Help ID nuisance Algae!

[Rogued_Reefer]

Hello fellow reefers!

I have my tank up and running for close to 3 months and had a diatom bloom and GHA bloom but now I’m having some weird brown hairy algae and I was hoping y’all could help me figure out what it is and how to fight it. I noticed it after a large water change and after I cleaned up 90% if not 100% of the GHA and after siphoning the whole substrate.

Thanks for your help team!

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

Anyone? **Bump**

 

[W1ngz]

Just looks like regular hair algae to me. Scrub it off gently with a toothbrush. What sort of cleanup crew do you have? Once it's scrubbed down I'd bet a couple of turbo snails would polish it off.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

Just looks like regular hair algae to me. Scrub it off gently with a toothbrush. What sort of cleanup crew do you have? Once it's scrubbed down I'd bet a couple of turbo snails would polish it off.

Hey thanks for commenting! i scrubbed it off yesterday with a toothbrush. I have 3 turbo snails and i had about 10 hermits but some died off because they didnt have any bigger shells to change too :/ im supposed to receive a bag of shells today and plan on buying more hermits and snails.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Just looks like regular hair algae to me. Scrub it off gently with a toothbrush. What sort of cleanup crew do you have? Once it's scrubbed down I'd bet a couple of turbo snails would polish it off.

I have a lot of this algae in my tank but is it even harmful? I've read in many places that algae remove nitrate from the water so I leave it be as long as it isn't on the glass. I'm finding myself wiping the glass daily but I haven't seen any signs that this algae is harmful. The red/hair algae on the other hand, is a predator that goes around attacking coral, and also likes sand apparently.

 

[W1ngz]

Hey thanks for commenting! i scrubbed it off yesterday with a toothbrush. I have 3 turbo snails and i had about 10 hermits but some died off because they didnt have any bigger shells to change too :/ im supposed to receive a bag of shells today and plan on buying more hermits and snails.

Hopefully a little bump to the cleanup crew helps. If it doesn't, try to let a small patch grow a little more so it's easier to see and photograph. It might be something harder to deal with than just hair algae, like bryopsis. Not much eats that, but there's medicinal options that can clean it out.

On a young tank though, it might be best to control it and let it run its course.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

Hopefully a little bump to the cleanup crew helps. If it doesn't, try to let a small patch grow a little more so it's easier to see and photograph. It might be something harder to deal with than just hair algae, like bryopsis. Not much eats that, but there's medicinal options that can clean it out.

On a young tank though, it might be best to control it and let it run its course.

Yeah it’s a very young tank and I was told to let it run its course but I’m a believer of prevention rather than waiting so that’s why I wanted to know what people thought it was so I could research how to keep it at bay from the get go