Red (junk) Stubble

[lemonyx]

Starting to get this red stuff growing all over the tank, it's short like stubble beard and hard to brush off (I used a wire brush)

Any ideas

[+dapettit]

I wondering if it's byropsis with cyano growing on it. I'm pretty sure the reda stuff is cyano.

[lemonyx]

Don't think it's cyno - tanks been treated with ChemiClean

[+dapettit]

I found this info the pic looks like it.

You can find the whole article here; Nuisance Algae Guide Gelidium is towards the bottom of the page.

Gelidium:

Scientific Description: Species in this genus, (and the similar Coelthrix sp. which looks similar but is purple-sort of), cling to the rock, and spread from a runner. The branches do not get tall, and they are often found with hobbyist frags.

Manual Removal - Difficult. Macros that have fragile runners and creep along the rock are the hardest to manually remove. Do the best you can.

Clean Up Crew- Emerald Crabs, urchins, sea hares, large turbos, shore shrimp. Small emerald crabs would be my first choice if it took hold in a narrow crevice b/c they could reach it.

Why it happened - You didn't quarantine, and you have available nutrients for it.

Starving it out - Use a phosban reactor or a macro like chaeto to take down phosphate. If you have a nitrate problem too, you can add more live rock or rubble to the tank, do some more wcs, add macro, add dsb, etc...

John's Tip - Don't pass on frags with this stuff, don't put one in your tank. This algae has become extremely common on hobbyist traded frags, every time you add a coral or a rock look for it from now on. If you have it just keep at it, it takes a while but it can be beat back, at least you don't have byropsis.