Brown Hair Algae ID?

TulaneDane

TulaneDane

New member
Was hoping for some help on the below brown hair (like) algae:



Any ideas what kind is this? All readings are zero...but obviously PO4 and NO3 are zero because this stuff is sucking it all up.

I've been running a BRS Dual reactor with carbon and GFO for about a month now. Skimmer is sized for a 400 gallon system (I'm ~200 gallons total water volume including sump). It pulls a decent amount of gunk out every week. Fish inhabitants are 2 Clownfish, one Chromis, and one Diamond Watchman Goby. Trying to feed only what they'll eat, which is about a pinch of flake and a pinch of pellets per day. CUC is about 7 snails, and 12 hermits.

The algae growth seems to have slowed, but this stuff is still photosynthesizing as you can see bubbles rise off the rock.

Working on being more diligent about changing my filter socks about once a week...hoping that helps. Also moderated lighting to 10 hours, with one hour gradual ramp up/down.

So what kind of algae is this and is there anything else I should be doing? :deadhorse1:
 
How often are you replacing the GFO? If the phosphates are high (and they very likely are) you will need to change it out weekly until the algae is under control
 
While it doesn't appear to be
Bryopsis algae, a closer picture would help with the ID since it takes a different treatment to eradicate.
 
So...definitely not changing the GFO weekly, that's' helpful, thank you.

Here are some better pictures:







Thoughts on what this stuff is and what else I need to do to get rid of it? :hammer:
 
Lol no I was joking, it just looks like you have another tank In the other room through that door in your pic
 
It's definitely never been green. Yeah, it certainly looks similar to Chrysophytes. Read up a bit on it. Seems to be a lot of confusion between this and dinoflagellates. Don't think it's Dino as all my snails are fine.

Wonder what could be leaching silicates?? :uhoh2:
 
@Benar: I've searched everywhere and couldn't find anything in my system that might have ceramic in it. What did you find in your system that had ceramic?

I scraped what algae I could off the rocks/side glass yesterday, did a 50 gallon water change, and am now doing lights out with the tank covered for the next three days.

We'll see if it helps, but if there is something leaching silicates, I'll only be treating the symptoms... :hmm3:
 
What kind of sandbed do you have?
Though, honestly, I've seen it turn up in a display for a store set up by an expert. Sometimes the stuff just happens.
 
@Sk8r: I used Topic Eden Aragonite Tonga Reeflakes (~3.5mm). I probably have ~2" as a substrate. Rechecked the specs...no silicates that I can find in it? :hmm2:
 
The references are lumping chrysophytes in with diatoms on the one hand and insisting it's a freshwater problem on the other. This is no help.
I'd suggest an aggressive program of lights-out for 3 days once a month, aggressive skimming (watch your salinity), and a thorough test to see if you have any chemical anomalies. I have seen this stuff in salt water, in a very good tank, and it may be nutrient excess, it may just be pure bad luck. Restrain feeding: if you're trying to get rid of something, reducing nutrients often helps. Keep us posted. I've seen it beaten by persistent good husbandry. Maturity of the tank may also help. You might also ask Disk One and Randy Farley in Chemistry. What lights are you using? If you're 12000k maybe going to 10000, or the like...SOME parameter is making this stuff happy.
 
I'm running three EcoTech Radion G3's. They're set on the preprogrammed template of 'Radiant Color' which basically means it's getting about a full spectrum.

Picked up a Mg test kit today (read somewhere that heightened Mg helped someone at some point). I tested at about 1280. Will pick-up some other trace element test kits this week.

Will do. Muchas Gracias. :wave:
 
Brown Hair Algae ID?

I did a bit of reading on brown crap when I had my issue. There are a few different cases, one case being an ultra low nutrient, high flow (ala barebottom) that caused this phenomenon. Another is ceramic leaching (not your case by the looks) but I had cerameco vidarock, I was BB, had a ton of flow, and never had to clean the front/side glass in over a week+
I cracked, and ended up using Api Algaefix marine - I was on the brink of throwing in the towel though. It worked for me, quite well, didn't lose any SPS. I ended up caring less for the tank and that's when it started looking better, Murphy's law. I think I wrapped my tank in cotton wool too much. I never did lights out fwiw.
You could try; really dropping your red LEDs % right down. Bumping up your nitrates a little? (Potassium Nitrate)
 
Last edited:
Are you sure it is brown? I had similar looking algae in my tank... but it looked a lot more green-ish when I wiped some of it off my rocks and looked at it under normal house lighting. I had nerite and cerith snails, they wouldn't touch it, but I added a few trochus snails and they wiped it out in less than a week! Awesome little snails, I was totally amazed. What kind of snails do you have?
 
Fantastic advice everyone, thank you. :wave:

@ Dan: I don't think it's Lyngba Majuscula, as that stuff appears to be dark brown, while my pest looks more clear/light brown & stringy.

@novadan67: I'm still not convinced what it is. Could be Chrysophytes or to your point, it could simply be green hair algae that looks odd under my lights. I did do some maintenance on some equipment in the DT, and some of it did have a green tint to it under my kitchen lights.

All that said, here is a recap of my counterattack:
- Did 36 hour blackout
- Aggressive manual scrub down using a toothbrush
- changed filter socks after they captured everything I knocked loose
- scaled my red LED bulbs to zero
- Increased air intake to skimmer: unplugged the ozone intake to my skimmer (not dosing O3, but had plugged it while tuning it early on), made other adjustments with similar goal in mind.
- started dosing API AlgaeFix yesterday
- considering a form of Carbon dosing as well

We'll see how this approach works. :rolleye1:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

E
Anyone ID this stuff?
Replies
7
Views
187
griss
griss
Q
Which mini snail for artemia tank?
Replies
2
Views
196
griss
griss
A
First SPS coral. Is this bleaching?
Replies
6
Views
615
apavlik2
A
G
Back after 20 years - cycling advice
Replies
4
Views
175
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
pinnatus
Fluffy loose brown growth
Replies
9
Views
386
pinnatus
pinnatus
Back
Top