Hair Algae or Bryopsis?

[MrCote]

So Ive been battling what I was pretty sure was hair algae for the past 5 or 6 months. Ive done everything I can think of to get rid of it naturally (eliminating sources of nutrients) and there is nothing left I can think of that is putting the nutrients into my tank to feed the algae growth. So about 3 weeks ago I bought a sea hare because everyone says sea hares mow down hair algae. It cleaned one rock and that was it. it crawls over the rocks passing over the algae all day and doesnt touch it. So bryopsis ive been told is a possibiility but what I have looks nothing like what bryopsis looks like on google images. Ill snap a picture of my algae infested rocks and post it up on here.

So if anyone could give me some input on whether they think it is hair algae or if its bryopsis or maybe even something else I would greatly appreciate and maybe a few pointers on how to get rid of it. At this point ill do anything.

thanks

 

[delta]

does each strand look like blades of grass or are they feather like

 

[Paphagar]

I've seen a few posts that have said that if the hair algae is long a lot of cuc will pass right over it. If they're big tufts try manually removing it down to a smaller piece and maybe they'll take it out then

 

[MrCote]

 

[MrCote]

 

[MrCote]

the whole left side of my tank I took apart and scrubbed in buckets of saltwater with brushes until all the rocks were clean and the algae has started to grow back already. This was about 3 or 4 weeks ago. The right side I have not touched except for occasionally pulling out clumps by hand which im tired of doing.

And The right side of my tank was covered in cyano also but all that one day just completely dissappeared about 2 weeks ago. it was growing all over my rocks then the next day every last bit of it had dissappeared which was weird.

A couple days ago I cleaned my sump very good and put my skimmer in a bucket of vinegar water to clean it like new.

 

[delta]

From the picture it doesn't appear to byropsis looks like typical hair algae, but without a close up it is still hard to be sure.

Everything you are doing is moving in the right direction as the Cyano croaked. Hair algae traps everything and feeds on it, so it can linger for some time.

 

[Paphagar]

I wouldn't think anything short of a fish would take on that right side, manual removal like you did on the left seems to have done a lot of good.

heres something i found real quick.
http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?43610-Before-and-after-Bryopsis-hair-algae
not sure if it helps

Just noticed he said switched to ro/di water, if you don't currently use ro/di make the switch!

 

[MrCote]

I use RODI and I have a sump with a refugium growing cheato. I have an awesome protein skimmer and all my food is rinsed in RODI water and frozen with RODI water. Sunlight does not hit my tank and I do water changes as I am supposed to

 

[delta]

Like I stated before it looks as if you are moving in the right direction. If you had issues it takes time to revert those so nothing happens overnight.

Many of these issue will seem like they will never go away, even though you are doing everything you should, and then all of a sudden poof they are gone, just like the Cyano.

 

[Paphagar]

^ , It's like watching coral grow.....

 

[afboundguy]

Like I stated before it looks as if you are moving in the right direction. If you had issues it takes time to revert those so nothing happens overnight.

Many of these issue will seem like they will never go away, even though you are doing everything you should, and then all of a sudden poof they are gone, just like the Cyano.

Greg hit it right on the head it takes time... If you really are motivated you could remove the rock one at a time and try to manually remove some of it in a bucket of tank water when you're doing a water change...

^ , It's like watching coral grow.....

Now that's funny I don't care who you are

 

[MrCote]

i wish my coral grew as fast as my hair algae!
haha

But yea I have tried removing the rocks one by one and scrubbing them. thats what i did to the left side of my tank. My water today looks cleaner than it normally does though. its crystal clear (the algae is still there of course) but hopefully this clean water leads to the death of my problem

 

[delta]

Patience it will come other than the HA tank looks good

You would be surprised how fast corals can grow once the colony get big in a healthy tank

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