Turf Algae removal

pulpfiction · Dec 29, 2022

I think all the green stuff is turf algae. It's very hard to remove. I've been scraping it off the rocks but I still don't get much of it. The snails don't eat it. Could something be fueling it? I feed a bit of rods food almost daily and 1ml of red sea AB+. I'm not sure how to get rid of it. Keep scraping?

It's slowly growing on all the rock and only where I have coralline. The more coralline I get the more this algae spreads.

Timfish · Dec 29, 2022

I would get an urchin myself. You might try a syringe with H2O2, hold the nozzle at the base of a spot of algae and squirt out a tiny amount. It will kill coraline also. You might also try steel straws when you siphon water out with water changes. And FWIW, turf algae feed off the nitrogen and phosphorus the corals feed off, so be careful if you choose to manipulate those.

trsmith18 · Jan 8, 2023

Same issue. I don’t have any corals at the moment so I removed the entire rock structures and hosed them down with H2O2.

killed it all. Been trying to lower my PO4 to keep it check because I cannot get a snail to survive in my tank for the life of me

mslatts_reef · Jan 8, 2023

Algae need nutrients and light to survive. How long do you run your lights? Maybe reducing the amount of time the lights are on would help.

On the nutrient side, assuming your water maintenance is under control (RO/DI water and regular changes), it could be worth trying pellet food for a bit and seeing if there's a change. I've noticed that feeding frozen in my reef leads to more algae growth.

When I have algae issues it's usually due to the nutrients.

pulpfiction · Jan 8, 2023

I run my lights 7 hours. Including the hour ramp up and down time. I have issues with indirect morning light so I cover the tank with a towel half the day. My water is rodi made and reading 0 tds out.

I feed a little bit of rods food almost every day but could try doing pellets more.

Weird thing is my algae rotates. I had hair. then bubble. now turf. I did nothing for the hair or bubble. Both went away on their own but I could always manually remove it unlike this algae. I would prefer not to kill my coralline if possible.