Need help identifying algae

Swiffd · Aug 9, 2020

Hi, I am new to reef aquarium and it's been running for about a month now. Wish I knew about this forum before starting the aquarium, lots of good information here. So I have a Fluvo Evo 13.5 with stock lighting. I upgraded the return pump to the Eheim campact 1000. I am also running chemipure blue and marinepure bioballs. I started having brown algae on the rocks, sand, and glass about 5 days ago. The algae on the rocks turned green pretty quickly, but it's still brown everywhere else. I thought it was diatoms at first, but then these larger brownish algae appeared and made me question what they were. Do you guys know what these are?

Ph: around 8
Phos: 0-0.25
Nitrate: 0-5.0

Y8ZC · Aug 9, 2020

It looks like hair aglae... because your tank is new and you rock started of dry you’re gonna go through some algae problems. It’s “new tank growing pains”. I had similar problems, and pulled a part of my rock structure out and beefed up my cleanup crew. I re introduced the rock after 2 months of sun bleaching and by then my cleanup crew could handle it. This was in a 10g nano

najer · Aug 9, 2020

What clean up crew (CUC) do you have?

Swiffd · Aug 10, 2020

Thanks for the responses guys.

I haven't added CUC yet. But I'm planning to add some. You guys have any recommendations?

I showed this picture to my lfs. He said it looks maybe like the beginning of Bryopsis algae and he's not sure snails and hermit crabs would be able to take care of it since the algae looks thick. He recommended some chemical treatment, but I decided to wait. I didn't want to got that route just yet.

Y8ZC · Aug 10, 2020

Swiffd said:
Thanks for the responses guys.

I haven't added CUC yet. But I'm planning to add some. You guys have any recommendations?

I showed this picture to my lfs. He said it looks maybe like the beginning of Bryopsis algae and he's not sure snails and hermit crabs would be able to take care of it since the algae looks thick. He recommended some chemical treatment, but I decided to wait. I didn't want to got that route just yet.

Get a CUC going and try scraping your glass with all your pumps off let it settle to the bottom and go in with an airline hose and suck out each piece and then pinch the algae on the rocks with one hand and use the airline hose right next to it so suck it out with the other. This’ll take a while but do it once a week with/as your water changes. This helps make sure that it doesn’t just go into the water column and start re growing other places.

As far as CUC, scarlet hermits ate algae and blue legs are opportunistic so they’ll go after anything so they may help. I have Turchos snails and nassarasia in my tank, but I don’t know if they’re the best for algae. You could try a lawnmower blenny or Dolabella sea hare. Both are a little big for your tank and I would personally choose the sea hare and let it eat for a while and then give it back to the LFS. They’re like $20-30 I think and that might be worth the pain of dealing with the algae.

Look at some more forums about the snails and other possible options. Worst comes to worst you always have chemical treatment.