When we visited Paul's Corals recently, he was singing the praises of a product called Coral Rx. Paul sells it at swaps. Here's the Premium Aquatics link:
CR-CRX0801 Premium Aquatics
Paul said he had been having good success with it treating the maladies listed on the bottle. One of the claims is that it helps with fine hair algae. That caught my attention.
I have a rather large colony of green, long-tentacled pipe organ that got infested with fine hair algae. The algae had permeated the colony and was irritating the polyps, causing them to close up almost daily. When they closed, the "field" of flowing hair algae was very healthy and long. I had made several attempts to pull it out, tear it off, do whatever to get rid of it. Each attempt resulted in several broken pipes and minimal damage to the algae. Things were so bad I was considering breaking off a piece on one end that didn't have algae and throwing the rest away.
I bought a bottle of the Coral Rx from Paul and decided to see if it would "knock back" the algae, as Paul suggested it would.
Last weekend I took a gallon of tank water and added 30 drops of Coral Rx. After thorough mixing, I put the entire colony in the Coral Rx mixture and lifted it up and down in the water so the Coral Rx would get mixed completely in all of the pipes. I then let the colony sit in the solution for 10 minutes, followed by another session of up and down mixing. While it was soaking, I pulled off all of the hair algae I could get my hands on. It wasn't much, but every little bit helps.
The colony was then put in another gallon of tank water and lifted up and down several times and the water stirred a lot to flush all of the Coral Rx out of the colony.
The colony was put back in its spot in the reef. The Coral Rx had definitely had an impact on the algae. It had changed from bright, healthy green to a dark green/brown and was not looking very healthy. By the next morning all of the polyps were fully extended and unaffected by the treatment. Mid-week, I tried to irritate the polyps with a stick to get them to close up so I could see what the algae looked like. Usually, rubbing them with a stick makes them close up quickly. Not this time. They would pull in, but extend right away. What algae was left was down in the pipes and the long filaments were not to be seen.
Today, during my usual weekly tank maintenance and water changes, I decided to do another treatment on the colony. The polyps retracted completely during the treatment. I could see algae down in the pipes, but it was a dark color and there was absolutely no evidence of filaments. After the treatment, the polyps were completely extended within three hours.
This is just one example and certainly not scientific, but it made a big dent in what was a significant problem. Equally important is that the polyps are not damaged by the treatment.
Gary
CR-CRX0801 Premium Aquatics
Paul said he had been having good success with it treating the maladies listed on the bottle. One of the claims is that it helps with fine hair algae. That caught my attention.
I have a rather large colony of green, long-tentacled pipe organ that got infested with fine hair algae. The algae had permeated the colony and was irritating the polyps, causing them to close up almost daily. When they closed, the "field" of flowing hair algae was very healthy and long. I had made several attempts to pull it out, tear it off, do whatever to get rid of it. Each attempt resulted in several broken pipes and minimal damage to the algae. Things were so bad I was considering breaking off a piece on one end that didn't have algae and throwing the rest away.
I bought a bottle of the Coral Rx from Paul and decided to see if it would "knock back" the algae, as Paul suggested it would.
Last weekend I took a gallon of tank water and added 30 drops of Coral Rx. After thorough mixing, I put the entire colony in the Coral Rx mixture and lifted it up and down in the water so the Coral Rx would get mixed completely in all of the pipes. I then let the colony sit in the solution for 10 minutes, followed by another session of up and down mixing. While it was soaking, I pulled off all of the hair algae I could get my hands on. It wasn't much, but every little bit helps.
The colony was then put in another gallon of tank water and lifted up and down several times and the water stirred a lot to flush all of the Coral Rx out of the colony.
The colony was put back in its spot in the reef. The Coral Rx had definitely had an impact on the algae. It had changed from bright, healthy green to a dark green/brown and was not looking very healthy. By the next morning all of the polyps were fully extended and unaffected by the treatment. Mid-week, I tried to irritate the polyps with a stick to get them to close up so I could see what the algae looked like. Usually, rubbing them with a stick makes them close up quickly. Not this time. They would pull in, but extend right away. What algae was left was down in the pipes and the long filaments were not to be seen.
Today, during my usual weekly tank maintenance and water changes, I decided to do another treatment on the colony. The polyps retracted completely during the treatment. I could see algae down in the pipes, but it was a dark color and there was absolutely no evidence of filaments. After the treatment, the polyps were completely extended within three hours.
This is just one example and certainly not scientific, but it made a big dent in what was a significant problem. Equally important is that the polyps are not damaged by the treatment.
Gary
