Algae ID needed.

[bryanmc1988]

I’m not sure what type of algae this is, but it’s growing all over my back and side glass and now some on the rocks and sand. Can someone help me ID this and how to treat it. I have scrubbed it off and it just grows twice as fast the next day.

I have put it under a microscope to get a more confirmation of it. Photos attached below.

P.S. is there a link to a full microscope thread of all the algae in order to ID them?

I know there is some hair algae that is green, but what is the brown slimy one. It comes off easily by blowing it off with a baster or rubbing my finger along side it. The tank has 8 fish and 5 inverts and a hand full of snails.

The tanks water parameters are as follows and stabled:
Salinity: 1.025-1.026
Temp: 76F - 78F
Alk: 8-9
Cal: ~400
Mag: 1350-1400
NO3: 3-5ppm
PO4: 0.15








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[Kris]

Dinoflagellates

See a similar image here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=966565

at the first image linked in post #16

[Sushiboy]

Use chemipure... works like a charm...

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[bryanmc1988]

Does chemipure really help with Dino? Not sure how I even ended up with Dino to be honest.

[crustaceon]

Reduce nutrient levels. Controlling algae all comes down to giving your tank enough nutrients to thrive but not so much that nuisance algae can as well. I stopped “chasing numbers” for this reason as my 100 gallon with a little more coral than your setup will almost immediately start growing algae on the panels if my nitrates rise above 4ppm and .08 phosphates. We see water parameters all the time from awesome tanks and try to replicate them without realizing these tanks are absolutely full of coral that are quickly consuming tons of nutrients and out-competing stuff like hair algae and dino. On a less stocked tank, 5ppm nitrates is the equivalent of 50ppm nitrates on a heavily stocked tank. IMO, I would drop those nitrate and phosphate numbers gradually, watch the health of your coral (coloration will probably improve too) and hopefully that algae will vanish in a few weeks.


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[bryanmc1988]

Sounds like a plan, I’ll run a test again in the am and see where it stands. I’ll try to get my PO4 to .08 and NO3 to 2-3 ppm and hold that stable for a few weeks and see if anything happens then.

Do I need to reduce time my lights are on or do a complete 3 day blackout or does it not matter once I keep my NO3 and PO4 to the right range.

[crustaceon]

I think if you went with a blackout, that algae will die off, but in turn will release nitrates and phosphates back into the water column. When the lights come back, so will the algae. The simplest plan would be to wipe down the back wall and immediately do a 10% water change. This can be done every three days to get those nitrate and phosphate numbers down where you want them (provided your water source is also low in nitrates and phosphates). I’m betting it’ll clear up within two weeks and when you hit a good spot as far as nutrients go, you’ll start getting tough to remove green spot algae on your panels and rocks instead, which will gradually turn into the red and purple Coraline algae. It’s a macro algae we all love because it not only looks good, it competes with nuisance micro algae for resources. Coraline also happens to like the same water parameters as most corals.

On a side note, It looks like your amount of fish would do fine on one cube of frozen mysis or similar per day. How much are you feeding?


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[bryanmc1988]

I feed twice a day with mysis and from all the research I have seen is that you should always avoid doing any water change. I have gone through the green spoted algae and I can see some purple coraline starting to grow everyday.

[crustaceon]

Food is the #source of excessive nutrients and while many people say “feed heavy”, this is again, with tanks that are already chock full of coral that are ready and waiting to absorb that food or have a phenomenal way of exporting those nutrients before they can be consumed by nuisance algae. Water changes happen to be a very effective export method and unless you have a ton of corals or rockwork to denitrify, usually having just a protein skimmer doesn’t cut it in the beginning and that person typically resorts to either increased water change frequency/amount, carbon dosing (biopellets, vodka, vinegar or No3Po4-X) or installs an algae turf scrubber/chaeto reactor/refugium in addition, which reduces nutrients to more manageable levels and eliminated their algae issue. I went through this exact phase myself. For perspective, this is my stocking list and how much I feed IF I go crazy like I did last time and cleaned my algae turf scrubber too much and had to rely solely on my skimmer (which produces absolutely nasty skimmate). I still have some residual algae “fuzz” on my back glass and bottom that’s slowly being starved out again. (Also Note: These fish will go into a much larger tank/second fowlr/new home as they grow too)

Niger trigger (3”)
Humu Trigger (2 1/2”)
Porky Puffer (3”)
Saddle Valentini Puffer (2”)
2 x Ocellaris Clowns (2”)
Sailfin Tang (3”)
Starry Blenny (3”)
4 Bar Damsel (1”)

Food: Two cubes of mysis/squid/brine or one raw shrimp per day.

Any more food than this and I’ll get a sharp increase in nitrates & phosphates and in turn, algae. Also, I haven’t done a sizable water change in four months (just enough to add trace elements). My fish are plump and perfectly healthy. There really is a tipping balance that needs to be found and that can vary quite a but between systems. My advice would be to tinker in small amounts and see if you see improvements. IMO and what I see, I would reduce nutrients through water changes (safe) or carbon dosing + skimming (potentially not very safe) and feed a little less. Keep in mind, coral and coraline algae can thrive in environments with trace nutrients where many other types of algae can’t.

Water parameters:

8.3 dkh
430 calcium
1350 mag
3 ppm nitrates
.03 phosphates
1.025 sg
Temp 80

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[bryanmc1988]

So I tested my water this morning and found out the issue why Dino started without realizing what was going on. Corals seem happy then all of a sudden Dino...

Nitrate was Zero... could be due to the Dino or the start of Dino. Not sure but I’m assuming it was the cause of it.

I did a full test just to make sure everything was in order and the results are in:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 76-78 F
Alk: 11.9
Cal: 415
Mag: 1235
Nitrate: 0
PO4: .18

Started re dosing Mag, stop dosing Alk, left Cal alone, Dose KNO3 to bring Nitrates back up, left PO4 alone, started dosing Brightwell biological bacteria 7 again (this was started again last night), everything else was tested and dosed this morning.

Funny thing was after 24hr of dosing Brightwell 7, the dino started going white today. Usually I would see growth build up but today there was little or none that I can tell and the Dino didn’t produce as much bubbles as they did a few days ago. Hopefully raising NO3 will hold them back, planning to keep NO3 at 2-3ppm.

After seeming the Dino turn white today, I decided that I would help rid of them quicker by scrapping them off all the side walls in the areas that I could get to them at. Used a tube and filter sock to filter them out but still keeping the water. This should help or tmr there will be new growth on the walls again. Only time will tell at this point.

[crustaceon]

It doesn’t surprise me that the addition of bacteria would affect dino considering it consumes a major food source for dino: ammonia. The formation of the dino would also make sense considering that with no nitrates present, nitrifying bacteria levels would drop and allow the dino to gain a foothold by utilizing the ammonia that the bacteria would typically consume. The danger though is in creating an artificial “bloom” by adding live bacteria that will outcompete the dino for food (as you’re seeing with the lightening of the dino) but will then starve due to the lack of nitrates, die off, release those compounds back into the water and repeat the cycle. Fwiw, I think you’re on the right track by bringing your nitrates up to a low, but not too low level and will probably beat this issue that way. Scraping and siphoning the dying dino will help as well. I had a similar issue with cyano when I used to vodka dose way too much and it magically went away when I stopped dosing vodka and allowed my nitrates to become detectable again.


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[bryanmc1988]

I will run another test in the am on those parameters that aren’t in range and see if the dosing has help bring it up and by how much. I will post some updates to the parameters later today.

[crustaceon]

Really cool stuff. Dino can be a pain to get rid of and I’m sure a lot of people could use a definitive answer on what eradicates it.


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[oceanslide]

dinos, ive had them too, what worked for me was scrubbing the tank and rocks clean with tooth brush then water change carbon/gfo in reacter with a blackout period follwed by a large water change. Then after just stay on top of replacing media when exhausted, watch how much you feed and make sure youre using 0 tds rodi water. Setting up a chaeto reacter could be helpful too.

[bryanmc1988]

Nitrate/Phosphate at 0 is usually the cause of many Dino. I usually keep my PO4 at .08-.15 and my nitrate at 4-5. For some reason my nitrate went to 0 and Dino started to grow slowly, I thought it was normal algae so I didn’t worry to much. Over the next week it started to rapidly take off and I didn’t know why and had no idea it was Dino. Took it to a microscope and got some photos uploaded and turns out to be Ostreopsis dino strains. These strains are usually cause by low nitrate and can easily be rid of by incresing Nitrate.

I have started the increase of nitrate and currently a bit higher then wanted but Dino has gone from high to very very minimal within 48hrs. See below for after pictures compared to the photos above.






P.S. even the yellow watchman goby looked surprised. Just look at that face lol