Lobophora Variegata

[DanMan092]

Is there any way to get rid of it besides manual removal? It is all over my live rock and impossible to get out of all the nooks and crannies, and just grows back! It's big and brown and ugly. The only way to exterminate it would be to take a blowtorch to every surface in the tank! I have heard there are urchins that may help with it. Does anyone know which ones? And are they reef safe?

 

[Lynden]

Urchins would probably help. Most of the varieties sold are herbivores. Beware as they eat coralline algae too.

 

[Ehudd]

unfortunately i love the stuff!!! i think its very natural i had it for a while until i got my blue tang. I dont think he ate it rather than just picking it off the rocks.

 

[Lynden]

I've never actually seen it in person before but from the look of the pictures I like it.

 

[DanMan092]

It's natural looking to an extent. But than it starts to cover your corals up and broken chunks build up in hard to reach areas of the tank. I think it's gross and ugly but I can see how it would be desirable to some people. I don't know that I could get an Urchin since they seem like they would knock stuff over and I have a lot of small rocks and such.

 

[SkiFletch]

Urchins and Sea Hares are your only real biological controls....

Urchins have the nasty byproduct of being bulldozers and they eat coraline algae too

Sea Hares have the byproducts of being bulldozers and being vunlerable to death by any powerheads whose inlets are not covered with foam

 

[DanMan092]

So than it looks like I just have to deal. I suppose if I added more calcium to my tank, coralline would grow in it's place. I add Purple-Up (I need to maintain a better schedule for that) and occasionally Calxmax, but I need to keep up a better schedule. Am I right in thinking that since coralline is a...a... algae that doesn't let others grow on it, that by adding more calcium and promoting its growth, it would grow in place of brown algae?

 

[Lynden]

Possibly. Remember to treat Purple-Up as just another supplement; overdosing will kill very quickly. Test for calcium levels while you are using it.

 

[SkiFletch]

And alkalinity levels. If memory serves, purple up is very high in alk

 

[DanMan092]

Cool, thanks. And what was that word that I can't figure out? Where coralline won't let other algae grow on top of it?