What type of plant/algae is this?

[etpelle72]

About two years ago I switched my lighting from VHO's on an icecap ballast to t5's on the same ballast. At that time I had my auqarium for about 10 yrs and I never had it fully stocked with corals, so pretty much only live rock. At the time of the switch I had two or three little sprigs of what looked like grass blades. After the the lighting switch the grass like plant started to grow like crazy, and covered all my love rock. I finally took out all the live rock and cleaned it the best I could. It's been good for about a year now, but it's starting to come back. I attached a before and after photo, and am wondering if there is any fish that will eat this stuff or how i can get rid of it without tearing the reef work down again?

Oh, and it's extremley coarse, if ou squeeze it it crunches. I also have a kole tang and a sailfin bleney and they occasionally pick at it but don't doo much as far as getting rid of it.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

That is green hair algae. It can overrun a tank in record time and it looks alot like grass.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Check your phosphate and nitrate levels. When you get a large outbreak that usually means you have problems there. Also, make sure you aren't over-feeding as that can lead to a breakout. And I hope your using RO/DI water and not just plain tap. Many people have learned the hard way that plain tap water leads to lots of algae.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Also, don't be surprised if your tests for Phosphate and Nitrates come out at 0. That's because the hair algae is sucking them all up to grow even larger :help1: Try getting a phosphate filter, lowering feedings, making sure skimmer is working well. A breakout is due to problems with water parameters even if your tests don't show them.

Also, make sure your that your lights aren't getting to old. As lights get older they produce more red-spectrum light which algae thrives on. If your lights are past 9 months go ahead and replace them. It can't hurt.

And algae needs light to thrive. If you can turn off the lights for extended periods like 2-3 days, it will definitely help curtail the algae growth.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Also, I don't have any fish only corals and inverts, but I believe that tangs, rabbitfish, and maybe surgeonfish (not sure about that one) eat hair algae.

 

[lcstorc]

That doesn't really look like HA to me, but the above advice is good regardless. At least in my tank the HA gets a lot longer and flows with the current. This seems shorter and like a mat. If so, I have something similar in red that I have never posted for ID.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

That doesn't really look like HA to me, but the above advice is good regardless. At least in my tank the HA gets a lot longer and flows with the current. This seems shorter and like a mat. If so, I have something similar in red that I have never posted for ID.

Then what is it? *scratches head* My brother-in-law had some in his tank, and I just assumed it was hair algae I turned out his lights for a few days, did some big water changes, and made sure to clean up any debris I saw. That took care of his algae problem. Sadly, my brother-in-law doesn't take care of his tank the way he should. I end up doing more work on it then he does *sigh*

 

[Cloudburst2000]

Actually, I think it might be turf algae. Just saw of pic of the stuff and it grows in mats like that. You can look at the section on reefcleaners.org for nuisance algae. They have a pic of turf algae there as well as ways to combat it.

 

[johnmaloney]

looks like chaetomorpha area. most of the chaetomorpha species look like this, they just aren't prevelant in the hobby. Then again, if the turf is forming like that, it probably isn't, probably a derebesia species. (spelling might be off). Can you give us a shot of the under side of the algae to see the rhyzoid structure?