Best Way To Clean Algae?

[johnkristie]

I have some decoration coral in (not live) my tank that has started to grow some brown algae on it. What is the best way to clean algae off my coral? Do I have to take it all out and clean it?

 

[reefrunner69]

Yep pretty much, you could maybe get som snails to clean it for you.

 

[fishfreek]

If its decorative coral then you can soak it in a water/bleach mixture and then rinse well and let air dry before introducing back into the tank.

 

[jamal-188]

If its decorative coral then you can soak it in a water/bleach mixture and then rinse well and let air dry before introducing back into the tank.

I'd be careful with using bleech if it's the decorative coral that is painted. I clean a coupl epeices with 1/10 bleech solution and a few weeks later all the color starting peeling/fading off.

 

[Wally]

how long has your system been up and what size is it? What kind of cleaning crew do you have?

 

[johnkristie]

I have a 200 gal tank that has been up and running for about 5 months or so. I don't have any creatures in the tank that would be considered a cleaning crew. Any suggestions?

 

[Wally]

I have a 55 gal display tank with a sump and refugium with macro algae.
Recently I have experienced an algae bloom in the main tank, hair algae and cyanobacteria.

I've been doing weekly 10% water changes to help. I keep track of my parameters and they all seem good to me but I still have the algae? Took a sample to my lfs and they confirmed that the water condition is good.

An employee at my lfs (who has a marine tank herself) suggested that I really should have a better cleaning crew( I only have one snail and some hermits, one sea slug) to handle the algae. She thinks that more snails would really help control the algae...

 

[steve-s]

Being primarily a fish only tank, you will need to be wary of which mobile inverts you choose. What fish will the tank house? Many more aggressive fish species will readily dine on snails and crabs....

Cheers
Steve

 

[johnkristie]

I've got some tangs, angels, royal gramma, longnose hawkfish.

 

[steve-s]

Then I would start with a mixture of cerith, trochus, nassarius, nerite and margarita if you can find them. Since the tank is still fairly new, I would add about 50 mixed types. Try not to lean too heavily on one species if possible. Each will do a better job on certain area's of the tank. Cerith and nassarius will spend most of their time with the sandbed or glass while the others will be on the rock and glass.

As the tank matures or the need arises, more snails can be added later on.

Cheers
Steve

 

[shjuho]

Best way to clean algae

Don't use Clorox Bleach whatever you do! We killed almost all of our fish that way. We take the dead coral out once a month and just leave it outside in the sun for 2 weeks. Then we rinse it in our dishwasher. We have multiple sets of dead coral that we cycle. This has been quite successful with our fish only tank. We have a couple snails that do a good job eating excess algae but they are unable to keep up with the dead Coral.

 

[johnkristie]

Can you still see the algae on the rocks after sun drying them? I would think that it would not come completely off by just putting it in the sun.

 

[shjuho]

The sun completely bleaches them.