Algae growing on my algae

[chaostactics]

I have a bunch of dragons breath in my Skimz macro reactor (Chaeto sucked up nutrients too fast) and it frequently gets parts of it covered by a greenish algae that's got some slime characteristics.

The algae reactor sucks up all the bubbles from my skimmer and eventually the algae growing on the dragons breath snags so many bubbles it causes the dragons breath to float up. (It's rubber banded to some 1" round LR rubble)

1. Could I possibly just put some peroxide into the reactor intake or would that kill the macro algae as well. It's mostly dragons breath with a small amount of chaeto.

2. Would a 3 day black out of the macro reactor kill off nuisance algae but leave the macro?

Any other ideas??

TIA

 

[chaostactics]

Under a microscope

 

[chaostactics]

Closer

 

[Dan_P]

Closer

This might be a cyanobacteria which can work as well as macro algae in an algae.

When a macro algae becomes covered in cyanobacteria and looks poorly, these are signs things aren’t going well for the macro algae.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Algae growing on algae?! That's messed up in a way.

 

[Tim McLellan]

I had red slime cyanobacteria covering my macroalgae and rocks, even invading my GSP. Dosed with Chemiclean and eradicated it.

 

[chaostactics]

This might be a cyanobacteria which can work as well as macro algae in an algae.

When a macro algae becomes covered in cyanobacteria and looks poorly, these are signs things aren’t going well for the macro algae.

My knee jerk was, it's definitely not cyanobacteria. Because this isn't what I'm used to bacteria looking like under a microscope.

Microscopic Life - Reefkeeping.com

But now I think you're on to something.
Scrolling down to cyano does provide an image of something that looks quite similar.

There is only a slight amount on my LR.

I think I'm gonna take a shot at a black out of the reactor but not the display for a few days.

I really don't want to resort to chemicals. Previously I was dealing with diatoms because I tanked my Nitrates and Phos to zero and nearly to zero

 

[shwareefer]

What are your nitrate/phosphate levels. Theory - one is bottomed out, macro starts struggling, opportunisitic algae steals nutrients from the failing macro.

 

[Dan_P]

Algae growing on algae?! That's messed up in a way.

The situation is very common in nature. Think about all the bacteria growing on you

 

[chaostactics]

I haven't tested in a hot sec. Going to soon ish. I increased feeding and amino dosing after and decreased filter sock changes after I tanked them. Going to check this week.

Also way cut back on the amount of chaeto I was planning on allowing to grow prior to harvesting. Also changing to dragons breath in order to do some minor nutrient extraction but with a much slower growth macro.

Was thinking about cutting chaeto all together and going with just dragons breath and red ogo, as another "slower grower. It's hard to find live ogo tho.

What are your nitrate/phosphate levels. Theory - one is bottomed out, macro starts struggling, opportunisitic algae steals nutrients from the failing macro.

 

[chaostactics]

Seem like cyano to y'all? My images on the right vs those from RK on the left.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Cyano / Dino’s - love to inhabit macro algae very common in the ocean to I forgot the exact reason why - any given day I can look at my macro algae and find a few bubbles

 

[chaostactics]

Cyano / Dino’s - love to inhabit macro algae very common in the ocean to I forgot the exact reason why - any given day I can look at my macro algae and find a few bubbles

I was hoping with higher flow it would help keep it in check but no luck so far with the macro reactor at full blast.

I also have a hard time telling how much of the bubbles on the macro are caused by the cyano (or whatever it is) and how much of the bubbles are attracted to/get hung up in the macro due to surface attraction of the cyano/whatever.

I'm hoping to find some way soon to redirect the effluent of the skimmer to stop dumping so many dang bubbles into my main sump chamber.

I absoly HATE this skimmer. And to be fair the RSK skimmer I had previously had a similar issue. Without an effluent tube you can't direct bubbles anywhere else.