weird algae

mike ftw · Jan 3, 2010

stuff popped up in my tank while i was gone for christmas, real thick main stalk and superfine fluff around it

mike ftw · Jan 4, 2010

Anyone have a idea what it is and how to get rid of it?

Have shut the lights on the main tank off and running fuge light 24 hrs a day

Any help would be great

wicked demon · Jan 4, 2010

Looks like dinoflagellates to me.

Dave3112 · Jan 4, 2010

I don't know if they are dinos. Does the aglae have any air bubbles in it that increase in number through out the day when the lights are on? If so then that is dinoflagellates IMO. Can you get a clearer/better picture?

wicked demon · Jan 4, 2010

I have only ever seen air bubbles in cyano, dino just looks like brown snot.

Dave3112 · Jan 4, 2010

I had some dinos that did just as I described. I have seen all kinds though. I'm not trying to say you are wrong by any means.

wicked demon · Jan 4, 2010

I have only dealt with dino once so I am not the authority on the subject for sure, just my experience.

Sikryd · Jan 4, 2010

The process for removal is the same pretty much for any of the algaes pretty much.

I suspect the tank is pretty new (under 6 months). If so, then it is just the regular algae bloom that is to be expected.

If regular skimming, using rodi, water changes and typical maintainance it shouldn't be a problem and go away on its own.

If not, you might have to do some other stuff to get rid of it.

mike ftw · Jan 4, 2010

The tank is less than 2 months old. Using RO/DI all corals and fish doing well. This stuff came on fast we left for holiday for 14 days and came back to the tank over ran with it. Hand removed a lot and as stated before turning the lights out for a few days to slow it down. No tang in the tank as of yet ( not sure if a tang would eat on it or not). No air bubbles noticed, has a think stock and feather when removed very slimy. Skimmer seems to be skimming a lot wetter than before also not sure if this is connected to the out break.

Thank for all the replies will update as I go along.

Water condition is good

0 amo
0 nitrites and nitrates
no reading on phos API test kit

wicked demon · Jan 4, 2010

reason water tests norm is nutrients are being consumed by the algae, need better pics now for sure, feathery could be bryopsis, but didn't look green enough for that. if it has a stalk its definatly not cyano, still could be dino.

mike ftw · Jan 4, 2010

it is not green at all very brown feather might not be best word to describe maybe fuzzy would be better.Fuge cheato is growing fast also, hoping the lights out on tank and running fuge 24hrs a day will starve it out. Will see sounds like to only thing to do for now and let the tank age to get through this first bloom. Spoke with the guy that was watching my tanks and he said it really happened in over a 4 to 5 day window. He called me all paniced that it had bloomed I did not think it was as bad as he was suggesting as he is not in the hobby. lol it was ever bit as bad.