I'm Never Going On Vacation Again... Help with ID?

[Andi]

Hey there, and happy weekend of the 4th!

I went on vacation for a few days, and when I returned, I found my 14g biocube had been overtaken by algae! Unfortunately, the hair algae has taken hold... fortunately, I've got some experience in the tweezer/sea hare/removal division. However, my problem is this: particularly around my frogspawn, there's a fluffier algae that's made itself comfortable. So comfortable that the corals it touches no longer want to come out and play. Any ideas? What is this, and what do I do? (Apologies in advance for the iPhone quality photos.)

So far, parameters remain stable and good to go. Weekly water changes, small feedings every other day, light has remained on consistent schedule. I'm not quite sure what the new outbreak is all about! All expertise welcome... we're new at this and always eager to learn.

Thank you!

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[jefra]

That looks more like brown jelly disease than algae to me. Was it damaged recently? You might get better answers on ID and treatment in the LPS forum.

 

[Duke4Life]

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[jsker]

Did you get if figured out?

 

[Shep]

That looks more like brown jelly disease than algae to me. Was it damaged recently? You might get better answers on ID and treatment in the LPS forum.

If its brown jelly it will look like a slime substance

 

[Andi]

Hiya folks. As of Tuesday morning (3 days later), it is entirely cleared away. Looking great... the frogspawn is now fully extended, has a spotless base, and generally seems happy. Perhaps my snails, cleaner shrimp, and hermits managed to clean it up for me?

As far as ID-ing goes, I did not notice any damage to the frogspawn when the algae/??? was present. There were no changes to the tank (parameters, light, fish, corals, feedings) before or after the mysterious fluff-looking mass appeared. I'm still interested to learn what it may have been, should anyone be interested in playing detective!

 

[Tahoe61]

Do you have a sea hare in this tank?

 

[Diesel]

Interesting.
Any new pics from the recovery?
Did you do anything after you discovered it, like a WC and how much, often?
Light change?
Did you remove any of it?
What kind of livestock you have in your tank.
Did you test before discovery and after and if so what were the results?
Where did you go on vacation ;)
How big is your tank?

 

[Andi]

We did have a sea hare in the tank to help us with some green algae, but ended up returning it once we were clean of the green algae (didn't want him to starve). He was in there pre-mass and post-mass.

As for the tank, here's what I know:
4 month old 14g Biocube
- Livestock: 2 ocellaris clownfish, 1 cleaner shrimp, handful of trochus snails/very small hermit crabs (+ "grow into" shells)
We did have a sea hare "on loan" that was there pre/post the fluff, but he's no longer in the tank
- Corals: frogspawn, hammer, couple zoas, favia, acan
- Lighting: we stripped out the stock lighting and replaced with an AiPrime in the acrylic lid
- Chambers: Coralife Biocube skimmer, DIY media basket with sponge, carbon, and GFO

Once I found the fluff, I didn't make any changes. We did do our weekly WC (20%) but nothing else. Without knowing what it was, I was frankly crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. A few days before we left for vacation, we'd changed our feeding (1/3 frozen mysis cube every day to 1/2 cube +1/3 algae wafer every other day) and introduced some acclimated/dipped corals from our 40g as we re-aquascaped it. I figured if it didn't get worse, it might be best to not make too many changes.

Thoughts about what it may have been/how to prevent it in the future? (I'm intrigued about the sea hare question!)

P.S. My family visited from WI and we went to enjoy the sights/wines of Napa Valley :)

 

[Tahoe61]

Sea hare lay weird looking egg masses, not something you see every day. I was unable to make out an precise photographic details from the image other than a mass. It did not look like any algae I have seen. Sea hares like a lot of marine creatures sometimes lay when water quality declines, and or other stressors such starvation, it's a last ditch effort to preserve the species.
Just make an observation that from the image it did not really look like algae, from your description it really did not sound like algae.
Sea hare egg masses sometimes look like weird masses of spaghetti.

 

[Andi]

Oh, wow! That's fascinating... I wonder if that's what it was. It certainly didn't look like the other algae outbreaks I've seen on R2R, and was isolated to that spot. I'll bet you're right, @Tahoe61 . Thanks for your help!