Algae id...plz

[Christopher Davis]

my tangs and all fish got velvet and went into QT FOR 7 weeks.
This algae popped up and took over while there were no fish in my system. And now they won’t touch it.... can anyone tell me what this is? Is it hair algae? It’s also got slimmy streamers coming off it... puzzled.

 

[HotRocks]

@mcarroll

#reefsquad

 

[redfishbluefish]

I can't tell from the picture, but might ......that's a might.....be bryopsis. What I would do is to treat the tank with Fluconazole. The reason is that it's inexpensive and has no impact on the rest of your tank....and if it is bryopsis....it's gone! No harm, no foul.

 

[Sallstrom]

Different grazers prefer different algae. I would try a collector urchin or diadema urchin. Or maybe a rabbitfish.
I wouldn't treat a reef tank with a medicine just to get rid of an algae(I'm not 100% sure that only Bryopsis is effected) . IMO green algae are a good sign, no copper in the water :) And a nice reason to get some fun clean up crew.

The other one might be something more of concern. Check if you are low in nutrients.

/ David

 

[Christopher Davis]

I can't tell from the picture, but might ......that's a might.....be bryopsis. What I would do is to treat the tank with Fluconazole. The reason is that it's inexpensive and has no impact on the rest of your tank....and if it is bryopsis....it's gone! No harm, no foul.

Any idea where to get it?

 

[Christopher Davis]

Different grazers prefer different algae. I would try a collector urchin or diadema urchin. Or maybe a rabbitfish.
I wouldn't treat a reef tank with a medicine just to get rid of an algae(I'm not 100% sure that only Bryopsis is effected) . IMO green algae are a good sign, no copper in the water :) And a nice reason to get some fun clean up crew.

The other one might be something more of concern. Check if you are low in nutrients.

/ David

I don’t think I’m low on nutrients at this point, I’m dosing fuel and feed mysis regularly as well as 2 kinda of corals foods. At least once a day. I agree I don’t want to add chemicals if I don’t have to, I have a conch and a tuxedo urchin with no interest.

 

[Sallstrom]

I can promise you don't have to use chemicals to get rid of the algae, but it might take some patience, stable water parameters and perhaps some new clean up crew :)

Sometimes it helps to remove a bit of the algae manually, some grazers seems to prefer shorter algae.

/ David

 

[DSC reef]

Any idea where to get it?

You can find it on BRS, it's called reeflux. It's great stuff. You can scrub all day but if your rocks are leaching your spinning wheels. I've used it with great success. Many ways to run a reef tank my friend.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Any idea where to get it?

HERE is where I purchased mine.

 

[Dana Riddle]

It appears to be a brown alga - possibly Dictyota or Rosenvingea. I'd have to do some research to determine what eats it.

 

[chewy tabacca]

my tangs and all fish got velvet and went into QT FOR 7 weeks.
This algae popped up and took over while there were no fish in my system. And now they won’t touch it.... can anyone tell me what this is? Is it hair algae? It’s also got slimmy streamers coming off it... puzzled.

I have had the same stuff 2 times, I am battling it now, same thing, the tangs don't touch it. Mine was from dosing iron.(with that being said don't believe Red Sea about dosing iron) here is some pictures of mine under my gel lens. No one knows what it is in my asking, but I do know how to get rid of it.

 

[Christopher Davis]

I have had the same stuff 2 times, I am battling it now, same thing, the tangs don't touch it. Mine was from dosing iron.(with that being said don't believe Red Sea about dosing iron) here is some pictures of mine under my gel lens. No one knows what it is in my asking, but I do know how to get rid of it.

HOW DO YOU KILL IT!

 

[mcarroll]

my tangs and all fish got velvet and went into QT FOR 7 weeks.

That usually only happens in pretty new/immature tanks – can you tell us about the tank? How old? How it was started? Was dead rock used? How is it filtered? Any bumps along the way besides the fish parasite?

I don’t think I’m low on nutrients at this point, I’m dosing fuel and feed mysis regularly as well as 2 kinda of corals foods. At least once a day. I agree I don’t want to add chemicals if I don’t have to, I have a conch and a tuxedo urchin with no interest.

What are your NO3 and PO4 test results currently? What have they been historically?

What do you do for nutrient control, if anything?

What is fuel? Sounds like a carbon source – the opposite of nutrients, if you will. If so, stop dosing it.

Are you feeding the mysis and coral foods just to the corals? There's an excellent chance that is also a major factor in driving the growth of this algae.

I didn't see a reply to @Sallstrom when he asked if you've been hand-picking this algae yet? You shouldn't allow it to spread unchecked if none of your animals want to eat it – you're the #1 CUC, man!! :) And established algae is more inedible, more likely to spread and more likely to have an impact on the tank as a whole.

What is the rest of your CUC? Or is the conch and urchin it? Something like a rabbitfish, which @Sallstrom also mentioned, might be required to get someone to mow it down long....snails usually only graze and re-graze nubbins.

 

[Christopher Davis]

Tank is 10+ years old, all established rock from my 75 gallon. Old water and equipment was all used. Only new additions were frags. Which I’m guessing that’s where it came from. I am familiar with harvesting by hand, I believe more in biological control more than anything. Just need to establish exactly what kind of algae it is. I run a phosban reactor with phosguard and carbon.

Clean up crew
15 or so hermits large
35 nerite snails “not sure if I spelled that right”
2x sand sifting stars
Hand full of nasarious snails
Bristle stars small unknown
2x cleaner shrimp
2x peprmint shrimp
2x emerald crabs. “Could be passed”

Fish
Purple tang
2x true percula
1x yellow tang
1x Canarie wrasse.

Dosing

Mag 1400
Calc 420
Dkh 9
Peramiters
Ph 8.3
Salinity 1.026
Phos .4 running media full time
All other stuff normal across the board.

Equipment
Reef octo 125 skimmer
2x kessil 160
ADHI sump 60 gallons
Hydors gen 3 2x
T5HO 4bulb
Auto top off aqua medic
Reef doser evo

Pretty much built this tank on stability bottom pic is my old tank my previous pride and joy my 75. Hope that helps guys! Thanks!

 

[Sallstrom]

Great with some more info!
I think many will say the phosphate is high and that might cause the algae. I don't believe that's necessary true. If you keep it stable and get something that grazes the algae faster than they grow back, you'll win the game :)

Since I like water chemistry in reef tanks I'm a bit curious about the nitrate level. Do you have an idea on the NO3 level?

I would recommend a Diadema urchin for the green algae. Together with manually hand picking some of the algae to see if any of your old CUC starts to graze the algae if it's shorter.

/ David

 

[mcarroll]

I agree with @Sallstrom.

One other thing that sorta jumps out at me is the amazing coraline algae on the old tank vs the naked substrates on the new tank.

If I could go back in time I'd suggest scraping down the walls of the old tank and "dosing" that material into the new tank.

Imagine with me for a little bit.... :)

Assuming all your levels are staying the same as they were in the old tank (not a good assumption, which is why I agree with Sallstrom on needing nitrate data) and "all else remains the same" then what has obviously changed is the amount of surface area that your CUC is responsible for and the nature of that surface area.

Before, let's say it was 60 cm2 per snail before. Now it has to be more like 600 or 6000 cm2 per snail. It looks like all open space to my eye. Those are made up numbers just to talk about proportion.

To make matters worse, I see that your CUC was obviously focused on grazing the massive "coraline fields" of your old tank. Undoubtedly the coralilne algae growing underneath would have a negative impact on whatever algae the snails were grazing. This impact would probably make this epiphytic algae grow more slowly, weakly and thus more suitable for grazing.

The fact is that your CUC is outmatched in the new tank – perhaps by several orders of magnitude.

Your algae now is growing freely on essentially naked calcium carbonate surfaces which bear plentiful amounts of adsorbed phosphates for direct use to nearly any/all algae that can settle on it. They probably have little need for the PO4 in your water, even if they're using it.

I suspect you're going to need a substantial upgrade to your CUC for them to keep up with this algae.

An urchin will be a great addition – and make additions slowly – but I would be prepared for adding more snails. Perhaps a lot more. Keep variety high. If you can add more fish, consider good generalist herbivores like Rabbitfish.

 

[Christopher Davis]

I agree with @Sallstrom.

One other thing that sorta jumps out at me is the amazing coraline algae on the old tank vs the naked substrates on the new tank.

If I could go back in time I'd suggest scraping down the walls of the old tank and "dosing" that material into the new tank.

Imagine with me for a little bit.... :)

Assuming all your levels are staying the same as they were in the old tank (not a good assumption, which is why I agree with Sallstrom on needing nitrate data) and "all else remains the same" then what has obviously changed is the amount of surface area that your CUC is responsible for and the nature of that surface area.

Before, let's say it was 60 cm2 per snail before. Now it has to be more like 600 or 6000 cm2 per snail. It looks like all open space to my eye. Those are made up numbers just to talk about proportion.

To make matters worse, I see that your CUC was obviously focused on grazing the massive "coraline fields" of your old tank. Undoubtedly the coralilne algae growing underneath would have a negative impact on whatever algae the snails were grazing. This impact would probably make this epiphytic algae grow more slowly, weakly and thus more suitable for grazing.

The fact is that your CUC is outmatched in the new tank – perhaps by several orders of magnitude.

Your algae now is growing freely on essentially naked calcium carbonate surfaces which bear plentiful amounts of adsorbed phosphates for direct use to nearly any/all algae that can settle on it. They probably have little need for the PO4 in your water, even if they're using it.

I suspect you're going to need a substantial upgrade to your CUC for them to keep up with this algae.

An urchin will be a great addition – and make additions slowly – but I would be prepared for adding more snails. Perhaps a lot more. Keep variety high. If you can add more fish, consider good generalist herbivores like Rabbitfish.

I agree, the cleanup crew needs work. The old tank had been obliterated lol. The coraline is however starting to overtake as you can see on the back overflow. I am not letting the coraline grow on this tanks back glass.
Rabbit fish are great grazers, also considering a Kole tang or Nassau. I lost 2 out of my 4 tangs so I am sure that is not helping my situation! I will get an accurate read on nitrate tonight when I get off of work!
Will also be adding urchins and more snails!
This should
Be a fun battle, not so much worried about phosphates at all I recently saw an article on here that high phosphates can be benifical, kinda toying around with that idea, I will be adding more phosphate media for removal! Of the PO4.
Maybe she’s sill running through her new tank uglies so to speak.

 

[Christopher Davis]

Great with some more info!
I think many will say the phosphate is high and that might cause the algae. I don't believe that's necessary true. If you keep it stable and get something that grazes the algae faster than they grow back, you'll win the game :)

Since I like water chemistry in reef tanks I'm a bit curious about the nitrate level. Do you have an idea on the NO3 level?

I would recommend a Diadema urchin for the green algae. Together with manually hand picking some of the algae to see if any of your old CUC starts to graze the algae if it's shorter.

/ David

The urchin I am weary of, not that they don’t do their jobs but for the fact that the tanks I have seen with them in it, have hundreds of broken off spines all over the substrate. Looks kinda like more work cleaning those up than good? Thoughts?

 

[Sallstrom]

The urchin I am weary of, not that they don’t do their jobs but for the fact that the tanks I have seen with them in it, have hundreds of broken off spines all over the substrate. Looks kinda like more work cleaning those up than good? Thoughts?

A healthy Diadema urchin doesn't loose it's spines unless you try catch it with a net and breaks them. We have lots of them at work, they make my job easier :) They seems to live quite long as well. We have a bunch that we bought eight years ago, still going strong.

 

[mcarroll]

I will be adding more phosphate media for removal! Of the PO4.

I would not be in a hurry to do that. It's quite possible that phosphates are accumulating/not being used due to nitrogen limitation, for example, which is an easily solvable problem....but not with PO4-media.

More data! :) :) (I know...waiting patiently.)