Help identify algae
- Thread starter kkeller416
- Start date
pugz508
Well-Known Member
Have to find out the source of the problem. If its cyno its most likely a flow issue, what kind of light are you using, old gts can be a culprit but essentially algae needs phosphates to develop so are you overfeeding or using tap water/dirty rodi filter? I dose a small amount of nopox to reduce nitrates and po4 to provide just enough algae to feed the clean up crew. Other ways would be gfo reactors or algae scrubber/large fuge with macro algae
kkeller416
Non-member
Running a aio setup so don't want/can't add reactors or scrubbers or even growing macro has been tough.
Running good water thru rodi. I practically starve my fish.. Feeding once or twice a week.. 20 percent water change every other week....
When I test for nitrates or phosphates they read 0.... So I stopped running gfo cause I wanted low level phosphates for Coral growth...
Running good water thru rodi. I practically starve my fish.. Feeding once or twice a week.. 20 percent water change every other week....
When I test for nitrates or phosphates they read 0.... So I stopped running gfo cause I wanted low level phosphates for Coral growth...
serwobow
Well-Known Member
It looks like red hair algae to me. If it is the same, kind of wiry stuff that I have, then I can give some advice, since I have it under control. It used to cover almost all my rocks, but now is mostly difficult to find in my tank. First, it is impossible to starve it out. I have tried that route. It is way, way more resistant to starvation than coral. Everything else in your tank will starve to death before this stuff dies. Also, you can't kill it by turning off the lights. It will survive for months in the dark. But, luckily, it seems to taste good to at least a couple different things. The foxface rabbit fish likes to eat it. He will keep it mowed to about 1cm. Probably other grazing fish like tangs will eat it, but I have never tried one of those. Most importantly, emerald crabs really like it, and they can probably clear a tank of it on their own. But emeralds are very haphazard eaters, and so it takes a lot of them. I had close to 10 emeralds in my 50g tank before I really noticed it starting to disappear. Also, I think the turbos may help to clear it, but only after it gets mowed really short, like 1mm. Lastly, it may be impossible to completely eradicate, since its little runners go into every tiny crevice in every rock. But, on the bright side, it will feed your grazers indefinitely.
I had this when I first set up my tank and it was everywhere. On every rock every crevice some of the areas where almost 3” long. Then I got my magnificent fox face rabbit fish. I didn’t witness it often because I was working a ton but it Disappeared fairly fast. I also got like 5 turbo snails and they were able to put a decent dent in it too. They were able to mow down some of the larger patches fairly fast. Just had to make sure I placed them directly on the rock with it otherwise they wouldn’t find it lol.
