Dennis,
Turn that frown upside down.
All of us at one time will have to deal with a nuisance algae and they can be beaten.
In picture 43, arrow 3's object is soft and fluffy; whereas, arrow 2's object is short and firm. Here is a little better picture. What is the best way to remove these if not desirable? Trim and remove? Fluffy one definitely not desirable, doesn't look good.
If one is stiff (how I'm reading the word, "Firm") then it might be Cladophora. The exact ID doesn't really matter as you need to handle all 3 species in the same manner. Whatever you do, don't follow someones advice to trim and pull and yank this algae while it is in your tank unless it cannot be avoided. Even then, you must have a siphon running to catch algae that you miss.
Algae's can't run and hide when a predator comes to eat them. They have all designed defenses as a result. Some incorporate Calcium into their leaves like your caterpillar weed and money plant. Others develop secondary metabolites (toxins) like your Caulerpa prolifera. A third defense is fragmentation. (Remember, your pulling and trimming is not different from an herbivore eating an algae). The three mentioned above fragment into small pieces and float in the current when attacked. Anywhere a small fragment attaches will become a new patch of algae.....which is why you shouldn't trim this algae while it's in the tank.
It's easy to solve this problem. The next time you do a waterchange, save the old water in buckets. Put the rock with this hair algae in the bucket and manually pull the algae out in that 'old' water. Then rinse the rock off well with fresh saltwater before returning the rock to the tank. That way, the algae fragments get thrown out with the old water as opposed to floating around the tank.
Yes, there are runners. There are a few places where one plant comes out of the live rock but there is also a place where one big plant comes out with runners. Here are a few pics. What is the best way to tend to these? Trim and remove from tank?
Runners tend to indicate Caulerpa prolifera. Do the same thing with buckets and old water but make sure you are running granular activated carbon when you put that rock back into the tank. Caulerpa's will release toxins into the tank that carbon will remove.
What about pic 52, arrow 2 with the heater? The way its going, I'm sure that 's another kind of nuisance algae. I thought I saw something about it somewhere but can't seem to find it anymore. Bubble algae of some sort, maybe?
That doesn't really look like valonia (bubble algae) to me but I cannot tell from the picture. I would just scrape it off the glass with your fingernail and throw it away. If it stays in one piece, put it in a small dish with some tank water and re-photograph it for a better ID.
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Hakunna Matatta Dennis. It means no worries. You'll get through this.
