Algae ID

[Ashley13]

A friend of mine asked for some help on IDing his algea problem, we could use yalls expertise so we know exactly what we're dealing with. It first started a week ago on plumps and a few days later it's on the rocks but not sand (yet) it's brown and sponge/hairy like (moves in the flow) and in one pic you can see there is also tiny white dots with transparent hairs coming from the dots. Is it two different things going on or is it all working together? What is it and how to treat it? Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its known as calothrix. This stuff appears to be a species of cyano which often appear as a light slimy and hairy/fuzzy nastiness that loosely attaches to your rock work. Air bubbles are usually trapped while escaping the algae. Calothrix is a type of algae that looks very similar to Dinos. The best way to get rid of it is to remove the rock and place in a container of tank water and scrub with a toothbrush. Then let some cleaners such as pin cushion urchin, nerite and cerith and trochus snaiss and chiton snails get the rest if any.