I'm not sure what this is!

[SamKnaphus]

Hello all, my name is Sam!
since my freshman year of highschool I have been advocating heavily for starting a reef tank within my school for our aquaculture program. After 2 very long years, I finally have established one!
The goal here is to raise and aquaculture our own corals to teach students about reefs, and also using the money from sales for scholarships for those who need it. I'm still pretty new to all this, as I only got into saltwater about 2 years ago. I don't exactly have a ton of experience here so I'd appreciate some help IDing this algae! I think its just green hair algae, but I don't have 100% confidence in that answer.
Its completely encased my coraline algae start, and I'm not sure if thats effecting the spores ability to spread. If you guys know anything, help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[SaltySqueeble]

Hello all, my name is Sam!
since my freshman year of highschool I have been advocating heavily for starting a reef tank within my school for our aquaculture program. After 2 very long years, I finally have established one!
The goal here is to raise and aquaculture our own corals to teach students about reefs, and also using the money from sales for scholarships for those who need it. I'm still pretty new to all this, as I only got into saltwater about 2 years ago. I don't exactly have a ton of experience here so I'd appreciate some help IDing this algae! I think its just green hair algae, but I don't have 100% confidence in that answer.
Its completely encased my coraline algae start, and I'm not sure if thats effecting the spores ability to spread. If you guys know anything, help would be greatly appreciated!

Hard to say with the blues. Doesn’t look like hair algae at all. Could be cyano bacteria or some sort of slime.

 

[SaltySqueeble]

Can you suck it out? What color is it under whites?

 

[SaltySqueeble]

I like the idea of a coral aquaculture program at school. I would have totally been a part of that!

 

[SamKnaphus]

Hard to say with the blues. Doesn’t look like hair algae at all. Could be cyano bacteria or some sort of slime.

I was kinda hesitant bc hair algae is a lot easier to recognize lol. Thanks

 

[SamKnaphus]

Can you suck it out? What color is it under whites?

Good question! Let me check real quick.

 

[SamKnaphus]

I like the idea of a coral aquaculture program at school. I would have totally been a part of that!

Thank you!

 

[SamKnaphus]

Can you suck it out? What color is it under whites?

Definitely a grey/brown color

 

[SamKnaphus]

No success with suction. Granted, this whole set up is very underfunded so I am only using a pipette. Gonna scrub with a sponge

 

[SaltySqueeble]

That is weird stuff. So you just have live rock In The tank so far?

 

[SamKnaphus]

I seem to have purged it from my coraline with the sponge. Its now floating around in my water though, so that's a bit problematic. I'm really underfunded so I havent introduced a cleaning crew yet, and I would just drop a snail in from another tank, but I dont want to introduce pests.

 

[SamKnaphus]

That is weird stuff. So you just have live rock In The tank so far?

I have 4 GSP frags which were covered in the same stuff so I scrubbed those too. I also have chaeto algae, a kenya tree frag, and there was a brittle star I let into the tank with the chaeto

 

[SamKnaphus]

I also think my phosphates are a bit high for inverts. Its at about .75 ppm rn

 

[SaltySqueeble]

Whoa! That's very high, and could be the base problem to that algae bloom. You didn’t mean .075? Over .1 is quite high.

 

[SamKnaphus]

Sadly no, thats correct info. I have a fluval phosphate remover pad, and its doing work actually. My aquaculture teacher has had the same RODI system resin and filters for about 6 years and our local water phosphate is absurdly high. I think there is heavy phosphate seep into my RO water, but new resin and filters are on the way.

 

[SamKnaphus]

Nvm its .75 mg per litre

 

[SamKnaphus]

From what I understand I want as little phosphate as possible right? It just encourages algae growth and discolors coral right?
I know they need it in like trace amounts but it seems like a lot more of a nuisance to me

 

[SaltySqueeble]

Soft corals that you have like to have some phosphate in the water. They can handle quite a bit. Just not too high and not zero. There can be side effects of both. Those RO filters will do a lot when it comes to overall water quality. Who knows what’s In there at this point. After you change those and flush some water through, Plan a good water change.

 

[SamKnaphus]

Soft corals that you have like to have some phosphate in the water. They can handle quite a bit. Just not too high and not zero. There can be side effects of both. Those RO filters will do a lot when it comes to overall water quality. Who knows what’s In there at this point. After you change those and flush some water through, Plan a good water change.

Thanks! I have 20 gallons of saltwater prepped, and I have about 75~80 gallons in my system. I might try and stir up all that algae then do a water change. I will have to see what is in my realm of possibilities today as its after school hours now haha