Algae growing on my Acro frag

plancton

Active member
Well my tank has been running for 2 months, its a 175 gal, I used to have a 75 gal before, and I changed everything to the new tank including the water. Levels raised only a bit, and of course hair algae invaded, but with skimming, water changes, and phosban almost all algae is gone.

I see receiding hair algae growing on my acro, I don't know why, and I don't know which would be the best way to get rid of it. As I told you its dissapearing anywhere else but the one on the acro seems like new and that is worrying me.

I introduced a sea slug, one of those called sea monsters, which is huge and eats a lot of algae and poops a lot, but I haven't seen it climb to the rocks yet, and I don't know if it normally does.
 
Check the water flow in that area. Acros need strong water flow, and hair algae appears when the flow in the area is too low or if the water is getting foul.
 
actually the water flow in there is really good, so that puzzles me more.

The flow there is good because its about 7 inches from the wavebox outlet, so it also receives direct current from the wavebox.
 
A healthy acro should be able to fight off invading algae. It will usually only grow on a part of the acro that has receded or is dying. That has been my experience in the past anyway.

Do your water parameters look good? Is it possible a nearby coral is causing damage to the frag?
 
yeah, and there are no nearby corals, but at the same time, that spot which was previously not exposed to light in its last tank is now exposed to light and I see the blue coloration starting to appear on it, which is good, but it still has some algae, I don't know if ti is fighting back, I mean it is very visible how it is starting to color up.
 
I would suggest moving the Wavebox, or the coral. The flow may be too much. I have seen this many times in my tanks, if the Wavebox, or 6100 Streams, are too close to the coral. The flow may cause tissue recession, then algae attacks the exposed area. After I change the flow the coral may recover, eventually growing over the "wound". Sometimes I had to cut off the damaged part, and new tissue will grow back over the damaged area.

Make sure water parameters are correct. Continue with your normal procedures for controlling nutrient levels, water changes, etc. Try to direct the flow where it is not aimed directly, or spaced too close to the coral(s).

HTH
 
algae grows better in more flow

there is nothing to stop algae from growing on any bare skeleton if the acro can't re-plate

a fresh break isn't dead skeleton and re-covers itself very quickly.
If there is algae on it, the skeleton is dead and the acro will have to plate over it like it was LR. it is hard for a coral to seal over a tip of algae. if you don't have mithrax crabs to take care of this for you, you might want to consider fragging off the dead branch(es) and let the fresh live cut seal over depending if the algae is getting too crazy
 
Because it is a frag it would be hard to frag, but I am gonna place it somewhere else, hopefully that would help.

On the other hand if the algae disappears, would it be wise to place the frag in its original spot once again?.
Because as I told you the frag is coloring up so perhaps the algae started to grow when the frag was getting used to the new environment.
 
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