Need some help with ID and plan of action

[Bigfudge]

Whats going on everyone.

Been battling some algae for a while now, at first I thought it was just regular GHA, but it seems I have under-estimated my foe.

I know theres some GHA but I think it's mixed with something else. Brown colored algae thats been growing mainly on the rocks and back glass. Seems to enjoy higher flow. At first I thought it was just dead algae that was blowing around and getting blasted into the rock but I've noticed its getting more stringy and keeps coming back no matter what I seem to do.

I thought Cyano possibly, so I got some Chemi-Clean and I'm finishing up that treatment right now. I haven't really seen bubbles being formed by the algae so I wasn't sure if that rules out dinos. I'm really hoping its not dino's but I'm getting frustrated.

I've been looking through the various threads but I just can't seem to bring myself to a positive ID, which leads to me to this post.

I have a ton of Micro Bubbles in the tank right now from me running two air stones in the sump during the Chemi-Clean, I'm pretty sure the bubbles you see on the photos are from that, not the algae itself.

Any help to this new reefer would be greatly appreciated.

Tank Stats and Parameters (as of today)

• Running since beginning of June.
• Was running GFO and Carbon up till I started Chemi-Clean
• Triton method with Fuge on alternate light cycle
• ATI 6 Bulb T5 Fixture, Photoperiod 1200 to 2000 (8pm), dimmed to approx. 75%
• Salinity: 1.025
• Po4 (ULR Hanna) - .02
• Mg (Salifert): 1350
• Nitrate (Salifert): Undetectable (I have a RedSea Nitrate Pro Kit currently in the mail)
• Ca (Hanna): 522
• Alk (Hanna): 8.4
• Ph: fluctuates 8.0 to 8.2 throughout the day

Tried to get some decent photos but this is what I managed:

 

[happyhourhero]

What kind of clean up crew are you working with? My first thought is this just looks like the type of algae that is readily mowed down by snails.

The brown doesn’t look snotty enough to be dinos to me. I’ll go look up your build thread but how old is the tank?

 

[happyhourhero]

So your build is pretty awesome!

I wouldn’t go too crazy with adding chems or making changes. You started off with mainly, if not all dry rock and it can have a lot of phosphates bound up. The algae is likely feeding off of it. I would throw in 5 Mexican turbos, 10 astreas, 10 trochus and do nothing more than keep my tank stable for the next few months. Your tank will go through many phases and most are cured naturally and by time.

 

[Bigfudge]

What kind of clean up crew are you working with? My first thought is this just looks like the type of algae that is readily mowed down by snails.

The brown doesn’t look snotty enough to be dinos to me. I’ll go look up your build thread but how old is the tank?

I’ve got about 10 nerites, 10 astrea turbos, and about 5 trochus in there. The snails haven’t really done much with the algae lately. I did add a sea hare that mowed a ton but he’s not real interested in the brown stuff.

Tanks only been up since beginning June of this year.

 

[Bigfudge]

So your build is pretty awesome!

I wouldn’t go too crazy with adding chems or making changes. You started off with mainly, if not all dry rock and it can have a lot of phosphates bound up. The algae is likely feeding off of it. I would throw in 5 Mexican turbos, 10 astreas, 10 trochus and do nothing more than keep my tank stable for the next few months. Your tank will go through many phases and most are cured naturally and by time.

Thanks a lot for the kind words. I’ve been tryin real hard to do it the right way. Just frustrated with the ugly ness. I was tryin hard to minimize it lol

 

[Sallstrom]

I can't ID the algaes, but I've seen both Cyanobacteria and Dinoflagellates start taking over the substrate when the nutrients have been very low. You might have a mix of them, together with some kind of hair algae. Maybe that's why your CUC don't like to eat them.

I would try to raise the nitrate some, aim for say 5ppm. And keep an eye on phosphate, starting to add nitrate might decrease the phosphates. And maybe turn down the skimmer a bit. I like to take off the skimmer cup when nutrients gets low(for in sump skimmers) and just use it a source of gas exchange, but that's me

It might sound stupid to add nutrients when you got an algae problem, but IMO it's better to let the hair algae outcompete the others, and then upgrade the CUC to get rid of the hair algae. I don't know the size of your tank, so it's hard to recommend a CUC. But I do like urchins for those kind of algae. There are a few to choose between, some small, some larger.

Anyway, that was a bit on how I would have done. Let me know if you like to know more
Good luck

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It’s a brand new tank. Just keep toothbrushing. You can’t fight the the ugly phase. It’ll pass. Just like a toddler ,annoying as it may be , it’s part of how it develops.