Algae ID help - Newbie

MatthewSS7 · Apr 22, 2020

Hello R2R veterans. I’m 5 months in on my Aquatop eco Recife 24 reef and I have what I believe is turf algae blooming on one of my rocks. Is this something that I should be removing from the tank before it explodes? Or just simply export more nutrients to limit its growth?
I don’t mind the way it looks and wouldn’t mind keeping it around as long as it isn’t an uncontrollable nuisance algae. Thanks for the help!
Here is a couple angles: (with some of my livestock photobombing lol)

35ppt · Apr 22, 2020

Filamentous algae (Green Hair Algae). I would not ignore it. If you're able to remove that rock and brush off what you can in a bucket of water change water then spray H2O2 on the area and put it back.

MatthewSS7 · Apr 22, 2020

35ppt said:
Filamentous algae (Green Hair Algae). I would not ignore it. If you're able to remove that rock and brush off what you can in a bucket of water change water then spray H2O2 on the area and put it back.

Great. Guess I have some work to do tonight. Thanks.

MichaelReefer · Apr 22, 2020

Take care of it now before it gets out of control. I've never had it but I've seen peoples tanks get really bad.

MatthewSS7 · Apr 22, 2020

MichaelReefer said:
Take care of it now before it gets out of control. I've never had it but I've seen peoples tanks get really bad.

I was really hoping that it was turf algae because it was popping up in clusters. It didn’t look like the pictures I had seen of GHA. Not thrilled about it.

MatthewSS7 · Apr 23, 2020

Okay, so I took two 5 lb live rock out of the aquarium that were in question. I got them both from a lfs at the same time. This was 1 month in to this tank. Unfortunately I trusted them and didn’t sterilize any of it because I just didn’t know any better. Now I do! I have about 10 lbs of the original live rock (“life rock”) still in tank and I’ll keep doing regular water changes.

Here’s the questions: Both rocks have been thoroughly cleaned and I now have them soaking in a bucket of mild bleach solution. Should I soak them in muriatic acid after a couple days in the bleach? I read this can remove any built up phosphates. If so, how much do I mix in a 5 gal bucket?

35ppt · Apr 23, 2020

MatthewSS7 said:
Okay, so I took two 5 lb live rock out of the aquarium that were in question. I got them both from a lfs at the same time. This was 1 month in to this tank. Unfortunately I trusted them and didn’t sterilize any of it because I just didn’t know any better. Now I do! I have about 10 lbs of the original live rock (“life rock”) still in tank and I’ll keep doing regular water changes.

Here’s the questions: Both rocks have been thoroughly cleaned and I now have them soaking in a bucket of mild bleach solution. Should I soak them in muriatic acid after a couple days in the bleach? I read this can remove any built up phosphates. If so, how much do I mix in a 5 gal bucket?

Oh man, I wouldn't have killed your rock over some GHA. GHA is inevitable in a new tank and just needs to me managed until the tank matures. It would have been better to just scrub it off and drip some peroxide on it.

At this point I would remove the rocks from the bleach rinse them and let therm dry out for several days. If they smell like bleach after that I would soak in water and dechlorinator (Prime) then let them dry again and see if they pass the sniff test. Then once you're satisfied you've removed the bleach you should soak in some saltwater for a few days and test the water for Po4. If the water is high in Po4 then run some GFO either in a reactor or use a powerhead with a water bottle with the bottom cut off and put a bag of GFO in there. I mix it with some carbon to keep it from solidifying. Or you could do the muriatic acid bath then soak in saltwater and test for Po4 but should be good to go after that. I usually only break out the muriatic acid if I know or suspect the tank if came from had nutrient problems or copper contamination.

MatthewSS7 · Apr 23, 2020

35ppt said:
Oh man, I wouldn't have killed your rock over some GHA. GHA is inevitable in a new tank and just needs to me managed until the tank matures. It would have been better to just scrub it off and drip some peroxide on it.

At this point I would remove the rocks from the bleach rinse them and let therm dry out for several days. If they smell like bleach after that I would soak in water and dechlorinator (Prime) then let them dry again and see if they pass the sniff test. Then once you're satisfied you've removed the bleach you should soak in some saltwater for a few days and test the water for Po4. If the water is high in Po4 then run some GFO either in a reactor or use a powerhead with a water bottle with the bottom cut off and put a bag of GFO in there. I mix it with some carbon to keep it from solidifying. Or you could do the muriatic acid bath then soak in saltwater and test for Po4 but should be good to go after that. I usually only break out the muriatic acid if I know or suspect the tank if came from had nutrient problems or copper contamination.

Yeah, I knowingly went drastic for the simple fact that I saw some other unknowns beginning on the rock. The spots of gha popping up we’re all over it as well. I really want this tank to be successful and should have been more careful putting stuff in the tank to begin with.
I was actually wanting to get some different shapes of rock anyway so I might cure some new ones and just keep this for a future larger tank.