Advice with dealing with some Turf(?) Algae

[chaewon]

Hey guys, as the title has said above, I need some advice with dealing with this turf algae. Thanks in advanced!

I mainly have two questions,

1. Any suggestions on how to deal with this algae?

2. I've noticed my nutrients being undetectable and my monti cap is starting to lose colour due to lack of nutrients, should I dose nitrates and phosphates?

Details:

- 30G 2 foot Mixed Reef that's 6 months old and 5G water changes weekly
- Using WWC Radion Xr30 gen 3 lighting schedule for 9hr 40min per day
- Using RODI water, 0 TDS
- Have a skimmer and using a refugium with cheato+dragon's breath for 8 hours
- Tank is current fishless as I am running it fallow due to quarantine

Current CUC
- 4 Trochus snails
- 30 Turbo Snails
- 10 Stomatella Snails

(I've tried a baby Kole Tang, lawnmower blenny and tiger blenny, but none have really made a dent onto the algae)

Water Parameters - using Salifert, API and Aquaforest test kits
- ALK: 7.7 DKH
- Calcium: 420ppm
- Mag: 1350ppm
- Nitrate: 0
- Phosphate: 0
(I suspect the lower nutrients to be due to the lack of fish and the algae absorbing anything that's left)

 

[PeaBrain]

I have found frequent water changes (~10%) using a syphon with a brush at the end to pull off the algae works. Just that alone does wonders. I literally rubber-band a toothbrush to the end of a syphon.

Welcome to R2R!

 

[VJM 21]

This looks like the same situation that I had, although my outbreak was much worse than what I see in your pics. I knew it wasn’t hair algae, but it didn’t look like bryopsis either. I also got readings of 0 phosphates because the turf algae sucks it out of the water column. Nitrates have been between 10-14.
I started with a 3 day blackout because I also had a Dino resurgence, as unlikely as that seems with nutrients in the system. As soon as I started the blackout, I dosed Fluconazole (the Flux Rx variety from MD). It took about 3 weeks, but the turf algae vanished. It was amazing. You can scrub rocks with a brush for hours, but that alone won’t get rid of this crap. I tried. Vibrant caused massive cyano outbreaks before it made any headway, so I stopped using it. Full disclosure- all of my SPS had taken a beating from Dinos, so I really didn’t care about the impact of fluc on them. During treatment, my euphyllia and other LPS weren’t happy, but they’ve rebounded nicely.

It was interesting, but none of my cuc would touch this stuff until the fluc was in the tank for about 2 weeks into the treatment. This includes tangs. I also saw an increase in measurable phosphates after I finished the treatment.
I’m going to try to control phosphate with a fuge moving forward....waiting as patiently as possible for my algae barn order. If you’re running a fuge now, you’ll probably want to relocate it during a fluc treatment. I always try to avoid chemical treatments, but after 3 months of trying to fix this with “good husbandry” alone, I threw in the towel. So glad I did.

 

[chaewon]

I have found frequent water changes (~10%) using a syphon with a brush at the end to pull off the algae works. Just that alone does wonders. I literally rubber-band a toothbrush to the end of a syphon.

Welcome to R2R!

Hi, thanks for that!

Unfortunately I've tried that and it seemed to never make a dent in the algae. I've also tried hydrogen peroxide but that didn't seem to hurt it either. Its gotten to the point where it just exists in my tank... doesn't seem to die off or grow anymore (touch wood).

 

[chaewon]

This looks like the same situation that I had, although my outbreak was much worse than what I see in your pics. I knew it wasn’t hair algae, but it didn’t look like bryopsis either. I also got readings of 0 phosphates because the turf algae sucks it out of the water column. Nitrates have been between 10-14.
I started with a 3 day blackout because I also had a Dino resurgence, as unlikely as that seems with nutrients in the system. As soon as I started the blackout, I dosed Fluconazole (the Flux Rx variety from MD). It took about 3 weeks, but the turf algae vanished. It was amazing. You can scrub rocks with a brush for hours, but that alone won’t get rid of this crap. I tried. Vibrant caused massive cyano outbreaks before it made any headway, so I stopped using it. Full disclosure- all of my SPS had taken a beating from Dinos, so I really didn’t care about the impact of fluc on them. During treatment, my euphyllia and other LPS weren’t happy, but they’ve rebounded nicely.

It was interesting, but none of my cuc would touch this stuff until the fluc was in the tank for about 2 weeks into the treatment. This includes tangs. I also saw an increase in measurable phosphates after I finished the treatment.
I’m going to try to control phosphate with a fuge moving forward....waiting as patiently as possible for my algae barn order. If you’re running a fuge now, you’ll probably want to relocate it during a fluc treatment. I always try to avoid chemical treatments, but after 3 months of trying to fix this with “good husbandry” alone, I threw in the towel. So glad I did.

Interesting... I was also originally planning on avoiding chemical treatments because I'd hate seeing my corals being unhappy but if the algae is going to be stubborn, we may have a problem. I think I'll go with Flux over vibrant since it seems like it replaces a problem with another. Just a few questions

1. I've read on other articles here that the turf algae would come back after the Flux RX dose, has that happened for you?

2. As for the Dinos that appeared, did you do anything else to treat that stuff on top of the turf algae treatment, or did it just clear up naturally?

3. Were you running a fuge at that time of treatment, and should I remove all my macros while dosing Flux?

Thanks heaps!

 

[VJM 21]

Interesting... I was also originally planning on avoiding chemical treatments because I'd hate seeing my corals being unhappy but if the algae is going to be stubborn, we may have a problem. I think I'll go with Flux over vibrant since it seems like it replaces a problem with another. Just a few questions

1. I've read on other articles here that the turf algae would come back after the Flux RX dose, has that happened for you?

2. As for the Dinos that appeared, did you do anything else to treat that stuff on top of the turf algae treatment, or did it just clear up naturally?

3. Were you running a fuge at that time of treatment, and should I remove all my macros while dosing Flux?

Thanks heaps!

No problem.
1. It hasn’t come back yet, but I’m cutting it close with getting my fuge going. Every time I see any green on the rock, I brush it off. My hope is that keeping phosphate in check will prevent another outbreak.
2. The only thing I did to address the Dinos was the 3 day blackout. I recognized it early this time, so I nipped it in the bud, so to speak.
3. I didn’t have a fuge, so it wasn’t an issue. I tried to start my fuge (a fellow reefer hooked me up with some chaeto) immediately after the treatment, but it didn’t take. I think there was still too much fluc in the system. I’ve done three 20% water changes since then, and I added carbon. Crossing my fingers that the next batch takes off.

One other note - I didn’t do a water change for about a month. I didn’t really see a difference until 14 days. The ends of the algae turned white. After 3.5 weeks, it was gone.

 

[chaewon]

Just a quick update.

Should I just pull out the rock heavily infested with algae and just toss it away?

Its been approximately 4 weeks since I started dosing flux from 30mg capsules. I have seen some turf algae disappear here and there but there are also spots where algae has grown. At the moment I have 4 fish in the system and I feed frozen or pellets once daily, with coral feeding happening 2 times a week.

My parameters are
ALK: 8.3
CAL: 400
MAG: 1280
Nitrate: 0-2
Phosphates: Undetectable

Corals have mostly been unaffected from the Flux treatment and I have seen my baby kole tang occasionally nipping at the turf algae but there seems to be minimal impact. I have also changed out all my RODI cartridges and membranes but hopefully that does the trick.

Looks like the turf algae has increased here, but coralline has also started filling in the gaps

Algae here seems to have mostly disappeared

 

[VJM 21]

I’m assuming that you’ve only dosed flux one time, correct? If that’s the case, you can do a water change, then add a second treatment. I’d hate to lose good rock, but I understand the frustration. The coralline growth is a good sign. I saw that happening as well. I think flux tends to take longer with GHA than it does for bryopsis. Turf algae may be somewhere in between. The turf algae in your pics looks like a much brighter green than the stuff I was dealing with, which makes me wonder if I had bryopsis, not turf algae. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help, but it looks like things are moving in the right direction.

 

[chaewon]

That's ok! Thanks for your help

Yes - this is my first dose. I reckon I will wait about 3 more weeks as I saw in the bryopsis megathread that it could take around 4-6 weeks. I will update weekly just to log the progress. I suspect that the algae was caused by a combination of overdosing amino acids and dirty RODI water. If it doesn't work, I am leaning towards taking the rock out all together as its more than halfway up my tank and I'm transitioning towards SPS anyway.

 

[chaewon]

Just a quick update. Sorry about the flying particles, was turkey basting the rocks. I don't think flux has made much progress on the turf. Defs leaning towards just removing the rock now, doesn't seem worth the effort and money to continually dose flux.

 

[VJM 21]

Sorry to hear that...looks like some very stubborn algae. Good luck with the rock removal. I always feel like I end up with a better rock scape when I have to remove things or break down the tank to catch a problem fish. I hope that ends up being the case for you.