Can anyone identify this Brown Algae?

I have this algae growing in my tank. It is spreading rapidly. Does anyone know how to get rid of it?

 

Lower your nitrates and phoshates.

1. Feed Less

2. Water Changes

3. Cheato Fuge

4. Run phosphate removing media in a reactor.

5. Change light bulbs.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

Please post your nitrate, nitrite, ammonia and phosphate params along with CA, ALK and MAG.

You can manually remove the alga as you will want to do that rather than have it foul your tank when it dies.

It looks like a form of calcareous algae or padina.

Excess nitrate and phosphate are the main cause of rapid algae growth. Unstable params just aid the growth.

 

lobophora

it is sunday so excuse my laziness:

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Lobophora sp. (Usually variegata):

Click here to see the orignal image


Scientific Description- Brown semi rigid but slippery macro algae. Often confused with plating coralline, the slippery rubbery feel is a give away if you don't want to use scientific methods to determine the id.

Manual Removal - Difficult. Qting the rock in an extended dark cycle is the best way. Good thing it doesn't spread rock to rock too fast. A chisel or a flexible knife like a putty blade works, but you got to get it all, and take some of the rock just to be sure.

Clean Up Crew- Emerald Crabs (best bet here), Sea Hares, some Turbos, Chitons, Limpets, Tangs, Urchins, will pick at it, but it is likely to persist, but at least it will be controlled.

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 - Under the right lighting it can take on amazing colors. Also, it is not calcified despite its appearance. Break out that chisel/scalpel and dental pick and be aggressive about removing it all.

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I 2nd Lobophora but i found even tho my water was perfect i couldn't win the battle.I tried RC for an answer,someone suggested sally lightfoot crabs.Threw in 4 in a 100 DT and they did an amazing job,they never stop eating it.I have no small fish to worry about,and they have been model crabs.

 

good info! did they finish it off? too soon to tell? Thanks in advance, this is a subject that interests me.

One thing though, your water could be perfect in tests b/c of the algae. Sort of how someone growing say chaeto can still have lots of algae (the chaeto), but excellent water parameters.