Algae ID and assistance

DarkReefer · Nov 1, 2022

Hi All,

I've noticed this algae creeping in over the last couple of weeks and basically starting to take over the tank.
Lots of corals and my nems are looking unhappy and even the Blasto's and some zoas are starting to die off which is odd for them.

My levels seemed okay when I tested yesterday so I'm not sure what the heck the issue is or what this browny crud is that's growing.
This algae seems to move around with the flow in the tank so it's not hard or anything. I did a chemiclean dose about a month ago to get rid of some red cyano but this stuff seems different and is more brown than the red that the cyano was.

Would appreciate the assistance as I'm starting to lose hope that this danged tank is ever going to be happy and just look good.
Seem to have one issue to the next, to the next all the while my corals are cracking the ***** and dying off gradually..

Thanks

DarkReefer · Nov 1, 2022

Parameters
Temp - 25 deg celcius
Nitrate - Approx 20
Phosphate - 0.034
Salinity - 1.024
Alk - 8.9
Calcium - 405
Magnesium - 1320

DarkReefer · Nov 1, 2022

doing some googling, I wonder if this is diatoms?

josh1591 · Nov 1, 2022

It looks more like dinos to me, although they are usually caused by bottoming out nutrients. A microscope would be a sure way to tell what you're dealing with.

TheReefDiary · Nov 1, 2022

Looks like dinos! You can join me on the dino journey! Mine just appeared. Most likely as a result of low phosphates. Currently I'm doing daily cleanings and changing filter floss daily. I'm also dosing bacteria and started to increase my po4.

vetteguy53081 · Nov 1, 2022

DarkReefer said:
Hi All,

I've noticed this algae creeping in over the last couple of weeks and basically starting to take over the tank.
Lots of corals and my nems are looking unhappy and even the Blasto's and some zoas are starting to die off which is odd for them.

My levels seemed okay when I tested yesterday so I'm not sure what the heck the issue is or what this browny crud is that's growing.
This algae seems to move around with the flow in the tank so it's not hard or anything. I did a chemiclean dose about a month ago to get rid of some red cyano but this stuff seems different and is more brown than the red that the cyano was.

Would appreciate the assistance as I'm starting to lose hope that this danged tank is ever going to be happy and just look good.
Seem to have one issue to the next, to the next all the while my corals are cracking the ***** and dying off gradually..

Thanks

Can you post under white lighting (no blue). While it looks like cyano, can be dino
Cyano- The po4 and no3 will be elevated whereas with dino, it will be very low to zero

DarkReefer · Nov 1, 2022

josh1591 said:
It looks more like dinos to me, although they are usually caused by bottoming out nutrients. A microscope would be a sure way to tell what you're dealing with.

TheReefDiary said:
Looks like dinos! You can join me on the dino journey! Mine just appeared. Most likely as a result of low phosphates. Currently I'm doing daily cleanings and changing filter floss daily. I'm also dosing bacteria and started to increase my po4.

Id be very surprised if it'd be dinos. Up until the last week or so I've had quite high phosphates in the range of around 0.2 or so. Nitrates have also been 10+ for months.
There was some pretty bad cyano in the tank until after I dosed chemiclean then it cleaned up for a few weeks before this one came in but it looks different and less reddish. I updated the rowaphos in the past 1 or 2 weeks which has brought the phosphates back down thankfully also.

vetteguy53081 said:
Can you post under white lighting (no blue). While it looks like cyano, can be dino
Cyano- The po4 and no3 will be elevated whereas with dino, it will be very low to zero

I've put a filter on, hopefully this helps. If not I'll have to try play with the light settings.

josh1591 · Nov 2, 2022

DarkReefer said:
Id be very surprised if it'd be dinos. Up until the last week or so I've had quite high phosphates in the range of around 0.2 or so. Nitrates have also been 10+ for months.
There was some pretty bad cyano in the tank until after I dosed chemiclean then it cleaned up for a few weeks before this one came in but it looks different and less reddish. I updated the rowaphos in the past 1 or 2 weeks which has brought the phosphates back down thankfully also.

I've put a filter on, hopefully this helps. If not I'll have to try play with the light settings.

Yeah that's why I was saying it was odd because there were nutrients in the system. It could be cyano again.

DarkReefer · Nov 2, 2022

josh1591 said:
Yeah that's why I was saying it was odd because there were nutrients in the system. It could be cyano again.

Was thinking of just doing a water change to see if it helps any, but I wonder if its worth running another round of chemiclean over the next 2 days first.

josh1591 · Nov 2, 2022

DarkReefer said:
Was thinking of just doing a water change to see if it helps any, but I wonder if its worth running another round of chemiclean over the next 2 days first.

You could try and if it starts clearing up, then great. If not then it's dinos.

DarkReefer · Nov 6, 2022

josh1591 said:
You could try and if it starts clearing up, then great. If not then it's dinos.

Well I gave it a shot, didn't seem to do a whole lot.
I even vac'd the sand and got it white looking again, by next day its covered in brown crud again.

xCry0x · Nov 6, 2022

Are you dosing any bacteria back into the tank?

Start dosing some microbacter 7 and throw in a bag of copepods.

Chemiclean is great at killing cyano. But if you don't actually replace it with anything else.. it leaves things open to come back.

josh1591 · Nov 7, 2022

DarkReefer said:
Well I gave it a shot, didn't seem to do a whole lot.
I even vac'd the sand and got it white looking again, by next day its covered in brown crud again.

Might be dinos then. Like xCry0x said chemi clean is really good at killing cyano. If the chemi clean didn't work I would buy a microscope and check it out. It very well could be dinos.

AV corals · Nov 7, 2022

DarkReefer said:
Well I gave it a shot, didn't seem to do a whole lot.
I even vac'd the sand and got it white looking again, by next day its covered in brown crud again.

Dose chemiclean, unplug any carbon or GFO reactors running. Take off your skimmer cup and let it overflow into the tank.. Leave it alone for about 3 days. You should be good.

DarkReefer · Nov 13, 2022

Went had a chat with the LFS over the weekend, showed them some video footage of it under white lights.
They advised me to use some Continuum Bacter Clean M for it. They unfortunately didn't have any stock but I've ordered some on Ebay so hopefully have it later this week.

We also had a discussion about whether I should change over to ASW and mix my own rather than NSW.
I'm interested in doing this but I think it'll be a more expensive .

DarkReefer · Nov 14, 2022

Here's a video I took a few days ago of the algae.

My Continuum Bacter Clean M arrived today (faster than expected).
Looking forward to getting home and beginning dosing this. Fingers are crossed it really helps out.

Got home yesterday to find my sponge filter (before return pump) completely clogged up causing my skimmer to overflow, roller filter going nuts because water lever was high and pretty sure ATO dumped a bunch of water in because return was staying low due to the blockage *sigh*. Cut out a new piece of sponge for it though, wonder if it's worth removing it completely for a week or two whilst this issue gets sorted.

Can't wait to get things back on track. Hopefully this is the beginning of good things to come.

DarkReefer · Nov 21, 2022

Hi All,

Hoping you may be able to assist with an ID.
Finally got myself a microscope after battling this for a while I'm tired of guessing/assuming and wanting to get real answers so I can fight it properly.

Is there a thread with pictures for this (i've done a couple of searches but don't think I'm putting in the right words/phrase to find).

Not sure why it's not letting me embed - note, everything was moving initially but as time went by the larger oval and smaller cells stopped moving and just that worm thing was there lol.

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Reef. · Nov 21, 2022

Either way, the treatment is the same for cyno or dinos, for me the I.d doesn’t matter, if you can add a UV then do, really helped mine by 90%, then you just remove rock, scrub in used tank water, then replace, vac sand, clean filter socks/wool daily, add carbon, let your nutrients raise if low, do this as many times a day you can, the more the better, in 1-2 weeks you should be clear.

For extras, you can add pods, phytoplankton and carry on adding your bacteria.

josh1591 · Nov 21, 2022

So yeah those are definitely dinoflagellates. UV is only successful with ostreopsis and yours appear to be large cell amphidinium. You will have to try to raise nitrates and phosphates, add microbacter7 or something similar along with phytoplankton and copepods, reduce lighting (specifically red, green, and white), and most importantly you will have to start dosing sodium silicate to introduce a diatom bloom. I see some diatoms, so as you dose sodium silicate the diatoms should be more and more prevalent on the slide. Hope this helps.

josh1591 · Nov 21, 2022

Also you can attempt to broadcast hydrogen peroxide. Stop carbon dosing and don't add any amino acids. And add activated carbon to pull out any toxins. It's going to be a slow process but basically you're trying to have diatoms outcompete the dinos (which is why you have to dose sodium silicate) and adding pods and phyto will also help.