ID Algae on the glass.

[Dryan]

Hi Everyone.

I have small tufts of this algae growing on my glass that appeared in the last two or so day. These images are taken with a camera phone looking at a 5x magnification jewelery's loupe of two different colonies.

My initial thoughts were it's just some random hair algae, but the shaping has me worried it's bryopsis.

Thank you

 

[sixty_reefer]

Unfortunately it is bryopsis

 

[Dryan]

Rip, I thought as much but figured I would double-check. Thanks.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Rip, I thought as much but figured I would double-check. Thanks.

Did you just scrapped the glass?

 

[Dryan]

No, this is probably two to three days growth. Light schedule is 8 hours 2 ecotech xr15 blues at 50%.

 

[sixty_reefer]

No, this is probably two to three days growth.

Have you got a plan to deal with it?

 

[Dryan]

Doing research now, it's a two-month-old tank and unfortunately, it's being run fallow due to a velvet outbreak that I'm currently treating in quarantine. There are some corals in the tank, and a very minimal clean-up crew with a refugium. I noticed the issue about 4 days ago when phosphates dropped to 0, measured with Hanna. Currently doing research but it's looking like two weeks of Fluconazole.

 

[Lavey29]

Increase magnesium over 1500 will help kill it off. Somewhat hard on inverts but they get through it.

 

[Dryan]

Increase magnesium over 1500 will help kill it off. Somewhat hard on inverts but they get through it.

I have it at 1400 right now so that shouldn't be too hard to manage over the next couple of days. I'd much rather that than add antifungals to the tank.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Doing research now, it's a two-month-old tank and unfortunately, it's being run fallow due to a velvet outbreak that I'm currently treating in quarantine. There are some corals in the tank, and a very minimal clean-up crew with a refugium. I noticed the issue about 4 days ago when phosphates dropped to 0, measured with Hanna. Currently doing research but it's looking like two weeks of Fluconazole.

You’ll need to find a way to increase your po4 soon rather than later. Your only other option would be a couple of lettuce nudibranch it’s a pain of a algae to remove by any other method

 

[Lavey29]

I have it at 1400 right now so that shouldn't be too hard to manage over the next couple of days. I'd much rather that than add antifungals to the tank.

Try it out before chemicals. It turned my GHA white on the ends and made it easy to remove with cleaner crew but can also work on briopsis. Since you are fallow go 1600 and it should die off in some weeks.

 

[Lavey29]

Sone coral vendors keep their magnesium at 1500 to prevent algae. It just makes it difficult for shrimp to molt if you have any in the tank.

 

[Dryan]

I've been attempting to raise po4 with broadcast feeding reef roids, the corals love it, but excess is being slurped up by algae pretty quickly, I toned down my refugium light to about 5 hours and pulled out the activated carbon I had in a mesh bag.

Raising to mg 1500 -1600 sounds like a good plan.

Would it do anything to chaeto, or snails? Would it be a bad idea to scrape the glass and try to scoop up as much as I can or would that just spread it?

 

[Lavey29]

I've been attempting to raise po4 with broadcast feeding reef roids, the corals love it, but excess is being slurped up by algae pretty quickly, I toned down my refugium light to about 5 hours and pulled out the activated carbon I had in a mesh bag.

Raising to mg 1500 -1600 sounds like a good plan.

Would it do anything to chaeto, or snails? Would it be a bad idea to scrape the glass and try to scoop up as much as I can or would that just spread it?

Yes, my chaeto struggled a bit but it was pretty established and when magnesium came back down it rebounded fine. No affect on snails.

 

[Dryan]

Perfect, worst case I look into the lettuce nudibranch, those look freaking awesome, but I assume it will starve once it does its job which is kinda cruel.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Im seeing absence of root system and leafy stem to say its bryopsis which rarely or ever clings to glass. Can you provide pics (non-microscope) of the actual algae under white lighting ?
Cleaner crew rarely touch bryopsis due to firmness of leaf and stem. Some crabs will munch on it but bryopsis grows so quickly that Cleaners cant keep up with it. The way to stop bryopsis is to rid it of its root. As long as a root is present, it will continue to thrive
Reducing white light intensity will also slow most algae down

 

[Lavey29]

Perfect, worst case I look into the lettuce nudibranch, those look freaking awesome, but I assume it will starve once it does its job which is kinda cruel.

My tank was a jungle. I'm sure it was a mix of GHA and briopsis to. Coral vendor said it was briopsis from pictures but my close view looked more like GHA. I raises magnesium to 1500 added 3 tuxedo urchins and 2 turbos and my tank was stripped clean in 3 weeks. I did a lot of manual removal also.

 

[Lavey29]

Im seeing absence of root system and leafy stem to say its bryopsis which rarely or ever clings to glass. Can you provide pics (non-microscope) of the actual algae under white lighting ?
Cleaner crew rarely touch bryopsis due to firmness of leaf and stem. Some crabs will munch on it but bryopsis grows so quickly that Cleaners cant keep up with it. The way to stop bryopsis is to rid it odd its root. As long as a root is present, it will continue to thrive
Reducing white light intensity will also slow most algae down

This is true, the root is key to eliminating it. GHA will pull off rocks easily with manual removal if it long enough. Briopsis roots in and is difficult to pull off the long clumps. They don't detach from rock surfaces. High magnesium level weakens them so manual removal is easier root included.

 

[Dryan]

White lights on 100%, the little pieces are maybe 1/4 to 1/2 an inch at most in total length. I've been leaving the glass 'dirty' for the snails to munch on.

 

[Dryan]

My original treatment plan is some astraea snails that are to arrive on Wednesday.