sleeman,
maybe this will help?
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/mai.../faq_algae.htm

Here is a picture of the algae. The more I look at it the more I think it is a form of Caulerpa. Anyone else able to ident it? Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Al
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...e-med.jpg?1016

Al,
That looks like Dictyota to me. If you go to the above link, they refer to it as brown or red antler shaped. Ignore the picture of the red branching algae but go to the highlighted 'Dictyota' link which shows a picture that is much more dense than yours, but if yours is anything like what I had, it will only be a matter of time before it grows from sparse to thick. In Bob Fenner's book The Conscientious Marine Aquarist, he shows a picture of Dictyota on page 132, it has the same "Y"shape as yours and mine but totally green. Mine was more on the pale side of green, some spots almost golden brown, but the exact same "Y"shape. Good luck

Hey Sleeman,
I don't mean to freak you out, but check this out. This guy left his tank for a week and he returned to this:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/attach...&postid=685272

It came from this thread
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...light=dictyota
The top link is obviously an exterme example but. I thought worth a look.
My outbreak was nowhere near that bad, but it didn't take long before it became very clear that I had to get it out of my tank. I additionally found out that there are over 140 Dictyota sp. names, accounting for the variation in colour and density. They all share the flat "Y" branching growth as well as the potential for very rapid growth, and the difficulty of control. After alot of hesitation, I have made the decision to up grade my system, but of all the reasons that I considered not to go big, ie. cost, time, space etc, for me, dictyota was the number one reason not to. I just didn't want to fight that battle again.

Hawk,
Thanks. I can't get on RC right now will try again tomorrow. When you say you had to get it out of your tank, did you pull the rock or get rid of it another way? It has moved to a fair number of rocks now. I don't really want to pull my rock and recure it in a dark bin for several weeks. Even that may not kill the bugger.
I wonder if an urchin will eat this stuff?
Anyone got any other suggestions?

Cheers,

Al

So you guys still can't get RC?
Once it started to grow I would pull what I could out. Some would come out in mats easily but other areas like the sparse stuff in you pic was hard to grab. All of a sudden it seemed the faster I picked the faster it grew. Then it started to grow on some of my corals, I removed any coral or rock I could get at and used tweezers and or a toothbrush to clean the piece. I always have fed very lightly and knew excess nutrients were not the problem. It grew directly under the lights and in the shadows. I had lots of flow and fresh bulbs. I was lost because I couldn't find a pic anywhere and didn't know the name. None of my fish or crabs or tuxedo urchin would touch it. After alot of time on RC I finally found a pic of Dictyota and without a doubt that is what I had. Once I had the name, I quickly found out that a Naso or a Foxface very often, but not always will eat it. Some have success with emerald crabs, I had several and they did nothing for me. I remember a RC thread where a certain urchin might help but I can't remember what kind. I'll check it out and post if I can find it. My tuxedo didn't help at all. I finally went with a juv.naso 2-3" i kept him hungary in QT for the first couple of days then put a small rock with this stuff on it for him to eat which he did right away. When he was put in the display he continued eating the Dict with avengence. I continued getting what I could out manually and it wasn't long before I could see I was winning. It took 2-3 months. When I put the Naso in, about 75% of my total rock had some, of which 30%-40% was heavily covered. That fish saved my tank. It's been about 1 1/2 years since then and it hasn't come back. I sure hope RC is back for you guys soon. At least then you can check out some of it's threads or even post your pic.to determine if what you have is Dictyota or not. I hope it's not, but to me it really looks like it. Good luck

I Just did a quick search on RC and there were some suggestions that Diadema urchins may eat it, but I couldn't find any threads that actually had first hand knowkedge that diadema's ate this stuff.

Well, I was in AI yesterday. They had a small diadema for 20 bucks so I grabbed it to see what happens. It cant make it any worse. I'll let you know what happens in the next week or so.

CHeers,

AL

How's the Naso Tang now?

great, he coloured up nicely, bothers no one and is very friendly.