Can Someone Please Help Me

oscaaar · Apr 13, 2021

Hey guys but can someone help me identify this type of 'algae' ? It seems to be on some of my plugs as well as in my zoas.

oscaaar · Apr 13, 2021

Best i can do in photos sorry

JonoB · Apr 13, 2021

Very difficult to see, can you turn your white balance up on your lights so its a little bit easier?

Cell · Apr 13, 2021

Hit the plugs with some H2O2, avoiding the polyps as much as possible. Or dilute it and dip them whole.

oscaaar · Apr 13, 2021

JonoB said:
Very difficult to see, can you turn your white balance up on your lights so its a little bit easier?

Seems to be on the plugs on some of the skeleton of bubble coral as awell as the sides of the acans.

oscaaar · Apr 13, 2021

Cell said:
Hit the plugs with some H2O2, avoiding the polyps as much as possible. Or dilute it and dip them whole.

So just dip the plugs in h202? Whats the ration to dilute ?

CMMorgan · Apr 13, 2021

Looks like run of the mill GHA. How old is the tank? What are your parameters? Phosphates? PH? How long do you run the lights? All could be contributing factors. Typically, the best way to deal with GHA is a CUC... munch munch munch or manual removal - you could gently scrub the plus with a toothbrush and rinse.... just take care not to harm the polyps.

oscaaar · Apr 13, 2021

CMMorgan said:
Looks like run of the mill GHA. How old is the tank? What are your parameters? Phosphates? PH? How long do you run the lights? All could be contributing factors. Typically, the best way to deal with GHA is a CUC... munch munch munch or manual removal - you could gently scrub the plus with a toothbrush and rinse.... just take care not to harm the polyps.

Mill GHA ? Well the tank was setup couple months like 1-3months. Phosphates was 0.32 working it down to .10 . PH 8.1 lights go on at 8am turn off at 6pm. What kind of CUC ? I have 1 fire shrimp and 1 cleaner shrimp.

CMMorgan · Apr 13, 2021

oscaaar said:
Mill GHA ? Well the tank was setup couple months like 1-3months. Phosphates was 0.32 working it down to .10 . PH 8.1 lights go on at 8am turn off at 6pm. What kind of CUC ? I have 1 fire shrimp and 1 cleaner shrimp.

Green Hair Algae - it's part of the uglies. This is to be expected in a new tank.... as it matures, everything stabilizes and your CUC grows... it will go away. In the meantime, add some snails... Nitrile and Turbo are good ones....get your phos under control and make sure your lights are ramping up and down. You don't want those lights on full intensity for 10 hours a day. You will be picking this stuff out for a while... it's part of the process.

oscaaar · Apr 13, 2021

CMMorgan said:
Green Hair Algae - it's part of the uglies. This is to be expected in a new tank.... as it matures, everything stabilizes and your CUC grows... it will go away. In the meantime, add some snails... Nitrile and Turbo are good ones....get your phos under control and make sure your lights are ramping up and down. You don't want those lights on full intensity for 10 hours a day. You will be picking this stuff out for a while... it's part of the process.

Ahhh great thanks. Yeah getting my phosphate under control got kinda lazy and everything went haywire. Yeah my lights ramp up and ramp down . Well I have my display been established for about 1-2 years or so. But just started the setup for corals. But I was just going to added them to the tank in the next couple days because I’ll have more time to redo my display and add a sump. Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to be anything that would cause a crazy headache in the main display

CMMorgan · Apr 13, 2021

oscaaar said:
Ahhh great thanks. Yeah getting my phosphate under control got kinda lazy and everything went haywire. Yeah my lights ramp up and ramp down . Well I have my display been established for about 1-2 years or so. But just started the setup for corals. But I was just going to added them to the tank in the next couple days because I’ll have more time to redo my display and add a sump. Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to be anything that would cause a crazy headache in the main display

Nah. my QT gets that too... toothbrush, a little rinse. It's all good. Remember to acclimate from QT to DT... make sure SG, temp, PH, etc. are all the same or drip acclimate when you transfer.

vetteguy53081 · Apr 13, 2021

NOT GHA but rather uncommon Gelidium. Many species of short creeping red algae exist so the hobby generally lumps all of them under the heading Gelidium, (the genus that is home to many turf species), and the common name Red Turf Algae, or Red Wiry Algae. Removal can be difficult. Macros that have fragile runners and creep along rocks or plugs are the hardest to manually remove. Do the best you can by using either a small crochet needle or dental pick to remove as best as possible.
Fragments of the algae can spread so make sure to net any pieces that break loose as youre cleaning it off. Yeah I know, it is boring as can be but if you do it once surgically with a dental pick or crochet needle, the problem goes away for good. If you can take the plug out and clean it, all the better. A hard tooth brush may also help.
Cleaners such as Emerald Crabs, urchins or Large turbo snails may help with control.

vetteguy53081 · Apr 13, 2021

oscaaar said:
Ahhh great thanks. Yeah getting my phosphate under control got kinda lazy and everything went haywire. Yeah my lights ramp up and ramp down . Well I have my display been established for about 1-2 years or so. But just started the setup for corals. But I was just going to added them to the tank in the next couple days because I’ll have more time to redo my display and add a sump. Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to be anything that would cause a crazy headache in the main display

for phos control, add a pouch of chemipure blue which will lower PO4 and keep it in check

CMMorgan · Apr 13, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
NOT GHA but rather uncommon Gelidium. Many species of short creeping red algae exist so the hobby generally lumps all of them under the heading Gelidium, (the genus that is home to many turf species), and the common name Red Turf Algae, or Red Wiry Algae. Removal can be difficult. Macros that have fragile runners and creep along rocks or plugs are the hardest to manually remove. Do the best you can by using either a small crochet needle or dental pick to remove as best as possible.
Fragments of the algae can spread so make sure to net any pieces that break loose as youre cleaning it off. Yeah I know, it is boring as can be but if you do it once surgically with a dental pick or crochet needle, the problem goes away for good. If you can take the plug out and clean it, all the better. A hard tooth brush may also help.
Cleaners such as Emerald Crabs, urchins or Large turbo snails may help with control.

Looks green to me but I'll defer to @vetteguy53081 ... same advice though, scrub, pick, rinse. Good luck to you.

vetteguy53081 · Apr 13, 2021

CMMorgan said:
Looks green to me but I'll defer to @vetteguy53081 ... same advice though, scrub, pick, rinse. Good luck to you.

You said green and I went back to instead my PC with a 32" screen and yup- Its green. I saw red stuff representing wire algae. The green is Bryopsis plumosa and guess what - Same removal as others . . . LOL

JCM · Apr 13, 2021

Bryopsis was my first thought as well.

oscaaar · Apr 14, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
NOT GHA but rather uncommon Gelidium. Many species of short creeping red algae exist so the hobby generally lumps all of them under the heading Gelidium, (the genus that is home to many turf species), and the common name Red Turf Algae, or Red Wiry Algae. Removal can be difficult. Macros that have fragile runners and creep along rocks or plugs are the hardest to manually remove. Do the best you can by using either a small crochet needle or dental pick to remove as best as possible.
Fragments of the algae can spread so make sure to net any pieces that break loose as youre cleaning it off. Yeah I know, it is boring as can be but if you do it once surgically with a dental pick or crochet needle, the problem goes away for good. If you can take the plug out and clean it, all the better. A hard tooth brush may also help.
Cleaners such as Emerald Crabs, urchins or Large turbo snails may help with control.