This is like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"!

[ktellerman]

This is like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"!

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There are long, thin green tendrils that are coming off my rock and reaching out, infesting other areas of the tank. Is there something that eats this? My snails aren't doing it.

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by ktellerman

This is like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"!

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There are long, thin green tendrils that are coming off my rock and reaching out, infesting other areas of the tank. Is there something that eats this? My snails aren't doing it.

Foxface, yellow tangs, etc.

[ktellerman]

My tank is only 28 gal. Maybe a Lawnmower Blenny?

[cutietwo]

are you sure they are green?. I have long white filaments that are on my live rock that flow in the breez, they are just worms. Maybe that's what yours are? are they hurting anything in your tank or you just don't like the way it looks?

[ibanez2k]

There are a few creatures that eat it. GHA can put up quite a fight though if there are plenty of nutrients in the tank to suppliment it. You have to find out what it's eating and remove it's nutrient source. Once you've done that it will all starve to death eventually.

[Loverotties]

How about a pic.

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by Loverotties

How about a pic.

+1, and specs for the tank and list other fish in the system...

[ktellerman]

They are long, thin and green - definitely "hair extensions" from the shorter algae on the rocks. The tank has just finished cycling (3 month old 28 gal. Nano Cube HQI) and the only livestock are a variety of snails (cerith, nerite, nassarius vibex, dwarf planaxis & zig zag periwinkles). Oh - a boxer crab (he just waves his anemones around ). Water specs are all good. I'll post some photos soon.

[ibanez2k]

Ok, so since you have only cleanup crew right now I'm going to assume you aren't feeding anything else extra to the tank. Sounds like you are on the right track and are just going through a normal algae bloom. Dieoff from the rocks will skyrocket your nitrates at the end of your innitial cycle and you'll usually get some sort of big algae bloom. It's ok, it just means your tank is maturing and going through its stages. The algae is feeding heavily on the nutrients in your system which is great for you because it gives you a solid object you can work on removing to get your nutrient levels in check. What you can do is pull as much of it out as you can by hand (some sort of long tweezers can help with that), blast your rocks heavily with a strong powerhead or turkey baster to loosen all the detritus and junk the algae has collected (hair algae makes a "turf" for itself on your rocks), then do a good water change of about 15 to 20% making sure to remove as much junk from the water as you can in the water change (only use RO/DI or distilled water for your changes and topoff). Do that about once a week and you should be able to speed up the removal of the algae alot faster. It'll still probably take a couple months to all go away if there is alot of it in there but you'll start noticing a big difference shortly.

[ktellerman]

My LFS suggested turning my lights off for two weeks - won't that just exacerbate the problem by creating alot of die-off at once? Plus, I have critters in there (no, I'm not feeding the cleanup crew). I'm gonna try taking some of the worst rocks out, scrubbing with a toothbrush and leaving them in SW in the dark before returning them to the tank - is that a viable solution? I'll combine that with your suggestion. I would try a rabbitfish, but the tank is too small...

[Aristarchus]

I'm fighting a hair algae problem also. From what I have read, anything over 6 hours per day can aid the algae bloom. But if you shut your lights off you can risk killing photosynthetic organisms(debatable subject for a different thread). I just cut my lighting down and will continue picking the tendrils off if they appear and let it run its course. Melevsreef.com has a really good write up on how to battle hair algae also-

http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html

[ibanez2k]

Yes, the Melev's Reef article is very helpful. I wouldn't recommend leaving the lights off for two weeks if you have any corals or coralline on your rocks you want to save. If you don't have corals yet though and all you have is your cleanup crew, they will be fine with the lights off. And yes, a toothbrush works well. You can mix up a bucket of saltwater to scrub the algae off in and then return the rocks back to your tank nice and clean. That works pretty well and helps to not loosen a whole lot of algae in your tank for it to begin growing some other place.

[ktellerman]

Thanks, everyone! I removed the most hairy rocks, scrubbed and kept them dark for a few days before replacing them. I used a toothbrush and scrubbed off the remaining rocks in the tank. Now, the CUC is able to handle the shorter growth. So far, in less than a week everything is looking good...I'll let you know how it looks as time passes (and post some photos)

[Loverotties]

Hope it stays good.