what the heck are these tiny mushroom looking things?

[JCRove06]

So my tank has generally had some sort of algae most of it’s life. I just started testing for phosphate and see that it was around .06 at first and now .12 after adding an expensive phosphate reducing gfo???

Other parameters like nitrate, nitrite are at zero consistently. Salinity is around 1.25-1.26 consistently, and my lights are only on for like 8 hours, but I have no idea what oat value they have (300 watt vipar long led box). I am going to dose fluconazole soon to treat the brilláis and some hair algae today.

In the meantime does anyone know what this is and how to treat it?

 

[Saveafish]

 

[JCRove06]

I see a pic. Try hitting refresh. I got an error at first

 

[Matt Carden]

Looks perfectly good to me. I wouldn't do anything just wait it out. With the diversity I can see in there it'll balance out. My Phosphate could be 25ppm for all I know. It's off the chart and i don't have anything dieing. Acan, blasto, favia, chalice, lepto with fish and a diverse cuc.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I believe it's a type of macro algae that is like a vine and grows rather quickly and can be fairly aggressive and difficult to remove. Any little bit that is left behind attached to a rock will start to grow again!

Your nitrates are likely at zero because your macro algae is taking it out of the water as fast as it's getting into the water (from whatever source).

 

[MTBake]

Calurpa algae is my best guess. And I'm not sure if is spelled it correctly either, lol.

 

[ludnix]

I agree with Ron and to that point you will want to watch your parameters as your remove or kill the algae. You will be taking out a source of export, which is fine, but you will need to make sure you have another way to export the nutrients or the algae will just come back eventually after taking the tank on a nutrient rollercoaster.

The GFO will soak up the phosphates as the algae dies. You'll want to especially watch your nitrates though as there may not be an exisiting export for them without the algae.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Caulerpa Racemosa or Caulerpa nummularia possibly?

 

[ludnix]

Calurpa algae is my best guess. And I'm not sure if is spelled it correctly either, lol.

Grape Cualerpa would be my guess as well.

 

[Hemmdog]

What’s your clean up crew? Some hermits, urchins, tangs, all should destroy that stuff.

 

[check83]

It looks like a species of umbrella algae, sp. Acetabularia. I am not an algae expert but have had them in a tank before, they were not a nuisance and eventually disappeared. https://www.poppe-images.com/?t=17&photoid=926063

 

[w2inc]

In the 90's we called it Grape Cualerpa. You could get it in red or green. People liked to keep it in the refugium. The time came that Cualerpa became an invasive species and it is not available where I live. Phosphate rise can be an issue, but I am learning that it is not as much an issue as I believed most of my reefing life.

This guy has been around for a long time and has good things to say. Here is a quick and easy way to knock out phosphates. You may need to do it several times.

Some phosphate is important to your reef, so look into that before you go for broke. I think it is important to have some kind of nutrient export. I prefer to grow any kind of algae on a reverse daylight cycle in my sump. I try to grow Chaetomorpha, but there are all kinds of things growing down there. The only thing that shows up in my display is bubble algae. I can't get rid of it.

 

[JCRove06]

What’s your clean up crew? Some hermits, urchins, tangs, all should destroy that stuff.

I have about four snails, two are larger Mexican snails?? I had about 12-15 hermits which is down to about 4-5 now (they kill each other). An emerald crab. I saw a YouTube video recommending 1 per 10 gallons so I’m thinking I should get 3 more?

What other clean up crew do you recommend?