Mystery stringy algae + GHA + Bryopsis + Cyano, what to do?

cdw79 · Jun 21, 2022

I've been dealing with some chunks of GHA for awhile (previously was only popping up in my fuge), so I've been doing manual removal as well as continuing my regular dosing of MB7 to help combat nutrients being too high. In recent weeks I've started getting red cyano too. I went through this early on in my tank's post-cycling period but MB7 seemed to do the trick then so I decided to stick with it now. Looking closely today I realized that at least some of it is bryopsis- saw the fern-shaped shoots and everything.

To make matters worse, I've seemingly entered the fourth circle of algae/bacteria hell and recently noticed this stringy algae on my sandbed and lower rocks. It grows in single strands and seems to latch onto new pieces of sand or rock before shooting out another string. Couldn't find it online but here's the best I could do for a pic:

Tank is an 8-9 month old 65 gal display w 15 gal sump (Red Sea reefer 300XL) that up until recently has been pretty stable- having success with montis and other more basic SPS

Readings as of tonight are:
Nitrate (Salifert)- 2-5 ppm (hard to tell for me)
Phosphate (Hanna) .08
Alk (trident)- 9.65
Cal (trident) 400, slowly moving it up to about 420-430
Mg (trident)- 1284

My photoperiod is "short" - about 8 hours at the moment with an extra hour of ramp up on either end - but decently high intensity (Hydra 32's at 105%, very blue spectrum). Not sure this has much to do with anything but can provide more info if it helps.

I have tried to avoid chemicals as solutions but at this point I'm willing to consider whatever it takes, as long as whatever the treatment is fully reef / fish safe. I've started reading the Flucanazole forum but not sure if it will fully nuke the various forms of algae / actually address the root problem here, as I saw that ultimately while Bryopsis will die, other algae will return if the underlying issue is not resolved. Personally thinking at the very least my CUC needs a big set of reinforcements. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

WheatToast · Jun 22, 2022

cdw79 said:
I've been dealing with some chunks of GHA for awhile (previously was only popping up in my fuge), so I've been doing manual removal as well as continuing my regular dosing of MB7 to help combat nutrients being too high. In recent weeks I've started getting red cyano too. I went through this early on in my tank's post-cycling period but MB7 seemed to do the trick then so I decided to stick with it now. Looking closely today I realized that at least some of it is bryopsis- saw the fern-shaped shoots and everything.

To make matters worse, I've seemingly entered the fourth circle of algae/bacteria hell and recently noticed this stringy algae on my sandbed and lower rocks. It grows in single strands and seems to latch onto new pieces of sand or rock before shooting out another string. Couldn't find it online but here's the best I could do for a pic:

Tank is an 8-9 month old 65 gal display w 15 gal sump (Red Sea reefer 300XL) that up until recently has been pretty stable- having success with montis and other more basic SPS

Readings as of tonight are:
Nitrate (Salifert)- 2-5 ppm (hard to tell for me)
Phosphate (Hanna) .08
Alk (trident)- 9.65
Cal (trident) 400, slowly moving it up to about 420-430
Mg (trident)- 1284

My photoperiod is "short" - about 8 hours at the moment with an extra hour of ramp up on either end - but decently high intensity (Hydra 32's at 105%, very blue spectrum). Not sure this has much to do with anything but can provide more info if it helps.

I have tried to avoid chemicals as solutions but at this point I'm willing to consider whatever it takes, as long as whatever the treatment is fully reef / fish safe. I've started reading the Flucanazole forum but not sure if it will fully nuke the various forms of algae / actually address the root problem here, as I saw that ultimately while Bryopsis will die, other algae will return if the underlying issue is not resolved. Personally thinking at the very least my CUC needs a big set of reinforcements. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I do not have much advice on algae eradication, but the mystery organism's ability to shoot strings makes me doubt that it is any type of algae. It appears to be a spaghetti/hair worm (Cirratulidae sp.) which are beneficial detritivores. Keep it

!

cdw79 · Jun 22, 2022

So I see why you'd point to a spaghetti worm, but the growth there in the pic is a bit of an exception to the rue- most of the time it seems to grow horizontally and in various places. Not sure if that might help anyone ID?

I'm also a little confused overall, as while my parameters aren't 100% "perfect" per se, nothing seems drastically off to me, so feeling a little lost here

Pkunk35 · Jun 22, 2022

Kinda agree with wheat toast at least in the fact that the pic shown is probably not algae but some invertebrate. But def difficult to tell.

so is the problem the Bryopsis or GHA? Can you provide a FTS to see just how bad the problem is? Just curious.

I personally will just manually remove algae, usually with full or mini water changes, until it is gone (can take weeks or months). Also have to keep nutrients in line while doing this if often.

for bryopsis, bc it is usually patchy from crevices in rock, I will usually take bone cutters to that rock and chisel it out if I can and then siphon out all water and debris near that area afterwards.

Agree with a bit more CUC, maybe try an urchin or a variety of types of algae/detritus eaters.

personally I would either bring phosphate a little down bc of that lower nitrate value or just bring that nitrate up some. If I’m at 0.08 phosphate, I like to keep a 16 nitrate and I would def run longer lighting period up to 12 hours total with those kind of numbers.

MB7 dosing…personally I use it on occasion to lower nutrient or so that is what it seems to do for me. I think that dosing it daily is just another vector for consumption, so I find it easier to adjust feeding habit to keep nutrient where I like it. Personally think cyano will eventually go away on its own from the display in time with more coral volume.

jhuntstl · Jun 22, 2022

That is definitely a spaghetti worm. You can faintly see the striping on the tentacles in your photo. They spread out horizontally across the rocks and sand quite often. Looks identical to mine and I got a ton of them.

cdw79 · Jun 22, 2022

Sure enough, looks like it's moved slightly. Also makes sense why I always saw that "algae" but never actually saw it get pickup up when going through the sandbed.

So with that potential issue now seemingly not an actual issue at all, what about the other algae struggles? Seems like at this point I have a bit of everything under the sun to deal with. Any recommendations for a plan of attack and ideally how to alleviate the underlying issues that are causing all this?