As someone who has been battling red hair algae for many years in my tank I thought I would post this link as it is the first time I have found some real scientific info on RHA (Asparagopsis taxiformis ). the gyst of it is exactly what I have experienced- that nothing eats the stuff…
Personally, I made the full commitment in the last 8 months to battle this stuff to the last. Im tired of it crowding out my zoos and other corals. its been a VERY slow battle. my fish died while I was on vacation last summer and since then I have not put any food or supplements into my tank. even with skimming, GFO, cheato, and many other efforts, its still hanging on. that said, it is SLOWLY dying back, but I expect it to take at least another year.
I dont hear of many tank keepers fighting this stuff, but hopefully it will help someone if they run into it.
Mg is an interseting technique to research. From what ive read it really only affects a few species of algae. with that said, yes, im running it at 1500 anyway. figure it cant really hurt.
Have you dealt with RHA specifically and won? it sounds like many people have ended up tearing down and restarting because of this stuff.
I’ve had small patches of it, but never an infestation. I’ve always battled with GHA. I’ve found that peroxide dips work wonders, but you need to be able to get the rocks out to do it.
Have you tried a product called algeafix marine? I have used it for GHA and it works. Not sure if it would work on this stuff big I think I had a small patch of this cotton candy stuff and it’s now gone. It takes a few weeks but it works.
Havent tried that one. Im always pretty hesitant to put potions in my tank. that said, a qucik search of this product doesnt seem to have any notable horror stories. Ill keep that idea in mind as I progress down this road. thanks for the suggestion! another one that I saw recently that I may try is posphate RX. again Im always hesitant, but I saw melev reccomend this recently.
my plans are to keep with my slow and steady approach. im in no hurry and my tank is doing fine otherwise. the stuff is dying back slowly, but I have attempted this fight many times in the past. for now I plan on focusing on nutrients and I think Ill try some of the pacific turbos the article mentioned. I have tried just about every type of CUC over the yeras, but not sure Ive had those. if im still not out of the woods by the end of this summer, I may start some other tactics. probably dosing some type of “medication”. if all else fails, I may have to go to a distastefull option ( at least to me) at re-introduce culerpas to my tank. early in the hobby I had grape culerpa in my tank nearly take over. that was a long battle as well, but eventually won that one… may have to take a step back to move forward… we will see.
I don’t think it elevates your mag. I think it’s a watered down herbicide. I used it in a mixed reef w no ill effects. At the very least it’s worth a try. I’m not much for “potions” in a bottle but it seemed to work for me. Took about a month of following the dosing instructions to work. I know the root of the problem needs to be addressed but this may help it start to decline. Either way just giving my experience. Good luck!
WOW! That is extreme. some of these things are just dang good survivors, no matter what you throw at em. ive had a persistant infestation in the old 75, of verticulata . a fine green creeping macro, that covers everything like cotton candy. since i’m taking the tanks down Ive had the lights off at least 2 months. although it has declined greatly, it still covers a lot of the rock and sand. nasty stuff. nothing eats it either.
But in the past i have rid the tank of it with low nutrient, high density fuge and chem cleaning of nutrients. and lots of water changes. i just messed up after a year of starving it out, and moved a frag from a small tank that had a little thread of the stuff growing on it. Neglected it, and BOOM. its been every where in that tank since then the past 4 years. .
So lesson learned. if you see some new form of algea sprouting from a new frag or rock. anhialate it. right then, up front. you can live without seeing how it looks. .
In Full Bloom… there are only a few macros you might want to keep in your DT. and this aint one of them. Like your Red Hair Algea.
Good Luck Bob. hope you clear it.
I thought i would add some updates since i talked to a couple of people about this at the swap yesterday. I picked up a bunch of turbos from dr mac as well as getting a sea hare from dpa. The rha is still thriving. Also added poly filter to my chem filtering and culerpa to my fuge. We will see if this all jas any effect. …
Just another quick update with some pics. it appears that the turbos from Dr. macs will indeed eat this stuff. I dont think its their favorite food though, as they seem to only eat it after cleaning the tank glass. the sea hare did what I expected: crawled around for a while then disapeard and probably died. other improvements include higher flow rate turnover from the sump to the tank and polyfilter chem filtration.
I havent set one up… yet… my nutrient levels are so low that I have had cheato die off in my sump. I currently have feather culerpa in there and even that stuff is not growing much. its been about a month now since I added in the Turbos, and I can see some changes taking place in the tank.
all that said, if I still have RHA by mid summer , I think im going to build a scrubber and innoculate it with RHA and see if I can grow it out on the scrubber and out compete the tank conditions… we will see…
Have you looked into peroxide dosing? It won’t harm your tank mates just the nuisance algea. Its also great for dipping frags in that have algea on them.
[quote=“firecrackerbob, post:14, topic:7916”]
I havent set one up… yet… my nutrient levels are so low that I have had cheato die off in my sump. I currently have feather culerpa in there and even that stuff is not growing much. its been about a month now since I added in the Turbos, and I can see some changes taking place in the tank.
all that said, if I still have RHA by mid summer , I think im going to build a scrubber and innoculate it with RHA and see if I can grow it out on the scrubber and out compete the tank conditions… we will see…[/quote]
ATS have more nutrient export capability than most fuges due to the more flow and more gas exchange. That being said, I’ve seen some amazing “super” fuges before, but they had a 150W MH lighting and about 30g or so of cheato.
beadlocked- no, havent tried peroxide. unfortunately, this stuff is all over my tank, so to do it effectively I think it involve a full breakdown. I have read many stories of this stuff eventually forcing people to go to that extreme. I think if I was going to go that far, I would just frag out everyting, then basically start my tank over… I dont think it will come to taht now that I am finally seeing some progress.
incedentally, its amazing how much crud can still be pulled out with a skimmer even though I havent fed the tank in over a year… again, im not in any rush. its taken years to get to this point, and it will probably take at least a nother year from here to get my tank where I want it. im patient and all my LPS and softies are still thriving, though the LPS is a little bleached(probably from too low phospahtes) who knows…
One thing at a time. later this summer I will probably move towards the scrubber option if need be. that said, Im very thankfull to have found something that will actually eat the stuff. thats a huge breakthough for me! ive been searching for years to find some species of snail or crab that had a taste for the stuff! and I hope that finding can help anyone who may come across this thread in search of solutions!
I have never had the problems that required it. How ever I have treated rocks and corals with algea on them. With no problems what so ever. There are several pages of successfully dosing peroxide and how people are using it as a daily thing to combat differant algea issues.
