Algae ID

[mrhasan]

So my tank was pretty clean with nitrates around 5ppm with corals thriving and being colourful and all. Decided to try aquaforest amino acid and vitamins and 1 drop of amino and BAM algae all over the rocks. I have stopped using it (along with the vitamin) and seems like it is not helping too much since the algae is already there. For the life of me, I cannot figure out whether it is some form of hair algae or dino. It is brown and it is hairy, stringy and forms bubbles only after water change but it is not as long as all the pics I am seeing online for dinos. And it does not appear to be "colonial" and using turkey baster doesn't seem to blow it off the rock. Here's some pics:













Any idea what is going on here? Thanks in advance

[Myka]

Hey this looks very much like the growth I was getting in my tank. I can't remember why it started (I'm not near my note book right now). At first I thought it was a bacteria bloom and dosing Coral Snow helped a little bit. I tried all sorts of things. My tank was 0/0 for N/P. I added a Tuxedo Urchin and it went to town on it. The Urchin completely eradicated it within a few weeks. I just removed the Urchin yesterday, and I'm hoping to plague doesn't come back.

[rsisvixen]

From what I've read-the bubbles are usually indicative of cyno.
Cyno has a couple of diff varieties ranging from the purple gel like stuff to a hairy brown/green variety.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Myka

Hey this looks very much like the growth I was getting in my tank. I can't remember why it started (I'm not near my note book right now). At first I thought it was a bacteria bloom and dosing Coral Snow helped a little bit. I tried all sorts of things. My tank was 0/0 for N/P. I added a Tuxedo Urchin and it went to town on it. The Urchin completely eradicated it within a few weeks. I just removed the Urchin yesterday, and I'm hoping to plague doesn't come back.

Thanks Mindy. I will get a tuxedo urchin to deal with it. I remember similar stuff popping up while I started the tank and turbos took care of it but the algae just got replaced by poops so they had to go.

Originally Posted by rsisvixen

From what I've read-the bubbles are usually indicative of cyno.
Cyno has a couple of diff varieties ranging from the purple gel like stuff to a hairy brown/green variety.

Thanks for your input and you are right, cyano has several different forms. But bubbles can be indication of anything that photosynthesizes: cyano, dino, hair algae, etc. Don't really know the science behind why corals don't form bubbles. And it is not colonial and is attached to the rocks so pretty sure it is not a cyano. But I might be wrong.