Red turf what gets rid of it.
 

I see so many tanks with really nice rocks, yet I look at mine and I have the ugliest rock and still red frigging turf algae. What is it from I still don't know.

any help would be greatly appreciated
sorry for the cloudy pic i just fed them.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC06266.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC05988.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC06262.jpg
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My little urchin eats everything off the rocks, unfortunatley this includes all of my coraline as well. Do you have one in your tank already?

I got the same problem, my lawnmore blenny eats some im trying rowaphos and trying not to overfeed plus regular water changes, interested in seeing what others do for it too.

algae
 

ring cowries

I have the same problem,awhile ago bought a long spine urchin,cleaned off my turbo snails and is slowly starting on the rock,boiling water and a syringe kills it to,was doing that until I bought the urchin.

nope may have to get some then.

i got a long spined about a week ago and have seen the drastic change. He really does a good job at keeping the tank clean. My only problem is that i have two golden sleeper headed gobies that kick up the sand all the time..the debris gets trapped under the sand and then forms cyano and other algea's. Anyhow..good luck

Mexican turbo snails in particular for red turf algae, and then in particular this urchin:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden...+4&ddid=107060
"Green Spined Pincushion Urchin (Salmacis sphaeroides)"

I have had two of these for the better part of the last 5 years or so and they have been hands-down the best rock cleaning service out of any grazer I've ever had. I've tried several other urchin species, none comes close to these guys. The caveat is that they're quite hard to obtain for some reason, at least around here.

Mine's a pincushion urchin but I'm not sure what type. The spines are all purple plus all the shell pieces and halimeda it carries everywhere he goes!

you have a pic

[IMG]http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/x...x/DSCN1795.jpg[/IMG]

I don't post pictures very often so here's my attempt.

so how many would I get

red turf
 

more water movement

Its not red cynao its turf and more water is the key..

red turf algae
 

Well, I've got a problem with red turf algae. Been noticeable the last 2 months since I replaced my Phoenix 250 14k halides with new ones. ( maybe got a bad batch) Anyhow, my 2 tuxedo urchins just can't keep up with it, so today, went down to J and L s and bought 5 long spine urchins. Hope this does the trick. If it works, I'll have a few extra urchins for sale.

I've had a bad case of red turf for months. Thought I'll never be rid of it. It absolutely covered all my LR. On top of that, I had green Hair algae.
The red turf is all just about gone, and the green HA, too. Things that I did for my 130g:
Water parameters: Cal, ALk, and Mag levels are monitored and topped up when needed.
I added about 7 Mexican turbo snails.
I added 3 tuxedo urchins.
I added one seahare, which I never did find after that day (been couple of months).
I was still using my crappy, ineffectual HOB Remora Pro (too small for my over-stocked system.)
I didn't really step up on my water changes, just doing my normal thing.
I must say, since I've implemented these steps, my LR's coraline algea is BACK! My HA is gone to the point where I need to post on Canreef very soon to ask if anyone will buy the urchins and some Mex snails from me because I am afraid that they will die of starvation soon. So do that, and give them time to do their job. Mine was about3 months, but all of a sudden, I've noticed bare Rocks. Good luck.

I had a problem with red turf,bought a longspine,couldn't be happier,he is keeping it in check.

I have a turf algae problem. It started last spring/summer while I was on the road and water changes were neglected due to my job. My nitrates and phospates were allowed to increase and once the turf gets started its like a plague. I like the fact that some are having great sucess getting rid of it.

Thanks for all the great info.

Brad

I would be into some urchin / Mex turbo action.:biggrin:

Hey I had this problem too, that stuff just doesn't go away, and good luck manually removing it. I went and got a couple of mexican turbo snails (only have a 29 gallon tank), and they cleared it within a week. Just make sure they are actually real mexican turbo snails, and not astrea snails or any other such nonsense, I had those for ages and they didn't do anything useful :neutral:

Hope that helps, they're fairly cheap so it's a pretty reasonable solution methinks. Cheers!

In my experience a foxface will eat it until it's all gone.

red turf
 

Yeah, I had a large foxface until a couple of months ago. My Sohal bullied it til it died. Maybe I always had the red turf problem but the foxface had been keeping it in check for the last few years, and with him gone, the algae took over again. ( funny, the foxface and sohal had been living together for the last 2 years without problems)
Since putting in the 5 long spine urchins last night, I definitely noticed some difference this morning. At this pace, looks like the tank should be cleared up in a couple of weeks. Will keep all posted.

Don't urchins leave a path of destruction wherever they go knocking over corals and things?

I have a fairly extensive red turf problem as well... whenever I do a water change, it puts a noticeable dent in it, but not enough to get rid of it. I'm going to try some Mexican turbos before I go the urchin route.