Gelidium. Red Turf Train Wreck.

[reef keeper]

I've had my reef running for about 8 months, and everything is really starting to do great.

I have a major issue though.

For some reason, I never noticed that the purple stuff on my rocks was actually Gelidium. And amongst the Gelidium, was a bunch of bubble algae.

I believe that they came in on some frag plugs. A few months ago.

Now here, I feel, are my choices.

1. Try to go after it with snails

2. Start over with new Marco rock. I can cook it in a huge Rubbermaid tub I have, and cycle it in there as well.

My tank is all sps, and a lot of it is pretty high end stuff.

I'm setting up a large frag tank mid February, (60" x 36") and do have quite a bit of unaffected rock in my sump. I figure I can stick it in the sump in the frag tank to keep some kind of biological filter. I also have a lot of fish. I'm wondering if I should sell some of them.

The corals are really my #1 priority. This stuff is everywhere, and most of the rock is pukani, Tonga etc. It's super porous, and I think the roots of this turf algae are right through it.

Some great advice is more than welcome here. I would rather eliminate the algae rather than start over.

 

[Nonuser]

I am no expert in any shape or form. But I have battled Razor caulerpa for 8 months and have had it almost completely gone and back again. I have tried several living things and chemical as well and I have not been able to eliminate it.

 

[Joshbrookkate]

I'd try the snails first. Someone on reefcentral had good luck with a tuxedo urchin. But most successes were with Mexical Turbo snails.
No personal experience with this. I didn't even know what Gelidium was. But when I googled it, the thread from RC came up.
Good luck! Let us know what you decide to do and how it works out.
Michelle

 

[Nonuser]

I had a tuxedo urchin and it didn't eat anything but filament algae. but on the bright side it collected every thing it could get its grubby little spines on and put it on its back and knock everything over. loved chaetos and sheets of nori

 

[reef keeper]

I will not be walking into the sexy trap known as URCHIN

 

[AdInfinitum]

I see bits of Gelidium around the waterline on overflow boxes, but it has never been a pest for me.

Just my opinion...but...these sorts of problems were the reasoning behind buying established live rock with established eco systems. It may be forgotten now but once upon a time we all started our tanks with dry rock and decorative coral pieces and the only life we ended up with was the hardy unstoppable noxious type. So we moved towards paying ungodly amounts of money for live ocean rock fully established with tons of diverse life that provided balance which prevented one species or another from taking over.

I still find it strange that the big move now is to start from dead rock like back in the bad old days. Then when it goes wrong we kill, rinse and repeat.... Glen (Salty)'s tank is a great example of a system that he persevered with, found a good balance and now has a rock solid system that is resilient even through periods of relative neglect.

I may be out of touch and out of date on this and maybe there are more sustained dry rock success stories than issues out there....but for example, Big Show did his huge system with live ocean rock and I would have to assume he did it for very good reasons...not just because it was on sale...LOL

 

[AdInfinitum]

BTW I would not assume that the rock in your sump is unaffected...more likely it is probably full of spores just waiting for enough light to have their turn to blossom.....

 

[reef keeper]

Well. I have read about doing that. And doing it from dead. I went with dead because of the lack of pests. This crap came on on a frag plug. When I did it before, I did it with live rock. And had nudi and nasty pest issues. The worst I have now is this and some bubble algae.

Admittedly, fresh ocean rock would be interesting.

My fear is the horrific tank destructive hitch hikers you may get.

 

[AdInfinitum]

Well. I have read about doing that. And doing it from dead. I went with dead because of the lack of pests. This crap came on on a frag plug. When I did it before, I did it with live rock. And had nudi and nasty pest issues. The worst I have now is this and some bubble algae.

Admittedly, fresh ocean rock would be interesting.

My fear is the horrific tank destructive hitch hikers you may get.

I hear you and understand the thought process but it is funny that the same people that would tell you that ich is in alll water so live with it (wrong), will also tell people that you can build a system and completely control all the microfauna and spores etc.that will grow in there.
When you dry cycle a SW tank with fish, the bacteria and algae that start the seeding come in their guts. Before corals and live rock and frags etc. fish were the only living things we added to the tanks but we still had plenty of algae issues the only source were the fishes guts. Realistically only Cyano and Nanochloropsis (the most ubiquitous phytoplankton) can come in from FW and adapt immediately to SW.

 

[reef keeper]

I'll take this red turf crap over the absolute nightmare I had before using live rock. It was INSANE

 

[AdInfinitum]

I put some frags with Bryopsis on them in my frag tank...there was a brief bloom then all of it died off...maybe I just don't have a green thumb!!!

 

[reef keeper]

Well I should put all my rock in your frag tank then ....

 

[AdInfinitum]

Well I should put all my rock in your frag tank then ....

LOL....might work...I can't get chaeto to grow either....

 

[Nighthawk26]

All I have as you know is my limited first time experience with the setup I have. No real background in fresh, saltwater, or otherwise. Research and research as mentioned comes back with too many opinions and arguments to list. As a result, and not wanting to become a damn biologist I tried to take a more common sense approach, and weighted all pros and cons. I went with Marco rock, and did so knowing I'd be going SLOWWW. You've seen my tank and how excited I got at my first sign of coraline. I'm JUST starting to get the odd speck. Also as you are aware, I struggled with some cyano even after curing the rock for 2 plus months. Mind you, I didn't use that Lanthium Chloride or whatever it is, but It was a solid 6 months before it started to go away. I had zero other issues with the startup, and 8 months in I have no real issues. I used Dr. Tims, and Ammonia and added the first few fish days later with no issue. My levels as you've seen are rock steady with little to no effort. Just going slow and allowing the biodiversity to increase at a slow steady pace as I increase bioload.

Just my .02.

 

[Kman]

If it is Gelidium I would not worry about it unless it is growing on coral skeletons. This stuff typically blooms and as the tank cycles and becomes fully cycled after about a year it will start to go away as nutrients become limited. I would focus on manually getting rid of the bubble algae that is the worse of the two. Any time I have had Gelidium it doesn't last long and has not caused me any issues.

 

[reef keeper]

I just added a large desjardini sailfin yesterday. This beast and now my tangs seem to be eating it all of a sudden. Huge white marks all over the rocks today.

 

[Nonuser]

How big is he?

How much do you want for him next month?

 

[reef keeper]

He's BIG. Probably 6-7" long. I will never ever sell this fish. He's amazing. Best looking desjardini I've ever seen.