Hair algae or cyano? Methods of removal?

[pluikens]

Below are some pictures of algae in my tank. It's only growing at the top of the top rocks so I'm thinking it's just saw growing where it gets the most light. It's a brown color and makes the rocks look "scruffy". I run GFO in a reactor and a protein skimmer plus filter socks changed twice a week for nutrient export. Nitrate is 15 ppm (Red Sea) and phosphate is .061 ppm (Hanna Phosphorus). I'd like some opinions on if this looks like hair algae or is something like cyano. The tank is about 3 months old. Suggestions on how to get rid of it would also be appreciated. To be honest, I haven't tried scrubbing the rocks off but I did try blasting then with a baster but nothing really came off. My sand is clean and gets turned over/cleaned every other week with a 10% water change.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Big G]

Is it slimy or is it filamentous? Can we get a closeup picture of a piece?

 

[Reefer addickt]

looks similar to bryopsis, have you tried to "manually remove it"? scrubbing etc.

 

[Reefer addickt]

I would guess your using ro/di water right? if so check your tds

 

[pluikens]

I'll have to wait until tomorrow or tonight after family leaves to get a close up picture of a piece.

 

[pluikens]

I am using a 6 stage RODI from BRS. TDS is 7 after the RO, 2 after the first DI, and 0 after the second.

 

[pluikens]

I would say it's filamentous, sort of like chaeto.

 

[landlubber]

your water shows very low phosphate but the truth is growing on your rocks. you need to manually remove that by pulling it off then scrubbing your rock followed by a decent sized water change. next up is to alter your feeding and photoperiod (possibly) to resolve the true root of the problem. finally, what are you keeping for inverts? snails, crabs and urchins all will help you along.

 

[pluikens]

I feed two cubes of frozen food in the evening. Photoperiod is 2-7p with three hour ramp on both sides. I have two cerith, two astrea, and four nassarius snails. None of them spend too much time cleaning the rocks. I've got probably three blue leg hermits and a fighting conch. I tried emerald crabs early on but they died in about a week. Should I try them again now that I have algae growing?

 

[landlubber]

I feed two cubes of frozen food in the evening. Photoperiod is 2-7p with three hour ramp on both sides. I have two cerith, two astrea, and four nassarius snails. None of them spend too much time cleaning the rocks. I've got probably three blue leg hermits and a fighting conch. I tried emerald crabs early on but they died in about a week. Should I try them again now that I have algae growing?

how big is this tank and how many fish?

 

[pluikens]

It's a 40 breeder. I have 2 clowns, 3 cardinalfish, a coral beauty, yellow coris wrasse, and an orange stripe goby. Also a bullseye Snapping Shrimp and Scarlett Skunk Shrimp.

 

[pluikens]

I'm going to try scrubbing it off tonight. I'll try to get a good piece out to take a close-up picture. Thanks for all the help so far!

 

[landlubber]

It's a 40 breeder. I have 2 clowns, 3 cardinalfish, a coral beauty, yellow coris wrasse, and an orange stripe goby. Also a bullseye Snapping Shrimp and Scarlett Skunk Shrimp.

well for context in my 120g standard (150g total water volume) with 10 fish i usually feed 5 cubes of mysis a week. you are feeding considerably more than needed and just reducing that could solve your algae issues.

 

[landlubber]

well for context in my 120g standard (150g total water volume) with 10 fish i usually feed 5 cubes of mysis a week. you are feeding considerably more than needed and just reducing that could solve your algae issues.

edit: sorry pushed send too quick!
you also need to bolster up your inverts. those cuc packages are way excessive but having 20 snails in your tank along with 10 hermits would save you a lot of scrubbing.

 

[pluikens]

edit: sorry pushed send too quick!
you also need to bolster up your inverts. those cuc packages are way excessive but having 20 snails in your tank along with 10 hermits would save you a lot of scrubbing.

Thanks! Last night was the first time I fed only one cube. I'll be going down to one cube a night and starting to very lightly feed pellets at noon and 3pm from an autofeeder since the next fish I'll be adding are three anthias and I know they should be fed throughout the day. I agree with you on the CUC packages. I feel like they plan on at least half dying. I'll get some more snails this week. I can get 10-15 more astrea snails. They're the only ones I see on my rocks. Any specific suggestions on hermits?

 

[Big G]

I feed two cubes of frozen food in the evening.

That's a lot of food in one dose. Consider reducing the amount. And you may want to try to strain the watery material from the frozen food and only feed the solids.

 

[Big G]

Any specific suggestions on hermits?

Beware of the predatory nature of hermit crabs. They can kill other snails.

 

[brandon429]

I believe that is an animal grouping mixed along with plants, some bryozoans and some algal communities mixed and expressing together.

direct hitchhiking from live reef materials is required to get true periphyton, and I notce an sps coral right there, so they rode in as reefish things do.

Periphyton, google that to see.

Its what divers see on all ocean rocks given time and not much grazing.

they aren't bad, just unsightly compared to pure coralline and coral. You should remove a rock outside of tank and scrub, fragmentation in the tank = more

rinse off using clean saltwater, a bit of peroxide if you want a clean rock and hand guide these growths out, or get the lucky grazers, your choice. don't try and nutrient starve this set of invaders.

 

[brandon429]

in our invasion threads we don't see periphyton as a years-long invasion source, ranked midways among hassles...but you can see when it does grow in, its thick and excluding to some (fine reef skills to have adapted)

in any invasion I think the secret to control lies in test rocking

check any invasion thread on the internet, they're posting for ideas and help, they're usually posting pictures of a full on invasion in place and everyone works in retro, see who gets lucky on the fix without losing nontargets. that's every invasion thread from cyano to dinos to hair algae and bryopsis.

test rocking means one rock, one simple easy rock, is guided to perfection among a forest of targets.

Its your baseline, absolute go to in the event of true concern, and if aquarists had a baseline they could employ out of concern, nobody would be posting algae challenge threads. we are willing to do things harsher, meaner and faster to a test rock, only to set it back in the tank and chart its performance among the typical masses.

It doesn't matter if upscaling the scraping/detail work to the whole tank would be hard to do, that's the price of delay.

What matters about test rocking is you have the ability to bio model an entire unique fix to your system live time, you have some knowledge about your invader relative to your unique home variables.

Once you get a test rock to remain invader free, you have a biomap of how to restore your entire tank. Try for the low work lucky stuff; use your opt out button when needed.

nobody loses corals, fish, inverts, or filtration systems to experimentation on a single rock, the test rock is ideal in your setup 100% assured. know something about periphyton's behavior/resiliency in your home.

there is absolutely nothing wrong with your system whatsoever, this invader would grow in anyones tank if you simply bring some in. it will express differently among tanks.