Green Clumpy Algae in balls, what eats it?
 

So I have this green algae that grows in ball form that have a thick matted structure. This is not hair algae. Turbo snails don't touch it, I have a sea hare in the tank and he doesn't touch it. I can pull off some of the algae but can never full get it off the rocks hence why the picture looks so bad.

I understand nutrient control is always said but am looking for some help from something in addition to help get rid of this algae after I pull as much as I can out.

Maybe an urchin or foxface lo?

I can't tell from the picture, but your description sounds a lot like common bubble algae (valonia sp). IME, nothing eats it. Emerald crabs might pick at it some, but they are hit or miss. Your best option is manual removal. What I do is tie a filter sock around a long piece of vinyl tubing, too the sock/tubing in the sump, and then start a siphon in the tube. Use the end of the tubing to scrape it off as best you can. If the rocks can be removed, scraping it off outside the tank is even better because afterwards, you can pour hydrogen peroxide on the affected areas to kill off the remaining spores. It will take sever attempts to get it, and in the meantime, determine the source of nutrients and reduce them so you are not just feeding the growth of more.

hth

chemistry pure plus lees feeding

Holy crap...
No HOLY CRAP...
That is not bubble algae.. not sure if billdog just didn't have his glasses on or was on a phone or just didn't grasp that every surface of all your rocks are covered with clumps of basically hair algae..

Do not waste your time attempting to find an eater of it unless you just want to wait your whole life for that problem to go away..

You really need to get your nutrient issues under control then I agree that a 50% tank water/50% hydrogen peroxide dip of the rocks in maybe 4 batches about a week or 2 apart for each group is the best direction.. (so do 1/4th of the rock at a time to avoid killing off all the beneficial bacteria)

Let the rocks sit in the solution for about 15 minutes as you aggressively scrub with a nylon bristle brush to dislodge it..
The peroxide will kill it all and the scrubbing will get most if not all of it off the rocks..

And you really need to get your nutrient issues under control and learn how to properly maintain them or its going to happen again... you royally messed up and must have just totally overfed and under maintained or something..

Thats about the worst I've seen

Couldn't really tell on my phone!


^^^And what he said^^^!!!

:rollface:

Most likely your tap water ,you need an ro system ..your phosphate levels must be off the charts


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I pulled it off. I run an RO/DI unit, not my first rodeo...question was more about if anyone was familiar with this type of algae. I've never seen hair algae grow in thick mat ball forms.

Curious when last have you done a water change?

I've seen that algea before.. my very first salty tank..30 gallon hexigon.. I used silica sand .. Maybe 10 lbs of live rock.. a few fish and inverts..and no idea what I was doing lol

Anyway.. an algea formed on my sand bed.. really thick and short strands... it looked and reminded me of a gold corse green.. it was like a later of 3/8inch tall really thick grass across the bottom... no idea what it is.. I went to a bigger tank a few months later

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Golf course green
Damn autocorrect

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Sounds like "Turf Algae"..

I would do a large water change asap. Doesn't look like you have any coral in there, so a blackout for a few days may help a bit. Manually pull off as much as possible while doing weekly LARGE water changes. You may need to do this for a month or two due to the damage already done. Your rock is either leaching phosphate, you are overfeeding, or you don't do proper maintenance and detritus build up caused severe nitrate issues.

This won't just go away. It needs to be solved via the right methods. No specimen will eat that. It is going to be on you to take care of it.

Turn your lights off, reduce phosphate chemically or GFO, rip off what you can, all green wants light and phosphate to grow, take away its food!

I just ripped it off the rocks..came off like a giant carpet. Sprayed some hydrogen peroxide on it and put it back in the tank. It's pretty much gone

Yea I think your best best is just some serious manual removal. Can you pull your rocks out? If so, dip them all in peroxide. Don't bother dosing peroxide in the tank, it doesn't do enough. Rip all that you can off, dip the rock in peroxide and put it back. Then run some heavy carbon and GFO if you can, the die off will be some serious nutrient release.

I always try to start less invasive and work my way up. I agree with Mcgyvr looking for a grazer that takes care of that may be a fools errand. I have tangs and gobble up HA if it ever pops up, but not every member of the species will do that. How I would start is try to remove the fish if you can. Than I would start doing some Lanthanum Chloride dosing to bind up all the phosphate. Try to catch as much as you can but some will end up on sand and substrate, no way to avoid. It is not harmful unless it gets in you fishes gills and will stay as a precipitate unless your PH really drops. I would combine the LC with lights off for a week.
Next step is to get your parameters stable without doing the 'grenade' technique. RO water definitely the way to go and measuring nutrients to make sure they don't get so high that this happens again.

Yup I use the LC (agent green brand) and I could lower phosphates 1 ppm per day. Once this was zero and I reduced light intensity and photoperiod, 30 days later , gone and not returned. Seems every few months the phosphate will build a bit but I test and apply LC when needed

IMO LC has definitely changed the reefing game. Makes it very possible to fix the problem the OP has without breaking down the entire tank.

All I did was take the rocks out, pull the algae off and hydrogen peroxide the rocks for like 20 min...still have very little algae and everything is doing great

Good to hear! Peroxide is impressive stuff to deal with algae as long as no corals are really involved. Keep an eye on nutrients now though since I'm sure you're getting some decent die off.