Algae in Reef tanks!
- Thread starter ShaunW
- Start date
- Location
- Tenafly, NJ
That red algae is a pain. Didn't Mike add like 50 Mexicans to combat it?
I have no algae problems. Just one spot with a tiny bit of brillo-ey hair, and a wild coral that grows Maiden's Hair that a. looks cool and b. is easy to pull right off when it gets a little longer. My cleanup crew consists of 2 hermits, 10 snails, and a tuxedo urchin(he's just there to spread the coralline & for looks). IMO people are putting way too many snails & hermits. I haven't had to clean my front glass in over 2 weeks. I run a tablespoon of purigen in my Deltec, and do 5 gallon WCs every week, after I baste the crap off the rocks.
Also, it's probably a good idea to quarantine any animals for 2 weeks before putting them in. This is why people have problems with Bryopsis in an Indo-Pacific display. Think of all the astreas/ceriths you add, and the trace amount of spores in their crap. They don't eat the bryopsis directly either, so already there's an uphill battle in the long run, even with clean water.
joe
I have no algae problems. Just one spot with a tiny bit of brillo-ey hair, and a wild coral that grows Maiden's Hair that a. looks cool and b. is easy to pull right off when it gets a little longer. My cleanup crew consists of 2 hermits, 10 snails, and a tuxedo urchin(he's just there to spread the coralline & for looks). IMO people are putting way too many snails & hermits. I haven't had to clean my front glass in over 2 weeks. I run a tablespoon of purigen in my Deltec, and do 5 gallon WCs every week, after I baste the crap off the rocks.
Also, it's probably a good idea to quarantine any animals for 2 weeks before putting them in. This is why people have problems with Bryopsis in an Indo-Pacific display. Think of all the astreas/ceriths you add, and the trace amount of spores in their crap. They don't eat the bryopsis directly either, so already there's an uphill battle in the long run, even with clean water.
joe
- Location
- Upper West Side
Wow, how did he get 50 Mexicans in a tank? ;-)
Seriously, as was mentioned- algae is naturally occuring, we just need control mechinisms in place:
1. Herbivores that trim it. (Hermit crabs)
2. Herbivores that eat it. (Snails, tangs)
3. Good bacteria. (Live sand, live rock)
4. One reason to avoid wrasses of all kinds- they decimate your pod popukation! Pods are an important part of your enclosed ecosystem.
5. Nutrient export- Skimming, carbon and water changes
6. Manual removal (Scrap, scrub and vacuum any patches as you see them.)
7. Water circulation to keep things clean, give ditritus a run for it's money. If it cant settle, it cant become fertalizer. Need to have a filter sock and keep it clean!
8. Good calcium and alkalinity, low phosphate high magnesium. Keep the coraline growing, it competes for space with algae and has it's own bio-warfare going to make it very hard for algae to overgrow it.
Anyway, time to go back to bed soon. (Every 6 hours I have to take these damned pills, and I cant lay down for 30 minutes when I take them!!!)
-Alfred
Seriously, as was mentioned- algae is naturally occuring, we just need control mechinisms in place:
1. Herbivores that trim it. (Hermit crabs)
2. Herbivores that eat it. (Snails, tangs)
3. Good bacteria. (Live sand, live rock)
4. One reason to avoid wrasses of all kinds- they decimate your pod popukation! Pods are an important part of your enclosed ecosystem.
5. Nutrient export- Skimming, carbon and water changes
6. Manual removal (Scrap, scrub and vacuum any patches as you see them.)
7. Water circulation to keep things clean, give ditritus a run for it's money. If it cant settle, it cant become fertalizer. Need to have a filter sock and keep it clean!
8. Good calcium and alkalinity, low phosphate high magnesium. Keep the coraline growing, it competes for space with algae and has it's own bio-warfare going to make it very hard for algae to overgrow it.
Anyway, time to go back to bed soon. (Every 6 hours I have to take these damned pills, and I cant lay down for 30 minutes when I take them!!!)
-Alfred
right now im having a bubble algae problem in my tank, there are tons of little ones and they thrive under low nutrients as well. Perice said a rabbitfish would take care of it, i heard sailfin, and naso tang eats them as well.
Right now for my diatomic algae problem, it's handled by 5 giant mexican snail. and 10 nirate snails. The main algae grazers in my tank has to be stomatellas. They do a lousy job, but the great part is they breed like wildfire in a reeftank. there are so many of them and they only come out at night. That is my night clean up crew.
coraline constantly replaces the diatomic algae, and hopefully my rocks will be all purple in a year.
Right now for my diatomic algae problem, it's handled by 5 giant mexican snail. and 10 nirate snails. The main algae grazers in my tank has to be stomatellas. They do a lousy job, but the great part is they breed like wildfire in a reeftank. there are so many of them and they only come out at night. That is my night clean up crew.
coraline constantly replaces the diatomic algae, and hopefully my rocks will be all purple in a year.
- Location
- Upper West Side
Diatoms are always present, but if it is real bad you need to check your RO unit and may have to add a DI unit... That would take care of 80% of a serious diatom problem.
As for bubble algae, the only surefire way to get rid of them is to manually pick them from each rock, one rock at a time and rinse the rock off with fresh water or even salt water in a bucket before putting it back in the tank.
Once all visible bubbles are gone, emerald crabs and hermits can help in controlling them. DONT let them pop in the tank, that is how they reproduce.
I never heard of sailfins or naso tangs eating them. I had bubble algae in my 55 10 years ago and the sailfin never gave them a second look. Cant say anything for rabbit fish... I would imagine that if you got rid of all of the bubbles they would help control it via their grazing.
-Alfred
As for bubble algae, the only surefire way to get rid of them is to manually pick them from each rock, one rock at a time and rinse the rock off with fresh water or even salt water in a bucket before putting it back in the tank.
Once all visible bubbles are gone, emerald crabs and hermits can help in controlling them. DONT let them pop in the tank, that is how they reproduce.
I never heard of sailfins or naso tangs eating them. I had bubble algae in my 55 10 years ago and the sailfin never gave them a second look. Cant say anything for rabbit fish... I would imagine that if you got rid of all of the bubbles they would help control it via their grazing.
-Alfred
i had a bubble on a rock i got from someone on this board. I only saw it after i put the rock in, and it was in an impossible to reach place. Now he has friends around him and they are growing larger. My Red-Sea-Sailfin doesnt consider it food. Looks like i'll need a few emeralds...spykes said:
the problem with the sailfins are they arent 100 percent, sting has a sailfin that wiped out his bubble algae, as well as a thread on rc that shows sailfins do eat bubble algae off the rock under SPS keeper.
problem with emerald crabs are they get huge and at perice's house he told me his elmerald crab crushs his SPS into powder and i feel there might be a great risk adding those guys into my tank.
problem with emerald crabs are they get huge and at perice's house he told me his elmerald crab crushs his SPS into powder and i feel there might be a great risk adding those guys into my tank.
Careful with the emeralds...
I bought 5 two years ago, two of them have a body larger than the size of a quarter now. They like to perch on top of two SPS colonies and crush the tips with their claws and eating it.
I bought 5 two years ago, two of them have a body larger than the size of a quarter now. They like to perch on top of two SPS colonies and crush the tips with their claws and eating it.
I just bought this to help with manual algae removal...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Reef-Aquarium-A...oryZ3212QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I have a problem with hair algae in one section of my tank- and that section only! It is annoying - what would be the best species of snail to deal with it? Mex turbos? My snails tend to stay on my glass and for whatever reason ignore the tasty algae 6 in. away!
I dont really mind other macro algae as I like the natural look- so bubble algae, red macro, etc. is fine with me...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Reef-Aquarium-A...oryZ3212QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I have a problem with hair algae in one section of my tank- and that section only! It is annoying - what would be the best species of snail to deal with it? Mex turbos? My snails tend to stay on my glass and for whatever reason ignore the tasty algae 6 in. away!
I dont really mind other macro algae as I like the natural look- so bubble algae, red macro, etc. is fine with me...
By far i think bubble algea has to be the worst. I got that and it's been a tough battle. Forget about emeralds eating them, that's a myth in my opinion. They might pick at one here and there if small, but if there's an outbreak, forget it.
I think the best way is to manually remove as much as you can, if some pop i hope my ozonizer kills the spores. I just started this battle so i will see in a few months if i was successful.
I think the best way is to manually remove as much as you can, if some pop i hope my ozonizer kills the spores. I just started this battle so i will see in a few months if i was successful.
- Location
- NY
I agree with Pedro, I think emeralds eating bubble is load of bunk. I've been somewhat successful getting them out manually. The ones that bother me are the ones you just can't reach by hand because they're so far behind rocks, yet you can still see them. And they grow BIG. I've seen golf ball size.
master
master
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
First of all I would like to say that if there is absolutely no algae in your tank, it probably is not as healthy as you believe it is.
Algae is a natural part of all healthy reefs. The sea is full of tangs, urchins, slugs, rabbitfish, algae bleenies etc. Guess what they are eating?
Slugs and urchins only eat algae. You may not see it because they eat it as soon as it grows. If you do any night time diving you will see hourdes of urchins all over the reef. Watch those Sally Lightfoot crabs crawling on the rocks, they are algae eaters.
The sea has unlimites water to dilute wastes and the vast majority of that water is too deep for algae to grow.
Using animals for algae control in a tank has limited success because the animals unfortunately also poop in the tank. Everything that goes into an animal also comes out.
In our tanks which are so overcrowded compared to the sea the nutrients have no place to go except in the skimmer. Skimmers work well but the wastes are in there long enough to grow algae.
Skimmers do not remove everything. They do nothing for ammonia and nitrates. We rely on bacteria for that. Bacteria which are mostly on the substrait and rocks can't convert it if it is in the water column.
I deal with algae by letting it grow. Of course I don't want it to grow on my corals because obviousely that would shade them thereby killing them. I force the algae to grow in a shallow trough above my water and partially under the lights. The algae has better growing conditions there because it is brighter and the water moves very fast. There is a plastic screen in the trough that can be removed to remove excess algae.
A lighted refugium will also reduce algae in your reef. The small amount of algae that does grow in the reef can be cropped by the herbifores.
Have a great day.
Paul
Algae is a natural part of all healthy reefs. The sea is full of tangs, urchins, slugs, rabbitfish, algae bleenies etc. Guess what they are eating?
Slugs and urchins only eat algae. You may not see it because they eat it as soon as it grows. If you do any night time diving you will see hourdes of urchins all over the reef. Watch those Sally Lightfoot crabs crawling on the rocks, they are algae eaters.
The sea has unlimites water to dilute wastes and the vast majority of that water is too deep for algae to grow.
Using animals for algae control in a tank has limited success because the animals unfortunately also poop in the tank. Everything that goes into an animal also comes out.
In our tanks which are so overcrowded compared to the sea the nutrients have no place to go except in the skimmer. Skimmers work well but the wastes are in there long enough to grow algae.
Skimmers do not remove everything. They do nothing for ammonia and nitrates. We rely on bacteria for that. Bacteria which are mostly on the substrait and rocks can't convert it if it is in the water column.
I deal with algae by letting it grow. Of course I don't want it to grow on my corals because obviousely that would shade them thereby killing them. I force the algae to grow in a shallow trough above my water and partially under the lights. The algae has better growing conditions there because it is brighter and the water moves very fast. There is a plastic screen in the trough that can be removed to remove excess algae.
A lighted refugium will also reduce algae in your reef. The small amount of algae that does grow in the reef can be cropped by the herbifores.
Have a great day.
Paul
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