***Red Turf Algae Battle Breakthrough!!***

[sen5241b]

Thanks reefnutz, good to know. But let me reiterate, this is vastly different than hair algae. Emeralds and hermits help a little on the Red turf algae, but the turbo cleaned the tank in about two weeks! I don't know why I haven't tried them before! :)

Having a Phd in RTA I agree with this statement for the most part. But my emeralds have done a great job. I 've heard so many bad suggestions about what might eat RTA that we really need to supply hard evidence that something is eating RTA. DAvis's pics are excellent. I have, using a magnifying glass, watched my emeralds eat the RTA. At any one time I can see at least one of my emeralds eating it. In some cases they eat fairly large pieces of it.

At this point, I think a combination of emeralds and the large turbos (2 or 3 inch) is turning out to be the best method of controlling RTA. (You'll never be rid of it.)

 

[DAvis]

At this point, I think a combination of emeralds and the large turbos (2 or 3 inch) is turning out to be the best method of controlling RTA. (You'll never be rid of it.)

Thanks! I'll be sitting for my A-Exam next week on RTA eradication strategies! sen5241b is on the committee! :Cheers:

I think eradication is possible, if you have time and room. I was fortunate to be setting up a new tank, with new rock. Some old rock was removed and treated with 'Stop Aptasia', as per sen5241's technique. Then I moved these to the new tank and watched the emeralds and hermits finish it off. My candy cane, torch and Acan all had rta growing on their skeleton or plug. Sen5241's technique worked on these too. In all, I have treated about 30 lbs of LR this way and all the coral, and have moved them to the 65g. After 6 months, I have not spotted any RTA. Of course, I will never stop looking!! If anything looks suspicious, I remove it, put it in a bucket with an Ott lite overhead and examine closely.

By the way, I have an emerald in the 28g that is almost big enough to eat, I know he is helping too! More as it develops...

 

[sen5241b]

Thanks! I'll be sitting for my A-Exam next week on RTA eradication strategies! sen5241b is on the committee! :Cheers:

I think eradication is possible, if you have time and room. I was fortunate to be setting up a new tank, with new rock. Some old rock was removed and treated with 'Stop Aptasia', as per sen5241's technique. Then I moved these to the new tank and watched the emeralds and hermits finish it off. My candy cane, torch and Acan all had rta growing on their skeleton or plug. Sen5241's technique worked on these too. In all, I have treated about 30 lbs of LR this way and all the coral, and have moved them to the 65g. After 6 months, I have not spotted any RTA. Of course, I will never stop looking!! If anything looks suspicious, I remove it, put it in a bucket with an Ott lite overhead and examine closely.

By the way, I have an emerald in the 28g that is almost big enough to eat, I know he is helping too! More as it develops...

Excellent info. The possibility is that if even one spore survives it can potentially, given enough time, take over the whole tank again BUT it sounds like you just might have succeeded.

I personally do not want to remove all rock at this time and treat it. I'm happy enough to see it kept largely under control.

Also, I just got off the phone with my LFS and the golf ball sized snail I got from them a few weeks back is a large Mexican Turbo.

 

[DAvis]

I agree, more than likely, I may have a tiny branch here and there that is quickly eaten by the various invertebrates.

I have the luxury of a mostly empty tank, so I can play with the rock and not disturb anything really. I do regular water changes and maintenance, but I don't feed the tank, or at most once a week. There are 7 Nassarius, a dozen or so Trochus sp., 1 giant emerald, 3 tiny hermits, and one phat Turbo. The only coral in there is three colonies of an orange and green Zoas, that were infested with RTA. I think the fact that the most plentiful food in there is the RTA, has helped also.

I am moving REAL SLOW though!

 

[sen5241b]

LiveAquaria says Mexican Turbos get up to 2 inches but I measured the one I put in was easily 2.5 inches.

 

[DAvis]

I checked with my local store (abcreefs.com shameless plug for them!). Their turbos came from Quality Marine. One of the guys was going to try to get more info, but he said there are several species, one of which is the Mexican Turbo. They list those as Turbo sp. , see link.

Turbo / Wild Shell, Snails - Quality Marine

Mine are a full 2". Here's he is on the glass...

Sen, you got a pic of yours?

 

[guarda]

Congrats! I dremeled my rta off a few months ago but it is slowly making a comeback. I tried about 3 mexican turbos and they all died within 2 weeks, leading me to believe they were the colder water variety often seen in lfs around here. Maybe I'll order a pair online.

 

[sen5241b]

Congrats! I dremeled my rta off a few months ago but it is slowly making a comeback. I tried about 3 mexican turbos and they all died within 2 weeks, leading me to believe they were the colder water variety often seen in lfs around here. Maybe I'll order a pair online.

If your snails are dying then think about drip acclimation (did you acclimate slow?) , nitrates (many inverts are very sensitive to nitrates) and finally ask if anything else is big enough to kill and eat your snails.

At this point I think we can narrow down the RTA eating snails to Turbo sp (Zebra Turbo Snail) or Turbo Fluctosa (Mexican Turbo). What I have looks most very much like Turbo fluctuosa.

I just want to re-emphasize that my emeralds are eating the RTA all day and night long.

 

[Reef Nutz]

Centroceras clavulatum (C.Agardh) Montagne :: Algaebase

 

[guarda]

Yes of course. All my inverts get the simultaneous drip/temp acclimation for an hour. Threads abound on cooler water Mexican Turbos that are indistinguishable from the tropical variety. The ones my lfs' usually have are visibly T.fluctuosas but are not fit for our tank temps.

Art

If your snails are dying then think about drip acclimation (did you acclimate slow?) , nitrates (many inverts are very sensitive to nitrates) and finally ask if anything else is big enough to kill and eat your snails.

At this point I think we can narrow down the RTA eating snails to Turbo sp (Zebra Turbo Snail) or Turbo Fluctosa (Mexican Turbo). What I have looks most very much like Turbo fluctuosa.

I just want to re-emphasize that my emeralds are eating the RTA all day and night long.

 

[sen5241b]

Centroceras clavulatum (C.Agardh) Montagne :: Algaebase

That does NOT look like RTA to me. Look at these pics: https://www.livingreefs.com/progress-red-turf-algae-t29510.html

I've had my Mexican Turbo for at least a month and he looks fine but then I may lower my temp from 82 down to 78.

 

[Reef Nutz]

Man thats a tough one to nail down.

 

[DAvis]

You got that right, reefnutz! Tough one it is.

It appears to be a Gelidium sp. Here's a link from FIU on calcareous algae. The picture they show could come from sen5241's tank or mine! Scroll down to the heading "Turf Algae" They offer some good news. While RTA can recover quickly from herbivore grazing, continual grazing allows coralline algae to gain an upper hand. So, keep up the fight, we will prevail!

http://www2.fiu.edu/~goldberg/coralreefs/CalcareousAlgae.htm

 

[sen5241b]

You got that right, reefnutz! Tough one it is.

It appears to be a Gelidium sp. Here's a link from FIU on calcareous algae. The picture they show could come from sen5241's tank or mine! Scroll down to the heading "Turf Algae" They offer some good news. While RTA can recover quickly from herbivore grazing, continual grazing allows coralline algae to gain an upper hand. So, keep up the fight, we will prevail!

http://www2.fiu.edu/~goldberg/coralreefs/CalcareousAlgae.htm

That was a good link.

 

[sen5241b]

Update: Experimented with kalk wasser to kill RTA and I think "Stop Aptasia" (although more pricey) works better. It seems to kill RTA easier than kalk. It also seems a lot less toxic than kalk. I dropped a tiny bit of kalk on a Ricordea and it died back fast whereas a bit of "Stop Aptasia" on a coral seems cause a lot less harm. (I never tried "AptasiaX" but others claim it is very similar to Stop Aptasia).

Also, too much kalk in the tank can cause unwated chmistry changes.