Algae identification

[mojo]

I need a little help with aglae identification on this one. I've got it growing in my frag tank, and bits are starting to show up in the DT's. I'm afraid it may be bryopsis or derbesia, but am not an algae expert.

It's a turf algae, about 1cm long, thick turf, reasonably easy to remove, soft to the touch, and unfortunately, fairly quick growing. My tangs don't seem terribly interested in it.

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I'm essentially looking for what my next course of action should be- if it's bryopsis or something equally problematic, I'll go to extremes to get rid of it. If it's something that will pass with time, then I'll ignore it for now, although I think I've had it for a couple months now...

 

[ralph atl]

http://www.job-wiki.org/display.cfm?id=3673">http://www.job-wiki.org/display.cfm?id=3673</a>


[IMG]http://www.sccat.net/#identification-of-species-mistaken-for-caulerpa-f4616">http://www.sccat.net/#identification-of-species-mistaken-for-caulerpa-f4616</a>


[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1113109&perpage=25&pagenumber=1">http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1113109&perpage=25&pagenumber=1</a>

 

[mojo]

It's all soft and kinda hard to grab on to- I've pulled out several tufts, but it's not the easiest thing to remove by hand.

Unfortunately, it's spread a good bit by this point. The good news is that most of it is in my frag tank, but the bad news is that it's on some frag plugs and stuff. I'm probably going to try to remove what I can, and find some way to kill the rest. I might try boosting my Mg that was suggested in Ralph's last link, but I'm still not 100% sure it's bryopsis.

 

[mojo]

Right-o - all of it in my tank is no larger than this. It's exactly as you see in the pictures- I did photoshop the colors, but only to adjust the white balance as you would see them in the tank.

Some of it is actually more of a blue than green, but none of it is the typical greens you see in algaes.

 

[dannybradley]

I'm sorry to say that it probably is Bryopsis plumosa. I've tried many things to eliminate it from a display I care for. I haven't found a good method yet. It may be one of the ones that store more PO4- than it will ever need in its rootings, which are impossible to remove.

One of the hardest things about it is that it is single cellular. If one cell remains, it can return. Keep up with manual removal until one of us finds a safe way to irradicate it.

Anecdotally, however, I remember it vanishing from the overflow of a frag tank I had when I boosted the Mg with a large dose. I'm trying the 2000ppm method on some derbesia as we speak. I'll let you know within two weeks if it is having an effect. If it works on the derbesia, I'll try it on the plumosa.

 

[FutureInterest]

That's bryopsis the dreaded feather algae of doom...

Tangs won't touch it. Some scribbled rabbitfish will, some lettuce nudis will but not all, and snails don't care for it either. There is a way to make it melt away as well... that I'm forgetting. It was magnesium related I believe. Try doing a search on reefcentral but it involves either spiking your mag or lowering it... I believe it was lowering it as the algae has trouble growing with lower magnesium.

g'luck.

 

[glxtrix]

Yup bryopsis....I had it. Raised my Mg over 1500 and it seemed to go away.

 

[mojo]

Oddly enough, my foxface seems to eat it - the algae in original pictures is all gone. The only other fish that would possibly eat it in the DT is a naso tang and a yellow tang, but I haven't seen them go for it like they have culerpera in the past. I've been feeding about every other day to help "encourage" them toward the nuisance algae.

I've since removed as much of the bryopsis as I can manually, and have started raising my Mg to 1600 - I've only got about 2 gallons of MgCl left, so I'll need to order more. Any rocks that I can't remove from the tank I'm rotating to my DT for my foxface to munch on.

Lastly, I've also added a 114w UV sterlizer with about 300gph going to half the system - that was planned anyway, but hopefully it'll keep it isolated.

Thanks for the identification. I'll keep everyone updated.

 

[glxtrix]

Seems like a good start man. The rabbit fish you got from my a while back would munch on it from time to time. But what did it for me was the raise in Mg. I think I had it at 1800. I'd suggest going slow up to that point so in the event any issues happen you can correct it easier....though I never had any issues running my Mg that high. Good luck man.

 

[skriz]

You can take a propane torch and burn it off (it will work under water!).

p.s. don't melt your tank
p.s.s. I am not responsible for any damage to your tank or person.

 

[mojo]

I did some research after Danny listed the species name (and looks like a match - thanks Danny). It seems that the Mg thing works with some species of Bryopsis and not others, but I can't seem to nail down whether it works for plumosa -</em> I don't think it'll hurt to try either way, so up the magnesium goes...

I did some poking around with my flashlight in my tanks (two displays, 140g frag, and shared sump). The vast majority was in my frag tank, and there's small bits showing up in my DT. Unfortunately, I just added all that rock, and some of it is at the bottom of the structure, so I'm not about to rip it out. With the foxface eating it, I'm hoping I can at least keep it under control.


The good news is that I saved a bunch of money by switching my car insurance to Geico...

 

[FutureInterest]

Never heard of a foxface eating bryopsis before but it doesn't surprise as it is a rabbitfish. Good luck and let us know how the mag increase works for you!