Algae or BJD?

[spuri87]

When the lights came on this morning, I noticed brown grass type stuff behind one of the heads of the 21 tail torch.. is it algae or BJD? The head clearly looks unhappy in the video below, but a couple of ours later it was all extended as it should.. sharing if that can help identify if it is BJD in which case head doesn’t open at all or some sort of algae. Also any potential solutions to this problem?

As a side note, I am also noticing much more algae on the glass than I ever had (probably 2-3x comparing the frequency of how long before I have to clean the glass now vs in the past).. this started happening around the same time I started to get a handle on the nutrients in my system.. LC and Water changes basically

 

[Invictus]

Hair algae. If brown jelly was being blown around that much it would have floated off into the rest of your tank.

Also, I think you have too much flow on that torch.

 

[Alexander1312]

I do like and have strong flow in my tank, but this seems indeed too much.

What color is what you are cleaning from the glass?

Did you change your light?

 

[spuri87]

What color is what you are cleaning from the glass?

Thin brown layer.. no change in light schedule..

I will move this guy to another area with lesser flow.. any suggestions on how to clear this hair algae before it takes over my tank?

 

[MichaelB]

Thin brown layer.. no change in light schedule..

I will move this guy to another area with lesser flow.. any suggestions on how to clear this hair algae before it takes over my tank?

Nothing you can do, or rather should do beyond maybe manual removal.

With your nutrients numbers very much out of wack count yourself lucky it isn't much worse.

Consider that spin brush for removal. If it's on the coral and easily removed I'd take it out and clean it gently not hitting the flesh band or polyps in a small container of tank water.

If it can't be removed the spin brush can be used under water.

Don't start trying chemical means though there are some that work. Keep your focus on slowly bringing po4 down etc. Which in your case would be the source of any hair alage outbreaks. From the video I wouldn't be concerned about hair alage.

Lastly I agree with everyone above about flow it's probably a good 40-60% to much for torch.

 

[Alexander1312]

I will move this guy to another area with lesser flow.. any suggestions on how to clear this hair algae before it takes over my tank?
[/QUOTE]

Unless I misunderstand but you only have hair algae attached to one torch, which is not an uncommon spot since tangs and (larger) urchins etc do not easily get to this area.

It should be easy to manually remove from there, and unfortunately there is no better way.

It appears that you believe that there is a correlation between your water change regimen and LC dosing and increased algae on the glass.

Since you said it is brown, I assume these are diatoms. I do not know of any reason why the LC can cause this. From a water change perspective there could be two reasons in my opinion:

1. Additional trace elements from the heavy water change might not only be beneficial to corals, but also to the algae.

2. Also, if your RODI is not filtering clean enough, you might be adding more silicates to the water, which diatoms love for growth.

There are recommended trace element parameters to minimize both hair algae or diatom growth, but for that, I would need to see an ICP.