What kind of algae do I have

[BryanS4]

I’ve been lucky enough over the years to get have any major algae issues, but in my 1.5 year old 150 I can’t get rid of this stuff. It’s not stringy at all, it’s like a little bush when pulled off the rocks.

Not 100 per certain what it is, so figured I’d ask. Thanks all.

 

[brandon429]

an invasive caulerpa, its highly receptive to peroxide too used correctly

post that full tank shot if you would


we have a certain way to test and verify only a small sample before you rid the tank of it squirt some 3% on that sample above and see how long it takes for the algae to break up and die/predicted 24 hrs

 

[BryanS4]

Thanks. After ordering Fluconazole today I thought that might be the case. I’ll have to read up on peroxide treatment and start tonight! Stuff is driving me nuts.

 

[BryanS4]

Ok, I’ll pick some more off and squirt some peroxide on it shortly.

 

[brandon429]

nice, that's not too bad and Id prefer that challenge frankly over any form of dinoflagellate challenge.

the fluc will be 50/50 hit or miss, its better for bryopsis and gha but we're about to either add to that group or not. where it works, it works well and you just dump the right amnt of fluc into the system and dose it as the fluc thread states, within 15 days you'll know


our peroxide is different though, to protect your frags in the early testing we do not dump in the water. we incrementally evaluate it

on test rock #1, lift it out of water and pour peroxide **that is diluted down to 1 ml per ten gallons of your tank water, the safe known tank dose for those frags, across all the targets, let sit one min, don't break off any algae, rinse off in saltwater and set that test rock back and lets see it in 24 hrs. you are working with diluted 1:10 here, not straight 3%, to mimic its effects when dosed right into the tank on a non scraped rock.


on a second rock, meaner.

remove it and use a steak knife to methodically pick and scrape roughly the algae away...damaging its holdfast areas to get the plant out. rinse that all off in sw, using no chems, the rock is clean because you knifed it.


then

rinse that rock in peroxide where it used to be invaded, wait one min cooking, rinse and put back

compare these two in 24-36

lastly, even if fluc does work, you'll want to know these behavioral and rebound aspects of your algae using another control system, for preps here in case fluc allows a growback as a surprise.

 

[BryanS4]

Appreciate the advise. I guess I better crack open a cold one and get to work.

I guess I’ll try the fluc on Friday and hope dosing tank direct with peroxide would do the trick.

 

[brandon429]

hey if you'll take pics even of the pre testing/preps portion we'll link them here, need fresh updates
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/

on reefcentral peroxide threads in about 2012 I wiped a few diff tanks totally clean of just that same kind of macro, w before n after pics still there
its susceptible yep/going off old pics lets see how those tests turn out. even if its not the major used item, any increment of invader response to peroxide we just love to catalogue

because your tank is accessible, if that was my scape Id be fixing it outside of the tank and basically never exposing the frags to the peroxide though they're all pretty tolerant strains of sps. the big risk isn't the kill; I can tell from pics that's going to die even with light peroxide testing...its the regrowth

if you find that your lightest-treated test rock just dies free and stays that way, then we know the work involved in tank parting w be worth it.


here's that old rc thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2082359

your examples are somewhere in the first third ha/long thread. many cures, and that was the rough evolution days before we did pre testing. evolution of peroxide in the reef tank right there. I have never in all my reefing life been shown a trick as decisive as peroxide dosing, it literally saved my tank from loss years ago. no matter what they invent for algae, it will never cover the breadth that peroxide does. we had to claw tooth and elbow in this hobby to get it accepted as legit.

your invader is of the class/requisite hitchhiker

its not possible to dose nutrients to someones tank and generate the algae you have, unless that's been directly brought in...what that means strategically is that nutrients didn't cause your issue, so we shouldn't battle it with nutrients. we want its cells killed, and from that point you can't have growback if you are quarantining new additions.

by classing an invader on how they got in, we know where to use nutrient stripping and where not to. Its good to use nutrients against the limited invaders that bloom when we spike nutrients across 5 different tanks. your cyanos, your GHA's etc, the commoner ones.

 

[mcarroll]

Skip the fluconazole since nobody is dying or starving to death and stick with normal methods.

Algae Cure!! Spot Treating Algae With Peroxide

Here's a better way to apply peroxide.

You can see from the comments that some folks have even used high-strength/health food store/30% peroxide like this with no problems.

BTW what do you have for CUC?

What is your current fish population?

 

[BryanS4]

Skip fluc since no one is dying or starving, not sure I follow?

I have transferred all but two fish, which I’m trying to catch and most of cuc to other tanks while I try to get rid of algae issue.

 

[mcarroll]

I just mean that it's not an algae treatment, it's a wickedly-strong antibiotic that even doctors and agriculture (the two main "legitimate" users) are discouraged from using. (It makes animals grow faster, so they used to routinely inject chickens and who knows what else with it as a "growth stimulant". What could go wrong there, right??)

Plus, there are almost always better ways to deal with algae than disturbing your whole system. Spot treating peroxide vs dosing the tank with it, for example.

What fish do you have, BTW? And what's in your CUC?

Historically, how have nutrients been in the tank? What if anything do you do to control nutrients?

Given that your algae is growing in the sand too, it's probably wise to question the flow the tank's been getting – its presence there is an indication that detritus has been settling. What are you using for flow and how is it set up? (And what are the tank's dimensions?)

I'd use a powerhead (or at least a turkey baster) to blow off the rocks and stir up the sand a little to see what happens.....if any of it is "dirty" then you know the source of the problem: Flow/detritus. (And you'll know you need to clean out and/or remove and/or replace the sand bed! )

 

[mcarroll]

(Why are you moving the fish, BTW? Related to this, or something else?)

 

[tastyfish]

an invasive caulerpa, its highly receptive to peroxide too used correctly

What species of Caulerpa is this please Brandon? I haven't seen one that has this structure before.

 

[NCreefguy]

Skip fluc since no one is dying or starving, not sure I follow?

Don't sweat it. That was just someone who trolls every thread that mentions Fluconazole here on R2R.

The AG industry uses thousands of gallons of Fluconazole each year on the crops that most of us eat and has for decades now. Yet somehow we've lived through it,imagine that. If you're using Fluconazole in your aquarium then you are also a "legitimate" user so don't worry about anyone whining and crying over what you use, when they don't worry about what impact the things they use in their everyday life has on the earth. This IS an algae treatment that is here to stay no matter how many tears are shed by the selective ethics people that want to run your life instead of worrying about theirs.Some of the biggest names in reefing has used or is using Fluconazle in their tanks and grow out systems now including the owner of this great forum @revhtree so don't let anyone else brow beat you for using it.

The two week treatment is mainly for Bryopsis but from what we've seen with other forms of GHA and nuisance algae is that it dies off between 3-6 weeks depending on the algae.Some people are assuming they have Bryopsis and don't let the treatment run long enough to kill the GHA but is working for most nuisance green algae we've seen if ran long enough.If you perform water changes during the treatment make sure to replace the meds.We are also using a continuous low dose treatment of 5-20%(depending on your nutrient levels) of your original dose each month after a water change to keep any GHA from returning. Bryopsis won't return unless you reintroduce it into your system or if some of the Bryopsis cells survived the treatment.

 

[brandon429]

It could be mislabeled, might not be caulerpa but there were similar battles of this plant in the reefcentral thread.

accurate id and test params were never required to generate all the after pics in the threads. We're getting pretty fast at making calls off single tank shots... it's a fun game/tank restorations. By visual id off a picture, it's easy to predict how peroxide will affect a biosystem.

Curious how this tank is doing, it could be wiped clean by now.

 

[NCreefguy]

Yeah I'm not sure either but @Jose Mayo is really good at helping to ID algae

 

[Sallstrom]

I can't help you with ID of the algae, but my guess is that a sea urchin would eat it. Or a rabbitfish. In case you want to try a biological treatment

Hope it works out.

/ David

 

[Jose Mayo]

Yeah I'm not sure either but @Jose Mayo is really good at helping to ID algae

Images for identification should be sharper and some object of known measurement placed next to them, such as a coin or ruler, so that a better dimensioning of the specimen to be identified is possible.

The image of the first photo is very reminiscent of the species Ulva clathrata, but I can not say for sure.

The Ulvaceae Family belongs to the Bryopsidales Order, has ergosterol in its cell walls and is sensitive to fluconazole, but is much more resistant than Bryopsis to treatment.

Regards

 

[tastyfish]

Images for identification should be sharper and some object of known measurement placed next to them, such as a coin or ruler, so that a better dimensioning of the specimen to be identified is possible.

The image of the first photo is very reminiscent of the species Ulva clathrata, but I can not say for sure.

The Ulvaceae Family belongs to the Bryopsidales Order, has ergosterol in its cell walls and is sensitive to fluconazole, but is much more resistant than Bryopsis to treatment.

Regards

Is this particularly wirey/springy? I have something very similar growing on my weir in a mat at the surface. Both tang and urchin eat it.

 

[tastyfish]

It could be mislabeled, might not be caulerpa but there were similar battles of this plant in the reefcentral thread.

accurate id and test params were never required to generate all the after pics in the threads. We're getting pretty fast at making calls off single tank shots... it's a fun game/tank restorations. By visual id off a picture, it's easy to predict how peroxide will affect a biosystem.

Curious how this tank is doing, it could be wiped clean by now.

No worries, always learning, so keen to find out more about something I don't recognise. It also looks similar to an algae growing on my weir in a mat at the surface.

If it helps, my blue tuxedo eats it, as does the yellow tang. It likes red light as it's right underneath one of my red LED's, so if you can exclude red spectrum from the display, it might help ****** it a little.

 

[Jose Mayo]

Is this particularly wirey/springy? I have something very similar growing on my weir in a mat at the surface. Both tang and urchin eat it.

No, it is not difficult to break and tear, it is very similar to Bryopsis in its consistency and is also of a cenocytic structure, that is, pruning favors its multiplication. Some herbivores eat them for some time, but not all the time, which makes them "invasive."

Regards