outpost Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 I have it. It is a long stringy variety in my 10 gallon covering 80% in my 10 gallon. It sucks big time. LFS guy said to remove the rock and scrub it away. The problem is my reef structure is thee separate pices held together by a load of putty. Any other solutions? Please help. Was thinking of the was some kind of non toxic tarp that I could cover the rock in the tank with I could starve it for light. Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 It's not hair algae, scrubbing wont get it out, its got roots. pull it out by hand. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 if you starve that of light your going to have alot of muck in your tank.Just pull it out. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 i doesn't come out when I pull it out. Some breaks off but most stays. The roots definitely do stay. Is there anything bad about the muck? I was think about covering the rocks with aluminum foil. I did a little research and its not toxic. When I remove the foil I could easily remove the muck Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 get the lid off, turn off pumps/filter. get in there with both hands, hold the rock down with one, use your other hand to pluck the leaves as close to the rock as possible. Let it only snap partially, but you have to get it out if it is already all over the place. Caulerpa can go sexual on you, that can crash your tank. Act. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 its not full on razor like caulerpa. I guess it's technically is. I looks like long stringy algae with little branches a millimeter long coming our of both sides and it really sways in the current. Link to comment
Scottynose Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 doesn't matter, you gotta pull it out if you want it gone. once it gets too long any type of crab or anything like that won't eat it over something smaller. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 So why can't I starve it for light with aluminum foil?? Link to comment
NickNat Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 So why can't I starve it for light with aluminum foil?? Try Pencil Urching, they like all algae. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 Why can't I starve it for light with aluminum foil?! Link to comment
Euphyllia Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Turn the temperature up to 86 gradually and leave it there. It should cause the caulerpa to weaken. It will turn mushy and you can just siphon it out. You'll need to do a water change immediately after. Worked for me. Link to comment
pismo_reefer Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Wow.... There are some dumb suggestions in this thread. -------------- *Cough* Algae Blenny *Cough* -------------- Get an algae blenny..... Start doing water changes every 3 days. Watch your nitrates go down, and yer algae start to wither, and go away.... The blenny will finish the job for you. Turning out the lights for a couple of day's should help... You can't just "pull it out". You have to address the REAL issue.... No one has EVER just "pulled out" their Caulerpa problem. EVER.... Link to comment
RESONANCE Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Do you have a picture of your problem algae? If so, post it here so we can help you better. Some forms or caulpera are easier to deal with than others. Some can be simply pulled out, but others, like grape caulpera are almost impossible. Regardless, there's a tiny sea slug from the caribbean that's specialized in eating caulpera of all sorts. Some people on this forum have them and some retailers even sell them. Ask around for Oxynoe viridis. Here's a google image link: http://www.google.ca/search?q=Oxynoe+virid...h=709&uss=1 Link to comment
Bishop Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Just realized how helpfull it is to have a thread for your tank. With a thread, we could click on the link and see some valuable info on your tank. I'm gonna guess at the source and say you are either over feeding or over stocked. Both are prime ingredients for a tank to have 80% of any type of algae. If this is the case, adding any type of fish to deal with the algae problem will only add to the algae problem by adding more bioload. The way you describe it reminds me of my staghorn problem in my old puffer tank. As long as the bio load was there the algae was not going anywhere. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 Euphyllia will 86 degrees hurt my sps or any other type of coral? My light cycle was reduced to 8 hours 2 days ago and I just turned it down to 5.5 hours. I'm doing 20% weekly water changes right now. I heard that caulerpa will just grow once its there. Not to say that nitrates won't make it grow faster but I've heard it can still grow when you have no nitrates and phosphate. Its not grape. My pictures don't do It justice.It just looks like hair algae but definitely has little "branches" Link to comment
RESONANCE Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 UH-OH.... Hair algae with branches... sounds like bryopsis. Very different problem from caulpera. I think even a bad picture is better than no picture, post it if you can. Here's some images of bryopsis: http://www.google.ca/search?q=bryopsis&...h=709&uss=1 My pictures don't do It justice.It just looks like hair algae but definitely has little "branches" Link to comment
outpost Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 Yup. Its bryopsys. New game plan? Link to comment
Euphyllia Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Yup. Its bryopsys. New game plan? Flee the country. That stuff is impossible to get rid of. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 thanks man. I'm going to try something. Does anybody know that if I put aluminum foil in my tank it will leach? I'm going to starve it for light. Link to comment
Lee Van Reef Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Raise the magnesium levels in your tank to really high levels and that can kill it off. That or use hydrogen peroxide. If you use the search function, there have been several remedies, including details on the two I've mentioned. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 ok. I've heard that lawnmower blenys eat it sometimes and so do nudis. Link to comment
Bishop Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 i would never put any metals in my tank. when was the last time you saw something like a powerhead or any other under water aquarium hardware made of aluminum due to it being reef safe? Secondly, Algae is benificial to the tank even if it is ugly. It's growth is major indicator of nitrate as well as a means of exporting nitrate. Sounds as though you have a nitrate problem. I am most certain that the problem in your tank is not because you have light. If you remove the light instead of the nitrate, the algae will not be able function and no longer absorb these nitrates in the water. This will starve it out but in the wrong way. As it dies and breaks down, the nitrates that it had absorbed in the past will be added right back to the water column. This could seriously cause nitrate problems requireing very heavy water changes. This will also cause an algae explosion. It would be easier to do water changes now to reduce nitrates. It would be much less work in the end. The next step is to get something to compete for nitrates. Coral and anemone do feed off low levels of nitrates. Also Mangroves and macros like cheato algae. Im most certain that my pulsing xenia out competes all algae, although this can be a pest itself. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 thankyou sir. I have a 10 gallon. how often should water changes be and how much? Link to comment
Bishop Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 10% a week is the normal. since there isnt much problem mixing 2-3 gallons of salt water, 20-30% change seems easy enough. This should leave you with no problems unless you are heavily overstocked. at this point the only option would be to remove livestock. As long as you keep the PH, temp, and salinity matching, you could do 2 water changes at about 4 gallons. One today, one tomorrow. That would give an immediate drop of about 75% nitrate since that is two 50% changes. Then do more or less of regular water changes depending on how much nitrate you have in the water. If you have not been doing water changes then just start doing them and be confident that you are not over feeding. Test your nitrates between water changes once they are below 10 PPM you should start manual removal of the algae. Dont bother trying to remove all of it. A rock at a time is fine. You just want to nitrate low enough that it dont grow right back. You are not going to remove it all anyway. Water changes also maintain a water/mineral balance which effects the health of the tank. Link to comment
outpost Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 I'm currently doing 20% weekly water changes and have a little clown in there that I feed 3-4 mysis every other day. I'm going to H202 dose 1 mL every day and knock that elgea on its ass. And I will do another WC in a couple days Link to comment
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