Algae Problem In Frag Tank

[denverjon]

Can anyone tell me what kind of algae this is? It's recently exploded in my frag tank and I'm not sure what to do. I don't have any issues with algae in my display (both tanks use the same water) so I'm thinking it must be the lighting. I use a t5/led combo and the algae didn't really explode until I started using the t5 more. I can't just run led's because half of the tank is used for growing chaeto. Does anyone have any advice? If it is the lighting, one thought would be to just get a small grow light to put over the cheato and run led's on the rest of the tank. And is there anything that eats this type of algae?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Can anyone tell me what kind of algae this is? It's recently exploded in my frag tank and I'm not sure what to do. I don't have any issues with algae in my display (both tanks use the same water) so I'm thinking it must be the lighting. I use a t5/led combo and the algae didn't really explode until I started using the t5 more. I can't just run led's because half of the tank is used for growing chaeto. Does anyone have any advice? If it is the lighting, one thought would be to just get a small grow light to put over the cheato and run led's on the rest of the tank. And is there anything that eats this type of algae?

Pictures extremely blue and hard to depict anything
Please retake under white lights

 

[Jay B]

I would guess tangs or rabbitfish would eat that depending on the size of your tank. Maybe a sea hare also but you would have to weigh your options with any of these choices. Also there is the remove manually or hydrogen peroxide approaches which are all discussed in depth in R to R. Cant really ID the algae but it is doing rather well with the lighting situation you have now. I am interested in which option or method you choose and please keep us updated on your progress. Your frags look great too btw.

 

[denverjon]

Here's a better pic

 

[Jekyl]

Dosing live phyto made a noticeable difference in the algae I have. Also beneficial for coral.

 

[Jay B]

That looks pretty well established and I am wondering how long it has been there/ how fast is it growing. You have quite an export mechanism there but if it were mine I think I would just manually remove it and increase the lighting over your Chaeto to outcompete this algae. It will take a bit and manual removal is tedious but I think that would do the trick. I hope that helps.

 

[denverjon]

It's growing super-fast. I remove it one day and it's back a couple of days later. I have no algae issues in my 250 gallon display so that's why I'm thinking the issue must be with my t5 lights.

 

[denverjon]

I'm thinking it's bryopsis. Does anyone agree?

 

[Jay B]

It's growing super-fast. I remove it one day and it's back a couple of days later. I have no algae issues in my 250 gallon display so that's why I'm thinking the issue must be with my t5 lights.

I agree with the lighting as part of the issue. This algae is outcompeting your Chaeto at the moment and is finding nutrients within your water to flourish in your frag area. I think you will need to bump up the lighting over your Chaeto and reduce the lighting over this algae in order to shift the excess nutrients to your Chaeto export mechanism. If you were to only remove the lighting from this algae the excess nutrients may show up in your DT instead of your Chaeto. I hope that makes sense and is helpful.