Gracilaria taking over?

[longfin2]

Tank has been running for about a month and a half now. diatoms disappeared about a week and ahalf ago and i added a few frags. now, this red algae is popping up everywhere in the sump/fuge and the display tank. Even though it is still relatively short, up close it looks exactly like the red gracilaria clump in the fuge. Has anyone ever had this stuff just explode all over the place like this? I'm scared! This stuff is poised to take over the whole tank.

 

First pic is of the main clump in the fuge with the "sprouts" on a rock in the background and the second pic is a rock in the DT. Is this gracilaria or something else? If it is, what can I do about it? Tank is only a 12 gallon cube so a tang is outta the question and my margaritas dont seem to be eating it. Will one of the algae blennies eat this stuff? I rea.ly wanna get on top of this before it gets completely out of control. Thanks for your help everybody.

[discus513]

Never had this issue but if you are throwing it out I'd take some!

[longfin2]

The local store here has some teeny tiny hippo tangs? I suppose i could pick one up and trade him back when he gets too big. Do they even eat this? Guess I need a positive ID before I do anything. And yeah, if it goes nuts I'll gladly send it out to folks.

[Subsea]

Where did the rock come from? I would not put tangs in the tank until I knew more. Are any other desirable macros abundant? If it is only on the rock, you should consider scrubbing it off. For aggressive macro on rock, I remove rock from water and with a tooth brush dipped in straight H2O2 aggressively scrub it off.. The hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidizer, use it carefully.

Patrick

[Chris!]

Are you lighting the fuge 24/7? If not it is likely that the gracilaria went asexual and boom theres ya go I do believe most tangs will eat it, but in a 12g I wouldn't suggest many unless they are about dime, maybe quarter size lol

 

I think there may be a few snails that will eat it, but if theres nothing else in the tank I would suggest looking into getting rid of it more completely with something like peroxide or something that is going to be more permanent because it will come back if you just use snails or tangs.

[longfin2]

Crap, didnt know it would go sexual like caulerpa. Will a blue hippo tang eat it? they have some tiny ones here locally. The one i had in my old 150 gallon was only interested in brine shrimp n pellets.

[markalot]

You've been running a month and a half, stop talking about putting a tang in a 12 gallon. It won't eliminate it anyway, just keep it trimmed.

 

Your tank is going through the uglies as everything balances out and IMO the algae is just taking advantage of it. Crank up the lights and you'll probably kill it, or just ride it out. Have you measured your Nitrates and Phosphates to see if they are elevated?

 

You mention you had a 150, so do you have experience?

[GHill762]

an emerald crab will probably munch on it.. he loved my red gracilaria..

[longfin2]

You've been running a month and a half, stop talking about putting a tang in a 12 gallon. It won't eliminate it anyway, just keep it trimmed.

 

Your tank is going through the uglies as everything balances out and IMO the algae is just taking advantage of it. Crank up the lights and you'll probably kill it, or just ride it out. Have you measured your Nitrates and Phosphates to see if they are elevated?

 

You mention you had a 150, so do you have experience?

 

Easy there killer, yes i have experience. Why does everyone insist on telling people what and what not to put in their tank? I thought it was obvious in my posts that I understood that putting a tang in a tank that small is not the greatest idea.If it were just one of the "uglies" I wouldn't be concerned. how will cranking up the lights kill it? Nitrates are at 5 and phos at zero. N coming down with every weekly water change. I've got chaeto in the sump too, along with a skimmer, and 4 tablespoons of carbon in a homemade reactor that i run 24/7 and change every week.

 

Emerald crab sounds like an option, thanks ghill. Now, f I can only find a nice french angelfish to put in there I'll be fine, lol. how doea the whole peroxide thing work? I guess if i do a search on here it will turn up.

[Chris!]

Easy there killer, yes i have experience. Why does everyone insist on telling people what and what not to put in their tank? I thought it was obvious in my posts that I understood that putting a tang in a tank that small is not the greatest idea.If it were just one of the "uglies" I wouldn't be concerned. how will cranking up the lights kill it? Nitrates are at 5 and phos at zero. N coming down with every weekly water change. I've got chaeto in the sump too, along with a skimmer, and 4 tablespoons of carbon in a homemade reactor that i run 24/7 and change every week. Emerald crab sounds like an option, thanks ghill. Now, f I can only find a nice french angelfish to put in there I'll be fine, lol. how doea the whole peroxide thing work? I guess if i do a search on here it will turn up.

 

Yeah that isn't "part of the uglies" someone with experience should know that... and cranking the lights up won't kill it LOL.

 

But yeah like I said I wouldn't put a tang in there unless it was super tiny and the tank has alot going on in it already...... at this point it seems to be a fairly empty tank so I would look into the peroxide or even bleaching the rock to permanently remove it..... and toss the graciaria so you don't continue to have it pop up

[markalot]

Why did you insist on asking? There is no rational reason to put a tang in a new 12 gallon tank in order to eat an algae that many people have trouble growing. It's not about the tang. Good luck.

 

You don't have 0 phosphates by the way, otherwise it would not be growing. Uglies = imbalance ... you will experience periods of time when algae grows quickly due to nutrient imbalances, this is one of them in my opinion.

[Boggers]

It took over my 75G, tried Sailfin tang, manual removal, Yellow eye tang. So far just pick at it a little. I have heard emerald crab, but I would need 2 dozen to keep up with it. vodka dosing is starting to work, but I have considered pulling it all out.

 

and of course better feeding methods to reduce the phosphates it can pull in.

[longfin2]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I'll pick up an emerald next week and ride it out for a little while to see what happens. as a side note, it didnt spread to the DT and start popping up everywhere until right after I trimmed it. lesson learned......

[GHill762]

that's really odd.. I have red and green grac, never had this happen.. guess it went sexual is about the only explanation.. kinda neat looking.. maybe you could sell your LR to someone with a planted marine tank? or go a different direction with the tank in general..

[longfin2]

that's really odd.. I have red and green grac, never had this happen.. guess it went sexual is about the only explanation.. kinda neat looking.. maybe you could sell your LR to someone with a planted marine tank? or go a different direction with the tank in general..

Thats what I'm starting to lean towards. Get some critters that will keep it under control somewhat, and just incorporating it into the look of the tank. Don't wanna bleach my rock or get rid of it, already have about $100 worth of hardy frags (zoas, gsp, shrooms, etc.) glued to rocks. I'll update whats going on with it once a week in case I find a solution that may help someone else out with the same problem.

[metrokat]

Turf algae.

[markalot]

Ah, I should have noticed that. Just because it's red does not mean it's the same algae. Red turf algae is a pain ... but I've had it in spots in my 40 for over a year and it's never gotten out of hand. Damn Caulerpa probably uses all the nutrients first.

[longfin2]

Ah, I should have noticed that. Just because it's red does not mean it's the same algae. Red turf algae is a pain ... but I've had it in spots in my 40 for over a year and it's never gotten out of hand. Damn Caulerpa probably uses all the nutrients first.

 

Yeah, gonna have to let it grow a little bit to get a positive ID. Dont know if you can see it in the pics, but the new stuff appears to be developing the same branching pattern as my gracilaria. thats why I'm assuming thats what it is. Time will tell I suppose.

[gulfsurfer101]

I'm also going with turf algae. I'd try and manually remove as much as possible using a wire brush then bathe in old water from a water change.

[GHill762]

Looks a little girthy for turf but the growth pattern is the same.. I didn't even think about turf when I saw this. Good call kat..

[metrokat]

Options include peroxide dip the rock or get a mexican turbo snail.

[longfin2]

Ok, so am I even more screwed if its turf? mexican turbo you say? dont bother with the emerald crab?