Pale hair algae, maybe?

[SallyWho]

My tank has been up and running for about 7 months, but only three with decent lighting. I've noticed this short tufty stuff on the rocks that get the most direct lighting. It's not really green, or even definitively brown or red, and is just barely long enough to move in the flow. I do have a fuge with a mix of macroalgaes from the LFS (chaeto, caulerpa, and something red and leafy), but I haven't been as diligent as I should be about testing and water changes. I'll test tomorrow morning when I get home from work. Any ideas on what this stuff might be, though?

 

[saltyhog]

Looks more like a bacterial bloom to me. Are you doing any carbon dosing?

 

[Brew12]

Agree with a common bacteria. Not something to worry about. I would guess you don't have much of a CuC as they normally consume this stuff quickly.

 

[SallyWho]

I'm relieved that it's probably just bacteria! Easy enough to take care of! Thanks, you two!

Looks more like a bacterial bloom to me. Are you doing any carbon dosing?

No, not dosing anything right now.

Agree with a common bacteria. Not something to worry about. I would guess you don't have much of a CuC as they normally consume this stuff quickly.

That's true- I only have one hermit, a handful of trochus snails, and one nassarius snail buried in there somewhere. Should I expand a little bit? If so, what would you recommend?

 

[Brew12]

I'm relieved that it's probably just bacteria! Easy enough to take care of! Thanks, you two!

No, not dosing anything right now.

That's true- I only have one hermit, a handful of trochus snails, and one nassarius snail buried in there somewhere. Should I expand a little bit? If so, what would you recommend?

I'm a fan of the Cerith snails, although turbo's are good, too. I have around 300 snails in my 187g system. I only have blue and red legged hermits. I'm pretty picky about those. The blues seem to be the most reef safe imo.

 

[SallyWho]

I'm a fan of the Cerith snails, although turbo's are good, too. I have around 300 snails in my 187g system. I only have blue and red legged hermits. I'm pretty picky about those. The blues seem to be the most reef safe imo.

Okie dokey, I know my LFS has cerinths. And I think the lady called the hermit a "left claw?" Hadn't really heard of those, but the thing does have a significantly larger left claw. *shrug* Thanks!

 

[Brew12]

Okie dokey, I know my LFS has cerinths. And I think the lady called the hermit a "left claw?" Hadn't really heard of those, but the thing does have a significantly larger left claw. *shrug* Thanks!

You can generally get much better deals using an online vendor like Reefcleaners.org or Liveaquaria.com

 

[SallyWho]

You can generally get much better deals using an online vendor like Reefcleaners.org or Liveaquaria.com

True, but my city ain't big and there aren't a lot of options for saltwater. Pretty much just her small shop and a young couple who recently started running a small LFS out of their two car garage. I like to patronize the local businesses when I can, or I'll have no other options but online. :/

 

[Brew12]

True, but my city ain't big and there aren't a lot of options for saltwater. Pretty much just her small shop and a young couple who recently started running a small LFS out of their two car garage. I like to patronize the local businesses when I can, or I'll have no other options but online. :/

I love that attitude. I just know some LFS charge more for a single snail than you can get 20 of them for online. I don't mind paying a premium for local, but that one is a bit too big for me to handle with the quantity of snails I like to keep.

 

[SallyWho]

I love that attitude. I just know some LFS charge more for a single snail than you can get 20 of them for online. I don't mind paying a premium for local, but that one is a bit too big for me to handle with the quantity of snails I like to keep.

Oh, yeah, her prices are much higher than I can find online! But if I'm only getting a handful of snails, I save on shipping at least. And she'll special-order anything I want that she doesn't have in stock. Her team does tank servicing, too, so I can hire them to check on my tank when I'm out of town! I gotta admit, I really like that bit because none of my friends know anything about fish and couldn't so much as top off the ATO reservoir without getting lost as an easter egg.

 

[ReefJedi]

@SallyWho your rocks look just like mine! Did you end up testing your water? See anything interesting? What was the solution?

 

[SallyWho]

@SallyWho your rocks look just like mine! Did you end up testing your water? See anything interesting? What was the solution?

The pale stuff was knocked out with some more CUC and a little time, but has replaced with GHA and what I believe is chrysophytes. I did a 30g water change yesterday and tested this morning. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates were all 0, phos 0.02, pH 8, alk 8.1. Besides my alk maybe being a smidge low- but I only have zoas and one trumpet coral so I'm not worried- my parameters look good. I'm going to repeat the water change/manual removal of algae and chrysophytes sometime this week, and try a three day blackout. I don't want to strip my tank of nutrients, but with the amount of nuisance algae I have going on, I doubt my parameters are as good as they look. I'll bet the algae is consuming nitrates and phos, making my testing results falsely low.

 

[ReefJedi]

Which members of your CUC are eating the pale hair algae? I'll have to supplement my CUC. I have a dozen Zebra Striped Turbo Snails and a Scarlet Reef Hermit and neither of them are touching it. I tried manual removal by scrubbing in a bucket but they grow back in a few days.

 

[SallyWho]

Which members of your CUC are eating the pale hair algae? I'll have to supplement my CUC. I have a dozen Zebra Striped Turbo Snails and a Scarlet Reef Hermit and neither of them are touching it. I tried manual removal by scrubbing in a bucket but they grow back in a few days.

The cerinths and astraea snails helped the most with the pale stuff, if I recall correctly. Trochus, cerinth, and nerite are doing all right with the current GHA. Nothing much is touching the chrysophytes, so that's all manual removal and the blackout (when I have time to get that set up).

 

[cracker]

I like the black out idea . Also In my experience this white chrysophyte stuff like low nutrient tanks.

 

[SallyWho]

I like the black out idea . Also In my experience this white chrysophyte stuff like low nutrient tanks.

I don't think my tank is as low-nutrient as it appears. I think the nuisance algae is utilizing the nitrates and phos so that it's testing lower than it actually is. I've got chaeto (mixed with a little tag-a-long caulerpa) in the sump, and I'm thinking about extending the photoperiod in the 'fuge so that the macroalgae has a better chance to out-compete the nuisance algae.

 

[stacksoner]

This is how my Lyngbya outbreak started. With the algae looking fuzz on the rocks. Now it's like ∆