass UAS Upflow Algae Scrubber-UAS-HOG.5

www.santa-monica.cc

 

[Ian Baxter]

is the rear panel of the tank clear? if so, you could add an upflow algae turf scrubber, that would do wonders in nitrate elimination and starving the display algae to death.

There is one empty chamber in the back that's about 4"x4"