algae

[Brian01]

Hi all,
I have an algae that started in my fuge (left it there cause thought it looked cool and the pods loved it, big mistake). Its now proving tougher than any caulerpa or bryopsis I've had to remove. I've seen a few pics of it around, but I can't find a certain ID on it, there's a couple of unusual bryopsis and caulerpas that look close. It looks a bit like Caulerpa verticillata, but smaller than the stuff I've seen. It coats rock with fine, little cotton ball like growth. The little puffballs are a little less than a quarter inch across. Tangs don't seem to eat it, I see them occasionally picking at it but not much. Its tough for its size, has a lot of roots, and is hard to manually pull off. Anyone here have ideas? And anyone here successfully rid themselves of it?
The lower pics are taken under a low power microscope.
Thanks!

 

[vlangel]

Wow, it is really pretty and I would have left it grow as well. Have you tried hydrogen peroxide on it? That kills a lot of macro algaes.

 

[Brian01]

Thanks I thought about peroxide, but was being cautious. I have a few cukes and other sensitive things in there. I'm trying to catch them now tho, may give peroxide a shot if I can get them out.

 

[vlangel]

If you can remove the rock or what ever it's on, you can use a Q-tip and just dab the hydrogen peroxide directly on the macro. Then instead of putting it back in your tank isolate it in another tank or container for a while before putting it back in its original tank.

 

[Brian01]

That's the plan for some of it for sure. However, I tried high Mg first, and that backfired. It fragmented and went everywhere, I pushed the Mg until I started seeing other problems (1700-ish), and it broke apart but didn't die. Its now outcompeting and killing my chaeto ball, and that has a kessil H380 right over it. I'm trying to get to near zero nutrients with ferric oxide, I've lowered the light in the display... Its on the base rocks, lodged between corals.... I'll have to go into the tank itself if I want to get a lot of it. I hate this stuff. I really don't want to break down, this is a mature tank with a lot of good growth, but I may be heading that way if I can't get on top of it. I look back to the hair and bryopsis problems I had in the first few months with nostalgia. Maybe I'll get a rabbitfish first, give it a shot if the other things don't work.

 

[griss]

I had several problem algae in my most recent tank. I don't like to use algaecide or chemicals in my tanks if I can avoid them, but no normal means helped with these pests. But, if other methods don't work for you, trying what I did might help.

First I had Dictyota taking over and nothing I tried got rid of it. I ended up giving in and using AlgaeFix Marine per instructions. It took about 15 doses three days apart, but the Dictyota is gone now.

After the Dictyota was eliminated, I had Bryopsis, GHA and an unidentified short green turf algae starting to take over. I assume this was because of nutrients released by the dying Dictyota. Despite using GFO, carbon, manual removal and aggressive water changes, these algae continued to thrive. I ended up using Floconazole and within 20 days those three Algae had disappeared.

Now, the unidentified green turf algae seems to be making a comeback. Might have to try peroxide on that. Here's my thread on the green turf algae.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2688304

 

[Brian01]

Thanks griss, when I was searching around I spent a fair bit of time trying to zoom in on that picture of yours and wondering if that was it. There is some similarity for sure. I think mine spread when the failed Mg treatment partly killed it, but it really blew up a couple months later when it started to outcompete my chaeto and that died. I didn't check, but I suspect my nutrients went sky high. The endless cycle.
I share your caution, I am going slow and trying everything before adding unusual chemicals. I have so much filtration on there right now, its nuts. I even pulled out my old ATS to see if that would outcompete this stuff, too early to tell. I have also started pulling some of the rock I can get at out, and doing peroxide per the earlier suggestion. It works, quick and easy to rinse the now dead (I hope) remnants off. I'm still not up to going in the tank with peroxide though, I've read a couple of success stories, and some horror stories, about that. Maybe I'll try the fluconazole next. You had an urchin in there right, did it do OK? Seems my cukes are always the ones to go first if something goes wrong, and I still have not managed to catch them.

 

[griss]

You had an urchin in there right, did it do OK?

Yep, I have three urchins. I have a short spine from a previous tank and two pencil urchins that were hitchhikers on the live rock I got from KP Aquatics.