not sure what algae/bacteria this is

[melonheadorion]

backstory is that i had bryopsis, and GHA. i am on the third week of reef flux being in the tank. it has done away with all, or at least most of the bryopsis, from what i can tell. its hard to say because i still have a crazy growth of something going on. it is a very similar look to GHA and/or bryopsis, with a tad bit of difference. GHA tends to be really fine filimental and almost like a makeup brush flowing in the current. bryopsis has an obvious feathery look. i have something that is similar to both. i am almost certain its neither of them, at this point. im thinkin gits caolthrix, but im not sure. its not as uniform as you would see with GHA, and is a bit more wire ish. kinda looks abstract like bryopsis without the ferned look. on the other hand, it has a characteristic, or a couple characteristics of dino and cyano, where it sometimes gathers bubbles, but it isnt snotty, or mats a surface like either of those do. researching what i could, thats why i think its calothrix. i have put a couple pictures below to show as best i could
also to mention, the reef flux has seemed to have given way to have this stuff grow, and grow fast. if i remove it, its back the same day it seems. obviously, there is no other algae there to compete for nutrients, so it makes sense. its either a different type of algae/bacteria, or the reef flux wasnt effective.
also, to add, it doesnt blow off like dinos or cyano might. removal by hand can only be done with a brush or hand (hand is not easy to get large amounts like it is with GHA)

1- can anyone confirm or give their thoughts.
2- best way to get rid of it. i do plan on taking the rocks that have it, out to at least scrub it off, but what in addition to that, can i do? obviously, water changes are needed since im on my third week of the reef flux, anyway

parameters that matter-
salinity 1.025
ph 8.1-8.3
phosphate- .02
nitrate- based on color tests, i can only assume is around 15-20
i am not running activated carbon at the moment
i am dosing bacto balance being sure to not bottom out completely
i am not running any GFO

 

[Bucs20fan]

I had very similar, if not the same. Although it did not kill it, it greatly slowed down the growth with dosing 1ml peroxide per 10 gallons of water. That along with manual removal helped alot.

 

[melonheadorion]

I had very similar, if not the same. Although it did not kill it, it greatly slowed down the growth with dosing 1ml peroxide per 10 gallons of water. That along with manual removal helped alot.

thats kinda what i read as well. heck, it may have been a thread you started, or were in. i dont recall. ive also read of people being told to remove teh rock, scrub the heck out of it, and spray it down with peroxide. my worry is that if i do that, peroxide would kill beneficial bacteria, right?
with the dosing, did it affect any inverts/snails, or corals. im running a mixed reef with everything from zoa, shrooms, lps, sps. im not so worried about the zoas. i know that they can handle a peroxide dip as it is, but mostly worried about LPS and SPS

 

[Lavey29]

Instead of harsh chemicals and chemical dips why not focus on your parameters which are the source of your algae problems? The GHA chemical treatment probably bottomed out your parameters and opened the door for other algae problems.

 

[Bucs20fan]

thats kinda what i read as well. heck, it may have been a thread you started, or were in. i dont recall. ive also read of people being told to remove teh rock, scrub the heck out of it, and spray it down with peroxide. my worry is that if i do that, peroxide would kill beneficial bacteria, right?
with the dosing, did it affect any inverts/snails, or corals. im running a mixed reef with everything from zoa, shrooms, lps, sps. im not so worried about the zoas. i know that they can handle a peroxide dip as it is, but mostly worried about LPS and SPS

Dosing peroxide if done correct wont hurt anything. In a marine aquarium peroxide is completely turned into oxygen within 4 hours. I did 1ml per 10 gallons twice a day with no effects to anything other than algae. I do agree with @Lavey29 on getting parameters fixed. Flux will swing open the door for dinos and other organisms.

 

[melonheadorion]

Instead of harsh chemicals and chemical dips why not focus on your parameters which are the source of your algae problems? The GHA chemical treatment probably bottomed out your parameters and opened the door for other algae problems.

ive monitored my parameters throughout. my Phosphate has not bottomed out, and the nitrates have been steady where they are currently.

 

[Lavey29]

ive monitored my parameters throughout. my Phosphate has not bottomed out, and the nitrates have been steady where they are currently.

Parameters, lighting and to some degree flow affect algae in the tank. So one or more of those are the source of your problems. I had a huge GHA probably briopsis jungle also and never introduced chemicals. Just stayed the course with focus on stable parameters, reduced lighting, diverse cleaner crew, manual removal, etc... and problems cleared up over a few months. Really turbos and urchins were the biggest help.

 

[melonheadorion]

Parameters, lighting and to some degree flow affect algae in the tank. So one or more of those are the source of your problems. I had a huge GHA probably briopsis jungle also and never introduced chemicals. Just stayed the course with focus on stable parameters, reduced lighting, diverse cleaner crew, manual removal, etc... and problems cleared up over a few months. Really turbos and urchins were the biggest help.

for what its worth, the areas affected are a mix of a few things. i have, whatever this is, in all areas of the tank. it was actually the worst where there was highest flow. that was mostly GHA. where this, whatever it is, is where there is a lull in flow, but its also in areas with high flow. ive changed my flow a bit to get higher flow to the area that has it worst. lighting; i do have whites on, albeit very low, so i will turn those off completely, and probably remove reds (i think i have reds on). anything else with lights that you would recommed, as far as colors go. i can adjust all blues, white, red, UV, green/blue. ( have all of them on in some degree or another.

 

[Lavey29]

for what its worth, the areas affected are a mix of a few things. i have, whatever this is, in all areas of the tank. it was actually the worst where there was highest flow. that was mostly GHA. where this, whatever it is, is where there is a lull in flow, but its also in areas with high flow. ive changed my flow a bit to get higher flow to the area that has it worst. lighting; i do have whites on, albeit very low, so i will turn those off completely, and probably remove reds (i think i have reds on). anything else with lights that you would recommed, as far as colors go. i can adjust all blues, white, red, UV, green/blue. ( have all of them on in some degree or another.

When mine was bad I cut back to 6 hours blue and uv only no whites.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Besides the above comments, I deffenitly agree that manual removal is best way to remove most, without harsh chemicals (which I avoid)

Some one suggested to use near boiling hot vinegar in a mix with water to remove some parasite/ anemone looking thing.., target blast only! maybe just boiling hot water would help if you could source a way to inject/ target burn algae

 

[Rick's Reviews]

What size aquriam is this please..

 

[melonheadorion]

What size aquriam is this please..

65gal
im not keen on chemicals. fluconazole is the max that i have used chemical wise, and thats just an anti fungal type of medication.
manual removal, for this rockwork isnt too bad. i wont be able to do all of it, because its not just rock piled on top of each other. some of it is, and where its the worst, is not glued to anything. hopefully i dont have any mushrooms connected to multiple rocks, but should be ok to pull on my next water change, which is this week to scrub up. im still on the fence about using hydrogen peroxide to spray the rock, but we will see how the scrub goes.

ive seen people use a injection needle to target things, such as apstasia. the rock that i cant take out of the tank, my thought is that i might try that with hydrogen peroxide.

 

[Lavey29]

How old is the tank? My DT is the same size. You do understand that these algae battles can last months but it helps the tank maturing process. Try and increase your biodiversity also with pods, phytoplankton and PNS probio natural bacteria supplement.

 

[melonheadorion]

tank is almost 9 months old at the moment.

i do add pods. i actually added some probably in the last 30 days. phyto, i do dose, and just dosed again either yesterday or 2 days ago.

currently, i dose bact balance, but have thought about getting the microbacter stuff from brightwell aquatics.

i have some of the dr tims re-fresh and the waste away, but i dont know if either of those will necessarily help with the algae issue, directly.