How do I get rid of this macro? (photo)

[Smoker]

My tank is nearly algae free except for this rock. I pull the algae off and next day it is grown and bushy again. Snails (turbo, etal.) will end up there once in awhile, but they don't eat it. Tank is 21 gallons w/fuge and just over 1 year old. Is there anything I can do?

20G Long
132W LED
AC50 w/chemi-pure, purigen, gfo & sometimes charcoal
1350gph flow and 3000gph 3 hours a day
RO/DI water
5 Nitrate. It is almost always 5
0 Phosphate, sometimes a little more.
0 Nitrite
0 Ammonia
400 Calcium
1.025 SG
7.9 PH
10 dKH

 

[reefer gladness]

Looks like bryopsis. Increasing magnesium above NSW levels has been known to work, most people claim Kent's Tech M works best. Try slowly raising mag up to around 1500-1600 and it will probably melt away.

 

[DianaKay]

I would take that rock OUT if it's removable, even risk the loss of the polyps on it.
That does look like bryopsis & I've read that it's NOT easy to get rid of once it gets out of control in your tank.
I've never had it (so far :fingerx but I think it might be easier to try killing it off outside your display tank.
Wait for other opinions tho.

 

[Smoker]

Looks like bryopsis. Increasing magnesium above NSW levels has been known to work, most people claim Kent's Tech M works best. Try slowly raising mag up to around 1500-1600 and it will probably melt away.

Good call and advice. Thanks.

 

[DianaKay]

Here's a good read on nuisance algae ID's and getting rid of them:
http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=60

 

[Steve L]

As I recall some dwarf angels have a taste for that stuff.

 

[Smoker]

Here's a good read on nuisance algae ID's and getting rid of them:
http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=60

Thank you Diana. I buy from RC and have read his algae comments plus many, many others. I look to the forum hoping someone will come along with a new trick.

I've moved this little rock to various tanks for 7 years. Every time it starts doing good an algae of some sort lands there. This time it started expanding, coloring and WHAM! Sudden algae.

It started long ago like this:

I pulled off all the bad stuff before moving it, I thought.

Here it is in a 2-1/2 pico:

It's under the red grape algae.

This evening a snail investigates but will not eat it. They ate up all other types of algae including hair and sticks, so why not this?

I'll take your advice and move it out . . . to a QT as soon as I find a working heater and lights. I'm afraid spores will remain in the DT. I'm running a UV there. I also want to try raising the magnesium as there are traces elsewhere. This could be the new trick I was looking for.

 

[DianaKay]

I hope you will update if you find what gets rid of the algae. I can see after having the rock for seven years that you'd like to save it. Do you think that the algae is indeed bryopsis?

 

[foxsavage]

If it's only on the one rock and it's small enough you can dip it for 5 min in a 25% hydrogen peroxide 75% tank water solution. It will kill all types of algae. Zoa, paly, and some nps are the only types of corals you can safely dip in H2O2, they will pout for a couple of days but I've only had one morph out of hundreds that didn't make it. That bryopsis can spread to every rock very quickly so if you can knock it out before it spreads that would be best. As mentioned above Tech M can also work.

 

[Mike Johnson]

If it's only on the one rock and it's small enough you can dip it for 5 min in a 25% hydrogen peroxide 75% tank water solution. It will kill all types of algae. Zoa, paly, and some nps are the only types of corals you can safely dip in H2O2, they will pout for a couple of days but I've only had one morph out of hundreds that didn't make it. That bryopsis can spread to every rock very quickly so if you can knock it out before it spreads that would be best. As mentioned above Tech M can also work.

This is the best advise you've been given. After the H2O2 dip you'd swear you've given your palys a vitamin. The algae is called bryopsis plumosa and it's bad stuff.

 

[Surfnut]

Just buy yourself a Dwarf Seahare. It was thew only thing I found that would eat the Bryopsis like candy. It has a taste for all Algae types so it works well as a cleanup crew edition. As a dwarf they stay quite small as well; A few inches at most in my previous tanks.