Green fern algae

[lordroad]

I have some funny algae that only seems to grow on the glass of my tank. It almost seems like animal life in how it grows... it starts from a tiny white speck, shoots out one little green hair, which then biforcates... the hair becomes fern-like, and then it erupts in a patch of light, almost pretty green, like a house fern, still originating from the base speck.

I tried taking a picture but it wouldn't come up.

I couldn't find it listed here: http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_pages/faq_algae.htm

And I don't see it at any of my LFS's.

It comes away easy enough with an algae scrubber. Cereth and astrea Snails won't touch it.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/greenalgcontfaqs.htm

 

[1979camaro]

sounds like hair algae to me...ive had the short kind before (never got over 1/2" long)...welcome to the wonderful world of marine aquariums where all this stuff is hard to ID

your best bet for getting rid of it is probably crabs or a fish which eats algae...but, depending on how old your tank is it may also go away on its own

 

[wayne]

Bryopsis, a real p,i,t,a,. You'll find not too much eats it. Manual removal, plus better nutrient management to get it under control, and make sure your SG and Kh are up nice and high

 

[1979camaro]

i thought bryopsis grew in large clumps (like tall and big) not little specs?
but wayne definitely knows his stuff

 

[lordroad]

Bryopsis, that's definitely what it is. I looked up some pics. http://www.ne.jp/asahi/marine/algae/Bryopsis.html Damn.

At least so far it's only on the glass and not out of control and is easy to scrape away.

My nitrates are still less than 5. I'm using R/O water so that would make sense if I have a low KH. I'll check today.

Just getting my vocab straight... KH is kH, hardness reader, like freshwater. Already got the test kit if that's the case.

A water change shouldn't hurt, and what's some good nutrient additives to boost up the kH? Eventually I want to keep mushrooms, zoos, and maybe green star polyps, but if my dissolved nutrients are low, I bet that could pose a problem or two...

Edit: Actually, looking through more pics, who knows what this stuff is... but whatever it is, the junk i scrubbed away off the front pane has not multiplied anywhere else in the tank. I'll try a good scrubbing all around and see if that helps.

 

[lordroad]

some pics

Here are two out of focus pics, but they give you some idea what it is...

 

[1979camaro]

yah, based on the second picture that is the stuff i had (i think)

 

[dbacksrat]

welcome to the hair algae party

 

[DustinKeating]

i quite honestly love how this algae looks, it actually looks like a nice little fern. I have one small little peice, and if it was possibly to isolate it to that small peice, i would.