Help, some type of vegetation taking over!

[CMOS]

Howdy All,

I'm having some serious issues with some type of vegetation that I think came in on a Green Star Polyp rock that I bought a while back. See pic below. This does not seem to be hairy algae, but rather some type of vegetation that has many small runners and has "leaves" that look fern like and is slowly spreading across the reef. At its current growth rate the whole damn tank will be covered in a couple months.

What can I do???????? Why is this spreading so quickly???


CMOS

www.thetexaswineguy.com/ReefGrowth.jpg

 

[Waddi]

Cant see the image bud.

 

[wontonflip]

Hrm...can't pull it off? Are you sure it's not just thick hair algae? I had a clump of hair algae that was so healthy it was thick.

 

[CMOS]

Take a look at the back glass just above the rock - you'll see runners going up the glass. There may be a little hair algae but most of it is this other type.

Darn stuff is growing from one rock to another.

???

Waddi - image link works for me.

CMOS

 

[Waddi]

Weird, kinda looks like a mix between HA and Grape cauperla almost, but I have no clue. The runners look like Grape, and the clumps kinda like GHA, but dont take my word for it. I have no idea what it is

 

[ErinCahir]

It looks like hair algae to me... but the "runners" are confusing me.

Does it look like what Smitty is dealing with?

https://www.livingreefs.com/smittys-reef-t22316p109.html

 

[CMOS]

It looks like hair algae to me... but the "runners" are confusing me.

Does it look like what Smitty is dealing with?

https://www.livingreefs.com/smittys-reef-t22316p109.html

My problem looks different.

CMOS

 

[little_fish]

Either way, its a problem of nutrient export. For some reason, your tank has high levels of nutrients that is feeding the algae growth. These commonly come from using tap water, feeding too much, having too many fish, not doing enough water changes, old bulbs, the list goes on.

 

[CMOS]

Either way, its a problem of nutrient export. For some reason, your tank has high levels of nutrients that is feeding the algae growth. These commonly come from using tap water, feeding too much, having too many fish, not doing enough water changes, old bulbs, the list goes on.

That's quite a list. I do admit that I have been behind on water changes. I'm ahead of schedule now, and will continue to accelerate these WC's for the near future.

My water is from a 5-stage RO-DI system so I'm good there. If I keep the phospahtes down with more WC's, will the vegetation decrease?

How does old bulbs effect this?

What can I do at this point?

CMOS

 

[little_fish]

Change your bulbs. The wavelength put out by bulbs changes over time, and old bulbs put out more of the red spectrum, which is more conducive to algae growth.

I would keep up with the water changes and remove everything that you can by hand when you do watechanges, and if your bulbs are old, switch 'em.

 

[ridered450R]

I agree with Little_Fish. Algae for sure. She has a good list of things to consider. I would say work on all of them as you can.

 

[sen5241b]

Test for nitrates and phosphates. Are they high?

 

[CMOS]

Test for nitrates and phosphates. Are they high?

Nitrates were at 0. Phos was a little high at about .10 (or as close as I can guess with my test kit).


CMOS

 

[yote]

You'll need to start removing as much of the algae as possible by hand to ever get it under control.When algae starts dying back ( when it's nutrients are gone ) it'll release all the nutrients it's stored back into the water,fueling more algae growth.

I don't know the name of that stuff,but it's basically just moss like you'd find in a pond.Takes very little nutrients for it to get started then it just explodes.

 

[CMOS]

You'll need to start removing as much of the algae as possible by hand to ever get it under control.When algae starts dying back ( when it's nutrients are gone ) it'll release all the nutrients it's stored back into the water,fueling more algae growth.

I don't know the name of that stuff,but it's basically just moss like you'd find in a pond.Takes very little nutrients for it to get started then it just explodes.

Thanks. I'll start to remove and also step up the water changes.

CMOS

 

[CMOS]

What a disaster.

I spent some time today TRYING to remove as much of this stuff as possible, which was pretty much futile as the strands (or runners) are so tiny and thin that they break when I try to get the with my fingers.

I ended up tossing about 15 pounds of live rock that was basically covered. I couldn't really clean the LR as it was too heavily textured. My Green Star Polyp rock was also tossed as it was completely enveloped with this vegetation. :disappoin No way to clean this.

Right now I'm very close to just draining this tank and giving up. It seems to go fine for a while and admittedly I fall behind on water changes a bit, then I assume the nutrients get too high and I have all kings of algae issues. What frustrates me is that others I know don't do WC's as often as I do and they don't seem to have the problems I keep experiencing.

One more shot, then I'm calling it quits......

CMOS

 

[Washburn82]

When should bulbs be replaced? Also when you buy a new fixture are the bulbs in the fixture considered brand new?

 

[yote]

What a disaster.

I spent some time today TRYING to remove as much of this stuff as possible, which was pretty much futile as the strands (or runners) are so tiny and thin that they break when I try to get the with my fingers.

I ended up tossing about 15 pounds of live rock that was basically covered. I couldn't really clean the LR as it was too heavily textured. My Green Star Polyp rock was also tossed as it was completely enveloped with this vegetation. :disappoin No way to clean this.

Right now I'm very close to just draining this tank and giving up. It seems to go fine for a while and admittedly I fall behind on water changes a bit, then I assume the nutrients get too high and I have all kings of algae issues. What frustrates me is that others I know don't do WC's as often as I do and they don't seem to have the problems I keep experiencing.

One more shot, then I'm calling it quits......

CMOS

You could have scrubbed that crap off your rock using a tooth brush and a bucket of saltwater.I know it's a pain in the ass because I've been there before.But whats done is done.
Don't let it kick you down.Get back up and fight it head on like a mad man and don't let the algae win.

 

[yote]

When should bulbs be replaced? Also when you buy a new fixture are the bulbs in the fixture considered brand new?

Depends on the type of bulbs. And you wouldn't really expect em to ship a new fixture with old bulbs in it would you?

 

[CMOS]

You could have scrubbed that crap off your rock using a tooth brush and a bucket of saltwater.I know it's a pain in the ass because I've been there before.But whats done is done.
Don't let it kick you down.Get back up and fight it head on like a mad man and don't let the algae win.

Yote,

I just did a test: tested the water right out of my mixing barrel (50 gal Rubbermaid Brute food grade) to see how it stacks up before it ever gets into the tank. Based on the API color chart for Phospahtes, it looks exactly like the same color as what my tank tested. This doesn't make sense.

I'm using a Filterguys 5-stage RO/DI system with TDS meter, so I should have darn good water.

1) Can you guys recommend a good Phospahtes test kit with better resolution than the API I have?

2) How are these phosphates getting into my tank if I'm using a RO/DO water, have a small refugium, have a protein shimmer 2X the required size, and have only 2 fish???

Thoughts?

CMOS