Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

I'm going to jump in and ask if its normal for my tank to have this much hair algae on week 3. I'm new to the hobby and I'm getting concerned. my lfs has been telling me that everything is ok and that with water changes comes the death of hair algae and I feel like its only getting worse!!!
 
stevespeer88:
Without knowing how much or what kind(s) of algae you have, algae growth in new or young systems is not unusual at all. Your LFS is correct in that the true and best solution to eliminating nuisance algaes is the elimination of excess nutrients. New systems have a lot of excess nutrients that fuel algae growth. Note that it probably will get worse before it gets better, but with good husbandry, the algae will eventually burn itself out.

In the long run, I believe it's better to wait it out and let the algae die off naturally than to use chemicals, but this does require great patience. Make sure you're using 0 TDS water and exporting nutrients through effective skimming and water changes. Hopefully at 3 weeks you don't have a bunch of livestock in the tank. For a new setup, I would suggest waiting at least 2 months before adding any livestock at all. It is MUCH faster and easier to reduce nutrients and starve the algae without fish or other livestock adding fertilizer to the system.
 
PhreeByrd:
thanks a lot, it's very frustrating, because I'm want to show off the tank, but it's so ugly now... sorry I don't have more info for you to give me a more specific answer, but thankyou.
 
Finally an easy solution to bryopsis!

12 days later not sure I am seeing results with fluconazole photos to follow.

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12 days later

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crabbydan:
I don't see typical-looking bryopsis in your photos. Looks more like a hair algae to me, but sometimes identification is difficult, and sometimes it's extremely difficult even under a microscope. Have you seen the typical bryopsis feathery structure in your algae? I'm not seeing it in your photos.
 
Thanks for stating that. I am not sure it is bryopsis as it has not really changed. I think it looks semi feathery but not full feathers. The odd part of my algae which I have been hand pulling it out is that it is really rooted it hard into the rock. Anyone experience that? Also now that my water softner has been replaced my rodo water is coming out at 0-1 tds instead or 5-17. In just 3 water changes this is making a huge difference.
 
The algae in my pictures is stiff like a stick. Anyone have knowledge on what kind of algae that is so I can research how to treat. Or I am betting I just keep working on reducing phosphates and nutrients and I am probably good?
 
I only have personal experience with a handful of algaes, and none of those has been as you describe. Many alga including bryopsis, caulerpas, and halimeda do attach very firmly to the substrate, but I wouldn't guess those from your photos.

Your best course might be to get a definitive identification from a laboratory. I don't know if U of A has schools of marine biology or botany, but if so they might have a lab that offers this service. UCLA, UCSD, and USC are not that far from you and one or all of them should be able to help. Purdue University, which has no marine-related schools but does have a large school of botany, was able to ID some algae for me several years ago. They charged $10 and had an ID for me in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, your infestation does not appear to be of epic proportions at all, and you're on the right track in reducing your nutrient levels. Alga require very little nutrient to survive, but once the levels drop below their tolerance threshold they die back very quickly.

There is no magic bullet for this, but more info on your system might help pinpoint ways to further reduce nutrients that are fueling the algae. And if you can get a reliable identification, then you might find more useful information in a different or new thread.
 
crabbydan,

Get anywhere with the algae issue?
Your photos look very similar to the algae I have. At this point I have removed the smaller rock, pulled algae out with tweezers or needle nose pliers. Then treated area with Peroxide. I have a main rock structure that I have not pulled and was looking for an alternative method. I ordered the capsules to give it a try.

Here is a a photo that includes the algae up close. Looks like yours.
 

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i did have minimal success with the flucanazole. by minimal the hair/algae seems to shorten some turned white and drifted away with the water flow. But much of it stayed or grew back slightly. So it helped but did not eradicate it. This past weekend, I took the main rock out and gave it a 24 hour bath in 1/4 hydrogen peroxide and 3/4 salt water. I let it soak and circulate with a MJ900 in the garage which in AZ this time of year is about 99 degrees. Rock is clean likely dead and I still see little white strands of this dead algae. I just put the rock back in the tank to let it get re-seeded. This particular piece was about 1/3 of my total live rock volume in the 20 gallon office tank. Only stocked with one fish so no fish casualties, I did lose about 50 heads of zoas on that rock. I do have about 30 heads of the same zoa on other frags in this tank. Will try to post a few more pictures.
 
I can say with absolute certainty that nothing short of nuking (and by that I actually do mean destroying) the rock will truly eliminate algae. I have zero visible algae growing in my display tanks, and haven't for many years. However, if I take any piece of rock from those tanks and place it in another sterile but high-nutrient environment, alga will begin to grow. It is always there on and within the rock. But if nutrients are low enough, it becomes dormant. Bio/bacterial additives can be very useful in reducing nutrients, and pose no threat to other living things as algaecides might.

As nice as it would be to say that one has 'eliminated' algae in a reef tank, it just ain't so. All one can (or should) do is control it, and that means nutrient control (and often lots of patience). Unless your plan is for a sterile tank with no livestock, alga will at some point be introduced to the system, and it's impossible to truly eliminate it.

Incidentally, there is no better nutrient export than physically removing growing algae from the tank. I know it's a pita (been there and done that), but nothing is more effective. Assuming that you are not adding extra nutrients via overfeeding or using poor quality water/salt mix, eventually the algae will just burn itself out.
 
I am not trying to eliminate all algae. Just this particular strand of fast growing sticks. All other algae is not as bad and in some cases necessary to sustain the life of certain algae nipping fish and inverts. I am striking out on this particular algae as now it is 3 months or so later and it is all coming back and only on the original 2 pieces of invested rock. all of the other rock in this tank has none of this strand on it? Go figure?
 
Started dosing Fluco yesterday.

My problem is probably not bryopsis (some kind of turf algae??), but I have heard the stuff works against various kinds of algae.

I got my problem-algae from two sps frag plugs in October last year. Since then, it has spread to the entire tank; various patches all over (probably floating particles after I manually remove it during my weekly water changes)

When I received the algae, I figured it would be a snack for the tangs/foxface I was waiting to receive, but neither cares about the stuff. I was lazy and let it spread.
I later tried Vibrant, but it did not seem to have an affect on this algae.

The two pics below show how much the stuff grows in 12 days. The first pic was taken after I had done a quick manual removal to all the patches in my tank.
Shorty after picture #2 I did a new manual removal (I was quite thorough and removed a lot more that time) and then dosed Fluco. (20mg/gallon)

(No other visible algae in tank other than film algae)



Pic1 - after a quick manual removal:
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Pic2 - 12 days later:
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Thought I would add a photo of what has come back after a treatment of flucanazole and later a 24 hour bath in 50/50 saltwater / hydrogen peroxide. Killed everything rock was white. Put back in tank and a month later this is on it and found it on a snail.


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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have some leftover fluconazole from taking down a huge system, I'm selling it for $1 per 200mg capsule and can ship snail mail for an extra $0.50
 
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Thought I would add a photo of what has come back after a treatment of flucanazole and later a 24 hour bath in 50/50 saltwater / hydrogen peroxide. Killed everything rock was white. Put back in tank and a month later this is on it and found it on a snail.


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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That looks like what I have 100%
 
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