algae ID

[ksicard]

Hey all,
I've had this algae that grows on my sandbed it doesnt seem to get worse and never seems to get better. It's been in the tank since January when I set the tank up. I've made a thread about how to get rid of it awhile back and none of the suggestions or things i've tried on my own seems to make it go away. So I thought I would just post some pictures to get exact ID of what type of algae it is so I can approach it with methods that are targeted for that type of algae.

It doesnt look like much in the photo but it covers most of my sandbed and appears more brown to the eye. It's a real eye sore in my relatively clean tank. Anyone that can ID it for me would be much appreciated.

 

[ksicard]

Can anybody give me an ID? This algae has been in my tank for a full year and nothing I do combats it. I run GFO/carbon in a reactor, I skim wet, I vinegar dose. My nutrients are low, NO3 @ 0.75-1ppm and PO4 @ 0.03-0.05ppm. I dont really have much algae of other kinds.

 

[AlSimmons]

Does it have any sort of texture to it? Does it comes off the pebbles easily?

 

[ksicard]

It looks like hair algae on some of the grains of sand. But it forms a blanket sorta when viewed from afar. I wouldn't say it comes off the sand grains very easily. It does go away when I do waterchanges from mixing up the sand but it grows right back. I get why your asking and I don't think it behaves like dinos where it falls off the sand if agitated.

My fighting conchs will eat it and when I used chemiclean about 90% of it dissappeared. That would indicate its cyano but its been in my tank for a full year now and I don't think cyano does that. And it doesnt seem very slimy like red cyano is.

 

[kamikaze483]

I have been battling this too- I'm not an algae id expert but I'm just guessing its hair algae. I have been using DinoX which is usually recommended for dinos but it has worked really well. I battled the GHA for months and its gone now after about a week on the DinoX.

 

[kuzko]

Mexican turbo or a sea hare or an urchin.

 

[scooter31707]

It's just too hard to tell from the pics, but it may be the beginnings of Byropsis.

 

[ksicard]

It's just too hard to tell from the pics, but it may be the beginnings of Byropsis.

That's what I thought originally but the algae when viewed up close doesnt resemble bryopsis. I really hope its not bryopsis, Plus the algae hasn't really gotten worse in the full year its been in the tank. I'll do some research on bryopsis and hopefully I'll be able to conclude that its not bryopsis.

Mexican turbo or a sea hare or an urchin.

I have several mexican turbos and use to have urchins till I got tired of them moving my frags around. I think I'll buff up my CUC again.

I have been battling this too- I'm not an algae id expert but I'm just guessing its hair algae. I have been using DinoX which is usually recommended for dinos but it has worked really well. I battled the GHA for months and its gone now after about a week on the DinoX.

I think you may actually be right. About 3 months ago I bought a microscope and tried to view the algae under the microscope. I couldn't separate the algae from sand to get a proper sample under the microscope. But I did get a really crappy view of what the algae is. I sat on the internet and compared microscope views of different algae and it most closely resembles the picture for hair algae. It's just odd, i've been keeping reef tanks for awhile now and I've never had hair algae grow on the sand and grow to be so short. I think some of the issue is that the algae used to be a combo on cyano and hair algae which is why the chemiclean cleaned up most of it but not all of it.

I'll have to take a new approach and work on my feeding practices and changing out the GFO more often to combat this. I would like to introduce a fish to just simply eat it but that can be hit or miss.