Please help to identify this algae - If I can’t I think it is game over

[Braveheart!]

What should I do. All my numbers are good. Phosphate .03, nitrate .01 alkalinity 10.0. I’m running a UV sterilizer. I tried to clean the rocks in the tank, but it made it worse, not better. It start on the underside of the rocks so I wasn’t too worried. Now it is going everywhere. Thank you. I’m planning on getting a microscope

 

[Braveheart!]

any guess?

 

[VintageReefer]

Can’t see movies. Embedded movies down work on mobile and I think That’s how a lot of people use this site. Need YouTube hosting or pictures attached

 

[Vinaka_vakalevu]

try to post video to YouTube and add the link if you want people to be able to watch the video

 

[Braveheart!]

Picture

 

[Braveheart!]

Another

 

[VintageReefer]

From that kind of coverage your rock is bound up with phosphates and removing the algae is temporary and it will grow back.

Your test kits are measuring the water column and not what’s in the rock slowly leaching out (unbinding) and causing the algae to grow. Algae can grow at nearly any phosphate level.

I would suggest a larger clean up crew or an algae scrubber as a long term solution

 

[crazyfishmom]

I would consider raising nitrates a bit. This will help nitrifying bacteria and other good comensales help outcompete the algae.

 

[Braveheart!]

my cleanup crew doesn't seem to like it. what cleanup crew should i use and will it kill my corals

 

[Braveheart!]

also what would be a good nitrate level. thanks

 

[Mikeltee]

5-10. Get an ATS. You shouldn't have coral at this stage. Hopefully, it is cheap coral. Urchins are awesome CUC. Going forward, that is all I will use. 1 per 100gal. I don't think it's dinos. There are no bubbles. It's just the ugly stage.

 

[crazyfishmom]

also what would be a good nitrate level. thank

Nitrate levels for a young tank are best to maintain between 5-10 ppm. Easiest way to get there is to dose a little bit. With such a young tank I would be careful about feeding more as a means of raising them because you’ll also take a hit in the phosphate department.

For this kind of algae probably an urchin would be good. Maybe a couple of Mexican turbos would be good.

 

[Braveheart!]

My tank is 2.5 years old. 3 months ago I had no algae problem and everything looked great

 

[crazyfishmom]

My tank is 2.5 years old. 3 months ago I had no algae problem and everything looked great

What changed?

 

[brandon429]

what you have is periphyton

to scuba divers, that's the norm. somewhere in the live rock chain recent ones from the ocean were used and the diversity of benthic animals still circulates on the substrates. if you want it gone, pull each rock and use precision dental rasping with a metal knife to remove what you want by the blade. no parameter alterations fix those attachments, they're among the mixed species that constitute ' periphyton '

you can see by the pics you don't have invasive bryopsis, or dinos, or cyano, or chrysophytes, or film algae it's just common mixed live rock species from recent marine inclusions not too far back in the cycling chain for this system, per pics. rocks that come from a super aged reef tank can look like that in the back part of the stack, where physical contact runs low and collections run higher.

carve the rock into what you want it to look like, don't mess with tank chemistry for perfectly normal marine hitchhikers that aren't algal those are several mixed species and rather rare in posts actually.

 

[brandon429]

by scrape surgery, you're preserving the base biosystem of that rock, it's very very diverse in quality for sure. you don't have to remove very much to make it look great, leave some. juvenile stages of those animals are decent potential coral food. those are true foodweb diversity benthic growth clues.

guide it like a dentist guides our teeth: by metal rasping and cleaning

detail water jets after picking will keep that rock clean, take the pieces out and work them a few times before you lock the scape into place.

 

[Wasabiroot]

I also submit a vote for urchins. Pincushion urchins would hoover that up in a second. They also love coraline algae - but that's a price I'd be willing to pay

 

[VintageReefer]

His rocks acted like a sponge and over time they absorbed as much phosphate as they could. Think of it as a sponge. And he does normal maintenance for 2 years. But it was slightly on the low side of what was needed.

Every week a certain amount of phosphates were added and slightly less removed. Tests were probably ok because the rock was absorbing the excess. After time the rock can’t hold more and is called phosphate bound.

The rock has a huge amount of internal and external surface area for phosphates to bind to.

What needs to happen now is a strict algae removal process.

Is it periphyton, could be? sometimes that’s more of a thin coating with a slimy or smooth feel, but it varies greatly as it’s a mix of organisms.

Scraping can work but it will likely come back

Urchins and turbo snails could eat it - or they might not. And it will likely come back

A manual scraping/scrubbing removal combined with a turf scrubber will work together to eliminate it and prevent its return.

 

[dochoot]

Frankly, does not look that unattractive and can feed some fun CUC.

 

[Braveheart!]

Thanks everyone