Algae ID please

Matt91 · Jan 22, 2020

Hi all,

Having a bit of a hard time keeping this one type of algae under control (pics attached). I haven't been able to definitively ID it myself and it doesn't seem to be on the menu for any of my CUC.
It's a filamentous algae that has a semi rigid shape. Seems to grow in individual stalks and branch out. It's growing everywhere. Hasn't been a huge problem because it's not overly noticable, but it's now growing around the bases of my frags and seems to be interfering with coral encrusting.

No other algae issues in the tank except light dusting on the glass. Usually clean the glass every 3-4 days but no problems beyond that. Decent Coraline growth on most surfaces but this stuff seems to just grow on top of it.

Nutrients are near 0 (another issue I'm working on)
Hanna ULR Phosphorus reads 0ppb
Red sea nitrate usually colourless, sometimes reads just barely detectable pink color, i estimate in the neighborhood of 0.5ppm

Any suggestions for natural ways to combat it? (Manual removal is only getting me so far)
I was thinking of giving vibrant a try. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks in advance!

hyprc · Jan 22, 2020

Beautiful pictures. What camera? I vote bryopsis.

Any room for a yellow tang or one-spot foxface?

Matt91 · Jan 22, 2020

hyprc said:
Beautiful pictures. What camera? I vote bryopsis.

Any room for a yellow tang or one-spot foxface?

Hmm. Thanks for the response. That's what I was worried about. I was under the impression that bryopsis was more feather-like, so I had my fingers crossed that wasn't it...

As for tang or foxface; I'd love one, but it's only a 20 gallon, and I don't want to be abusing a tang or foxface like that

Camera is just my phone haha. Samsung Note 9. Just using the stock white balance features as I don't have a filter yet.

Thanks for the input!

Zack K · Jan 22, 2020

+1 On Bryopsis. There are a few ways to tackle it. A few Inverts will eat bryopsis as well as a few select fish as stated above. I also believe there was a thread talking about the product "Vibrant" Killing of bryopsis if you wanted to dose. Personally i would do some reading up as there is alot of excellent threads on here talking about peoples battles with bryopsis and how the beat it.