Need Algae ID

[pboutin]

Looking for a few things here.
1.) What type of algae is it
2.) What eats it
3.) How to get rid of it

Info: It's soft like velvet, dark green, very hard to pull off of rocks. Doesn't cover living tissue of corals but does block out light and prevents growth on areas covered by it, only grows in the light. My Astrea snails don't eat it my hermits don't eat it my yellow tang won't touch it my blenny won't touch it.

System: 90 gal display, 40 gal refugium, 60 gal sump, total water volume 120~ gal give or take.
Nitrate: 0, Phosphate: 0
Due to the large amount of algae growing here and what I try to promote in the refugium is taking up all measurable nutrients, so reading are 0 :/ Every other param is inline I do weekly water changes of about 10 - 15 gal. I skim 24 - 7. My refugium is on reverse light schedule and aerate at night. I'm not running any GFO or Carbon. I dose cal and alk on a doser. All corals but 2 are doing excellent with growth and colorization. My lighting is two gen 2 Radion at 15 inches from the surface of the water and tank is 24 inch deep. The light schedule is ramp up from 7-8 then 70% until noon at 95% then back down to 75% until 6 then ramp down till moon at 8 then off at 9. I feed two times a day on automatic feeder pellets and one or two cubes per week of mysys and feed corals once a week at night.


This last pic is what I managed to pinch off in my bucket.

 

[brandon429]

no two responses to that algae will be the same. mine's unique but it has specific compliance dates, and if that tank was in my house it would be algae free by 9/8/17

my opinions based on algae correction thread work:
cause-no raspers. not nutrient related, everyone states algae growth is indicative of nutrient issues and its not the case, its indicative of a reef...like calcifying worms that show up uninvited over time. we added reef substrate, so we got all that was reef

raspers missing: a hawksbill turtle would have that as salad with a side of ranch in six minutes.

a parrotfish would have bitten it all off, and your sandbed would be three inches taller by now, and clean too.

Its presence indicates nothing about your water quality, or you'd have suspended green algae problems it wouldn't be an obligate hitchhiker, anchored to the rocks.

its been allowed to spread because it was brought in, through nonquarantine of surfaces. its direct cause is non QT and it was treatable on the first spot.

my way is not nice, it doesn't allow more delay, its a two day er.

I would:

take apart the whole tank and surgically kill all the algae outside the tank. rinse the sandbed fully, new sand in fact, this is a full substrate coverage issue and you can either play around, or be done by 8th.

reinstall the entire tank free of algae because it was just cheat killed, on top of a pure sandbed with no more helping fuel, though fuel wasn't the cause, its preventative, and continue course, and not do a single thing to current nutrient profile.


we set nutrients around what corals want, not what it takes to starve algae. we can act directly on 1st spot, before 30, and that's key until a lucky grazer balance does the work for us in a practical manner.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I'm having a hard time getting a match on that one. I'd def reccomend trying some turno snails though.

 

[brandon429]

that above was all intending to get you to kill the algae and not worry about the water, since its taking over, and indicating ramped up needs. Even if you don't employ the force-clean measure tankwide, anything we contemplate doing to the water to starve it further should be applied in the non invaded condition; make your water wars the preventer of algae, not the remover, then you wont be losing corals and anemones in this lengthy battle.

if the tank is too large to be reworked there is still possible direct action: the single compliant test rock technique.

Everything we do is date compliant; we don't cross fingers and hope. Even if this tank is huge, and not workable in the way we know will cause compliance, there's still modeling with a single test rock, to a known completion date.

all forms of water-war is act first, measure, then wait. our method is kill the algae a couple times, quit importing it on purpose, and be free of it. There are a few strains that get in naturally via other vectors, but not this kind above. it was an anchored, obligate hitchhiker and nutrients aren't the best control for it.

a test rock is taking a single top rock with that growth, outside of tank, and scrape it all off -rough- with a steak knife. score it, a parrotfish isn't nice.

dig it out, root it man like a dandelion.

make that rock free of algae via rasping.

then, only after its scarred a good bit and darn sure free of plant, add peroxide to the cleaned area and let it fizz for a couple mins.

put the rock that was just farmed back to normal back in the tank, among the other test rocks, among the water works being done to hopefully both remove and prevent algae that's already set in.

watch that one rock for regrowth, see what you must do to it to force compliance....

you will always have a known baseline, a specific date-sensitive action set modeled right for you, that you can turn to when you are fed up with water works.

it may take work, but your test rock simply shows you how to beat this scourge like a canary in a coal mine. our algae correction threads using this stuff are up to 200 pages nearly.
B

 

[pboutin]

I'm having a hard time getting a match on that one. I'd def reccomend trying some turno snails though.

I haven't had luck with keeping Turbo's but worth a shot to at least get 1 or 2 to see if they eat it.

 

[pboutin]

that above was all intending to get you to kill the algae and not worry about the water, since its taking over, and indicating ramped up needs.

I agree with you here... I'm not the type to take drastic action. That is how the growth got out of hand in the first place.

a test rock is taking a single top rock with that growth, outside of tank, and scrape it all off -rough- with a steak knife. score it, a parrotfish isn't nice.

dig it out, root it man like a dandelion.

make that rock free of algae via rasping.

then, only after its scarred a good bit and darn sure free of plant, add peroxide to the cleaned area and let it fizz for a couple mins.

put the rock that was just farmed back to normal back in the tank, among the other test rocks, among the water works being done to hopefully both remove and prevent algae that's already set in.

watch that one rock for regrowth, see what you must do to it to force compliance....

you will always have a known baseline, a specific date-sensitive action set modeled right for you, that you can turn to when you are fed up with water works.

it may take work, but your test rock simply shows you how to beat this scourge like a canary in a coal mine.
B

I love your analogies and Yeah a test rock it is. I'll work on that approach. If I have to i'll remove each rock one by one until its all gone. But 1 step at a time. I like the natural approach if I can.

 

[MKcat]

The photos look very similar to something I had in my tank several years ago. It was impossible to scrub off of the rocks. I like to try natural remedies so my LFS suggested a few emerald crabs and several turbos. At the time I purchased 5 emeralds and 10 turbos. It took a few months, but they ended up eating it all. My 3 tangs didn't touch the stuff. Just a thought...Good luck! I've got a 8 yr old 150 gal mature tank and I am fighting a horrible case of cyano currently. ugh.

 

[pboutin]

I added a Kole Tang today in hopes he eats this stuff per recommendation from @mcarroll

 

[brandon429]

Very good likelihood grazer nature uses an army of those to control growth

 

[Joshua Huff]

did you find a solution to this problem? i am fighting what looks like the same issue. I have scrubbed the rocks... while in the tank. i am not brave enough to pull everything from the tank and start over. I am currently running phosgaurd and it doesnt seem to be spreading right now. my nitrates are 5 and phosphates did get up to .25 (atleast thats what it looks like on a API color test). Let me know if you have had any results, please.

 

[pboutin]

did you find a solution to this problem? i am fighting what looks like the same issue. I have scrubbed the rocks... while in the tank. i am not brave enough to pull everything from the tank and start over. I am currently running phosgaurd and it doesnt seem to be spreading right now. my nitrates are 5 and phosphates did get up to .25 (atleast thats what it looks like on a API color test). Let me know if you have had any results, please.

crap dude... no. My Nitrates and Phosphates are not that high... although i can't really measure them due to the amount of Algae consuming them. I just today pulled 3 large rocks and hand cleaned them. Can't get all of it. I have a cheato reactor to out compete it and I also have a refugium on reverse light cycle. I cut back on the feedings and doing my best to manage the situation. Even the Kole Tang won't touch it. I'm going to be ordering some Chestnut turbos from florida soon. I'll also grab a emerald crab to see if he will eat it.

 

[Joshua Huff]

crap dude... no. My Nitrates and Phosphates are not that high... although i can't really measure them due to the amount of Algae consuming them. I just today pulled 3 large rocks and hand cleaned them. Can't get all of it. I have a cheato reactor to out compete it and I also have a refugium on reverse light cycle. I cut back on the feedings and doing my best to manage the situation. Even the Kole Tang won't touch it. I'm going to be ordering some Chestnut turbos from florida soon. I'll also grab a emerald crab to see if he will eat it.

Ive added an Emerald crab, Havnt seen much out of him yet tho. Last night I ordered a stronger clean up crew. Tiger snails, Red leg hermit crabs, orange leg hermit crabs and a tail spot blenny. I think am hoping that a good variation in my crew will help. I really dont want to do 3 days of darkness, and I already do weekly water changes.

Are you running any Carbon or GFO in your tank? I would recomend atleast the carbon, and some kind of phosphate removal other then cheato.

 

[pboutin]

I've added an Emerald crab, Haven't seen much out of him yet tho. Last night I ordered a stronger clean up crew. Tiger snails, Red leg hermit crabs, orange leg hermit crabs and a tail spot blenny. I think am hoping that a good variation in my crew will help. I really don't want to do 3 days of darkness, and I already do weekly water changes.

I bought a tail spot blenny with the same hopes... not eating it.

Are you running any Carbon or GFO in your tank? I would recommend at least the carbon, and some kind of phosphate removal other then cheato.

Nope... I have a dual reactor but no plans on running it yet. I recently had issues with my nitrates and phosphates being too low. I know go figure. I think i'm going to keep with the manual removal process and out compete it. I have my chaeto reactor running on the same light cycle as my display then I have my Refugium on reverse light cycle so I always have Algae consuming nitrates and phosphates. I haven't ordered my Turbos yet I want to see how fast the regrowth is if any at all before I go ordering more mouths to feed.