What in the hell is this algae and how do I get rid of it!

[malawian]

So I thought it was GHA at first, then I thought maybe a form of bryopsis (I saw some pics that looked kind of like this), maybe some sort of lyngbya??

 

I can tell you, nothing eats it, not tangs, angels, or any other fish, not emeralds, not ceriths, nerites, trochus, astrea, blue hermits, red hermits you name it. Ive got a well stocked CUC and nothing eats it.

 

Tank is super clean, whatever it is it thrives in a very clean environment. Ive seen that bryopsis is very adept at pulling things out of the column to feed itself. NO3 undetectable (under .06 ppm) and PO4 .04 ppm on red sea pro test kits, of course some of that will be due to the algae eating it but its not like the tank is dirty as hell. filtration on this tank is pretty top notch.

 

Im at 1600 ppm magnesium using BRS additives. Maybe working a tiny bit? not sure, but not eradicating it. Also dosing 10 ml peroxide each night (75g tank with 30g sump). They are helping but not getting rid of it completely. It seems like some died off and then whats left doesnt care at all and is just sticking around no matter what.

 

tons of water flow in the tank. light period is 10 hrs including sunset and sunrise, 6 hrs at full strength.

 

It maybe has some sort of filaments, but not like most bryopsis pics that ive seen. looks mostly like GHA but nothing will touch it.

 

WHAT IS IT AND HOW DO I KILL IT! IM GOING MAD!!!

 

as you can see there is a good amount of it, dont put too much stock in the color, I didnt take a ton of time getting white balance perfect. Its a greenish brown.

 

 

[rshober]

I think I read somewhere that if you're going to raise your magnesium to rid algae, you have to use Kent Marine Tech M Magnesium. There is something in it that kills the algae. You should search the internet.

[natalia_la_loca]

Have you tried Mexican turbo snails?

 

IME h2o2 is much more effective when applied directly by removing the rock and dripping h2o2 on it. I also like to scrub off the dying algae with a toothbrush before returning the rock to the tank, cause I'm impatient like that.

 

Others here report success when mixing h2o2 with baking soda and applying this paste to the pest inside tank.

[Nocturnal]

Time for peroxide.

 

Seconded re the turbo snails.

[malawian]

Have you tried Mexican turbo snails?

 

IME h2o2 is much more effective when applied directly by removing the rock and dripping h2o2 on it. I also like to scrub off the dying algae with a toothbrush before returning the rock to the tank, cause I'm impatient like that.

 

Others here report success when mixing h2o2 with baking soda and applying this paste to the pest inside tank.

 

 

Time for peroxide.

 

Seconded re the turbo snails.

 

 

Yep, they died of starvation. (or so I assume, they never touched this stuff and whatever this is eradicated all GHA in the tank)

 

Cant take the rocks out, just too many, too big and many are cemented together. I agree direct application works best its just not much of an option here.

 

I have heard that Tech M works best but I have also heard it doesnt have to be tech M. I did have my LFS order some. Using other additives can be extremely expensive since with some I would need to spend like $100 worth of stuff just to bring up mag concentration (like 1 bottle per day for a week...). Like I said I had them order some so we'll see but I also dont want to spend a fortune on tech M when it may not work. Hoping to get a positive ID before that happens.

[gulfsurfer101]

Your tank has aids!

[SchnauzerFace]

Honestly it looks like regular GHA to me. Could be your cuc are all picky eaters? I had an outbreak and my snails and hermits ignored it but my lawnmower blenny couldn't get enough. And the algae in my tank looked just like the stuff in yours.

 

I did large, frequent water changes and added a tlf phosban reactor. I also dosed red sea NoPox, decreased lighting period, and cut back feeding a bit. I also starting rinsing off my frozen food because I had no idea I was supposed to do that (oops!) Pretty soon it started to starve and died off. The blenny still ate it when it turned goldish brown, so I guess dead algae still tastes good.

[brandon429]

Direct application is an option, the baking soda idea is for in tank application underwater with pumps turned off.

[malawian]

Your tank has aids!

 

Probably.

 

Honestly it looks like regular GHA to me. Could be your cuc are all picky eaters? I had an outbreak and my snails and hermits ignored it but my lawnmower blenny couldn't get enough. And the algae in my tank looked just like the stuff in yours.

 

I did large, frequent water changes and added a tlf phosban reactor. I also dosed red sea NoPox, decreased lighting period, and cut back feeding a bit. I also starting rinsing off my frozen food because I had no idea I was supposed to do that (oops!) Pretty soon it started to starve and died off. The blenny still ate it when it turned goldish brown, so I guess dead algae still tastes good.

 

That a tang, 2 angels, 2 clowns, and something like 300 snails and crabs (thank you reefcleaners) are ALL picky eaters? Somehow I doubt that. I suppose its possible but the chances seem astronomically small. Also, I do run carbon, GFO, biopellets and biomedia.

 

Direct application is an option, the baking soda idea is for in tank application underwater with pumps turned off.

 

I have not tried this yet, I suppose it may be time.

[Nocturnal]

I did direct application during a huge WC that left most of the problem rock exposed. That ensured high contact.

[brandon429]

 

Thats how this was ran. Full tank drain to get at beastly red mushrooms which incidentally 35% extended contact cannot kill but five seconds on your skin and there will be much pain and dermal erosion lol

 

just wanted to post what does doubly amount to a massive peroxide insult per gallon of water and proof that literally any random house music is better than listening to a mouth breather trying to operate a cell phone cam and pico water change at the same time. Really though, this is about 5-8 mils of 35% into a gallon reef! I was resulting to rocket fuel to try and kill these mushrooms. Then I went ahead and wiped the glass too using 35% and a paper towel since the hood was up heh

 

 

Critical details in this vid to dealing with a massive high peroxide dose:

 

Notice the full drain, then my dropper controls where the peroxide goes. Mostly inert glass and some mushrooms that cannot even be killed by direct fire burning. But none has really touched the non targets yet save for a little runoff hitting the CBS shrimp below. My shrimp handles 35% we have a special bond here separate thread subject...

 

Notice the tank refill is a rinsing off the walls to about 1/3 full, less contact time. Solution is now heavy water peroxide directly over my 8 yr old dsb, one would think that would be insulting. Its not, I work fast, big tanks can handle 3% as the inference etc

 

That waste water is then drained fully after no delay then tank refilled with a clean gallon, its a way of working incredibly powerful peroxide through a mega tiny tank and not cause a mini cycle or any loss of pods. All my vids show tons of pods, what is posted above has happened to my tank over a hundred times in slow ramp up habituation. I put an entire quart of 35% food grade through the reefbowl using this method in 2013 as background for the two big peroxide threads here and at rc.

 

Consider a tank drain Malawian, and using much easier 3%

 

Merely the air exposure of a tank drain amplifies peroxide liquid or paste on the target greatly. It is preferred over any method that uses application within a full running tank but its water change intensive. Gallon tanks have it easy,

[malawian]

While I have no doubt this would work...The thought of subjecting many many hundreds of dollars and even more hours to this is utterly and completely terrifying. There isnt much point in getting rid of the bryopsis if everything in the tank dies anyway.

 

Tech M should be here thursday. Im not dosing any more Mag in hopes that it drops a bit and then Ill do a WC as well, in the course of my normal WC I may try to do some application of peroxide to whats exposed.

[Gooburz]

Time for peroxide.

 

Seconded re the turbo snails.

 

Oh for sure a combo of peroxide and turbo snails, but before you do that try and do manual removal as best you can. I would remove the rocks and use a good brush to scrub them and should get a good amount of it off. Then dose the tank with the peroxide and the turbo snails will clean up the rest.

[Steensj2004]

Oh for sure a combo of peroxide and turbo snails, but before you do that try and do manual removal as best you can. I would remove the rocks and use a good brush to scrub them and should get a good amount of it off. Then dose the tank with the peroxide and the turbo snails will clean up the rest.

+1

 

I removed my rocks, used a scrrub brush and firm toothbrush to remove. Wished around in a tub of clean SW, then spot treated with peroxide outside the tank. Rinsed again and put it all back. Beefed up my CUC(apparently i was WAY understocked in terms of snails and stuff according to ReefCleaners) and it pretty much zapped it all. I had to continue a little maual removal and dosed a couple maintainance doses fo H202, but this stuff works! Ask Brandon429, lol

[I<3SPS]

While I have no doubt this would work...The thought of subjecting many many hundreds of dollars and even more hours to this is utterly and completely terrifying. There isnt much point in getting rid of the bryopsis if everything in the tank dies anyway.

 

Tech M should be here thursday. Im not dosing any more Mag in hopes that it drops a bit and then Ill do a WC as well, in the course of my normal WC I may try to do some application of peroxide to whats exposed.

 

I had some brownish algae taking over my sandbed (it didn't quite look like what you had), but I thought I would never get rid of it. Welp I finally did (but accidentally). Somehow my Mg was 1700+ and I DONT dose anything (I think it might have been a bad batch or at least portion of my RSCP salt). The good thing was that all of the algae died off, but I had some SPS and LPS lose some their tissue (while other pieces were completely fine). They are all recovering now (except a piece of Poccillopora which is gone) AND all the algae is gone. I checked every other parameter including the possibility of electrical current and Mg is still the only thing I could attribute this phenomenon to. This story (which happened last week) is meant to be a disclaimer for raising Mg too high (even if you don't mean to...in my case)

 

Honestly if you're running carbon, GFO, biopellets, etc I would just decrease photoperiod, do some manual removal and wait it out...eventually it will starve...

 

Good luck!

[malawian]

Oh for sure a combo of peroxide and turbo snails, but before you do that try and do manual removal as best you can. I would remove the rocks and use a good brush to scrub them and should get a good amount of it off. Then dose the tank with the peroxide and the turbo snails will clean up the rest.

 

 

+1

 

I removed my rocks, used a scrrub brush and firm toothbrush to remove. Wished around in a tub of clean SW, then spot treated with peroxide outside the tank. Rinsed again and put it all back. Beefed up my CUC(apparently i was WAY understocked in terms of snails and stuff according to ReefCleaners) and it pretty much zapped it all. I had to continue a little maual removal and dosed a couple maintainance doses fo H202, but this stuff works! Ask Brandon429, lol

 

guys I already said I cant remove rocks. theyre cemented together.

 

My CUC is huge. Im losing snails now because there's no algae they can eat.

 

I have been doing manual removal, using a brush to get off what I can and making sure it stays suspended so the filter sock can catch it all. It has helped, there was a lot more of this stuff but like I said, whats left has seemed to have decided its here to stay.

[hypostatic]

I've met this scourge before. It's hideousness is only paralleled by it's blood-thirst. For months, it ravaged my tank and devoured my corals. No snails would touch the foul creature, and the only thing that would momentarily keep it at bay was a sea hare.

 

The real culprit was phosphates however. Running some GFO in my canister filter permanently solved the problem, and now there is not a trace of my old foe in the tank.

[Mr. Microscope]

It's GHA. Standard treatments apply. H2O2, reduce nutrient load, find source of excess nutrients, etc.

[malawian]

It's GHA. Standard treatments apply. H2O2, reduce nutrient load, find source of excess nutrients, etc.

I can promise you its not GHA. That or I found the absolute greatest collection of creatures who feed on GHA but dont happen to like eating it.

[Mr. Microscope]

I can promise you its not GHA. That or I found the absolute greatest collection of creatures who feed on GHA but dont happen to like eating it.

lol, it's GHA. Claims that creatures eat GHA seems to be a marketing ploy, or very scattered results at best.

I've been dealing with that same stuff for about a year and a half. Most things won't touch it aside from possibly turbo snails, but they'll only eat it if it's just starting to grow. Once it gets long, nothing will touch it. The only exception I've heard of is the lawnmower blenny. They get a bit large, but your 75 should be able to handle one. Again, scattered results on that, but it seems the most promising of the solutions I've found but haven't tried.

[Sstriziver]

On 3/22/2014 at 10:33 PM, malawian said:

So I thought it was GHA at first, then I thought maybe a form of bryopsis (I saw some pics that looked kind of like this), maybe some sort of lyngbya??

 

I can tell you, nothing eats it, not tangs, angels, or any other fish, not emeralds, not ceriths, nerites, trochus, astrea, blue hermits, red hermits you name it. Ive got a well stocked CUC and nothing eats it.

 

Tank is super clean, whatever it is it thrives in a very clean environment. Ive seen that bryopsis is very adept at pulling things out of the column to feed itself. NO3 undetectable (under .06 ppm) and PO4 .04 ppm on red sea pro test kits, of course some of that will be due to the algae eating it but its not like the tank is dirty as hell. filtration on this tank is pretty top notch.

 

Im at 1600 ppm magnesium using BRS additives. Maybe working a tiny bit? not sure, but not eradicating it. Also dosing 10 ml peroxide each night (75g tank with 30g sump). They are helping but not getting rid of it completely. It seems like some died off and then whats left doesnt care at all and is just sticking around no matter what.

 

tons of water flow in the tank. light period is 10 hrs including sunset and sunrise, 6 hrs at full strength.

 

It maybe has some sort of filaments, but not like most bryopsis pics that ive seen. looks mostly like GHA but nothing will touch it.

 

WHAT IS IT AND HOW DO I KILL IT! IM GOING MAD!!!

 

as you can see there is a good amount of it, dont put too much stock in the color, I didnt take a ton of time getting white balance perfect. Its a greenish brown.

 

 

If you can get your hands on them…chitons which are also known as sea cradles while are a type of mollusk are known to eat green hair algae as well as types of Cyanobacteria such as lyngbya.  You could also go the route of blue legged hermit crabs which also do the same.  IMO, dwarf blue legged hermit crabs are gonna be a lot easier to get ahold of but just make sure you have extra shells if they want to switch and make sure there’s plenty of food for them if they do eat all of that or they could kill snails in your tank for food or home.  If it is cyano you can do a dose of azithromycin at 1mg/L which is more the chemical route but at that level it shouldn’t effect your fish or corals.  If you do, you should take the cup out of your skimmer (to just allow aeration of the water) and remove the carbon from your filter.  After four days do a 20% water change and then you can add carbon back to the filter and put the cup back in your skimmer and you should notice a difference.  It is also helpful to add some beneficial bacteria at this point because you’re gonna be harming some of the microflora of the tank.  Good luck!