Algae Problem! Help!

[jtown]

I've been battling this stuff for almost a year and it's getting exponentially worse. I don't know if it's algae anymore, but it looks more like a fern. does that make sense? My params are all 0 except my ammonia rises until I do a water change. The tank is around 82F and lights are 2 x 55W hello lights on for about 8 hours a day. I have 2 clowns and a royal gramma, 30 lbs. LR, a bunch of snails, an emerald, 3 scarlet hermits ... nobody will touch this stuff.

 

I get RO water from my LFS. Should I build a refugium with some macro? Should I buy an RO/DI unit? If I don't go fern picking every 4 days, it will get WAY out of hand. Any help would be appreciated.

[jtown]

another picture.

[Satchmo]

Looks like bryopsis. I dunno what to tell you, that stuff seems to be a scourge for some tanks. Look back a couple months for Crakeur's post about his adventures with this stuff. It did in his 7g.

 

I took some rock from him coated with bryopsis, and my Mexican turbos cleaned it up. Maybe you could try that, then trade off the Mexi when it's gone (those suckers get big for nanos).

[jtown]

oh man ... after reading a lot on this stuff I don't konw what I should do. I better tear it down and scrub one of these days.

[Acoustic]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Do yourself a favor and get a shrimp (Like a cleaner or a peppermint) . I swear to you that he will eat it faster than it can grow.

[LiQuiD]

What do you have as a clean-up/algae crew? I would suggest you buy one of those $5 battery operated toothbrushes, stick the handle part in a sandwhich bag and tape seal it toward the top by the brush to keep the SW out. Pull out what you can, then use the tooth brush to scrub away as much as possible. If you don't have a good crew (snails, crabs, etc.), get them and add them to keep the sprouts at bay. Snails and crabs usually only eat the sprout sized growth that you can rarely see, once it has grown in length, they usually don't touch it and just go around it.