Tips for getting algae off tips of coral?

[rharlow]

Looking for any and all tips for getting some algae (at least that's what I think it is) off tips/parts of corals. I have two corals (acro and stylophora) that had been nipped by a Bi-color. Needless to say, the Bi-color has been traded to the Yankees for hopefully bad-luck, and so now I'm trying to get it off. The corals still look extremely healthy with the exception of where they were nipped and now that spot has some algae on it. I've tried turkey basting the areas, but it doesn't seem to get it off. Any ideas/tip/tricks??? I can post pics if you think that would help. Thanks

Chip

 

[Mr. Slippery]

You can try to gently brush off some of the algae with a toothbrush but it may cause some minor damage to the tissue. If conditions are right it will recover from that though. Or you could put a dab of superglue on the dead spot and the tissue will grow over the glue.

 

[this is me]

I wouldnt even bother doing anything. YOu might end up damaging the colony. If conditions are right, it should grow over the algae without any problem.

 

[MikeG]

If it is only on the tips, you can also break off the affected area as if you were fragging the coral.

 

[NateHanson]

This is an annoying problem with porous skeleton SPS like stylo and seriatopora. The algae gets in there and no brushing or plucking will get rid of it. You can try the superglue trick - i've done that - or break off the tip that's growing algae, and put a dab of superglue on the fresh end. This works better.

 

[RichConley]

I dont know about seriatapora, and stylo,

BUT....

I remember going to Greg's house at some point, and he hadnt scraped his front glass in a while (in the 110) and he had some film algae. One of his acros that had grown up to the glass was basically burning the algae off the glass with its polyps. These things have a natural responce to algae. Just leave it alone, IMO.

 

[~Flighty~]

If it is growing out tall and shading things I use my conch. I just pick him up and hold him over the algae and he goes to town. 2 minutes of patience and he does a better job than I could do with a microscope.

 

[fanaglethebagle]

If it is growing out tall and shading things I use my conch. I just pick him up and hold him over the algae and he goes to town. 2 minutes of patience and he does a better job than I could do with a microscope.

Yeah, but your conch is ~5 inches

 

[naturebatslast]

Dynamite
Actually, I have ongoing trench warfare with dinoflagellets(they *$#@ suck!), and I'm constantly clearing them. I just resorted to a small powerhead.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Sometimes the best solution is just to break the dead tips off as mentioned before. If the coral is a fast grower sometimes the tooth brush thing will work.