Need help identifying some algae

[crcleofdst]

As the title states, I am having some difficulty identifying and controlling some annoying algae in my 55g.

First, a little background info:

My tank currently has a 48" 216w nova t5 light strip (approx. 8 hours of light per day), an aquacontroller III with ph and temp probes, a 300w heater, an octopus HOB skimmer, 3 powerheads, and maybe 80lbs of live rock. Substrate is aragonite. I have a brand new 5 stage RO/DI unit from the filter guys, a good tds meter, and both a hydrometer and a refractometer. In the tank, I have 1 six line wrasse, a peppermint shrimp, several blue leg hermits, a turbo snail, a porcelain crab (hitchhiked in), an unidentified "hairy" crab (also hitchhiked in), and an open brain coral that was on a piece of live rock I purchased from the LFS. Temp is 80.7, and ph is 8.35. I have not tested for phosphates and nitrates in the last couple of days, but when I tested last week they were both zero. The tank has been running since sometime around March this year.

Photos of the "algae" and the tank can be found here: http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/Fish%20Tank/

I believe the green stuff shown in the photos is the dreaded bryposis, and I am dealing with that by dosing with Tech M. I used the salifert mag test kit to get a baseline a few days ago (it was 1400), and after a 4ml dose it drove it off the scale (scale tops off at 1500). I have not seen a change in the bryposis, but it's only been a couple of days. There is a small amount of cynobacteria that ebbs and flows over time, but it has not been a major issue since I started using RO/DI water. I have no idea what the different types of red algae are, but it is almost as annoying as the bryposis.

I'm hoping that one of you will be able to identify the red algae, and suggest a method of control or removal. I'm also hoping someone can identify the crab in the first pic as well.

Thanks,
John

[Michael]

red hair and cyano in this one



red hair and green hair in this one



green hair/ bryopsis in this one

[jbird69]

good grief! I think you need help Identifying your tank! LOL

[rbnice1]

Looks like hair algae with bryopsis with some grape caulerpa algae, with maybe 1 or 2 other macros in there as well. lol

[metal1971]

Originally Posted by jbird69

good grief! I think you need help Identifying your tank! LOL

+1 on that!!! laughing my *** off!!!
Really though ,I agree with every one else.You got a problem on your hands

[Driz]

Wow it looks like you are growing an underwater lawn....

[Michael]

unfortunately the problem is at a ferrocious stage and its going to be very difficult to clean it up, id suggest siphoning some tank water off into a bucket and taking one rock out at a time and scrubbing it clean, or as clean as it can get, then replace the removed water from the tank with new nutrient free replacement salt water.

at least then the rocks will be clean, or cleanish and the bacteria still intact(hopefully) and the system still running, then some info on your feeding regimes, livestock type and numbers and information on filtration, flow and importantly your lighting will also help us to give more advice.

[Michael]

i see you have given some info, on the lighting, but we still need more, what size phs? how much food is put into the tank etc

[crcleofdst]

Yeah, I know it's pretty bad. I had a nasty flatworm infestation up until about a month and a half ago when I nuked the tank with some flatworm exit. It was so bad (I had a carpet of flatworms), that I just decided to set up the 10g quarantine for the fish and inverts, and I basically pulled everything out except the substrate. I scrubbed the rocks and rinsed them in tap water (this is probably where I made my mistake), then I dosed the tank per the instructions. I literally spent HOURS removing dead flatworms, and the weekend doing many partial water changes before I put everything back. About a month ago is when the bryposis really took over.

To answer the questions, I don't know what the powerheads are rated for flow wise, but there are 3 in the tank. I do plan on upgrading these within the next few weeks as I feel the tank would benefit from more flow. I also plan to install a simple 10g sump/fuge under the tank as well.

I feed the tank once every couple of days with maybe 4 shrimp pellets. The six line seems content to pick at whatever is on the rocks, and has never accepted any food I place in the tank, so the pellets are really just for the peppermint shrimp, hermits and the unidentified crab. Once a week I put a shrimp pellet onto the open brain as well. There is never any uneaten food left in the tank.

Thanks for the help so far fellas.. I hope I don't end up having to use the weedwacker on the tank before this is over..

John

[Chiefsurfer]

with THAT much algae all over, you have to have HUGE phosphates stored up in those rocks. I suggest looking up how to get rid of phosphates in rock. I think it's called "cooking" rock, while it doesn't involve boiling it. I also think you can give them an "acid" bath, but that will kill EVERYTHING on that rock. LR has a tendency to absorb nutrients as long as there are extra being put in, and when it is low, they will slowly leach these nutrients.

Honestly, if you try cooking once, and it doesn't work, I'd scrap the rock and get new, that's probably a lot of the issue. If you have just one fish and some inverts in the QT, I'd throw 1 brand new LR in there for some filtration while you tear the tank down again. Sad to say. I hope others have better ideas, but really, dosing with algae fixing stuff is not really a SOLUTION.

[hazmat319]

You can raise your Mag slowly up past 1600 to get rid of the Bryopsis. But I think that's just the tip of the iceberg.....

Good luck with it. I've been there.

[bertoni]

If you're very patient, you likely could get the algae under control with some manual pruning, GFO, and a lot of time, probably many months. Vodka dosing might help, too. The red macroalga is likely going to be hard to id to a species, but all algae require nutrients, and it's usually possible to control them enough to get rid of the algae.

Otherwise, I'd scrap the rock, but keeping it in the dark for a while with a lot of water changes ("cooking") might speed the process a bit.

[crcleofdst]

To be clear, I had no plans to dose with any magic algae fix crap. My understanding was that the bryposis did not respond simply by reducing nutrients in the water column, and that many people had good success by raising the Mag levels. I did not fully understand what the other kinds of algae were, and whether or not they were considered pests which is why I started this thread. I'm sure most of us are well aware that knowledge is the best weapon you have in this hobby, and ignorance rarely gives good results. I will admit that when I first set this tank up a number of years ago, I made the typical newbie mistakes with the typical result in that I abandoned the hobby. When I brought the tank out of storage earlier this year, I was committed to getting it right this time.

Anyways, I am lucky in the sense that I did not spend very much on live rock this time around. About 80% of the rock in the tank was the dead rock from the old tank. I only purchased about 6 pieces with which to seed the tank, and it was going swimmingly with the coralline algae spreading quickly until the flatworms got out of control. My sense is that my "nuclear" method of flatworm removal also nuked much of my biological filter from the rock. At that point, I think it was easier for the algae to take hold and spread throughout the tank.

Since mother nature has sentenced me to a weekend of house arrest by promising to dump copious amounts of white stuff across the eastern seaboard, I will spend some time scrubbing the hell out of the rocks using the suggested method. If that doesn't work, I'm breaking out the weed wacker....

I will keep the thread updated with pics.

Thanks!

John

[Chiefsurfer]

Sorry john, I was wrong to assume. I am still pretty new to the hobby myself(although have learned a LOT on this forum) and I just assume that "tech m" was some kind of algae fixer. I am sorry, as I jumped to conclusions.

GL with the project, and yes I am also in the middle of white stuff we'll be getting.

[jdallred]

The red algae looks to be Asparagopsis taxiformis, Mexican Turbo Snails are the best source for natural removal. If you you can manually remove as much as possible and the snails can handle the rest within weeks. Be careful as some have reported that the Turbos will die if they consume to much of it too fast. Manual removal alone typically does not work with this algae. The problem is this type of algae typically grows better with lower nutrient levels as it can out compete most other alga. Do a search here on RC for more info on it.

As for the crab, not a clue. Since it is a hitchhiker chances are it will be a problem at some point. IME, there are very few crabs that won't be a problem at some point, to what extent depends on what else you have in the tank that you don't want them eating.

You are on the correct path with the Bryopsis. I would continue to monitor your Mg and bring it up between 1500 & 1600, although sounds like you might want to purchase a different test kit to use instead of the Salifert. I like the Elos Mg test kit, it will allow you to monitor above 1500 and IME is a more accurate test. After manual removal of the Bryopsis it will still take weeks before you will notice drastic changes but stick with it, it does work. I found that as I got closer to 1600 my turbos became less active and I was finding them turned over in the sand more than usual, other than that I saw no ill affects on my corals, fish, hermits or shrimp.

You also have some type of caulerpa (lighter green growth in the pics) which will most likely have to be manually removed. Caulerpa is a macroalgae that is sometimes used in refugiums to control algae in the display tank. Some like the way it looks and will use it in the display tank however it can take over if not controlled. The other issue with caluepra is unless it is run under lights 24/7 it can go sexual and release gametes which in turn can pollute the tank.

IME, I agree with the others that you are going to see the best/fastest success by manually removing as much of the algae as possible and then work on eradication/control methods. I agree with Michael on taking it out and scrubbing each piece, in saltwater this time . As you try to tackle the problem remember that removing to much of the algae too fast will cause your pH to drop dramatically, which will negatively effect your inhabitants. If you decided to scrub each rock I would only do a couple of pieces and then wait at least a day if not two for the next couple of pieces.

Even if you are successful in removing all of the algae you still need to figure out what is causing it to flourish. When you treat a large outbreak of FWs you will typically see a cycle because of the large die-off. Couple that with scrubbing the rocks in freshwater and I could see it causing an algae outbreak like this.

Unless you were having algae issues prior to the FW treatment then you should be able to beat this, although as others have already stated its not going to happen quickly. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[crcleofdst]

Originally Posted by Chiefsurfer

Sorry john, I was wrong to assume. I am still pretty new to the hobby myself(although have learned a LOT on this forum) and I just assume that "tech m" was some kind of algae fixer. I am sorry, as I jumped to conclusions.

GL with the project, and yes I am also in the middle of white stuff we'll be getting.

No need to be sorry, I didn't take anything you said personally. I just figured I'd reiterate what my understanding was and what my intentions were.

jdallred -

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I have already scrubbed off 80% of the algae from the rocks (in salt water this time..). I will leave the remaining rocks as is, as well as the back of the tank and pumps for a little bit before I scrub them. I will also look into a better test kit. I am more than a little annoyed that I spent 38 bucks on a test I can't really use, but I suppose I can't really do anything about it now. I may take some time this weekend to finish putting together my sump, and I will probably move the crab and the caulerpa there just to be sure.

John