Please help to identify this pest.....and remove!!

[jschottenfeld]

A few months back I started to see a pink/peach colored fuzzy ball growing on the glass of my fuge. It looked cool so I let it get about the size of a golf ball. When it started to shade out some of my corals I decided that it was time for it to go. I shaved it off of the glass but bits of it floated around my 30 gal fuge. It almost appeared like a ball of cotton.
Shortly after, where ever a small bit of the fuzz went it doubled in size rapidly...about every few days. Now it became a real pest...growing everywhere in my fuge and chaeto.
Time to act like a commando...I took a pair of tweezers and removed every single bit that I saw on my sand bed and brushed off every bit growing on rocks into my sink. It was all over my egg crate holder so I took those out and let them dry for a week.
It's been about 3 weeks and I see it all coming back. What is this stuff and how do I get rid of it? Is it a type of sponge? What eats it?? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[jschottenfeld]

I've been searching around and it appears that this is Cotton Candy Algae...Now I just need to figure out what eats it. I'll throw in some snails and see if they do the trick.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

In my experience, red hair algae is very quickly devoured by yellow tangs...I can't say if the type that I have had is the same as yours...what I have had in the past is not invasive like green hair algae, just very localized in very small quantities....but tangs love it, unlike green hair algae which they won't touch. I get some in the outflow of my skimmer, above the water line..any that reaches the tank when I scrape it is gone within seconds. That said, your species of algae may be different...

 

[Deanos]

Patience

Nightmare Red Cotton Algae

A Troublesome Reef Algae #1

A Troublesome Reef Algae #2

A Troublesome Reef Algae #3

 

[jschottenfeld]

Deanos, thanks for the articles. Time to hit Country Critters for some Pacific or Mexican Turbo snails and let them feast!