Can you help me with an Algae ID

[Illusion]

I have had this Wierd algae in my tank now for some time... I have found nothing that really eats it Except some Zebra Stripped Turbo snails... I have tossed in Long Spine Urchins... I have 3 tangs.. A Regal, Orange shoulder and a yellow tang... I also Tossed in a bunch other snails.. Margarita, as well as some others.. about 150 or so assorted snails...

I try to Scrub it with a toothbrush and doesnt help... It doesnt seem to come off that way... The tank was barebottom up until Sunday when I added an Inch or so of Sand... Water changes are 50g every 2-3weeks with a total system volume of about 300g..

Here is a Few pics... To describe it some it looks kinda like hair algae but is more Filimentous and stringy... I have noticed that once a spot is cleaned by the Turbos it stays clean..

Thanks again,
James

 

[matts125]

algae

James,

What you need is to make an order off reeftopia for some lettuce nudibranch, I had the same stuff and ordered 6 of them from reeftopia, and two weeks later it was completely gone!!! just a suggestion. As to what it is, I dont know just some kind of hair algae. Hope this helps!!

Matt krom

 

[flugelnuss]

I am battling this as well. I am willing to try anything at this point as it is starting to take over! I have very little snails and no herbivorous fish, but was thinking about trying a rabbitfish. I'm a little scared though that it might not take care of the algae and develop an appetite for polyps! I was thinking about turbo snails too.

James - How long have you had the turbo snails in there, and does it look like they will eventually eat it all?

Matt - did you prune before putting in the nudibranches?

Had to tag on this thread as I just did a large water change to try and combat it a little bit.

Jeff

 

[matts125]

algae

Jeff, I was always pulling that stuff out with my fingers as best I could, and finally I just ordered the nudi's and they took care of it, reeftopia has some very large lettuce nudi's like 3+inches, so they clean it up quick, I dent know for sure if they would do the same for you and James, but I would swear by them!! Hope this helps you both...


Matt Krom

Matt - did you prune before putting in the nudibranches?

Had to tag on this thread as I just did a large water change to try and combat it a little bit.

Jeff

 

[flugelnuss]

Thanks for the quick reply Matt.

How many did you order, and do you happen to remember how much shipping was? Did the nudis survive, and for how long?

 

[matts125]

Jeff,
I ordered 6 of them, they are $6 each when you get 6 (lot price) they have lots of reef cleaning packages, and some ric's and so on, any order over $130 has free shipping, check them out, and the nudi's will stay around until they starve, but when they starve, that means problem is solved right? they also multiply fast, I had some go through my overflow and get sucked through the return pump back into the tank in 5 pieces and still survive!! Let me know how this turns out for you...

Matt Krom

Thanks for the quick reply Matt.

How many did you order, and do you happen to remember how much shipping was? Did the nudis survive, and for how long?

 

[Anthony Calfo]

or... you could just focus on the real problem (excess nutrients) so that it doesn't come back again and again (recycled by herbivores grazing, fertilizing fecal pellets, regrowth, etc.)

Aggressive skimming, weekly instead of monthly water changes, weekly instead of monthly carbon, straining away thawed juice form frozen foods (rocket fuel for such algae), etc.

 

[flugelnuss]

or... you cold just focus on the real problem (excess nutrients) so that it doesn't come back again and again (recycled by herbivores grazing, fertilizing fecal pellets, regrowth, etc.)

Aggressive skimming, weekly instead of monthly water changes, weekly instead of monthly carbon, straining away thawed juice form frozen foods (rocket fuel for such algae), etc.

Not much herbivores (as previously stated). Only 2 fish.
Aggressive skimming - Will be upgrading in a month or so to a EuroReef 6-2+
Weekly water changes - 10%. have never done it any other way.
Weekly carbon - done as well.
Straining away thawed juice from frozen food - Soaked in RODI
Feeding - every other day. I'm not a big fish feeder.

What else can you suggest? RODI is at 0 TDS. I'm currently switching back to IO from Oceanic. Been slowly mixing back.

Jeff

 

[Kensn]

For what it is worth, Oceanic made me have a terrible algae outbreak, as so with others as well.

 

[Illusion]

Ok.. As far as Skimming I think I am going about as Agressive as possible as well as doing large water changes... I have a Deltec 1003 on the system and that seems like its barelyt pulling anything out as well... Like I said once its gone its gone... Its just removing it that has become the problem...

James

 

[tito martinez]

I have seen that type of algae in resent set ups and in tanks using refugiums with mud.I dont know if thats your case but in the case of the tanks ive seen it seems the mud is loaded with nutriets that are not eficiently removed by skimming.In any of the cases if there is not enough nutrient export via skimmig (in our case)algae keeps comming back.

 

[Illusion]

Nope No mud Refuge...

I just turned on my 4' Dual beckett skimmer as well as the Deltec... I know this tank is low nutrient as I was just previously barebottom and just added sand back a couple days ago... Please help me get rid of this stuff..

Thanks again,
James

 

[mojoreef]

I am not sure about the others but James your tank is only a month or so old my friend. You can count on algae blooms for a month or so, pretty normal. Also the Pukani rock is taken from a little deeper so it has a little more sponge then other rock. I would give it some time and let the ugly period of flux get past ya. If you need something to eat it, just get a Long spined urchin it will power through that algae in a heart beat, it will also help you seed your corraline.


Mike

 

[Illusion]

yeah Its a couple Months... Maybe 2-3 months... Been trying to get rid of it for a while now... I also tossed in a couple Long Spines and they havent even been near the topside of the rock at all... Been tempted to kill the lights for a few days but I dont want to stress out the Corals... The seem to be doing pretty good..

thanks again,
James

 

[acrylic_300]

I had something that looked like that, kinda like short bristles. I thought it looked cool. I also have a Letuce Nudibranch that ate it. Thats the only thing that he has really all out devoured.

 

[mungus]

If it is only on a few rocks you could take those rock out and "cook" them. That would get rid of it for sure. If you do a search on RC you will find instructions on how to do it.

 

[Illusion]

yeah I am very familiar with cooking rocks... I have since done a different approach... While it may be Extreme I think it may be working...

I have scrubbed 90% of the rocks by hand and removed most all the algae... For the past 2 weeks approx the only thing on has been the Vho bulbs... Things seem to be doint great and hopefully the algae dies back completely..

James

 

[scrummyotool]

It looks like the old pink cotton candy stuff I had a long time ago I lowered the nutrients. I also read some where that pacific turbo snails will eat this stuff. I eventually got rid of it

 

[plack]

I had a rock that continually grew hair algae I moved it to a different location and got the flow moving differently and it has not grown back.

 

[anthias_949]

as far as i know, the letuce nudibranchs are mainly selective feeders, feeding only on the bryopsis hair algae, and a few other types of hair algae. i bought a few a while ago to kill my bryopsis outbeak and they devoured it indeed. the guy at the lfs said that they ate caulerpa too....nope. mine didn't even touch the stuff. so i looked it up in the modern reefkeeping books and it says that it is very rare that letuce nudibranchs (aka elysia crispata) of this type to eat any type of macro algae at all. so if you feel alright with buying these guys and having them die after the hair algae is gone, go right ahead.