green algae!!

hey guys can you help me with this? the tank has just completed its cycle and I think there's at lest lest 4 good green macro algae in there. sorry about pic quality . its in my refugium btw its growing like wild fire

 

This stuff can be a pain in the ars. Honestly, the best way to fight this is nutrient starvation in my experience. You got to cut off its nutrient source. Now lets say because you did just finish the cycle, and this all grew from the normal processes of that aquarium cycle. If you have happened to have had high levels of die off from your live rock, this algae may just go away after a few rounds of pruning. It all depends how you've set-up your filtration system (good skimming and chemical filtration system(s) are a must). If theres no more food going to the algae from die off, it can be an easy fix. As long as you have quality filtration that is.

 

Well looks like you have your self some Byropsis (not good) Green Hair Algae and Cyanobacteria. Got to love this hobby.

Nuisance Algae ID Guide

 

First thing I would do is test your water parameters AND do a large water change. This algae could have been fueled from your cycle but may not go away on its on. Your best bet is aggressive manual removal, while keeping nutrients as low as possible with water changes and good filtration. You may also want to check with reefcleaners to see what might help eat it. Also, make sure you dont overfeed, and make sure you are using RO water for top offs and changes.

 

Hair Algae problems are usually caused by aquarium water with excess nutrients like phosphate, nitrates etc. You can get a Clean Up Crew of Emerald Crabs, Hermits, Fox Face Rabbit Fish, or a tang etc. and try and siphon out what you can to remove the algae in the short term. In the long term you may have to examine how you care for your tank. There are some commercial dry foods also contain excess nutrients and other undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc so I strain/rinse my fresh/frozen foods before feeding my tank. You may want to consider feeding your fish less often. If you have bio balls/media, check if they are dirty or get rid of them if you have enough live rock. Also, changing your photo period, light bulbs, adding more flow, using RO/DI water with a good salt. If your phosphates are high you can add a phosphate remover like Tropic Marin Elimi-Phos also, increasing flow in your tank may help too.

 

I have to agree with others, it looks like a bad algae and not a beneficial macro algae At least it's in your refugium so that's a good thing.

 

well hell lol sorry for the late reply didn't pay my internet bill hahaha ok so I still have no skimmer and I did a 20% water change going to get some active carbon tomorrow and now have my new mag 5 for flow..no fish and im using ro/di brand new unit but I didn't get the tds meter yet so watching it close and keeping my fingers crossed . oh yea..will pods eat some of this mess? I killed every
last living one of them with my 8.0 + ammiua lol its cycled now

 

Whats your rock and sand live? or dry when starting? JW.

 

my rock was just 2lbs of live rock rubble from lfs and sand is a 10lb bag of Caribbean sea live sand. on the 13th of this month I added 50lbs of dry rock from marcorocks.com . my ro/di is a 50gal a day barracuda. still no sand in the DT

 

ok I got a master test kit today and my nitrates are reading max 160ppm .phosphates 0ppm . I just did a 20% water change 5 days ago . I also added active carbon today. do I need a 50% water change to get this down?