Hair Algae/Dino/etc?

[StarterSaltWater]

Hi all! I have a Fluval Evo 13.5 nano reef and recently I’ve been seeing this algae pop up despite me plucking it/trying to suck it out. Any help ID and treatment is appreciated.

I have upped my water changes to 2 times a week which totals about 5 gallons per change (just about 50% my water volume) each time. All corals are doing well as are fish, I try very hard to not over feed but this algae is persist and popping up more. I have very limited clean up crew if 4 small blue leg hermits and 2 snails.

I have not adjusted lighting at all. Replaced all media (chemipure elite and purigen) and I do not have a refugium.

Water parameters as standard, ammonia/nitrite 0 and nitrate ~5. Alkalinity stays rather consistent with the larger water changes around 12dkh. Phosphates when I test I always get negligible levels. I assume part of my consistent parameters has to do with the algae utilizing the nutrients to grow giving me the false positive “good parameters” I’ve attached some pics below and as always the advice is very much appreciated.

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

I would get a few turbo snails, they should eat that gha up no problem.

 

[Reef.]

Hard to say from the pictures but all reefs have some algae, it’s a good thing, trying to remove it all will cause other issues.

Doing two 50% water change is very unnecessary and will lead to Dinos, check your feeding or more importantly your export methods other than water changes to see if there is an issue, may just be as simple as more cuc or you having a more realistic expectation on what a reef tank should look like but I doubt the answer is in doing those water changes.

Posting the pictures with white light would be better to see the issue, blues hide the algae.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Have you got pics under white light to see what we dealing with?

 

[sixty_reefer]

The algae on the flipper could be bryopsis

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

The algae on the flipper could be bryopsis

No fern like structure from what I can see, looks like regular hair algae to me.

 

[StarterSaltWater]

Have you got pics under white light to see what we dealing with?

Thank you all for the reply! Here attached is under the AI Prime cool white light only.

 

[mdb_talon]

At least a couple different types of algae in those pics and sadly bryopsis is one of them. Increased cuc may help with a lot of it but probably not the bryopsis.

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

Yep I stand corrected, definitely bryopsis as well as some other stuff. Only way to eliminate bryopsis is fluconazole. It works well but can be harsh on some corals.

 

[StarterSaltWater]

Thanks for the reply’s everyone! I will most likely carry on with the regular water changes and increase my clean up crew and after awhile of that see where I stand before I dose fluconazole. I only have 2 small frags of SPS the rest are all softie and LPS.

I assume the recommended brand is reef flux?