What is this algae taking over my tank?

[Tbg299]

The past few days this long, hairy brown slimy algae has been taking over my tank. Most of it is growing on the back and glass. From what I have researched, my guess is that it's either cyano or dinos but I'm not sure which. Ammonia nitrites and Nitrates are all 0, ph is 8.5 and phosphates are 0.05. I am running two AI Prime LEDs at 70%. Tank is approximately 4 weeks old.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Green hair algae
Pull as much as you can by hand and reduce white light intensity. At night, add 1.5ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons and after you’ve pulled it all, add snails such as:
Turbo grazer
Astrea
Cerith
Nerite
nassarius
And about a dozen Caribbean blue leg hermits

BY ANY CHANCE, IS YOUR TANK AT OR NEAR A WINDOW?

 

[Subsea]

Zero nitrates is not a good thing. Nuisance algae has adapted survival techniques that favor its survival to desirable micro fauna & fana.

Does it wipe off easily?

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide.

 

[Tbg299]

Green hair algae
Pull as much as you can by hand and reduce white light intensity. At night, add 1.5ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons and after you’ve pulled it all, add snails such as:
Turbo grazer
Astrea
Cerith
Nerite
nassarius
And about a dozen Caribbean blue leg hermits

BY ANY CHANCE, IS YOUR TANK AT OR NEAR A WINDOW?

I just ordered a clean up crew from reef cleaners last week. I have tons of dwarf ceriths and about a dozen astraea. Might get some turbos. No my tank Is not near a window.

 

[brandon429]

How many gallons is the tank

 

[Subsea]

If you are Interested in micro fauna & fana like pods & stuff, I caution you on indiscriminate dosing hydrogen peroxide to bulk water. Every tank has a different BOD which means a dosage in one system with a small BOD will respond differently than a system with a large BOD.

I destroyed a thriving amphipod population in 120G four year mature tank using 3% peroxide at 1ml per 10G. During a 7 day peroxide dose, I noticed declining pod population at day 3. After 7 days there were no more amphipods to be observed. Surprising to me was remaining abundant micro starfish population.

 

[Tbg299]

Zero nitrates is not a good thing. Nuisance algae has adapted survival techniques that favor its survival to desirable micro fauna & fana.

Does it wipe off easily?

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide.

Wipes off fairly easily with my fingers or a scrubber but makes a big stringy mess In the water. Was waiting tomorrow when I do my water change to scrub it/ siphon it out.

 

[Subsea]

Wipes off fairly easily with my fingers or a scrubber but makes a big stringy mess In the water. Was waiting tomorrow when I do my water change to scrub it/ siphon it out.

If I read your tank thread correctly, you have diver collected live rock. Yes to janitors. However, you need to feed your tank to encourage consumers & competitors of your nuisance algae. Get your nitrate to 5-10ppm

 

[Tbg299]

If I read your tank thread correctly, you have diver collected live rock. Yes to janitors. However, you need to feed your tank to encourage consumers & competitors of your nuisance algae. Get your nitrate to 5-10ppm

I'm assuming I shouldn't do another water change yet then. I was going to go to my LFS tomorrow to buy some frozen mysis shrimp to feed my Nassarius snails. I personally prefer doing things as naturally as possible instead of dosing exogenous chemicals.

 

[Tbg299]

I made a lot of modifications to my LED lighting spectrum. Previously I was running default settings with cool whites at 60%. I reduced them to 25% and increased blues to 80%. Hopefully this will help slow algae growth.

 

[Subsea]

I'm assuming I shouldn't do another water change yet then. I was going to go to my LFS tomorrow to buy some frozen mysis shrimp to feed my Nassarius snails. I personally prefer doing things as naturally as possible instead of dosing exogenous chemicals.

I am going to reread your tank thread to better understand your system.

At this time, you are the big janitor. Once you clean out as much as possible with syphon and toothbrush. Also lightly gravel vac to remove excess detritus depending on how much you feed and maturity of detrivores in your substrate. This equates to a partial water change.

 

[Tbg299]

Update: the problem seems to have been resolved by adjusting my lighting spectrum and by manual cleaning. My snails and hermit crabs are cleaning up the leftovers.