Steve973 Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 Hi all... I have between one and three types of macroalgae in my tank that seem to be keeping my tank from looking great. From looking at pictures and identification sites, I am pretty sure i have lobophora variegata, and I have either one or both of padina, and/or stylopodium zonale, but it's hard for me to know for sure based upon the pictures. What I believe is lobophora is brown and remains basically on the surface of the rocks. The other species curls upward and has some splits in it, and is held on by one single narrow piece per leaf. Both kinds of algae get a type of "fuzz" on the leaves, which I'm assuming relates to reproduction somehow. I can manually remove the algae to a certain extent, but it doesn't take long before it comes back. I'd like to eliminate this algae to achieve a "cleaner" look in my tank. Any suggestions? Since people will probably ask, my parameters are like this (all test kits are Salifert and the hydrometer is IO): s.g. 1.025 pH ~8.1 dKH 8 Ca 490 N03 0 ppm I can't get my organics test to show a result with tank water or with distilled water, so I don't know their levels, and when I ordered my test kits, they were out of the phosphate test, so I have no idea about the level of phosphates. Thanks for any info... Steve Link to comment
jenniebutterfly Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 do you have any snails? i have two turbos that eradicate every type of macro i have tried to put into my tank. they may work for you Link to comment
Steve973 Posted January 17, 2005 Author Share Posted January 17, 2005 Thanks for the reply. I have astrea and margarita snails. I haven't seen any snails that eat even semi-calcerous algae, have you? If you get a chance, google the types of algae that I mentioned in my inital post... They probably don't even look appetizing to starving herbivores! Steve Link to comment
jenniebutterfly Posted January 17, 2005 Share Posted January 17, 2005 hmmm you did not explain that they were semi calcerous, when you said leaves i was figuring regular macro. i dunno then lol Link to comment
Steve973 Posted January 17, 2005 Author Share Posted January 17, 2005 Yep, it's nasty stuff! Link to comment
SurfOnH20 Posted February 14, 2005 Share Posted February 14, 2005 have you tried any Phosgard ? Link to comment
Steve973 Posted February 14, 2005 Author Share Posted February 14, 2005 Jennie, what happened to the jennie coral in your avatar? But I've used phosguard a long time ago, and i'm trying rowaphos now. I have also purchased an urchin to help with control for the time being. Steve Link to comment
jenniebutterfly Posted February 14, 2005 Share Posted February 14, 2005 haha what about the jennie coral? i got rid of it, too many people asking if it were really me. tired of answering the question. maybe one day i wil put up a new one Link to comment
Steve973 Posted February 15, 2005 Author Share Posted February 15, 2005 You gave me a great idea. I'm going to do a similar thing, except I'm going to use a picture that's *not* me, because that'd surely make sense. Link to comment
NCNBilly Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 The only thing that eats that kind of algae are urchins, but they eat coralline too. Check on RC and ask Dr. Ron. He da' man. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted February 15, 2005 Author Share Posted February 15, 2005 I bought a long spine urchin this weekend. It's an extremely cool animal, though I know I won't be able to keep it for too long. I'll see how it goes. Link to comment
Undertheradar Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 I find long spined and tuxedo urchins arent very interested in eating macro. They are great for vacuuming up cyano and microalgae, but the one I have in my fuge doesnt touch the macro at all...just the micro (hes been in there for almost a year now)...with the rare exception of some finer macroalgaes like the hairy grassilaria...but I doubt one will do much for a macro problem. I borrowed a yellow tang from my cousin's tank...it was cramped, but he spent a week in my tank and whiped out the macros. Or, if you dont have other tiny crabs, get a larger male emerald crab. Mine chews through the macro "a bushel of grapes at a time". Be careful with the urchin. They have been known to eat polyps and shrooms. My tuxedo hasnt, but a longspine might... Link to comment
BKtomodachi Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 They can also scrape up coralline. Link to comment
huari Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Did you ever find a solution to decreasing the Lobophora variegata? I have a case of it too. It started on a coralline encrusted rock as some brown semi-circular leathery-looking leaves that I initially thought pleasing. Now it won't go away spreading on my snail guard ATO, powerhead, another rock and is tough to scrap off. I've read the usual scrub off and dip but wanted to know of any other creative ideas. Mine also has that fuzz and has encroached on my poor monti digi though I've read SPS and this algae grow naturally together in the wild. Link to comment
reef-luva Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I second the Yellow Tang idea, unless you have other "greens" in there you wish to keep. I've seen Urchins strip LR of coraline...bad urchin, bad! Link to comment
reef n ale Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 Hey Steve! Did you get rid of the Lobophora? I've had it for a while, but just found out what it was called(Thanks again Flo!). How 's it going? Rob Link to comment
Steve973 Posted August 30, 2005 Author Share Posted August 30, 2005 Lobophora is a real pain. The only hope of removing it would be manual removal, or to get an urchin. I don't think it's a big deal to sacrifice some coralline to get rid of that crap that wants to cover your rocks. Diadema setosum (the long spined urchin with the orange ring around its bung) seemed to be pretty effective, as well as diadema savignyi. Some Echinometra species could help, too. They may scrape coralline off of your rocks, and it's possible that some zoanthids or other "surface polyps" might get consumed in the process, espeically when the food source begins to dwindle. Link to comment
reef n ale Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 Steve, are you saying yours is gone? And is the setosum the one you used? Rob Link to comment
Steve973 Posted August 31, 2005 Author Share Posted August 31, 2005 i had a setosum and one species of echinometra. But yes, the setosum should work after enough time goes by. I don't think that's the type of algae it prefers, but after it goes through more "preferred" algae, it will eat lobophora Link to comment
steelhealr Posted October 15, 2005 Share Posted October 15, 2005 Hi..was just curious how you made out. Check out my thread as I am having a similar problem. Thanks for your help. Frank http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...opic=66398&st=0 Link to comment
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