Red Turf Algae

[zcatzmeow]

Yay me! I get my own variety of weird algae to treat. So as it turns out the brown fuzzy algae is actually this lovely shade of maroon red, lol. I simply needed to blow off all the sediment and detritus, sneak off with one of the extra kid's toothbrushes to find out it's true color. It grows in single little stalks like grass would and it very course, impossible to scrub or tweeze off.

My current treatment plan is cleaning the heck out of the tank. The rocks are treated to a small storm via turkey baster daily, fine filter floss to grab all the stuff I stir up, and sand vacuuming. Magnesium levels have been raised to 1500. A lawnmower blenny and a white sand sifting star have been added to the group. My tailspot blenny hates the lawnmower and chases him on sight. (Odd because the tailspot did fine with the yellow fiji and my previous sailfin blenny. ) And I started Zeo about 2 months ago, so my nitrates and phosphates are always at zero.

In addition, I've taken up staring at my snails figuring out just exactly what they are cleaning . Turbos, margaritas, nassarius, and bumble bee snails are no help. But....the carribean nerites seem to be eating it, albeit very slowly. So, I no longer let the snails naturally roam where they want. Nope, those little guys work for me . I pick them up and move them to their next "job site" if they wander off.

Advice welcome!

[CoryDude]

Kind of like a construction foreman. Crack that whip.

I had that stuff years ago, and you're right, it's impossible to scrub off. Keep scrubbing and blowing off those rocks w/the turkey baster. Takes a while, but should disappear w/much, much, much effort.

[ErikH]

I had a minute battle with it. I cut my halides back to 11 hours per day instead of 12 and it subsided, along with the other algae.

Thanks to Cory, I have DEVO stuck in my head now..... GREATTTTT.

[zcatzmeow]

CoryDude - Thank you for encouragement

ScorpiNO - I'll try your advice. I'm not positive, but I think this stuff started showing up when I switched from compacts to halide. What about actinics? Do I need to shorten their cycle too?