Ok, so I recently was placed in charge of a 230 gallon full reef tank with 4 metal halides, 2 48" 10,000k's, 2 48" actinics, a massive wet/dry, protein skimmer, chiller, uv sterilizer...you know, the works (so to speak) Anyway, i quickly found out that overfeeding is a sure route to a hair algae bloom, and managed to get all the substrate and rocks covered in hair algae (not to mention nitrate levels of well over 160 ppm). In any case, I got wise to my situation, and did a series of 10% partials every other day with r/o water and reef crystals, succeeding eventually in pulling out almost all the hair algae and reducing my phosphates to near zero and my nitrates to less than 30 ppm. Shortly after removal of the stringy, dark green hair algae, I noticed that where the hair algae used to be, there was now a new looking type of algae. This one closely resembled the hair algae, and you have to look pretty close to notice it, but here are the main differences:
when you pinch it between your fingers, it doesn't feel slippery and slimy as the hair algae (there is noticeably more friction as you rub it in between your fingers), and you can squeeze it and feel it "pop." Typically, after i do this, a reddish brown liquid squeezes out.
it is a lighter green color, almost olive.
it has a much firmer hold on the rocks and substrate, making it much more difficult to physically detach than the hair algae.
instead of looking like strands of hair, it looks more like small clusters of feathers, or ferns.
an interesting thing to note is that i stopped doing the partials roughly 2 or 3 weeks ago, when the nitrates had gotten down to about 30 ppm. i tested the water today, and nitrates read absolutely zero. not even a trace of nitrate. however, in every single place where there was hair algae, there is now this "feather" algae. i've pulled out countless handfulls, and it seems to regrow almost overnight. so i pose these questions:
what the heck is this stuff?!?!
is it really that much of a problem if it's consuming all my nitrate?
is it indeed what is consuming my nitrate? i installed a phosreactor stuffed full of bioballs in the hopes that with no air running through it, it would serve as a hypoxic point of denitration -- hopefully countering the infamous nitrate-producing reputation of the wet/dry filter. I think of it as a vertical mini-plenum in my sump. however, i only installed it about 4 days ago, and i doubt the nitrospira would have colonized it fully in so short of a time. plus, there's not really that much surface area in those bioballs when compared with the sheer volume of the tank itself.
anybody have any clue what this stuff might be?
