I recently had an outbreak of this hairlike brown algae after my timer failed and my lights were on for 24 hours, it doesn't appear to be diatoms(I've dealt with those before) I've been battling it for almost a month now and It just won't go away. The reason I'm concerned now is because it's gotten to the point where my gsp won't open and it's covering that and my zoas( they have it much worse). It seems like I clean the glass then come in 10 minutes later and it looks like I've done nothing to clean it. Any ideas on how to kill this stuff? Or how to remove it from my corals?
Brown hair like algae taking over
- Thread starter Saumann7
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A Toadstool Leather
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What are your current nitrate and phosphate levels. Have you had outbreaks occur before?
cjd
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The main display rock loos pretty good. Question would be what are your nitrate and phosphate levels ? Don't be afraid to use a toothbrush(new) and give those guys a light scrub! They will be a little upset at first , but should open again in a couple of days as long as all other parameters are met. From the looks of your other rock being fairly clean from I can see in the pictures , the coral frags may have been the way it was introduced in the system. Check on those nutrient levels !!!
rockhead51
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PhosGuard and go dark for a couple days....
Nitrates are 0 and I don't have a phosphate kit at the moment and my local pet store doesn't carry them so I'll have to order it. I've never had anything like this, I had diatoms when it cycled and then for a while after and I pinpointed the problem to my water and when I went rodi it went away in just days.
The zoas are the tricky one, the stuff on them won't come off, I've used tweezers to get some of it and that's the only thing that's worked for it. My Params are all 0 but I don't have a phos reading but I'll see about ordering a test kit. I think that may be part of the issue. When I got the corals I didn't dip them so I think you're right about that being the way in, the zoas appear to be patient zero. Back to using a toothbrush on it, that won't hurt the gsp? I've tried it before but I wasn't comfortable with actually scrubbing because I didn't know what would happen.
cjd
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They will be upset , but no harm will be done . I have done it before , they may stay closed for a day or two . In the wild these things get picked on all the time by critters and things , they retract to get out harms way and when they feel the cost is clear , back out they come . Take those zoas out of the tank in a small pan of tank water , give them a good scrub ( not to hard ) but don't be afraid either . Get in between the polyps and get as much of that off them. They will of course be quite upset , but leaving them to get overgrown will be there definite demise.
Two things, hopefully your on RODI water. Second how is your snail CUC population and diversity. That stuff is usually cleaned up by them.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/choosing-cleanup-crew-critters.258695/
Ill be a rebel and say check the nutrints but dont be held up by them. Just be more cautious to just feed the fish healthfully and the rest will fall into place. A new tank bio filter swings pretty erratically as far as N/P goes.
And IME won't stop the coral from opening up. I have starved my tanks to where the zoas nearly died but algae still grows. I can also show you tanks with a PO4 of 3 that are flourishing .
The alage looks like a simple chrysophyte btw. Nothing to freak out about at all.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/choosing-cleanup-crew-critters.258695/
Ill be a rebel and say check the nutrints but dont be held up by them. Just be more cautious to just feed the fish healthfully and the rest will fall into place. A new tank bio filter swings pretty erratically as far as N/P goes.
And IME won't stop the coral from opening up. I have starved my tanks to where the zoas nearly died but algae still grows. I can also show you tanks with a PO4 of 3 that are flourishing .
The alage looks like a simple chrysophyte btw. Nothing to freak out about at all.
What if I
So I have no fish in it currently and I have two blue legged hermits and 2 nerites. I now know that nerites do not help with algae but I don't think my tank has room for any other cuc members. And yeah I switched to rodi a while back after having a hefty fight with diatoms.
So I did what you said and I scrubbed the zoas and a bit of the gsp, the zoas look a lot better as I can actually see them now but only time will tell. I'm hoping the gsps will be happy in a day or two as well, I really do appreciate the help and I'll let you guys know how it ends up
I'd judge by eye. Like in the thread I posted too many is too many and they starve, but each has a particular specialty.
my .02. you need more snails. 2 is not enough.
get small turbos for sure. Check that link too, common LFS snails eat a variety of stuff. IMO nerites are in more danger of crab predation than starvation. I think they eat mostly film algaes.
I'll second the crab predation, I've saved my snails a few times. I tried a margarita snail and it didn't last very long, I read that they don't do well in reef environments. Don't turbos get pretty big in general though?
You can trade the snail in if it gets big. I try to. Or name it I suppose. I have.
If you see stomatells grab them. They reproduce in the tank too.
rockhead51
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Going dark will knock it back, but once you bring the lights back, it'll grow again unless you control nutrients. I'm doing that, plus cutting back my photoperiod...
I've been struggling with the same thing. Params are good except my phosphates have climbed up to .2 or so. Frustrating because I've been struggling to get my LFS guy out to do a water change to get rid of phosphates. Darn algae just LOVES my zoas and palys and I'm worried about them getting choked out. I've manually scrubbed them with my fingertip with some success but I'll try the toothbrush idea. Good tip.
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