Single Hair Brown Algae?

[Jarad]

I'm sure this has been covered before but I'm struggling to find an accurate answer given what I'm seeing in my tank. So, tank is only 3+ months old, and definitely still stabilizing everything. All my readings check out, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 1-2 nitrate. Dont have a phosphate test yet, so there may be something there. Regardless, I cannot find what this algae is, what eats it (granted i haven't bought anything as I need to know a good answer first), and it seems to be slowly spreading/increasing. Would love some thoughts, and apologies if this is an real easy one. If it helps, they are all singular, and brownish in color, and they lightly appeared right about the time my diatom bloom did (or that's what I assume the brown on the rock is). They dont come off with light suction, so I'm breaking out the toothbrush or cleanup crew accordingly. Thanks!

 

[FutureInterest]

I'm not sure what that is but I'd try a few snails out and see if they mow it down... which I suspect they will.

 

[Jarad]

Thanks Jin. The margarita and bumblebees currently in there want nothing for it. I'll try some other options I guess when I can sneak out to ReefShac or somewhere to grab some other options.

 

[Adam]

You can be sure there's PO4 in there...

Don't go nuts with the Bumblebees. They eat meaty stuff and will eat other snails, not algae. And your tank is small so hunting is easy for them. Get a few Trochus & Nerite snails.

If that's the worst of the ugly phase you're doing good!!!

 

[Jarad]

Good thoughts. I'm sure PO4 is in there, I just cannot check for it, so water changes is my only control on that front. I'll look into this and the new snails post haste. The first batch I think didn't have enough to eat, even though I went really light on the crew, so the two trochus and 1 margarita died off. I'll find a couple additions and take if from there.

 

[Adam]

Margarita's won't last long. They're from deeper water so they like it cooler than we keep out tanks, so they die off.

Online sellers tell you to add the cuc 1st, it's a marketing ploy. If you're not feeding fish there's no waste, so there's nothing for them to eat. Then they die and create the more waste than you would have had to begin with. Before you know it you've got algae and or cyano growing and the things you bought to eat that stuff are dead. So what do you do??? Buy more...

 

[Adam]

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/choosing-cleanup-crew-critters.107/

 

[Jarad]

Agreed. I actually started with only 6 CUC members, and was ghost feeding the whole time in expectation of a strong algal bloom. Figure since I didn't get either, they kicked the bucket waiting on what never happened. I was a big fan of the BRS 160 video making a CUC suggestion, so I was going small anyway. I guess I added to early.

 

[fulleraj]

Recommend you trying out a few astraea snails with your next purchase of CUC members. I personally never had much luck with margarita either.

 

[FutureInterest]

I second on astrea. They seem to have a slower metabolism and seem to do well in my reefs as I rarely have to replace them. Unless they fall over... then they usually die if I don't intervene

 

[Jarad]

Comcially, that's why I've been avoiding astreas... I'm still not sure how evolution works when critters like this somehow manage to make it through. Survival of those that dont "help I've fallen and I can't get up" seems the way that moniker goes.

 

[FutureInterest]

LOL. Yes I've often wondered the same thing... how can a creature that can fail so utterly at uprighting itself make it through the rigors of natural selection... yet somehow it persists. Hearsay, but I was told that it is very uncommon for this to happen in the wild. Personally, I think it has to do with sand... In my bare bottom tanks I've never seen one not able to upright itself. In my tanks with sand they seem unable to gain enough traction to flip over... just speculation but I think that's the issue

 

[Jarad]

Alright, well if the new crew doesn't cut the grass, I'll grab some of them as well. For now we are trying a mix of trochus, nerites, and ceriths. I also grabbed a single turbo snail to see if it has the appetite for this stuff. We'll see which is mowing the grass.

 

[Jarad]

Fun update here. Finally, after many a cleanup crew looked at it, something finally ate it. I've been through quite a bit searching, but finally an urchin purchase has done the job. Together with a couple of crabs that seem to partially munch on it, I've nuked over 75% of the issue. This really exploded quite a bit as I was unable to find the source of it, or a mouth to eat it. However, that seemed to do the trick. Not sure if I'll keep the urchin around if it runs out of food, but a happy addition for now!

 

[Mom2Many]

Looks great! Glad you found something that worked for you! After my tanks mature, I always keep a small pincushin urchin in all my tanks. They do a great job at keeping the rockwork clean and are not to distructive. They do love coraline algea though. Blessings and Happy Reefing!

 

[jcook54]

Congrats! I now how frustrating things like that can be. It's really, really common in new tanks but that doesn't make it any less annoying. What kind of urchin did you end up getting?