Boergesenia forbesii

[andycook]

Is depriving Boergesenia forbesii of all light a viable means to eradicate it? I have a ton of Boergesenia forbesii over-running sections of my tank. I am considering yanking the live rock and sticking it in a holding tank where I can keep it in the dark for 6 weeks or so. Thoughts?

[rbaker]

I would siphon out as much of it as you can, then add a few Emerald crabs to keep it at bay...

JMO,

Ryan

[TippyToeX]

Clearing the tank of excess nutrients and making sure you have a good TDS reading on your source water (are you using RO/DI?). If you put it in the dark for weeks I'll bet you some of it will survive.

There are many ways to rid your tank of this algae without having to go to that means. Try the link below to learn more.

Read Me

[andycook]

Thanks for the responses. I've read that article many times. One of the article's suggestions was to deny light.


I use only RO water. I replaced the filters about two months ago. I have not checked the TDS on the unit lately.
I do manually remove several cups worth on a weekly basis.

I will be moving to a larger tank in the next two months. I would like to use the live rock I have now in my new tank (because I really like the shapes of the rock) but I don't want to start that tank out with this problem. I thought I could use the time remaining to get rid of the algae.

The picture below gives a little idea of what I am fighting.

[TippyToeX]

Do you have any phosphates? You might need to add a DI to your RO water. Also, how does your skimmer preform? Any means of nutrient export beside the skimmer such as a refugium?

That does look like an awful lot of bubble. I would get aggresive (daily) with your manual removal then try to work on nutrient export.
Cutting the lights might put a band-aid on the problem but is not a cure.

[andycook]

I checked the phosphates a couple of months ago and the levels were not unusual. I will have to have them tested again. I upgraded my skimmer recently so that should not be an issue.

I'm considering taking each rock out and scraping as much of this stuff off as I can and rinsing well before putting back in the tank. I didn't want to put the rock back in the tank if it can regrow from any bits I don't manage to scrape off. That is why I was considering keeping the rock in complete darkness if that would prevent any missed bits from growing more.

I harvest a little macro algae from the main tank on a weekly basis. About a small handfull. The stock level is low and I don't feed that much or that often.