# Need ID on an Unknown Algae & How to Get Rid of It!



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Hey Everyone,

Haven't been on here, busy with school.

Below are some pictures of this algae thing that has taken over all my rocks for the second time.

My first approach to this was spraying H2O2 on all the rocks a month or two back, which I did with great success. However, it took over the entire tank for a second time which I am now fed up with and need a proper approach to ridding my tank of this pest 

I also don't know what it is cause I wasn't able to find a single picture that matched this thing, it has like a stem on it which is why I had a hard time figuring what the heck it is.

Any help is appreciated, I realllllyy would like to move forward with this tank but with this pest in my way I don't think I can.

Also, some details about my tank.

Been running since I think January/Febuary. I'm running GFO & Carbon, in addition to a 18W UV. It is a 20 Gallon long tank with LEDs running on a schedule ramping up in intensity from morning to night.

I feed very little, so could probably rule that out.

Livestock:

- 2 Clownfish
- 7 corals (zoas, 1 brain, zoas, digi fire, purple monti cap)

All the livestock are doing very well I would say, my corals have grown despite this algae thing. Lots of polyp growth.




























Any help would be greatly appreciated!,
Vinoy


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## wchen9 (Jan 23, 2014)

This might be a long shot, but I've got some bacterial growth from overdosing coral vitalizer that looks kind of like that. Some of my larger bacterial slime/strands do look like they have stems. CV smells like vinegar so I bet overdosing with vodka/vinegar could have similar results.


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## MPreston (Nov 11, 2013)

*Bacterial flock*

What you have there is a bacterial flock.

It is caused by either:
Dosing too much NOPOX 
Too much carbon/ too much GFO

I cant speak for the UV sterilizer **

I had it in my tank (not as bad) but it came from me over dosing NOPOX to try and get the nitrates in check.

It is produced when the water is too clean.
I can imagine when you noticed it, you added more carbon/ GFO thinking it would help??? It probably made it worse.

It is treatable- do I know a quick solution, no but if you cut back on the carbon/ GFO and if you are dosing NOPOX cut down and eliminate it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2103540

Hope it helps.

Cheers MIke


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

MPreston said:


> What you have there is a bacterial flock.
> 
> It is caused by either:
> Dosing too much NOPOX
> ...


I've been following this thread out of curiosity 
Looks like an ugly situation but I wanted to thank you for your posting 
Makes sense ! 
I do dose with NoPo-X but I have never had an outbreak like this 
Thanks again for the information and suggestions


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## MPreston (Nov 11, 2013)

I should mention. 

Nopox is a great tool in exporting waste.
When I said cut down, eliminate, I should have mentioned "cut down and eliminate until the flock goes away... then nopox it up baby lol
It took about a week for the flock to dissappear ; keeping in mind I only had a few strains on the heater and powerheads. That outbreak might take a little bit of time to correct.

Cheers mike


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

MPreston said:


> I should mention.
> 
> Nopox is a great tool in exporting waste.
> When I said cut down, eliminate, I should have mentioned "cut down and eliminate until the flock goes away... then nopox it up baby lol
> ...


Good info Mike 
Thanks again 
Sam


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## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Thank for the reply Mike!

Although feeding more and removing my GFO and carbon dramatically reduced the bacteria thing.

It still is there. I brushed it off my rocks but it keeps coming back.

If more people could chime in that would be great!

Pics:


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## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Bump, need help!


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## Octavian (Sep 30, 2009)

I use a sea hare to eat stuff like that. However your tank might be too small as they are voracious eaters. I move mine from the 50g to the 40g tank so it never runs out of food. Maybe try to find a small one or borrow one from someone.


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## sLAsh (Apr 14, 2015)

Another option might be stomatella snails.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/SwSnails/Stomatella.php
Mine are eating machines. I have only ever seen two in my tank but each one can easily clear ten times the area covered by an astrea in the same time


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

sLAsh said:


> Another option might be stomatella snails.
> http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/SwSnails/Stomatella.php
> Mine are eating machines. I have only ever seen two in my tank but each one can easily clear ten times the area covered by an astrea in the same time


They breed like crazy, I have a over a thousand in my 20 gallon. The will not touch any large algae, but work very well on the glass and on sticky algaes.

It cannot be as bacterial bloom/bacteria problem unless his UV bulb has blown. An 18w UV filter is appropriate for a ~600 gallon pond and would wipe out a bacterial bloom in a tank that size in a matter of minutes.

I think it is difficult to ID because of the white balance of the pictures, it make it very hard to see the texture of the algae. In a few photos I can clearly see sticks of Bryopsis, but for the most part it looks like a white hair algae. At the same time, hair algae shouldn't manifest like that especially while running GFO.


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## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks for the replies guys,

But I'm still looking for a solid ID of what this is. So I can do some research on my own.

Here are some DSLR pics of the thing.



















If anyone could tell me what the algae below is that would be great too! THis one is different and I can only find it on my frags.


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

The last picture is hair algae. Try snapping a few of the other algae under different lighting conditions/white balance. Also, post links to the full-size pictures. It is very difficult to figure out what it is.


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