Hard brown-green algae

[jmja89]

Hi,

One of the first things I read about this hobby was that when you leave, things go wrong. Well, for the first time since setting up my tank, I went away for the weekend and came home to trouble.

I did a 15% water change on Friday and left Saturday morning. Came back yesterday to find my chaeto covered in green slime and dying (cyano). I pulled it out and did another 15% water change, making sure to vacuum up detritus from the fuge.

In the display, I now have a lot of this really hard green-brown algae all over my rocks. I had a little before I left, but its gotten much much worse. I can't get it off even if I scrub hard with a toothbrush. Does anyone know what this could be? Almost seems like coralline, but seems like it grew/spread too fast?

Thanks!

 

[SAT]

Looks like your post slipped through the cracks. I'm not familiar with "hard" green algae that isn't coralline. I have plenty of green coralline in my tank but yours looks thicker than mine, but that might be an illusion. What do you get if you try to chip some off? If it's coralline it should disintegrate in vinegar.

Regardless, it seems you have more issues with algae than this, which implies nutrient levels in the water are out of control, despite growing Chaeto. Have you tested your nitrate and phosphate levels? I would focus on getting the water quality under control and then see how the algae behaves.

 

[mcgyvr]

Are there pictures for others?
I don't see any..
my virus program did alert to an issue with this page though..

 

[SAT]

Are there pictures for others?
I don't see any..
my virus program did alert to an issue with this page though..

Not sure what you mean by "others". There is one picture showing a mix of encrusting green stuff and pink coralline. Maybe your virus scanner doesn't like it? I inferred a further algal problem from his description of the slimy Chaeto.

 

[mcgyvr]

ok.. virus scanner off I can see the pic..
Looks like regular green film algae I would 100% expect in a new tank.. Looks like its possibly just growing over old/white coralline algae..