Another cycle question... and CUC question..

[NakiFantaki]

So I thought I was almost done with my case of the uglies... but nope! It now seems like I have a very furry and fuzzy tank!
I had a pretty bad case of diatoms for about a month and for the most part those have subsided. Now it seems as I have lots of hairy/stringy/fuzzy brown algae everywhere!
How long will this last and what, if anything should I be doing to keep it in check? Could it be cyano? It only looks red when my blue lights are running.

Tank is a Nuvo 20 with an AI Prime HD. Running a bag of chemipure elite, poly filter and regular floss.

My water parameters are perfect and all corals and fishes are happy. Even my nem seems to be doing pretty well.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 0 and 5
PH 8.2
Temp 77.5 - 79.5
Phosphates between 0 and 0.03
Alk is 9
Calcium 390

Tank critters consist of:
2 occ clowns
1 Midas blenny
1 big cleaner shrimp
1 bubble tip nem. (Was sold as a rose but I think it's a rainbow)
I also have a few small zoa colnies and a GSP rock.

I have a pretty diverse CUC for this 20 gallon.
1 HUGE turbo
2 margaritas
1 cerith
2 Nassarius
1 Trochus
4 Astrea
1 Nerite
2 red leg hermits.

Do I need more? Or is there a different critter I should get?

I would love any feed back!

Thanks in advance.

 

[NakiFantaki]

[emoji31]

 

[mcarroll]

Be consistent with feeding to keep PO4 from hitting/staying near zero. (That doesn't mean to overfeed....if you make changes, make them small and keep testing.)

Once PO4 drops, some algae stop playing nice and start producing toxins and other compounds to repel the herbivores.

If none of your snails will eat it, there's a good chance this is why.

Bacterivory in algae: A survival strategy during nutrient limitation has some explanation of this phenomena.

 

[Roy 9121]

What lighting do you have? How long do you run them?

 

[Tori]

Any pictures of the brown algae you're seeing?

 

[NakiFantaki]

Here is a shot of my lighting schedule

 

[NakiFantaki]

I will work on getting a picture of this stuff.

 

[NakiFantaki]

Here's some shots of the brown stuff. Sorry the pics are bad... it's so hard to get good shot with my iPhone. Does anyone know if there is any kind of filter or app I can use to help these pictures come out better?

 

[NakiFantaki]

I have also noticed that my huge turbo snail has tons of white spots on him. They almost look like some sort of barnacle.. or snail she'll maybe? They are definitely raised and not flat.. anyone have any ideas?

 

[mcarroll]

Looks like mirco fan worms on the turbo. May or may not still be alive. I think I've only seen them have bright red fans when they are out. Pretty cool!

 

[NakiFantaki]

Looks like mirco fan worms on the turbo. May or may not still be alive. I think I've only seen them have bright red fans when they are out. Pretty cool!

Thanks for the reply! Very interesting. I do have a feather duster worm that hitchhiked on a zoa frag I got.. the duster seems super happy where it's at and to be honest it's one of my favorite things in my tank. So you are saying what is on my snail might be it's babies?

If the are still living... does that mean I could have a feather duster outbreak?

 

[mcarroll]

Different organism. Hard-shell more like a "coco worm", but never gets much bigger than you see em in your pic. They do sometimes form colonies though!

 

[NakiFantaki]

Ah! Okay. That makes more sense... I must run to google now and learn some stuff about them. They aren't harmful to my tank though right?
Thanks so much!

 

[mcarroll]

Part of your filter system AND clean up crew!

 

[Tori]

Here's some shots of the brown stuff. Sorry the pics are bad... it's so hard to get good shot with my iPhone. Does anyone know if there is any kind of filter or app I can use to help these pictures come out better?

Hard to tell from the photos what it is but the stringy strands look at little like Dino or spirulina. Do the strands have bubbles at the ends?

 

[NakiFantaki]

Nope no bubbles at all. It's a greenish brown color. Sorry the pics suck. [emoji53]
None of the snails seem to be eating it though.