Identification of hairy brown algae

[Dbasileccim]

Hi all, recent tank setup ( three months) with old live rock that sat in a dark tub with circulation for three years (yup, three years in the dark). Added to new tank filled with 0 tds rodi water and turned on lights with no live stock. This "algae" showed up so I added some turbos, emerald crabs and urchins. Cleanup crew destroys it when they get into it but sometimes have hard time finding it on sides of rocks etc.

Not really looking how to get rid of (plenty of info on line) but I want to be sure what it is.

I originally thought green hair algae that wasn't getting fed therefore browning out ( I wasn't feeding anything at all since start up). I do have a refugium (Cheato) that seems to be growing. I recently added two fish and started lightly feeding but this brown algae isn't going crazy with growth.

Any help on identification would be appreciated.

 

[Redfoxtang]

Looks like GHA to mean to be honest! Try manuel removal right now to help your cheato out complete it for nutrients!

 

[Dbasileccim]

Looks like GHA to mean to be honest! Try manuel removal right now to help your cheato out complete it for nutrients!

I'm leaving toward that also but it isn't "green" hair algae. . Thanks for your input. Anyone else?

 

[Dan_P]

The photos are a bit out focus, hard to see what you have.

The first picture looks like GHA infiltrated with white streamers. The other pictures also appear to have colorless streamers or structures. I don’t see any “brown” anything.

 

[Dbasileccim]

The photos are a bit out focus, hard to see what you have.

The first picture looks like GHA infiltrated with white streamers. The other pictures also appear to have colorless streamers or structures. I don’t see any “brown” anything.

Thanks for your input. Let try these images. More light, pumps turned down.

 

[Dan_P]

Thanks for your input. Let try these images. More light, pumps turned down.

@taricha might have seen this before. I am totally stumped.

 

[Sqwertyl]

Try without blues on, blue light tends to make green algae appear brown. Sort of looks like Bryopsis

 

[taricha]

@Dbasileccim what's your nitrate?
there are some things that can get that light and colorless even though they are photosynthetic under really N starved conditions.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its bryopsis. A very tough algae that has to have root removed or its unstoppable. No CUC eat it and to remove, start by removing as much as you can by hand. Once you’ve removed everything you can see from the rock, bathe the areas where it was growing in 3% hydrogen peroxide for 3-4 minutes. Remember to do this in a small container or pail you keep outside of your tank. Don’t dump a peroxide into your tank. You can turn lights off and add 1mil of peroxide per 10 gals and the roots will weaken.
Ive had success with lights turned down in intensity and use of Liquid Vibrant.
Best defense which I dont do is using Fluconasol (FLUX) at 1 capsule per 10 gals of water.

After treatment is prevention.

• Lower nutrient loads in the tank by performing significant water changes and reducing the amount and frequency of food you add to the tank.
• Adjusting the lights to ****** the growth of the algae by reducing the number of hours they run, shifting the spectrum towards blue, or shutting them off altogether for a few days
• Increasing water flow to remove dead spots, keeping detritus suspended in the water and making it harder for the problem algae to get established or imbedded.

 

[ScottB]

I'm with @vetteguy53081 on bryopsis although all the bryopsis I have seen is green. I cannot seem to expand the photos, but there is one shot where the "fern-like" structure is pretty clear to my eyes.

If this is indeed bryopsis, Fluconazole will hammer it hard. I doubt you have an acropora forest going at three months, so you are in a safe position to dose this anti-fungal. If you had a ton of fancy SPS I would caution you.

If you confirm bryopsis with your own eyes and choose to dose fluconazole, make sure your lights are hitting all of the algae clumps. The treatment is only effective where active photosynthesis as happening. IME, the only bryopsis that survive are the ones clinging under an overhang.

 

[Dbasileccim]

Thanks for all your inputs. One of the reasons I'm confused is that I always heard cleanup crew would not eat Bryopsis but my snails and urchins destroy this algae when they find it. If I move an urchin into the middle of a clump in the evening by morning it is mostly gone. Areas that were crazy populated were cleaned out and stay clean once the clean up crew was done chewing it up.

I have a very happy chaeto fug going and have been running 40 watt UV at varying flow rates since day one.

has anyone ever seen urchins eating bryopsis and it not growing back at that location when they are done?

 

[ScottB]

Thanks for all your inputs. One of the reasons I'm confused is that I always heard cleanup crew would not eat Bryopsis but my snails and urchins destroy this algae when they find it. If I move an urchin into the middle of a clump in the evening by morning it is mostly gone. Areas that were crazy populated were cleaned out and stay clean once the clean up crew was done chewing it up.

I have a very happy chaeto fug going and have been running 40 watt UV at varying flow rates since day one.

has anyone ever seen urchins eating bryopsis and it not growing back at that location when they are done?

In that case my speculation was wrong. The shape was scarily close, but the fact that it is brown and edible to CUC suggests it is something else. Trust me, that is good news.

 

[Dbasileccim]

Thanks for your thoughts... I have a marine biologist with a specialty in critter id coming to visit this weekend. Maybe I can get her to do some research and identify it.

Any other ideas from anyone else?