Help - Plant Attack

[civitan.erichanson]

I let my refugium light go out and the plants in the refugium spawned spores. I am now in a constant battle with plants everywhere. There are even large (like rubber bouncy ball sized) green balls in my tank. Any way to combat this problem? Pulling them out seems to be a loosing battle,

 

Thanks,

 

Eric

[Chad]

Is Valonia what you have? (google image search). These can be a pain to beat, but usually manual removal (being VERY careful not to break or pop the bubbles) or the addition of a few emerald crabs or (if you have room, a 75 is a bit on the small side for one) foxface rabbitfish will generally eat them. I have always had luck with keeping up on them with manual removal. I have heard some other folks have success by injecting them with kalkwasser (not how I have combatted it in the past, but I would think it to work).

 

 

[BowieReefer84]

I've had luck with emerald crabs. Never witnessed them eating it. But, it did disappear after only a month or two so I guess they ate it. That's assuming it is what Chad posted.

[quazi]

My emeralds and foxface love valonia. I wish they liked hair algae as much!

[civitan.erichanson]

Yes, valonia is part of my problem and there are way too many to inoculate. I am beginning to think I will need to trash most of the live rock and coral since I can not find a way to pull all of the plants.

 

Thanks,

 

Eric.

[Chad]

Valonia is part of your problem? What else is there? Perhaps you could post a pic.

 

IMO, removal and trashing of the rock is very rarely the best solution.

[civitan.erichanson]

Valonia is part of your problem? What else is there? Perhaps you could post a pic.

 

IMO, removal and trashing of the rock is very rarely the best solution.

 

I will post one tonight. Yes, Valonia is part of the problem. Imagine all the plants in your refugium escaping and taking over your entire tank and embedding them selves in every nook/cranny/pump head/and in between indvidual zoas...

 

Thanks,

 

Eric

[quazi]

I would not throw out the rock. Dry it, clean, whatever. But do not throw it out!

 

I picked off lots of valonia, and I have virtually none now. You need a multipronged attack: pick it off, get emerald crabs, maybe a foxface or other valonia eaters.

[quazi]

I will post one tonight. Yes, Valonia is part of the problem. Imagine all the plants in your refugium escaping and taking over your entire tank and embedding them selves in every nook/cranny/pump head/and in between indvidual zoas...

 

Thanks,

 

Eric

 

I had this happen to me, too. Ochtotes was brutal. Nothing eats it. I had to hand pluck it out. This is a real danger in having a fuge with anything other than cheato. Most tangs love cheato, so if it gets in your main tank, it will get eaten.

[davelin315]

I never had an emerald crab eat Valonia. I have tangs, though, that eat it, and I have just scraped off what I could before and let the animals do their job with it. Eventually, if you starve it of phosphates (which ends up causing other issues) it will die off. I had tons of it in one of my sumps, literally 2" walls of it all the way around, and it all began to die off when my system became completely phosphate starved (or that's my guess). It took awhile, but it died off on its own after I controlled the amount of it through pruning. My thoughts on not popping them is that it's easier said than done, and not popping them can slow the process a lot. One thing that seems to help is to just use a toothbrush and scrub them off. Depending on what other types of algae you have, you may also want to consider a sea hare.

 

By the way, I am skeptical about the reason for the algae outbreak you are having. It might be a contributing factor, but depending on what types of algae you have the reasons for it being there could vary greatly. My guess is that you have elevated nutrients, possibly due to the lack of a refugium light, that caused your issues. The lack of light for the refugium contributed to fewer nutrients being taken up and then as the algae died it started contributing nutrients to the system so you had a double whammy that helped the nuisance algae to grow in your tank.

[Chad]

Various algaes can be a tough issue that may take some time to beat, but you can do it. If it was me, I would fight the battle biologically. What do you have in terms of herbivores in your system? Can you support a lawnmower blenny, foxface, emerald crabs, tuxedo or longspine urchin (not all) or some combination of the above?

 

Combine this with manual removal a couple of times a week. Maintain stubborn removal of the pests and you will win in time.

 

EDIT: I failed to mention this before, but of course, you should also step up your normal maintenance (water changes, GFO/carbon replacement, etc.). In addition to adding things that eat it, removing nutrients from your system as a means of attacking it almost goes without saying.

Edited November 22, 2010 by Chad