Long stringy algae, including on Euphyllia

[BrunoL]

Hey all,

I came home this evening to find some long stringy algae on my Euphyllia. I found some of it yesterday as well, but then it was just on the rocks. Yesterday I hoovered what I could reach out of the tank but there's clearly some stuff left in there.

So my question is, what is this, and what eats it or how do I battle it?

More annoyingly (I think ...) is that I noticed some algae with bubbles trapped in it, very small and exclusively on the rock work. Any idea what this is?

Water parameters:

Tank Waterbox 20
Temp 25C
Salinity 1025
dKH 7.5
PO4 0.06
NO2 0
NO3 0 (or at least it's somewhere in the 0 to 5.0 ppm range - using an API test)

I didn't check Ca and Mg, don't think it matters for this? My Nitrates have been low since the tank cycled. I've been adding some more food (mysis) but it's not had an impact. That said, considering there's a bunch of algae I'm assuming there's sufficient NO3, but it is perhaps being consumed by the algae? I also have a decent sized bag of Seachem Matrix I use for filtration, along with a bag of Purigen and a bag of Seagel (Carbon & GFO).

Fish and corals are otherwise looking great, except the Euphyllia, he looked annoyed and was retracted & deflated but is opening up again now.

Thanks!

 

[KrisReef]

Those could be slime nets from Vermited snails? Inspect the coral for the snails tube, scrape it completely off and kill the snail.

 

[BrunoL]

I couldn't find any, I do have some shorter stringy ones on the rocks as well and they're definitely green. Pretty sure it's some sort of algae. They easily detach, I sucked out the longer ones and the rest came up when I swooshed the coral a bit.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Possibly dinos given your parameters... How old is your tank?

 

[BrunoL]

Possibly dinos given your parameters... How old is your tank?

Little over 2 months now.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Ok, so you're still going through the uglies. Can you post a better pic of the rocks under white lights? It's likely you just need to be patient, continue with a good maintenance and water change schedule and let the tank mature.

 

[BrunoL]

Sure thing, here's the rock under white light.

Here's a top view

Still not the best but my phone struggles doing better.

 

[reef’r]

How’s this going for you? We have the exact same thing going on. And my tank is also only about 2 months old, this stuff if on the substrate and really likes covering up my Zoas. I posted a pic of it under a microscope and the consensus was Dino’s

 

[BrunoL]

I was hoovering them up / sucking out the long ones daily, and got some more snails and 2 hermits. The CUC seems to have it under control now. I also got a conch and he's really been plowing the substrate. I'm currently out of town until Saturday, I'll see what state I recover the tank in ... Will keep you posted!

 

[BrunoL]

Little update now that I got back and had time to look at it all. The tank did pretty well despite my week long absence. One of the clowns looks a little skinny but the algae are under control. I did have 1 empty Astrae shell ... Not sure what happened to that one but the others seems ok. I had to do a 10min hoover round but that was it.

My methodology was basically no water changes to avoid new nutrients. I paused dosing for a week as well (I dose All for Reef). Every evening I sucked out the algae using a tiny hose (CO2 hose / dosing hose kind of diameter). I only hoovered the rockwork, I left the sand alone.

I bought some ready to use marine water, in a 10 gallon jug. The jug had a little tap on it so I basically just replenished what I sucked out while hoovering, which I guess was about 1/2 gallon daily.

The sand got taken care of by I guess the strawberry conch and other snails. I have a full list of my CUC in my tank thread.

Tank looks good now and I noticed several new patches of coralline, as well as growth on several of the corals. I also think my Rhodactis is about to split and spawn some babies.

 

[BrunoL]

Just one though, I seem to have a lot less mini bristle stars. I used to see tons of tentacles at lights out, now a lot less. It's also been a while since I spotted the bristle worm. They either buried deep in to the rockwork of maybe the got suffocated by the algae? I'm not sure how algae blooms affect micro- and macrofauna ...

It's either that or the two hermits went to town on them?