Algae I.D?

[120reefkeeper]

Ok so I have this algae in my 40 day old tank. I can't say I've seen this type before. It doesn't spread much, it's bright green and grows in little bundles. I'm currently running Gfo and my Phos is .04. Its predominantly on this one rock and a few pieces on a few other rocks but not much. Any ideas?? I've actually thought about putting it in my fuge but I'd like to make sure it's not a nuisance algae before I do.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Is it a species of Ulva, such a Ulva intestinalis or compressa?

 

[brandon429]

you aren't allowed to have invasive algae with po4 under control and GFO running, that robs the entire premise of nutrients as algae control which the whole legitimate side of the hobby is built on. :)

to answer for them, clearly you should strip more po4


to answer from my threads of algae fixing, you should not change your nutrients and should kill that algae, making the tank free of it by Friday.

 

[120reefkeeper]

It is possible now that I've looked at some of the pictures, but mine looks tubular in shape. It may be from that family??

 

[120reefkeeper]

I did take that rock out of my system like 2 days ago and plucked off as much as I could by hand , just to see if it was capable of rapid grow back or not. It hasn't shown any signs of being aggressive. Currently I don't have many algae eaters in my tank due to the newness. I suspect that if I had a Blenny or tang that it would be gone in no time. I could take it out and scrub it and it would come off very easily.

 

[brandon429]

agreed on the general ID

that's a good test assessment for invasive ability. you ought to hit a test area with peroxide outside the tank and watch how fast it dies

it grows back due to holdfasts being left in place anchored...like mowing a lawn. if you doused tech M right on the algae outside the tank during one of these cleanings, that would amplify work done and kill the holdfasts, cause a different outcome regarding growback. consider just a chem booster step if being fixed by Friday sounds appealing...if not, myriad alts exist to fix you by X date unknown

this is among obligate hitchikers. its prevention is only quarantine, no other way. you can either starve it out or kill it out, and when that DNA is gone, it can't come back till brought in again...this frames a nice attack angle for your tank.

contrast that to cyano...globe traveler, distribution everywhere...constant battles might occur and not able to be prevented by QT

there are grazers that will take care of your issue if experimenting with that while mass builds is chosen. a natural mode would be least work to fix for sure

 

[donnievaz]

I'd take it out and hit it with peroxide.

 

[120reefkeeper]

agreed on the general ID

that's a good test assessment for invasive ability. you ought to hit a test area with peroxide outside the tank and watch how fast it dies

it grows back due to holdfasts being left in place anchored...like mowing a lawn. if you doused tech M right on the algae outside the tank during one of these cleanings, that would amplify work done and kill the holdfasts, cause a different outcome regarding growback. consider just a chem booster step if being fixed by Friday sounds appealing...if not, myriad alts exist to fix you by X date unknown

this is among obligate hitchikers. its prevention is only quarantine, no other way. you can either starve it out or kill it out, and when that DNA is gone, it can't come back till brought in again...this frames a nice attack angle for your tank.

contrast that to cyano...globe traveler, distribution everywhere...constant battles might occur and not able to be prevented by QT

there are grazers that will take care of your issue if experimenting with that while mass builds is chosen. a natural mode would be least work to fix for sure

I agree that a double headed approach may work very well with this setup. I think I'll try the scrub and peroxide method with an addition of an algae eater. My tank is ready for another fish anyway. It's been about 4 weeks since my first addition.

I've been on a path of starvation as far as po4 is concerned. My parameters have come in nicely. Current parameters....

Sg. 1.026
Temp 79.2
Cal 400
Alk 8.8 dkh
Mag 1100
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Po4 0.04

Seeing as though I don't have any coral at all yet, I'm not concerned with the cal,alk,and mag yet.

My tank currently has 1 fish and some CUC members. [emoji10] patience is key. [emoji16]

 

[brandon429]

I really hate having to use unnatural cheats to win. but I do not hate collecting about 200 pages of fine after pics after having cheated. heh

maybe one day a better method w come about and we can jump ship on using medicine cabinet fixes.

 

[120reefkeeper]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I know what I'll be doing today. Headed to the drug store for some peroxide... Lol [emoji16] oh ya and to the LFS , good excuse for a new fish! [emoji16][emoji16]

 

[120reefkeeper]

I'll be posting some after shots etc...

 

[120reefkeeper]

The prep!

 

[120reefkeeper]

The scrub!

 

[120reefkeeper]

End result!

 

[brandon429]

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/


that looks a lot like our after pics there above :)

nice hammer cleaning, hesitancy is no fun. deliberate forced control of substrates to do our bidding sure is heh

that thread shows the sensitive organisms, your nice coralline may lighten a little but w come back. there is no way you could apply the peroxide and harm your filtration bacteria, in my opinion per the thread and linked threads galore.

 

[120reefkeeper]

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/


that looks a lot like our after pics there above :)

nice hammer cleaning, hesitancy is no fun. deliberate forced control of substrates to do our bidding sure is heh

that thread shows the sensitive organisms, your nice coralline may lighten a little but w come back.

Great thread! Thanks!

 

[donnievaz]

I really hate having to use unnatural cheats to win. but I do not hate collecting about 200 pages of fine after pics after having cheated. heh

maybe one day a better method w come about and we can jump ship on using medicine cabinet fixes.

Nothing unnatural about H2O2, just a little extra oxygen, that's all. ;-)

 

[brandon429]

it was more fun back when peroxide was considered nuclear death, and we were dosing it anyway and compiling a bunch of wins heh

nowadays they make papers on how many animals in the ocean actually produce it as metabolic byproducts, and send it out into the waters for nonproducers to deal with via some adaptive means. I think all the things we burn in tanks with peroxide that are not the target, and are surviving, are using those adaptive means bigtime