Still fighting Derbesia sp

Well as many of you know I have been battling Derbesia sp (turf algea), Although it is not as bad as it was it still keeps coming back. I have a phos reator (with phos ban) my cheoto grows like crazy in my fuge, I have my own ro/di unit.I manually remove as much as I can (scrub the rocks). I have tried bumping up my mag to 1800 and left it there still nothing. The only thing that has helped is the fuzzy chitons I got in my clean up crew.Keep in mind this has been going on for almost a year.


One thing that I have read is that algae likes the red spectrum so as an experiment I am taking out the uvl 12000 because it glows pink and putting back in a 10000k and see if this helps at all. Its to the point where I am ready to start the tank over. vey frustrating!

 

I have it too. Not bad YET, but getting there. I find it ironic that it looks so tasty and yet nothing eats it. Yellow tang, lawnmower, emerald crab, snails ... all ignore it.

Interestingly, one of the most vigorous patches of it in my tank grows in the complete shade of an overhanging rock.

 

Im just getting over a problem with this stuff. I reduced my nutrients with a phosphate reactor (to prevent it growing back) and the only thing i found to physically remove it was a sea hare. Tanks looks great now

 

Hi ya, where did you get your sea hare from?
Just wanderin as i was looking for one everywhere at christmas time to try & get rid of the brynosis i had (i got rid by uping my mag in the end) but just couldnt get them anywhere here & when i asked at the shops they didnt have a clue what i was talkin about.
Thannks K

 

I feel your frustration too. I have been fighting this hell spawn for a year now too. One of my little rocks looks like a green afro. If it weren't for the tube worms that are growing on it, I would have nuked the rock a long time ago. All the other rocks have some on it, some worse than others, but I have too much life on it for me to start it over. I would kill the tank in doing so. I stopped using my 10000K HQI for the last week, and see chunks of it falling off the rock now, so I think that bulb needs to be replaced. If your UVL is glowing pink, it may need to be replaced. 12000K bulbs should be clean white with blue tinge.

 

the uvl 12000k bulb is suppose to be pink I called them when I first got it because I thought they sent me the wrong bulb, but they told me that's they way they are sopose
to be.

 

I wasn't aware of that. I always thought the higher the kelvin gets, the bluer the light will be.

 

reminds me of the fugi bulb,
here is a pick when I first got it.

 

ok, that's more violet to my eyes, not pink. That's just my interpretation anyhow. Let us know how it works out when you remove the 12000K bulbs. Good luck with this stuff, I am fighting it too.

 

any chance this is chaetomorpha area in your tanks? (I think I spelled it right). Looks like a derebesia sp., but it is more wirey and not edible. You can usually tell by noticeable cell structure under maybe only 10x magnification, depending how good your eyes are.