Help Needed: Algae Infestation in Reef Tank Destroying Corals

[Qihan7]

I just returned from a trip and discovered a lot of long algae in my reef tank. Could you help me identify these and advise on how to get rid of them? They are damaging my corals and clam. Thank you!

 

[Solo McReefer]

Small paint brush
Toothbrush
Wire brush
Waterproof toothbrush(awesome)
100 bucks worth of snails and hermit Crabs

Decrease white light
ATS or Algae Reactor
Decrease Ns and Ps
Herbivores

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

How old is the tank? It looks very new, its normal for new tanks to fight with algae within the first year. Its also normal to have algae infestation after being away and leaving auto-feeders on.

Manual removal, watch the nutrient levels, water changes, increase the clean up crew.... start working on it, it takes effort and time to get rid of algae infestations.

 

[Reef Outfit]

The first thing I recommend is to stop the problem from getting worse by immediately cutting down on the sources of growth, which are nutrient-rich water and light, by Increasing the frequency of water changes and reducing the amount of time the lights are on.

It might be challenging, but if you follow the advice from others, you'll be fine.

 

[Dburr1014]

Getting Rid of Green Hair Algae | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

Adjusting lights will not work. Even if you do and then return the lights after the hair is gone, what will happen? More hair.

Red, White, or Blue: Which color is right for you? Algae Growth under Different Colors of Light | Vasquez | Journal of Introductory Biology Investigations

undergradsciencejournals.okstate.edu

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I just returned from a trip and discovered a lot of long algae in my reef tank. Could you help me identify these and advise on how to get rid of them? They are damaging my corals and clam. Thank you!

What are your parameters?
What about CUC?
I would try and manually remove as much as possible

 

[Semper.Reefing]

Beef up the clean up crew. Eliminate the source allowing the algae to grow whether it’s cutting back on feeding or doing more water changes. A large clean up crew will definitely eat it all though!

 

[Timfish]

Patience is essential, you are trying to change the equilibrium of your ecosystem and that won't happen overnight. Algae and corals are competitors for nutrients so you need to be careful about reducing them. You also need ot be sure you maintain alkalinity, calcium and magnesium. For Nitrates and phosphates natural levels of < 5 mg/l for Nitrate and .03 - .3 mg/l for phosphate (be sure to keep it above .03 to avoid PO4 deficiency in your corals). You didn't list your parameters but you last thing I worry about when getting rid of nuisance algae issues are nutrients. I use weekly water changes (~5%-10%) and use steel straws to scrape and remove algae from rocks. My preffered herbivores are short spine urchins (not pencil urchins) large herbivorus hermits like the thin stripe and sally light foot crabs. H2O2 can be helpful you can dip rocks in a mix of 5 or 6 parts aquarium water and 1 part H2O2 and you can also use H2O2 in a syrenge and apply small amounts (1-2 ml) directly to the base of the algae, be sure not to use a total of 1ml per gallon total. I definitely would not turn off lights as you are inhibiting the corals ability to compete with the algae.

Here's some links that may help you understand what's going on in your system.

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas " This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title. (Used are available on line and it may be free to read on Internet Archive.) Both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC (carbon dosing) in reef ecosystems and how it can alter coral microbiomes. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems and are an excellent starting point to understand the conflicting roles of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC, aka "carbon dosing") in reef ecosystems.

DOC is The Most Important Parameter For A Healthy Reef Tank: Here’s a New Method to Manage It | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

In this article, I will provide an overview of my take on the current zeitgeist of reefing and explain why the entire industry is ignoring a critical aspect of coral care. I will explain what issues…

reefbuilders.com

Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes

Microbial view of Coral Decline

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont

BActeria and Sponges

Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)

Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching

DNA Sequencing and the Reef Tank Microbiome

Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

Here are two threads I posted on the local forum detailing how i got rid of nuisance algae issues in systems:

Hair Algae, A Case Study.

Nuisance algae in reef systems is pretty much a ubiquitous problem, and one that is a common source of frustration for reef aquarists. It is also one I've learned to view the problem very differently than what is generally portrayed and it just takes a few rather basic steps, and patience. (This ...

www.austinreefclub.com

Hair Algae, a second case study

Nuisance algae in reef systems is pretty much a ubiquitous problem, and one that is a common source of frustration for reef aquarists. It is also one I've learned to view the problem very differently than what is generally portrayed and it just takes a few rather basic steps, and patience. (This ...

www.austinreefclub.com

 

[Qihan7]

Thank you guys for helping. Currently, the algae are under control. I manually removed them and also bought a sea hare, which efficiently ate a lot of the long hair algae.