Aglae prob,,I hate it, but looks cool..

[maddmaxx]

I got a hand full of chaeto from someone a couple months ago for my fuge. I seen it had other types of algae in it, so I pruned out what I could. last week some time I noticed the algae migrated to the main display. now I have patches of cotton candy aglae all over my rocks. It looks cool as hell, lil pink fuzzy balls, but still something not wanted in the main display. I started running my fuge light 24/7 two days ago hoping the macro algae would pick up what is fueling the cotton candy algae. I have GFO that's running that is only 2 weeks old. not sure why it sprouted so much or why its maintaining in the system. but its there lol....again not wanted, but looks cool. first time every seeing this type of algae before....

[brandon429]

well you know I can beat it if your other options dont pan out. so easy to beat with an external treatment. this absolutely isn't guaranteed to be nutrient controlled, all thick bodied rhodophyta will throw you for a loop there and then sometimes a tank will get lucky with phosphate control but hardly ever, rho is just so adapted to pulling nutrients out of a magic hat. but yes its rather easy to beat with direct treatments, personally Id never put up with one sprig of that stuff in the main dt

[maddmaxx]

Originally Posted by brandon429

well you know I can beat it if your other options dont pan out. so easy to beat with an external treatment. this absolutely isn't guaranteed to be nutrient controlled, all thick bodied rhodophyta will throw you for a loop there and then sometimes a tank will get lucky with phosphate control but hardly ever, rho is just so adapted to pulling nutrients out of a magic hat. but yes its rather easy to beat with direct treatments, personally Id never put up with one sprig of that stuff in the main dt

ok what do you suggest then? and the lowest rocks that it formed on are my base rock that is pushed into the sand to hold the rest of the rocks. so I really don't wanna pull all that rock out and mess with the sand bed if not needed...

[brandon429]

Im like a broken record on algae threads

I beat them with peroxide. yes there is a way to fix the lower rocks of it using peroxide, if it freaks you out there are probably some fish that might eat it, tanks, or you can keep manually dealing with it.

algae is no cure all, its just something we can control well. some people hate it, if you want to read about what we do with it the thread is huge and packed with pics and 60 pages by now, pico reef pest algae problem challenge thread
do a google search for it here in the nanos forum.

to save you 60 pages of reading here is the condense:

need to know whats in the refugium, need full tank shots of everything so I can spot the few peroxide intolerant animals there are. thats before we do anything inside the tank, of which comprises 90% of that thread, full sps and LPS tanks, tanks with all kinds of fish, its all in there.

before you start anything pull out a top test rock, the easiest one to get with algae on it. lift it out

take 3% medical grade peroxide, a new bottle not a flat one, and pour some on the algae. this isn't powerful antibiotic poison like some would have you believe, just pour some on the algae and if some runs down the side of the rock no big deal. let sit cooking for about a minute. rinse very well, with clean sw

we aren't putting a single drop back in your tank until we get the list of all animals and plants or a great set of pics I can ID from

so this rinse now makes your rock clean of peroxide, put back in tank, dont remove the algae. we are watching it die to chart that specific death rate and we'll know what to expect for the rest of it. this group will die in 6 days, watch. maybe 8, but its that predictable if your peroxide wasn't flat and old.

so the lower stuff we get by taking a medicine bottle, the little brown pill ones, and tapping a hole in the bottom. or any other cupping device.

you lower it onto the bad spot so its inside the cupping device, and inject some peroxide using a diabetics syringe and let it sit underwater a couple mins then pull off the cup and the low dose will dissipate into the tank/ if this sounds scary, read the thread, its not. we have excellent results.

Some hate this method, it just feels to wierd. In a world of Bayer insect killer dips this standard kinda surprises me, but its ok if you dont like it. There is a reason I use the method, its in the thread. we GET results with it like others do with their ways

at least you have a choice now!
these challenges are no prob
B

[maddmaxx]

fuge has 6" sand bed. and mostly chaeto with lil pockets of this cotton candy algae..



tank has 2 branching SPS, 2 birdnest, some softies like leathers, zoas, shrooms, and 3 yellow tail damsels..
most of this cotton candy algae is on the right side of the tank

[maddmaxx]

[maddmaxx]

I have 3 Mexican turbos in the tank doing the cleaning, but they don't seem to bother the cotton candy algae tho

[brandon429]

That tank can handle a rather large dose straight into it for sure, more than you would be comfortable adding. But we don't need to, thats how everyone did it when we started. Nowadays we still use the least we can in the concentration/medicine bottle idea. Even Saran wrap works thats a neat technique there are pics of it somewhere there.

After we do that test rock, go ahead and hit a lot of the easy rocks like that, might as well fast clean what you can, we can try a submerged concentration run as a test using about a tenth of the overall peroxide I'm sure that whole tank could take.

I look for cleaner shrimp and singular anemones as primary risks

Or plumbed refugia with macros, we kill macro infestations with this stuff. Marine primary producers hate, hate peroxide which is probably why they leak it into the ocean as a metabolic byproduct on a constant basis. Maybe we are backing up that system destructively somehow, don't know.

That appears to be a lemnalia or lithophyton soft coral up front left, Kenya tree cap maybe... those I'd rate as mildly reactive and I recall no losses in them. They may close up for a day, but not with these little concentration runs. Even the guys in the chem forum who maintain very strict lines during peroxide wars in there agree dissipation of small doses is likely within 36 hours, and, the amounts we use will be well within the known safe dose of one ml peroxide per ten gallons of your tank water. We can put that much into the tank a few times a week were that actually needed.

The right run for this tank was you acting early and simply erasing it from where you don't want it. For the substrate areas, I'd be scooping that out, clean that sand with peroxide real good externally, place back in. Some areas will take repeats until you simply win. Red algae is now eradicated from my reefbowl and it took a long time but I was working in much tougher areas comparatively. This tank is wide open and lightly stocked, easy pickings Sir

Once we clean this ill link up to both threads since your before and after pics are so nice.

This being from the list of obligate hitchikers, unlike green various hair algae and cyano strains that can come in through multiple vectors including the air in some cases, means once you beat it, it won't come back unless its obviously imported again. Peroxide is good at killing rhodophyta sp it just has about a weeks delay. A few repeats are needed, the biomass can be removed from the front scape with dedication.

You will read others tales of sps issues with the technique, just not on our threads

For some reason, the way we roll does not harm sps, they are listed as strong tolerants in the thread. Heck there are multiple pics of seriatopora dipping where I thought they were kinda pushing it, but they wanted the algae gone at all risks and it worked. Over and over...nano-reef.com peroxide thread shows it too. That's over a hundred pages of pics to see before anyone starts.

This is one method that should work well. Instead of claiming instant victory on a hitchhiker only to have 1% not respond and still wipe out the tank, we have transitioned moreso into making accurate predictions about where peroxide is safe to try. This tank is an ideal test run it will be non harmful to try as listed. And I think it will be cleaned as well.

Anyone could take out a rock and toothbrush it clean just the same with no chemicals. Using peroxide is simply a biocide that really destroys algae mass well that may be hidden down in crevices a toothbrush misses, when peroxide does work, the results have been repeatedly astounding and simple to attain. My tank loves the stuff, we can tell if you will like it by maybe Monday as these external test runs will really show how effective it will be on your particular strain.

Stuff is pretty fun to work with thanks for considering it

B

[brandon429]

Check this prediction out


After you dose a test area, in three days your snails will mow it, almost always happens...such a strange phenomena

Obviously the cellular lysing of the algae or some kind of chemical changes are leaking attractive chemicals for them into the water I dunno...maybe it smells like an Olive Garden to them but either way this stuff is crack for your clean up crew lol

[maddmaxx]

I would have to get new peroxide. Also will this affect the chaeto in the fuge? The main tank is 220g with a 125g sump.. I do not have any kenya trees. Its leathers some acros some bird nests some shrooms and some zoas.

[meegwell]

I too have Cotton Candy, just recently, invading my 'fugue!!! My cheato used to grow great, now its tiny and covered in pink cotton! This stuff is not in my display tank, and it's new as of the past few weeks:

[brandon429]

In our threads, we have a 50 50 survival rate with chaeto. But that's for fully dosed 1:10 tanks which we aren't doing, so I give your chaeto a 90% chance of no harm maxx if you work up to submerged, concentrated spot treatments that are of small volume. Of the macros, its the toughest imo and based on thread feedback.

This is why external treatments are so great and worth the work. Nothing in the display can die because of the pre rinse step

[brandon429]

I would envision that algae as a quick fragmenting regenerator which is why I don't recommend scrubbing any further, just let whatever dies die. Its of no more collective nutrient consequence to your tank vs 1/4 of an average daily feeding.

Expect some follow up work for a while, but p will kill it. You will like the external test outcomes and those are also nice because you aren't wasting hours rescaping a tank just for an initial assessment

[maddmaxx]

I don't have a diabetic syringe needle tho. and not in any position to get one either...ill try to get the peroxide this weekend to start treatment I guess. so you suggest taking out what rocks I can. (should I prescrub them?), put peroxide on it. let sit, then rinse in fresh saltwater, then place back into tank? are we goin to be dosing the tank at all?

[maddmaxx]

Originally Posted by meegwell

I too have Cotton Candy, just recently, invading my 'fugue!!! My cheato used to grow great, now its tiny and covered in pink cotton! This stuff is not in my display tank, and it's new as of the past few weeks:

be cautious. this came into my main display by spores coming thru the return line. and it came out of now where.

[brandon429]

I wouldn't dose the tank yet, this first step is a no all on commitment run. If you have mutant pink that wont respond we will have only wasted a min of your time. Syringes can be ordered online but there are other ways. Ill brainstorm you an easier method if your test runs show promise and we have to get to that lower scape

I would not prescub, thats a fragmenting action imo

Just lift out a rock, pour peroxide right out the bottle slowly a few drops on that spot. Its not going to bubble like a cut or anything, just a light fizz or maybe zero fizz but its already working on the plant cells. Hold 2 mins out of the tank. Then rinse off in a bucket or something of clean water and put back in tank

For days you will think it didnt work
Then bam, a melting preceded by a color change in the algae to hot pink color. If it works you will be able to get neat pics of it! I think a very good red algae pic progression is on page nine of the big peroxide thread mentioned above in the nanos forum here.

Leave the algae in place, we need to see how it dies and how well that spot remains clean before you start the real work. do this on any simple rocks you can get out

This will not recycle the rock, its simply harmless, my tank stays drained for 20 mins routinely with full established corals I have vids of it on my yt channel if one can pick through all the drone vids lol.

[maddmaxx]

ok like I said ill have to get the peroxide this weekend when im out and about. so im hoping this works. I don't want it to over take the tank..

[maddmaxx]

I picked up some peroxide today. tomorrow I will remove what rocks I can and start the process. the lower rocks will not be removed.