Need help Identifying Algea and suggestions

gmavrom · May 10, 2026

Can anyone ID this Alage? Is it turf algae? seems Flucanazole does not kill it. I have dossed it twice and kept it for three weeks. At the time, nitrate and phosphate were unreadable. Now nitrate is approx 20-35, and phosphate is barely there, if at all. It's choking my corals/ I am constantly removing as much as I can by hand. Should I dose with Microbacterium 7 for the nitrate? .I am running a skimmer and, since yesterday, have dumped the light green water out 3 times as it kept filling. This has been driving me crazy for months. I do have many cucs and taxedo urchin and 3 emeralds and 7 or so turbos and many other smaller crabs and snails in a80 gallon display tank. I just changed another 15 gallons; the nitrate was at 50. Nitrate could have spiked from the murder of my large yellow wrasse by either the scopus or one spot fox. It was pretty decomposed and eaten when I found it.

sixty_reefer · May 10, 2026

I can’t see the algae due to the mat of Cyanobacteria and possibly dinoflagellate. What I can see seems to be hair algae but it would need a better picture.

From your nutrients I would recommend you to increase phosphate as soon as possible it could be connected with your nitrate rising.

gmavrom · May 10, 2026

sixty_reefer said:
I can’t see the algae due to the mat of Cyanobacteria and possibly dinoflagellate. What I can see seems to be hair algae but it would need a better picture.

From your nutrients I would recommend you to increase phosphate as soon as possible it could be connected with your nitrate rising.

I am dosing again with neophosphate. I have had the problem for months, but now I am getting this stringy stuff too. I am changing the water, cutting down the light. Here are some more photos; these are the best I can take. I don't know what else to do. This is very frustrating. First i had no nitrate and phosphate, now I have a lot of nitrate.

slingfox · May 10, 2026

Need pictures under white light. Provide a full tank shot as well as a closer up shot like in your original post.

slingfox · May 10, 2026

gmavrom said:
I am dosing again with neophosphate. I have had the problem for months, but now I am getting this stringy stuff too. I am changing the water, cutting down the light. Here are some more photos; these are the best I can take. I don't know what else to do. This is very frustrating. First i had no nitrate and phosphate, now I have a lot of nitrate.

Need photos under white light

sixty_reefer · May 10, 2026

gmavrom said:
I am dosing again with neophosphate. I have had the problem for months, but now I am getting this stringy stuff too. I am changing the water, cutting down the light. Here are some more photos; these are the best I can take. I don't know what else to do. This is very frustrating. First i had no nitrate and phosphate, now I have a lot of nitrate.

Your best move at the moment would be to try and get phosphate up, some times we have to double dose to get them readable.
Some aquariums microbes cannot use nitrate in the absence of phosphate.
This will allow some of the nuisance algae’s and bacteria in your tank to use organic nutrients and dominate over beneficial microbes.
Once phosphate is detectable and consistent you will just need time to get everything back in order.