Weed or algae?

[Taklu]

I have this little plant that came with the live rock & now is taking over my tank....Im not sure what it is & how to get rid of it...all of it has grown in the last one month since the tank was setup.

All water params are good or atleast I think so using the test kits I have...mostly saliferts

http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff113/Chalu420/?action=view&current=DSC_0278.jpg

The last picture is different & looks like a hair algae. but it is limited to only that peice of rock..at least for the time being. :mad_3:

[Dragon Eye]

the last photo is hair algae

I can't quite tell from the first two photos- but are those tiny green bubbles?

If so Bubble Algae is way bad!

[David Grigor]

They have photobucket blocked here at work so I can't see the pictures.

However, I will say when in doubt take it out. If it is only on one piece of rock now is the chance to try to get rid of it before it spreads.

[Dragon Eye]

the first two photos look like it has quite taken over the rock (since you can't see) and the hair algae is only a small clump that can be farmed (cut out).

[David Grigor]

If bubble, you can have really good water quality and can still take over. They don't need lots of nutrients. If limited to the one rock, I'd take the rock out completely.

[Dragon Eye]

Check here and see if any of the photos match:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

[Taklu]

the last photo is hair algae

I can't quite tell from the first two photos- but are those tiny green bubbles?

If so Bubble Algae is way bad!

Its not bubble algae for sure. I will try to get a better picture...but my camera wont allow any closer shots.

[morty]

The first two do look like bubble algae at first glance, but are they actually hairy little tufts instead of glassy spheres? If yes then it may be some sort of bryopsis, not good either.

[Taklu]

didnt work

[kvmn]

second picture is hair algae and zoa,,,
first picture i don't know but for sure its not a bubble algae,,,

[coralreefer]

I agree with david. If it is taking over and you are losing the battle it may be best to take it out. You can always dry out that rock and reuse it. Really doesn't look like valonia sp. to me.

[Taklu]

Its definitely not bubble algae. Its mix & miniature version of the following freshwater plants. really a finer miniature of the cabomba plant.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=2546
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=796

[Taklu]

alright pics from another viewpoint...these look a lot better than I thought...hope someone can identify these

Ok I uploaded them using the VBimagehost.. so its there..or

http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff113/Chalu420/?action=view&current=DSC_0281_copy.jpg

P.S. how do I get images to display ' in the post here?

[hypertech]

I don't know what that stuff is, but if its only on one rock now, take it out and throw it away.

[Taklu]

I don't know what that stuff is, but if its only on one rock now, take it out and throw it away.

Thats actually two BIG rocks...if I took them out I would be down about 55% of my LR & some good ones at that.....I would prefer to try something before taking them.

[hypertech]

Take it out, blow torch, put it back.

I don't know man, but that stuff looks like the beginning of a nightmare to me.

[Tifosi]

Did you look on http://www.algaebase.org?

It's not a great search engine but if you really wanted it identified they should have it.

[Taklu]

Did you look on http://www.algaebase.org?

It's not a great search engine but if you really wanted it identified they should have it.


I still need a starting point ...whether its good/bad... if its a macro algae. FWIW it may be any other plant...so could possibly be controlled...at the moment I just wanna ID it.
The plan is to tommorow take the rock out give it all a good scrub & place it right back. hopefully by then I would know what I am dealing with.

[David Grigor]

It's not in the sprung book for a positive id.

I have seen it before come in on some corals.

Get it out before it spreads to other rocks..............Trying to find fish to eat it will be hit or miss and in the meantime will get nothing but worse.

Can always try scrubbing, scraping off outside the tank the best you can at first but if it comes back then going to need to replace the rock and nuke it.

[Taklu]

Can always try scrubbing, scraping off outside the tank the best you can at first but if it comes back then going to need to replace the rock and nuke it.

Thats my next step. while I am at it, would a fresh water clean up or something be any good? or let me know what you have done in such situations considering it has to go back to some good corals & three tiny fish!

[David Grigor]

Fresh water is going to kill the life on it. If you going to go that far might as well nuke it with a muratic acid bath. Of course will need to be totally reseeding again, all coraline etc. will be gone.

[spsick]

it's just macro. Take the rock out and scrub it in a bucket. I can't sa y i've seen that particular kind, but you can see the "root" structure. You just have to stay ahead of it and it won't give you any trouble.

[Otolith]

I've never seen algae like that. I don't think I'd be as nonchalant as spsick up there over it. I have some LR (currently cooking) you could "borrow" while you get this rock out of your tank and get rid of this algae. Just scrape off the zoas first, and give me the rock back when you're done. How's that sound?

[Taklu]

I've never seen algae like that. I don't think I'd be as nonchalant as spsick up there over it. I have some LR (currently cooking) you could "borrow" while you get this rock out of your tank and get rid of this algae. Just scrape off the zoas first, and give me the rock back when you're done. How's that sound?

Thanks for the offer... I will try cleaning it up once & if doesnt work out I will take all ur rock ;) & let mine cook for a while,,....I hope u set up ur tank by then & I get some cool frags!! :biggthumpup:

[Otolith]

Thanks for the offer... I will try cleaning it up once & if doesnt work out I will take all ur rock ;) & let mine cook for a while,,....I hope u set up ur tank by then & I get some cool frags!! :biggthumpup:

Don't get your hopes up that much. :jester:

[Taklu]

Update time. I didnt get the time to get the rocks out & scrub them up... however I got a lawnmower blenny. Its gone to town picking (& eating?) on that algae. theres patch of the plant missing & there are always tiny shreds of the plant floating around (this is not good)

FWIW. anyway Im going to make sometime today & clean some of it out.

[Ocean Devotion]

you could take a piece out and see your lfs and get an opinion, the u of m putz's with stuff but it may be hard to get to the source before its to late, also this particular fish has been known to eat some strange stuff but it has to be the fish(Ctenochaetus striatus) not a fake!

Happy Scrubbing

[Chad Vossen]

to bad that algae isnt purple or blue, then EVERYone would be asking for a frag. and you would be rich..

id take it out and fix it now before it takes over more rocks.

[Taklu]

it's just macro. Take the rock out and scrub it in a bucket. I can't sa y i've seen that particular kind, but you can see the "root" structure. You just have to stay ahead of it and it won't give you any trouble.

:agree: Took the rock out today & its has an amazing weblike root structure... was tough cleaning it & im sure it will come back. took the worst affected rock out & consigned it to the darkest spot in the sump.

will post pic soon...but it aint so close (need a macro lens for a Nikon D50...anybody?)

[Taklu]

to bad that algae isnt purple or blue, then EVERYone would be asking for a frag. and you would be rich..

id take it out and fix it now before it takes over more rocks.

Researching how I can get the color to change from green to purple... do you think N-P-K suplements would work?

Wanna be rich..then I wont be looking for coupons & deals :biggthumpup:

[capman]

:agree: Took the rock out today & its has an amazing weblike root structure... was tough cleaning it & im sure it will come back. took the worst affected rock out & consigned it to the darkest spot in the sump.

will post pic soon...but it aint so close (need a macro lens for a Nikon D50...anybody?)

You know, my very first thought when I saw your initial photos was that this was probably Caulerpa verticillata, or some other similar Caulerpa species, but your photos were not close enough or sharp enough to really tell. But your comment about there being a web-like structure (I'm guessing this is maybe a tangle of stolons) makes me think I might have been correct.

If you have a green alga that grows from obvious stolons (runner-like, stem-like structures), with blades (leaf-like structures, which take on a wide range of shapes in the various species) arising from the stolons at intervals, and holdfasts at intervals below anchoring the stolons to the substrate, you almost certainly have some species of Caulerpa.

Caulerpa verticillata is very pretty, and, as I understand it, quite tiny compared to most other Caulerpa species (I had some once, and, reluctantly, got rid of it all before it spread at all because it looked like it had potential to become a difficult to control pest). Caulerpa species with really thin, delicate stolons can be awfully hard to control unless you have something that eats it. My guess would be that a tang might eat it (I don't recall whether you tank is big enough for a tang though), and a rabbit fish almost certainly would, but if your blennny is eating it, then maybe you'll have your problem solved? A herbivorous urchin (i.e. NOT a pencil urchin - those are predators) would almost certainly eat it as well.

I have a really problematic Caulerpa that is a persistent thorn in my side in my anemone tank (which was set up to also be a refugium of sorts for cool marine algae....e.g. nice red algae, Halimeda, etc.) This darn Caulerpa looks like a really small, delicate version of C. prolifera. I think what I have is probably C. brachypus. Larger Caulerpa species can be manually removed reasonably successfully, and kept in check by regular pruning, but this C. brachypus has such thin stolons that it is a terrible problem to remove, and it continuously bounces back rapidly to plague proportions. I wish I had never gotten it into my tank!

[Taklu]

Researching how I can get the color to change from green to purple... do you think N-P-K suplements would work?

Wanna be rich..then I wont be looking for coupons & deals :biggthumpup:


Midnight shopping at albertville was awesome...after spending hour & a half in a 3 mile traffic jam & another 30 minutes finiding parking...but the deals were cool! nothing related to reef tho ;)

[Taklu]

That makes it three of you who say its a macro algae & two who say its a Caulerpa. I met Jud@caribsea to pick up some live rock & he thought its caulerpa.
I think you have the ID nailed looks like C. verticillata

If you have a green alga that grows from obvious stolons (runner-like, stem-like structures), with blades (leaf-like structures, which take on a wide range of shapes in the various species) arising from the stolons at intervals, and holdfasts at intervals below anchoring the stolons to the substrate, you almost certainly have some species of Caulerpa.

Thats a perfect description. to be sure I googled "stolon" to look at some pics & the term is the best description. I have a few with the same growth behaviour in my FW, but 1. Im new to SW & 2. I have not dealt with anything as porous as live rock before. The roots simply wont let go or get cut even when using a steel brush...I used my nails to pull some off & they had an amazing grip...I could lift a 3+ inch size rock by the roots :cool:

Caulerpa verticillata is very pretty, and, as I understand it, quite tiny compared to most other Caulerpa species.

Indeed very nice to look at, it sways a lot in the current & my Father in law asked about the missing coral :nuts: after I took the most infested rock out.

My guess would be that a tang might eat it (I don't recall whether you tank is big enough for a tang though), and a rabbit fish almost certainly would, but if your blennny is eating it, then maybe you'll have your problem solved? A herbivorous urchin (i.e. NOT a pencil urchin - those are predators) would almost certainly eat it as well.

Its a ~50 gallon tank (30Lx22Bx18H). currently I very few fish in the tank & was hoping to not keep many more...now it looks like a herb predator is necessary & would have been even if I didnt have this issue. Im wondering if the tank dims are sufficient for any tang (was thinking of a yellow tang). The blenny is picking at the algae but ist also spreading shreds around...

[capman]

Caulerpa is a type of macro algae.

The fact that you can lift a rock by the "roots" (I put that in quotes because algae don't have roots) makes me wonder whether this actually is a Caulerpa. I've never encountered a Caulerpa that was all that tough physically (of course, a 3" rock is not that heavy, and if there is a big wad of Caulerpa on there I suppose the collective strength would be plenty strong enough). But if it has rapidly growing horizontal stolons then it almost certainly is some species of Caulerpa. Offhand, I can't think of any other group of green algae that have that growth form.

[Taklu]

Some links that show better pics of the algae. Im by no means a marine biologist/botanist but the pics are very close to what I have on my rock. The "root" is probably my ignorance. And now Im trying to identify a good predator for this; besides myself.

http://www.meerwasser-lexikon.de/de/47/1153/Caulerpa/verticillata%20.htm
http://www.uog.edu/classes/botany/474/chloro/caulerpa.html (scroll down the page for images I can relate to more, esp the one with a light blue background & the one right after; only mine is thicker)


while searching for the images I found a note from a research done in florida. Nitrogen maybe a key for the 'invasion' & looks like my test kits dont show everything. Any suggestions?