Dictyota battle

[roberts01]

So a while a go i saw some blueish algae appearing in one place on rock.

Two months later it is spreading like crazy.

Plucking it with tweezers is hard an seems to make it worse since one loose part of that thing regrows in whola lot more.

Can not take the rock out.

As far as reading i will go with either

Api algaefix or hydrogen peroxide.

Wanted to ask if anyone had success of getting rid of it alternatimg water parmeters?

Running fm zeolight
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0
Kh 6.5
Ca 425
Mg 1425

 

[FartyParty]

I'm curious if you ever considered/tried sending in competing bacteria like the Dr Tims "renew/waste away" combo approach. ive had a few different types of nusance alage this has worked for. i recently had a hard to identify sticky alage this worked for.

 

[jolt]

I was able to eliminate a pretty bad outbreak of dictyota with flucanazole. Just followed the same treatment as people are doing for bryopsis.

 

[mcarroll]

hydrogen peroxide.

Make sure your cleanup crew isn't too light – if anything you want "too many" at this point.

And do this as-needed: Algae Cure!! Spot Treating Algae With Peroxide

Start small to test it out, but as the instructions say, you can ramp this up to as many patches as your tank can stand. (3% peroxide isn't very strong, so there should be LOTS of room for escalation and little need for anything more. )

 

[roberts01]

Thanks, just put a emerald crab in the tank. Probably aclimsting as i can not see him do anything.

Will try the peroxide spot treatment. As i had great success dealing with cyano and dino in my previouse tank when dosing peroxide.

 

[roberts01]

Spot peroxide treatment did not work. So started to dose api algaefix, no more dictyota after 7 doses.

 

[shred5]

I got rid of it just by controlling nutrients same way I got rid of bryopsis once.. I got a frag of zoas in I split with a friend and my tank it went away and in his it went crazy. It is one of the hardest but it is possible to get rid of it.

 

[mcarroll]

Spot peroxide treatment did not work. So started to dose api algaefix, no more dictyota after 7 doses.

Excellent news!

Just for posterity, can you tell us what you tried for the peroxide spot treatments?

The reason I wonder is that it's an open-ended treatment that you can "turn up" until it works (stronger peroxide, longer treatment times, more frequent treatments), but but it can take some time so I understand switching gears. So just wondering how far you were able to take it?

I have to admit that algae fix seems to be one of the most harmless AND effective treatments out there.....but I haven't really looked into it deeply since I've never used it much. Alas, it does not work on everything.

 

[roberts01]

For peroxide - i tried it 2 times same place with 4ml i actually did not notice any changed on that chunk of dictyota, since i had an outbreak of that thing i decided to go with algaefix.
Also starving was not an option since i have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. Tried overfeeding the tank and still am. That did not work aswell.

A while a go i was treating stringy type brown algae in sump with spot treatment of peroxide and it worked wonders. Imo and experience peroxide does not work on dictyota.

 

[roberts01]

So after few weeks clean tank from algae dictyota is coming back.

I do not want to add chemicals anymore.

But - when i had nitrates at 0.5-1 and po4 at 0.02 it seemed to help. Or it was dying and releasing them bck in to the water.

I am building an algae scrubber now and i am quite sure that would help in starvig it out or outcompeeting dictyota.

Will keep posted how will that go.

 

[mcarroll]

So considering the algaefix a bust I presume?

Are you saying that things seemed better when nutrients were up?

Scrubber is definitely worth a shot.

Is it still not interfering with corals or anything too bad like that?

 

[roberts01]

No it is just spreading like crazy and no one wants to eat it.

Algaefix works but i dont want to dose it constantly.

And it removed all the algae from tank, snails could starve to death.

I will install my scrubber thi week and see hw that goes.

An i think it was better when i had detectable nutrients.

 

[mcarroll]

An i think it was better when i had detectable nutrients.

I'm pretty sure I'd at least raise nutrient levels and probably reinstate and escalate the peroxide spot treatments. Either use larger quantities of peroxide, longer treatment times with flow off, or stronger peroxide. Remember that my starting guidance on the thread is really conservative – you can easily spot treat with the same volume of peroxide that you used to hit your whole tank with if you want to jump to that amount. Or use 30% strength peroxide from a health food store. Lay it all on one patch and let it bake in for a few minutes.

An ATS is a good idea for the long run, but IMO may not help the current condition.

 

[roberts01]

With the ats i will experiment. And already trying to increase nutrients, reduced zeolite duty time to half 3on 3off. And will put an oxidizer in the tank.

I think this dictyota is just a phase, tank has been runing only for ~6months. As i had a few wierd algae phases already. That is why i will try to trick the algae with a ATS.

 

[Aprod]

With the ats i will experiment. And already trying to increase nutrients, reduced zeolite duty time to half 3on 3off. And will put an oxidizer in the tank.

I think this dictyota is just a phase, tank has been runing only for ~6months. As i had a few wierd algae phases already. That is why i will try to trick the algae with a ATS.

Hey @roberts01
Dealing with the beginnings of a Dictyota outbreak in my nano tank and looking for some advice. Were you able to beat it? Let me know, thanks!

 

[Shroomer0512]

So a while a go i saw some blueish algae appearing in one place on rock.

Two months later it is spreading like crazy.

Plucking it with tweezers is hard an seems to make it worse since one loose part of that thing regrows in whola lot more.

Can not take the rock out.

As far as reading i will go with either

Api algaefix or hydrogen peroxide.

Wanted to ask if anyone had success of getting rid of it alternatimg water parmeters?

Running fm zeolight
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0
Kh 6.5
Ca 425
Mg 1425

I will tell you with first hand experience. I battled dictyota for multiple months. I added emerald crabs to fight it, cut down on feedings and that basically did nothing. My dictyota continued to grow. The dictyota took up about half of my rock and it was really dense.
With that being said, two days ago I added 2 tuxedo urchins to my 24 gallon tank, and my dictyota is about 70% gone. Highly recommend a tuxedo urchin or two for this algae. make sure to acclimate them correctly as they are pretty delicate from what I have read online.

 

[Kobooi]

I have a dictyota problem since August. Tank is 480 days old, with live rock.
Pulling it out doesn't work.
Based on just a few threads in forums, I decided to try API Marine algae fix. Been using it for a week (applied the 3rd dose today) and I can clearly see patches on the rock where the dictyota is disappearing. No other side effects so far.
I'll update in this thread in a few weeks, but at this rate I expect all dictyota to be gone.

 

[NanoDuder1]

I have a dictyota problem since August. Tank is 480 days old, with live rock.
Pulling it out doesn't work.
Based on just a few threads in forums, I decided to try API Marine algae fix. Been using it for a week (applied the 3rd dose today) and I can clearly see patches on the rock where the dictyota is disappearing. No other side effects so far.
I'll update in this thread in a few weeks, but at this rate I expect all dictyota to be gone.

Did this work?