Brown (?) hairy algae

[ThunderGoose]

I've been battling brown colored hairy algae in my tank for a few months now. I need any advice I can get.

My tank is a RSR250, originally set up in December 2016 (so 16 months old now). I have 2 Radion XR4 HD lights with a personalized schedule (mostly the coral lab LPS setting but added white for two hours in the evening).

Salinity 1.024
Temperature 78
pH 8.04
Nitrate 0-maybe 2
Alk 6.8
Ca 410
Mg 1275
Phosphate 0.06 - 0.07

I've let nitrate and phosphate rise a bit because my corals aren't growing very well (predominately LPS), in fact I seem to kill quite a few corals. I've been pretty unhappy with my lack of success there.

Water changes are every 3 weeks or so. I do have alk and Ca set up on a doser and manually add Mg when testing indicates I need more.

I have a range of snails including cerith, trochus, nerite and turbo. I have dwarf red leg and blue leg hermits, emerald crabs (which do a good job of keeping bubble algae down), an Atlantic short spine urchin and a tuxedo urchin.

For nutrient removal I have socks, a skimmer and a refugium that grows chaeto and pods quite well.

I'm thinking about doing a 3 - day lights out. Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[rtparty]

Need pics to help ID anything.

Was this tank started with dry rock by chance?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Need to see or narrow down what algae it is.

I have a reddish brown algae (fuzzy) I’m about to try fluconazole on.

 

[mcarroll]

Ew.

 

[mcarroll]

I've been battling brown colored hairy algae

Pics pls, as other said already.

Also check out this and run some of the tests to narrow down what you have....

Use @taricha's dino confirmation guide on posts #986-987.

RSR250, originally set up in December 2016 (so 16 months old now). I have 2 Radion XR4 HD lights with a personalized schedule (mostly the coral lab LPS setting but added white for two hours in the evening).

Still a fairly young tank, but not new. Sounds potentially like a LOT of light for the size of tank – can you get us some lux and/or PAR numbers? (you can at least get lux from a free app.....we'll talk about getting a meter later if you don't have one)

Nitrate 0-maybe 2

Phosphate 0.06 - 0.07

I've let nitrate and phosphate rise a bit because my corals aren't growing very well (predominately LPS), in fact I seem to kill quite a few corals. I've been pretty unhappy with my lack of success there.

Those may both effectively be considered zero depending on the error rate of your tests so unhappy LPS and funky brown algae aren't surprising.

What are you doing to let those levels rise? (feeding should not be one of the ways.)

Water changes are every 3 weeks or so. I do have alk and Ca set up on a doser and manually add Mg when testing indicates I need more.

Alk 6.8

How stable is that alk number? How long has the doser been installed and stable? (Not counting the time it took to get it dialed in.)

a refugium that grows chaeto and pods quite well

You're growing macro algae instead of corals. I think you've hit the nail on the head as far as addressing the root of the problem. (lack of nutrients)

There's a good chance that the algae will clear up on it's own in time now.....but we may be able to help it along.

 

[ThunderGoose]

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll try to get a photo under whites tonight and run some of those tests tomorrow.

The tank is mostly "dead" rock with a couple of live rocks to seed the tank.

I had the alk dosing stable for a few months but consumption has changed as I've added coral so I have tweaked it in the past month.

How do I raise nutrients for corals without feeding massive algae growth?

 

[ThunderGoose]

Pictures. Hard to tell the color - the blue shows up much more in the photo than in the tank. In person the color is brown. Maybe with a reddish tint when I'm reading that brown algae isn't a problem in reef tanks but red algae can look reddish brown...

The first picture is better but the second gives you an idea of how long the strands are, plus photobomb by a celebrity - say hi to Hedy Lamarr [her development of frequency hopping spread spectrum was used by the Navy and is at least partially responsible for modern wi-fi. Oh, and she was an actress, too].

 

[mcarroll]

Could be dino's growing on whatever that is, but that looks more like a wiry red algae:

1. Check out PhycoKey:
   http://cfb.unh.edu/phycokey/Choices/Text_html/instructions_files/instructions.htm
2. Read instructions to get the gist of how it works.
3. Click Home.
4. Drag your mouse over the images to find the red algae:
   
5. Click.
6. Drag your mouse over the images to find the macroscopic reds:
   
7. Click.

There are TONS that look similar to me...imagine them with a fine brown dusting of epiphytes (e.g. dino's, diatoms, etc) get them more to the colors of yours.

I could be off due to the color on the photo, so do any of these look like good candidates from your side of the internet?

I would try some of those tests I mentioned in post #5 to see if you can ID what's growing on this wiry algae. Might help knowing.