Help! Algae takeover?

[lordofthecoconuts]

Hey guys, do you have any idea what type of organism this is that’s been taking over my tank? At first i had a bad cyano outbreak, then dinos, and now this. It loves to grow around my zoa frags and all over the rockwork really.

 

[Saltyreef]

Could be bryopsis.
Best to combat with manual removal if you can pull it off during water changes.

 

[lordofthecoconuts]

Could be bryopsis.
Best to combat with manual removal if you can pull it off during water changes.

I was thinking bryopsis initially but it doesnt have the feather like pattern anywhere. I fear it might be Lyngbya

 

[ColorMeGone]

If those are Zoe's under that algae then you better pull it out and dip it in a Peroxide solution of 80% tank water and 20% Peroxide for several minutes to kill it off the plug or they will be dead soon.

 

[EnterName]

Proper identification of algae is very difficult, I'm not even sure if microscope recordings would suffice to go down to genus level. Anyway, it appears to be some kind of filamentous green algae that has something growing on it. It's probably diatoms or dinoflagellates, that cause the brown discoloration. Actual brown algae is very rare in reef tanks as far as I know.

You won't get around removing it manually and adjusting parameters and possibly light and flow to reduce its growth. Note that there is no environment in which corals can grow but algae won't, which means without some herbivore there will always be some algae somewhere.

 

[lordofthecoconuts]

If those are Zoe's under that algae then you better pull it out and dip it in a Peroxide solution of 80% tank water and 20% Peroxide for several minutes to kill it off the plug or they will be dead soon.

I've attempted this a few times already, it works for a while and then the long filamentous algae grows back again in about a week. I don't understand why it's only that long around the zoas. Anyway, I got a turbo snail to hopefully take care of the issue.

 

[lordofthecoconuts]

Proper identification of algae is very difficult, I'm not even sure if microscope recordings would suffice to go down to genus level. Anyway, it appears to be some kind of filamentous green algae that has something growing on it. It's probably diatoms or dinoflagellates, that cause the brown discoloration. Actual brown algae is very rare in reef tanks as far as I know.

You won't get around removing it manually and adjusting parameters and possibly light and flow to reduce its growth. Note that there is no environment in which corals can grow but algae won't, which means without some herbivore there will always be some algae somewhere.

Yup that's the conclusion I came to. Was about to buy a microscope but could not find any definitive guide with microscopic pictures. So I just bought a couple turbo snails and hoping for the best. I had a conch, nassarius snails, and some zombie snails that died due to a dino outbreak but I believe I took care of that with a blackout and a uv sterilizer so guess we'll see if the two turbo snails make it. The hermit crabs have been thriving but don't think they're affected as much.

 

[EnterName]

Proper identification of algae is very difficult, I'm not even sure if microscope recordings would suffice to go down to genus level. Anyway, it appears to be some kind of filamentous green algae that has something growing on it. It's probably diatoms or dinoflagellates, that cause the brown discoloration. Actual brown algae is very rare in reef tanks as far as I know.

You won't get around removing it manually and adjusting parameters and possibly light and flow to reduce its growth. Note that there is no environment in which corals can grow but algae won't, which means without some herbivore there will always be some algae somewhere.

Yup that's the conclusion I came to. Was about to buy a microscope but could not find any definitive guide with microscopic pictures. So I just bought a couple turbo snails and hoping for the best. I had a conch, nassarius snails, and some zombie snails that died due to a dino outbreak but I believe I took care of that with a blackout and a uv sterilizer so guess we'll see if the two turbo snails make it. The hermit crabs have been thriving but don't think they're affected as much.

Reading taxinomic keys is pretty difficult so even with a guide it can be challenging and you have to know a lot about algae to even understand what these keys talk about. I can still highly recommend getting a microscope just for the fun of it and being able to at least being able to distinguish between dinos, cyanos, diatoms, and other pests.
Link to my microscopy thread : https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/

It's always a gamble if snails will actually eat the algae... Let's hope for the best.

 

[lordofthecoconuts]

Sweet thanks for the help I’ma check that thread out!