What kind of algae is this?!?

[Dj City]

I had an algae reactor that I broke down. I started with cheato but I guess it had a little grape mixed in from the of a.
It grew pretty good but the pump died and I had no idea till I noticed that growth slowed and I started seeing something different in the reactor.

Fast forward...
I moved the algae to my sump so I can start Triton method. (Not started yet).

The cheato looks great but the grape is mixed with this other algae. I don't know what it is or if it's good or bad.

Please advise.

What is it?
Is it good?
Is it bad?
Should I keep it or toss it?

 

[Crabs McJones]

I had an algae reactor that I broke down. I started with cheato but I guess it had a little grape mixed in from the of a.
It grew pretty good but the pump died and I had no idea till I noticed that growth slowed and I started seeing something different in the reactor.

Fast forward...
I moved the algae to my sump so I can start Triton method. (Not started yet).

The cheato looks great but the grape is mixed with this other algae. I don't know what it is or if it's good or bad.

Please advise.

What is it?
Is it good?
Is it bad?
Should I keep it or toss it?

It looks like Chaeto wrapped in green hair algae

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Yup, you've got some chaeto in there for sure but most of it is GHA. I would toss it and find you some clean chaetomorpha.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Yup, you've got some chaeto in there for sure but most of it is GHA. I would toss it and find you some clean chaetomorpha.

I don't know about tossing it, the chaeto underneath looks good still, i'd try to pull off as much hair algae as I could, and see if it makes it.

 

[Dj City]

That other algae is growing RAPIDLY!!!

All the algae is growing like wildfire but that unknown algae has really taken off.

These pics are from 4 days ago. The pic above that shows this unknown algae was taken yesterday.

If it's GHA, and it's not helpful to have, I can toss it. It is separate from the cheato. It's intertwined with the grape algae.

So...

I should toss it?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I don't know about tossing it, the chaeto underneath looks good still, i'd try to pull off as much hair algae as I could, and see if it makes it.

I don't think you would ever get rid of all of the green hair algae. Chaeto is fairly cheap too so I don't think it would be too much of a loss or hassle to start over with some clean chaeto If it was my tank I would always use the quickest and most efficient method to be totally rid of any nuisance algae even if it comes at the loss of a beneficial algae.

 

[Big G]

Had a similar event in my sump last month. I tried cleaning, cutting, etc. and was not successful. And boy did that stuff smell bad. Nothing wrong with giving it a try if you have the time and energy. Cheers!

 

[Dj City]

It's kinda funny cause I've never had GHA so I had no idea what it really looked like. Once I grabbed it, I could tell why it's called Green hair algae. It's just like the hair on a CHEAP costume wig.
I tossed the whole ball. No sense trying to pull it off the good algae as I have a large ball of cheato with no GHA on it. I'm only going to be missing the grape caulerpa. I can get more at my LFS pretty easily.

I hope to NEVER see GHA again anywhere in my system.