Algae in new “ugly phase” tank

[natedg200202]

I’ve got an outbreak of this in our tank: 

I’m not worried about the layer of green beneath. The fuzzy, fluffy brown stuff over that is what I’m worried about. 

 

 

 

 

[Devin's Reef]

i have the same algae you have and so far nothing has happened my two clowns are Living a wonderful life,I had my 10 gallon nano tank a year now and have many problems with algae,i would recommend getting some sort of algae eater to just get rid of it.

[natedg200202]

Is it Cyano, or just "Brown Algae"?

[Devin's Reef]

It is brown

[banasophia]

What do you have for cleanup crew?

[mcarroll]

On 4/27/2020 at 6:12 PM, natedg200202 said:

I’ve got an outbreak

Do you have an outbreak, or do you have no cleanup crew?

 

Please post more about the tank....history and recent test results (especially NO3 and PO4) in particular.

[natedg200202]

I have a cleanup crew of:

 

(5) Dwarf Certh

(5) Florida Certh

(2) Nassarius Vibex

(3) Trochus

 

Parameters on 3/1/2020:

 

Salinity = 1.025

PH = 8.2

Nitrate = 10 ppm (reads between the 5 ppm and 10 ppm)

Alkalinity = 8.3 dKH

Phosphate = 0.12 ppm (used the higher sensitivity method [doubled, then half the results])

Calcium =  350 ppm

Magnesium =  1110 ppm

 

This was the peak of Nitrite and phosphate.  It started to go down after that. 

 

Mid April is when this brown fluffy stuff started to show up.  At the time it took off, Nitrates and Phosphates read zero on my tests. 

 

My thinking was that even though it read zero, I had excess phosphates that were being consumed by this brown stuff. 

[Tired]

What size tank? That would affect if you have enough snails. 

 

It might be too long for the snails to effectively eat. A toothbrush to a patch of rock is probably worth a shot. When the snails are cruising around on the rocks, do they ever visibly damage it? 

 

Don't worry about it too much. Either it'll go away on its own, or you can figure out a way to deal with it, but it won't do any harm in the meantime. It just looks bad. 

[natedg200202]

It is a Fluval EVO 13.5.  This algae doesn't look all that appetizing but I'm not a snail.  I can't tell if they are working on it or not. 

[Icedgxe]

Did you ever find out what this was? I have the exact same algae showing up in my tank. 

[mcarroll]

On 5/3/2020 at 5:53 PM, natedg200202 said:

(5) Dwarf Certh

(5) Florida Certh

(2) Nassarius Vibex

(3) Trochus

Herbivores marked in green.  If you can't tell they are working on it, then they are not.  Usually this means you have to manually clear the area yourself.  Sometimes I find it helpful to place a snail on the freshly cleaned area so they know about it.  (They hunt algae based on memory and will target or avoid areas of the tank based on what's growing/not growing.)

 

On 5/3/2020 at 5:53 PM, natedg200202 said:

Parameters on 3/1/2020:

 

Salinity = 1.025

PH = 8.2

Nitrate = 10 ppm (reads between the 5 ppm and 10 ppm)

Alkalinity = 8.3 dKH

Phosphate = 0.12 ppm (used the higher sensitivity method [doubled, then half the results])

Calcium =  350 ppm

Magnesium =  1110 ppm

 

This was the peak of Nitrite and phosphate.  It started to go down after that. 

 

Mid April is when this brown fluffy stuff started to show up.  At the time it took off, Nitrates and Phosphates read zero on my tests. 

That's a fairly usual pattern with a lot of pest algae.  Pest algae don't seem to mind low nutrient levels at all.  It even seems to encourage them since it puts (especially green) algae in a superior competitive position vs most other reef microorganisms and even corals.   (Green algae have roots that give them access to nutrients on the substrate....which in a reef means lots of phosphate bound to bare aragonite (rock and sand) surfaces.  Corals and other critters in need of phosphates (which is everything) generally do not have this access...there may be some exceptions, but I don't know of them.)

 

Your outbreak is slightly surprising if the cleanup crew was in there when the outbreak happened....makes me think you need a few (maybe several) more herbivores to cover the available space a little better.  Can you throw in one big Turbo snail and see what difference that makes?  Whatever you add, only add 1-3 at a time, depending on size.  Don't want too many cleanup crew as that creates another problem.  (I'm guessing based on the type that most of your snails are probably very small.  How big are your Astrea?)

 

On 5/3/2020 at 5:53 PM, natedg200202 said:

My thinking was that even though it read zero, I had excess phosphates that were being consumed by this brown stuff. 

True or not, that isn't the problem....the problem is the 0.0 ppm on PO4 and NO3.   That lack of essential nutrients is starving out any competition – and competition (eg coralline algae) is what's going to have to displace this algae if we're going to improve the situation.

 

On 5/3/2020 at 6:12 PM, Tired said:

What size tank? That would affect if you have enough snails. 

 

It might be too long for the snails to effectively eat. A toothbrush to a patch of rock is probably worth a shot. When the snails are cruising around on the rocks, do they ever visibly damage it? 

 

Don't worry about it too much. Either it'll go away on its own, or you can figure out a way to deal with it, but it won't do any harm in the meantime. It just looks bad. 

If this is Chrysophytes (which it looks like, but some microscope pics would help to confirm) then I would caution against the wait and see approach.  

 

I found that it loved to settle and grow on my corals – not bare skeleton, but on healthy tissue – where it seemed to make pretty short work of the tissue underneath.  I assume suffocation is Chrysophyte's method (that's their M.O. in the ocean), but there might be more than that going on as fast/complete as the tissue degredation was.  

 

Once I saw all that bare skeleton after my first big cleaning, I made sure to get in the tank daily/as often as possible with a toothbrush to clean everything off the corals.  No more problems after that....just adding CUC (I had none) and correcting nutrient imbalance is all I did besides that.  👍. (And patience.)