Algae ID and help “treating”

[beesnreefs]

Can someone help me identify this algae? And offer advice for how to beat it??

SHORT VIDEO: https://youtube.com/shorts/nU7I4v8NAIs?feature=share

Full story: This algae began appearing a little over a year ago. Not green - more brownish. Tufts are stuck to rock like glue and grow into a distinct fuzz. From afar makes the rock look like it has an almost clear fuzzy short hair cut. At first it was AWFUL, quickly covering everything. I used Vibrant weekly for about two months and it actually got rid of it pretty well. Stopped Vibrant and within a couple months it started coming back so I resumed Vibrant. Been off and on like that until the news about Vibrant being algaecide came out and I stopped using it. Now the algae is coming back.

1.5 year old healthy 65 gallon AIO mixed reef. Corals growing (both LPS and SPS are doing work in here). Feed fish once daily, small mix of frozen food. Corals get direct fed once every week or two with Aquaforest aminos and Benepets coral food.

I have a mix of CUC including various snails and a few little hermits. One of my fish is a very active white tailed bristletooth tang.

Parameters are ultra consistent now. This is what my tank is kept at -

Alk: 9 (I have an Alkatronic so this doesn’t really budge)
Calcium: 410
Magnesium: 1420
Nitrate: steady in the 0-2 range
Phosphates: steady in the 0.05-0.1 range

A recent ICP showed no abnormalities other than iodine being just a touch low. Since corrected.

This algae looks like a brownish hair algae. Grows only on hard surfaces like frag discs and my rock. It does NOT easily come off the rock, even when scrubbed with a toothbrush…definitely stuck on there good.

I have no idea what it is or how to treat it. Any help and advice is welcome. Thanks!!

 

[Lavey29]

If it's red hair algae I bet an urchin and a turbo will knock it out.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Please take a pic under white lights

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

From your description, it could be a turf algae; if so, urchins and Mexican turbos snails should eat it. Another algae that is difficult to manually remove is bryopsis. Usually green but there may be other types. If it's bryopsis, flucanozole will get rid of it (search this forum for the procedure).
If you've had problems with this algae for a while, you need to address the underlying problems or regardless of what you treat with, it will likely return.

Question - I have never used Vibrant but have seen some of the recent posts. Curious why the fact that it's an algaecide made you stop using it to kill algae...? Isn't that what an algaecide is supposed to do?

 

[beesnreefs]

Please take a pic under white lights

@Erin1971Texas no problem. Both photo and video under whites:

Algae(?) under whites

youtube.com

 

[beesnreefs]

From your description, it could be a turf algae; if so, urchins and Mexican turbos snails should eat it. Another algae that is difficult to manually remove is bryopsis. Usually green but there may be other types. If it's bryopsis, flucanozole will get rid of it (search this forum for the procedure).
If you've had problems with this algae for a while, you need to address the underlying problems or regardless of what you treat with, it will likely return.

Question - I have never used Vibrant but have seen some of the recent posts. Curious why the fact that it's an algaecide made you stop using it to kill algae...? Isn't that what an algaecide is supposed to do?

I hadn’t considered turf algae…I’ll look into that.

As for underlying issue I’m at a loss. Nutrients in my tank are consistently in the parameters I’ve listed. It’s a very stable system from that perspective

Regarding the Vibrant, while I hadn’t seen any negative impacts on my livestock I was troubled by the studies suggesting Vibrant is NOT what the company said it was. Worried me about tossing a product in my tank when I may not really know what’s in it