Thought this was hair algae (bryopsis) but now not sure

[gus6464]

I have had this hairy thing growing on my glass only for the past couple of weeks. It's barely in the rock and seems to stick to mostly the glass. I have scraped it off my front glass with a razer blade and it hasn't returned but it's a PITA to remove from rock. It looks like it has a nucleus from which the hair branches out of which is why I don't think its hair algae anymore.

 

Tests

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

KH 8

pH 8

Mg 1600

Calcium 450

Phosphate 0.2

 

Also found this on my glass my it when I took the picture.

 

 

 

[Mariaface]

Nah, those look like snail eggs. Or, egg patches. Good news is that it's not bryopsis! Get the nutrients under control and maybe a nerite or turbo, keep scraping it off the glass. Hell, turn all circulation off and inject peroxide (3%) right onto the base of the algae where it's on the rocks. Don't use too much at once, of course.

[gus6464]

Nah, those look like snail eggs. Or, egg patches. Good news is that it's not bryopsis! Get the nutrients under control and maybe a nerite or turbo, keep scraping it off the glass. Hell, turn all circulation off and inject peroxide (3%) right onto the base of the algae where it's on the rocks. Don't use too much at once, of course.

 

I have started spot dosing peroxide to see how it goes. One thing I noticed is that when I dose peroxide on algae in freshwater, it will super tiny microbubbles but I am not seeing this in saltwater. Is that normal?

 

What kind of algae is it? I have never seen hair algae have a center in which the hair grows out of.

[jestep]

Looks like some sort of bryopsis. From what I've read, there are a ton of species in the bryopsis family. This one looks more like GHA but the feathery appearance when I zoom in looks like bryopsis.

[Mariaface]

I have started spot dosing peroxide to see how it goes. One thing I noticed is that when I dose peroxide on algae in freshwater, it will super tiny microbubbles but I am not seeing this in saltwater. Is that normal?

 

What kind of algae is it? I have never seen hair algae have a center in which the hair grows out of.

 

When I spot dose peroxide, it definitely does cause bubbles wherever it touches something photosynthetic. How old is your bottle? From what I see in my tank it bubbles, then stops, and the algae proceeds to whiten and melt within the next couple of days.

 

Are you sure it's growing out of those white spots and not simply feeding off of them as they break down? What does flow look like in the tank?

 

Actually, do you have a list of the tank's parameters in general? On the off chance that it is a type of bryopsis and not just GHA, you may want to -slowly- bring magnesium up to help combat it. Also make sure you're not overfeeding, that carbon and GFO are being replenished on time, that the photoperiod isn't ridiculously long, etc.

[gus6464]

Here is my regime. Tank only has a lawnmower blenny which does not touch the algae so I feed him flakes on a clip.

 

50G tank - 39g net volume

 

KZ nanopower (sponge power, amino LPS, pohl's extra, coral vitalizer) 2x drops every day of all of them

KZ coral snow 2ml 3x a week

Brightwell Potasion 3x a week 1 cap

Brightwell Magnesion 3x a week 1 cap (half dose)

Brightwell MB7 once a week

 

Parameters -

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

KH 8

pH 8

Mg 1600

Calcium 450

Phosphate 0.2

 

Lighting -

4x nanobox pucks with 2x T5 (wave point super blue and coral+)

nanobox pucks at 60% for both channels (1000ma driver on blue and 700ma drive on white)

10 hour photoperiod - there is no ramp up or down. Everything just comes on at the same time.

 

Flow -

2x Jebao RW-4 in H mode 50% power on both

 

Skimmer -

Tunze 9004 with purigen in the bottom compartment

 

That's it. No sump, reactors, etc. Everything is in the 50g tank.

[gus6464]

I am switching my Magnesium to Continuum Mg as it's like Tech M to see how that does.

[hey]

I am switching my Magnesium to Continuum Mg as it's like Tech M to see how that does.

 

tech m supposedly only works for bryopsis from an additive in it thats not been identified not the elevated mag levels is my understanding of it. also looks like gha to me although its growing from central points like bryopsis.

[Mariaface]

Wait, so the blenny's the only thing in the tank that gets fed? The KZ and Brightwell supplements suggest corals, so those are likely in there as well. Have you tried putting phosguard or something wherever the Purigen is sitting? The algae could easily be out-competing for nutrients, but purigen is pretty darn good at clearing the water column of dissolved organics. Still, it's not as if the algae's only growing on rocks to suggest that the rocks are just leaching phosphates.

 

I'm surprised the blenny isn't mowing away at the algae; though. Mine used to munch down on much tougher stuff. So that might point towards bryopsis, since it's not particularly palatable.

[gus6464]

Here is a video to get a better idea of where the algae is just hanging out which is 90% in the glass. Also shows my flow. Don't mind the clam as the lights had just turned on. Switch to 720p for better quality.

 

 

[KissMyDSM]

Nah, those look like snail eggs. Or, egg patches. Good news is that it's not bryopsis! Get the nutrients under control and maybe a nerite or turbo, keep scraping it off the glass. Hell, turn all circulation off and inject peroxide (3%) right onto the base of the algae where it's on the rocks. Don't use too much at once, of course.

 

Those three dots look a lot like some of the limpets I have in my tank. Do they move?

[gus6464]

Those three dots look a lot like some of the limpets I have in my tank. Do they move?

 

Don't know. I will check tonight to see if they are still in the same spot.

[farkwar]

That is the weirdest growth pattern.

[brandon429]

The right move for this tank is not to dose peroxide to topwater

 

its to hand remove it all from the glass and only work with what comes back on the rock, even still not through a tank dosing.

 

that stresses everything, so much better to do spot kills. so much faster. Not everyone would use p on it, I would after hand removing all the glass growth. Repeat that and focus only what grows on the rock. Much hands off can be seen in the pics, hands on gets a eutrophication reversal but you have to earn the balance back, nothing is really one off in correcting that much plant growth. But with some elbow grease and two weeks it could be fixed easily and predictably.

 

you are lucky it distributes on the glass like that

 

expect a few retreatments, this eutrophication was allowed to set in and fragments are in the system. still, based off pics you've no real rock problem, the right way to use peroxide in any case involving a tankwide dose is to manually remove all offensive biomass first, so your peroxide is working on a reduced organism not one in full force. the organism id is hardly ever actually required to simply beat it into submission. as long as its not neomeris annulata, in which case that will beat the keeper into submission.

[jestep]

What you can do, is do a decent size water change and have someone help. Use a credit card and slowly scrape the algae off the glass while the other person sucks it out of the tank at the same time. You may be able to do it solo, but it's a bit harder.

[farkwar]

Brandon is the expert here on H2O2. Listen to him.

 

If your 3% is not bubbling on contact with the algae, it may be old H2O2.

 

Buy a new bottle.

 

You may want to try 35%, much greater care must be taken with that, though. You can buy it on Amazon. You should definitely master 3% first though.

[gus6464]

I woke up this morning and quite a bit of the stuff melted away and it's all starting to turn white. Bernardo has started to munch on the white stuff now so I think it will all be gone in a week. Looks like the H2O2 treatment worked. Either that or the 1600mg so who knows.