What eats this?

[Brian5000]

I have had this red hair algea in my tank for over a year. I've managed to curb the growth quite a bit before I upgraded to the new tank and I've picked off as much as I can myself. I would really like to know if there's a critter that can mow it down and truly get it under control (emerald crab, tangs, snails). The normal astraeas and hermits don't touch it.
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bank failure watch list

 

[Joew]

That looks like Cyanobacteria, nothing eats it as far as i know. Pretty much need to get the source under control. Excess feeding,bad RO/DI water, over feeding etc...All about nutrient control, check your water with a TDS meter.

Regards,
Joe W
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Atheism Forum

 

[Unarce]

Some immediate action items would be to siphon out as much as you can. A toothbrush, zip-tied to the inlet of a maxi-jet works really well on LR. You can do this during a water change. Afterwards, leave the lights off for 3 days, breaking down any remaining cyano. Your photosynthetic inverts should be fine, as long as they're healthy and there's some ambient light in the room. If you're uneasy about leaving the lights off that long, try just 2 days.

Address any flow (lack of), lighting (old bulbs), and nutrients and/or phosphates (in excess) that caused the cyano bloom. Mexican Turbos and Cerith Snails are also known to keep cyano in check.

Good luck!

 

[Brian5000]

Despite how it looks in my bad photograph, it's not cyanobacteria. It's a combination of tough filamentous algea and another with tuffs of small leaves. It is a lovely shade of cyano red, and I have had cyano growing over top of it (though not now and not pictured). I know the snails can't eat it because they lack the ability to pull apart complex plant tissue. I've pulled as much as I can off with pliers, but it's rooted pretty deep and I can only do so much. So again, does anything eat this?
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[Unarce]

I've seen adult copepods swarm to this stuff. I brought home a frag this past Sunday that had this exact red algae on the plug. It was gone by Monday.

 

[trido]

I had two grown trochus snails wipe it out in my refugium early on. Needless to say. It was all they had to eat.

 

[Len]

I've had red turn algae like that before. Trochus may have eaten some, and urchins will definitely mow it down (but it mows down just about all algae, including coralline). Eventually, mine went away seemingly on its own. My tank went through a whole bunch of different algae stages.

 

[Brian5000]

OK, sounds like I have some options. I've had this stuff in my tank for years. I have gotten it to receed quite a bit, and with my new aquarium, I'm trying really hard to not make the same mistakes I did the first time. There's still a lot of it on some of my older rocks though. Hopefully, I can keep it receeding. Otherwise, I'll see if I can get an animal to help me out. Thank you all for your help.
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blue moonshine pics

 

[ZooKeeper1]

I've got a good pic of the stuff. This stuff is no joke. Urchins do a great job of eating it, but like said they eat other things as well. I added two tiny Diadema setosum to the tank and they cleared most of it, but got too large so I removed them. Hermit crabs help if you have a lot of them. I have a Siganus virgatus that doesn't put a dent in it. I've seen atlantic tangs and queen conchs eating it at my LFS. I still remember getting it on a snail. LOL

 

[Anonymous]

Could it be this:

http://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=636