Help Identify

Don't ever apply the peroxide into your tank, remove the rock, apply the peroxide to the affected area, and then after 2-3 mins rinse with RO and place back into your tank. Hydrogen Peroxide will kill all inverts and really messes up your ORP so you shouldn't ever add it directly to your tank. Feel free to call me if you have questions I've used this method to get rid of tons of nuisance algae on frags, equipment, etc.  

SGH360- bryopsis is very hard to get rid of, if you have it I would eradicate it asap or you'll never see the end of it. Buy a gallon of Kent Marine Tech M and raise your mag over several days to around 1700, it will start to turn brown, hold your mag at 1700 for at least a week, manually remove what you can and then let herbivores finish it off. Otherwise it will just keep coming back...

Sometimes we get lucky! 

Seachem Flourish Excell? Where did that come from?

jmw wrote: ...I looked up Maidens hair, of all the algae pics I've seen that looks exactly like what I have. My only question is why is my yellow tang eating it like crazy? Chlorodesmis  ...It contains a toxic substance which deters herbivorous fish from eating it..

Because algae grows differently in different situations, even differently in different tanks. That's why it looked like Bryopsis to some hobbyists here, because Bryopsis takes different forms. Look at the pic of some Bryopsis below. It may also be because this algae is not Chlorodesmis or because whoever wrote that evaluation is wrong. I'm sorry, but Maidens Hair cannot possibly be a common name for it. It comes nowhere close to fitting that description. Like Shawn said, it's as tough as toothbrush bristles. I'm sticking with the name Sea Brush.

Lot's of herbivorous fish like this algae and after my experience with it, I would never, ever, recommend it for a Refugium. The darn algae might start growing in the main display and then where would you be. Most fish cannot eat it down to the rock, with the possible exception of a Naso Tang. I've seen them scrape down to the rock to get at Sargassum holdfasts. In fact I just remembered, it was a cousin of the Naso, another type of Unicorn Tang that did the best job of keeping it mowed very short in my old tank. Let me see if I can find a pic...here it is:


Sea Brush is at the base of the Sinularia on the right. The clown cleared it away from the egg patch under the Sinularia on the left.

Here is Bryopsis



Edited by Mark Peterson - November 13 2010 at 8:33pm

I'm not too surprised that algae was so resistant. It's the toughest I've ever seen.
That's a good list
I'd try an Urchin. I like the "collector" Urchin. It's easy to pick up and very interesting to watch it carry odd things around on it's back.
Only if the Magnum has some mechanical filtration cleaned frequently to remove crud, will it make any difference. AC does not remove algae nutrients, btw.
The scissors worked well to snip the algae as close to the base as possible if the Yellow Tang wasn't able to keep up with it, until the Unicorn Tang was added.
Good luck.