Help what is this growing in my reef

taikoboi

New member
I have this growing everywhere. They are like bushes. They are attached to my live rock and substrate. All my levels are normal and I do water changes twice a month about 15%. I only use RO water. I have a refugium with Fiji mud, protein skimmer, brs gfo and carbon reactor, uv sterilizer and a radion G3 pro running at 45% brightness.

Thanks in advance.

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https://vimeo.com/145951642
 
If it's soft it's green hairy algae - pull out whatever you can and then get a few algae eating hermit crabs and snails.
 
I would put a pair of large angels without much hesitation in a 100 gallon tank, but not even the smallest tang. Tangs need lots of swim room - anything below 6ft isn't enough for them.
Also, as you can see, tangs are not really suited for algae control. Hermits, snails and diadema urchins do a better job.
 
Reduce your lighting maybe for a few days, how long do you leave kyour lights on for? And yes snails are the way to go, they will clean it up. You could also consider reducing your feeding as well.
 
What color settings are you running your G3 pros? I had GHA problems until I changed my settings. I run at 20k for a couple hours mid day and modified 20k (reduce white channel from 37 to 15) the rest of the "day". I found that the lower red (37) and green (17) keeps the GHA in check.

Just something else to check...
 
Reduce your lighting maybe for a few days, how long do you leave kyour lights on for? And yes snails are the way to go, they will clean it up. You could also consider reducing your feeding as well.

Hairy green algae will grow just fine in low light and low nutrients.
What keeps them at bay is competition (coralline algae, macro algae and corals) and algae eating inverts (hermits, snails, amphipods,...).
So far, fish have been totally ineffective for me to eliminate hairy algae. All they may do is keeping them short.

I have two 10g tanks next to each other:

One has a S. gigantea, a pair of percula, a large pair of banggai cardinals, a pistol shrimp, a pair of yellow banded cleaner shrimp and a quickly growing colony of green star polyps. On algae eaters are there: one turbo snail (were 4 but the other 3 were eaten by the gig) a handful of blue-legged hermits, a growing number of stomatella snails and an army of amphipods. On the two live rocks grow a couple of coralline algae and caulerpa.
This tank sits straight under a Kessil A360WE at full intensity and 80% color and the fish and anemone get fed a ton. There are no hairy algae in that tank (with the exception of some on the inside of the skimmer). The only pest right now are cyanobacteria.

The other tank is a QT with a small pair on banggai cardinals, an orchid dottyback female and a bicolor blenny male. No snails or hermits in this tank and the decoration is a good load of real reef artificial rock. The fish get fed sparingly and the tank gets just the stray light from the Kessil.
Still, hairy algae are thriving in this tank.
 
Hairy green algae will grow just fine in low light and low nutrients.
What keeps them at bay is competition (coralline algae, macro algae and corals) and algae eating inverts (hermits, snails, amphipods,...).
So far, fish have been totally ineffective for me to eliminate hairy algae. All they may do is keeping them short.

+1

Manual removal and competition will get rid of it over time. I've been battling Derbesia in my tank for the past few months and am slowly making progress by pulling it off the rocks in the DT and allowing it to grow in the sump. None of my herbivores/detrivores will touch the stuff, so that's the only way I've been able to keep it at bay. Frankly, I don't really have a problem with having some algae present as all of my fish and corals are thriving.
 
I too allow algae to grow in my sump and it does keep it out of the DT. I also run my sump lights 24/7. My Chaeto grows like crazy and so does the GHA. I pull the GHA out weekly and once a month sell off some Chaeto as it fills my sump section that I have it in. This helps keep all of the nasties in the sump.
 
What color settings are you running your G3 pros? I had GHA problems until I changed my settings. I run at 20k for a couple hours mid day and modified 20k (reduce white channel from 37 to 15) the rest of the "day". I found that the lower red (37) and green (17) keeps the GHA in check.



Just something else to check...


Thanks I changed my setting to yours. I think that will help as well. Thanks :)
 
I would put a pair of large angels without much hesitation in a 100 gallon tank, but not even the smallest tang. Tangs need lots of swim room - anything below 6ft isn't enough for them.

Also, as you can see, tangs are not really suited for algae control. Hermits, snails and diadema urchins do a better job.


I do plan on getting a 200 gallon sapphire glass tank in a couple months. I will be posting my build soon. I've had my blue tang since he was just a little baby. I'm sure he'll love it.
 
I'm Battling something similar for the last month, Just not as bright green, and more bearded and wavy in the flow, trying to beat it without chemicals. Mostly on the Sand and lower edges of rocks close to Sand.

Thinking I have phosphates leaking from sand and Rocks. 7 month old tank.

Doing everything right as far as I know exporting the phosphates. Shrug
 
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