Algae ID and now to beat them?

[marcosnano]

Hello reefers,

I hope you are having a great week.

My tank is doing so-so. I have a feeling all kinds of algae are attacking my beautful nano.

I had diatoms for a while, now those green slimy algae on glass and brown hairy algae with bubbles on rocks and glass.

What should I do? Should I clean it? Leave it?
I don't have any fish in tank so no waste food.

Thank you!

 

[Soren]

That looks like dinoflagellates and film algae to me.
How do you feed your corals or system?

What are your nitrate and phosphate levels? I have the same in my Work Desk 40B system with nitrates and phosphates both measuring zero, which is what I expect you will find if you check them. My system is actually heavy with fish and feeding, but the dinoflagellates and green hair algae keep the nutrients at undetectable levels.

 

[marcosnano]

That looks like dinoflagellates and film algae to me.
How do you feed your corals or system?

What are your nitrate and phosphate levels? I have the same in my Work Desk 40B system with nitrates and phosphates both measuring zero, which is what I expect you will find if you check them. My system is actually heavy with fish and feeding, but the dinoflagellates and green hair algae keep the nutrients at undetectable levels.

I feed corals twice per week with reef roids directly with turkey blaster.

Nitrates around 5 ppm.

Phosphate (don't have test kit) but I'm guessing 0 or low because I used PhosGuard for 2 weeks now.

What should I do about them?

Thank you!

 

[Soren]

I feed corals twice per week with reef roids directly with turkey blaster.

Nitrates around 5 ppm.

Phosphate (don't have test kit) but I'm guessing 0 or low because I used PhosGuard for 2 weeks now.

What should I do about them?

Thank you!

I'm no expert, but the use of PhosGuard may have driven levels down to zero and allowed for the dinoflagellates to overpopulate (they like low to zero nutrients where they thrive while other organisms are hindered).
My guess would be that you may see them decrease if you decrease your use of PhosGuard and allow for phosphates to come back up a little bit.

There are many threads from more-experienced users here on R2R that discuss how to deal with dinoflagellates (or 'dinos'). Here is a link to an R2R article about this topic: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-dinoflagellate-treatment-guide.884961/

 

[marcosnano]

I'm no expert, but the use of PhosGuard may have driven levels down to zero and allowed for the dinoflagellates to overpopulate (they like low to zero nutrients where they thrive while other organisms are hindered).
My guess would be that you may see them decrease if you decrease your use of PhosGuard and allow for phosphates to come back up a little bit.

There are many threads from more-experienced users here on R2R that discuss how to deal with dinoflagellates (or 'dinos'). Here is a link to an R2R article about this topic: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-dinoflagellate-treatment-guide.884961/

So basically I need microscope and several months of work for unknown results.

I'm screwed. I was really hoping dinos will not giving me headaches so early.

Still don't know what to do.

Should I perform blackouts?

Should I add some chemical product?

Should I add some drops of ammonia so I have high nitrates in water?

 

[Soren]

So basically I need microscope and several months of work for unknown results.

I'm screwed. I was really hoping dinos will not giving me headaches so early.

Still don't know what to do.

Hey, my first advice is to not overreact. Sorry for the panic that linked thread may have caused.

If you want a perfect, complete, immediate solution, it will be difficult.

My guess is that this will not have catastrophic results on your reef within a short time, so take your time and try things slowly. Watch over time and react as necessary.

First, I would suggest you just reduce or stop the use of PhosGuard. This should allow your phosphates to increase to detectable levels and should reduce or eliminate the dinoflagellate populations.

The green film algae is a good sign that nutrients are good, as conditions for good algae growth are nearly identical to conditions for good coral growth. To deal with it, either don't worry too much and just wipe it off or get clean-up crew (mainly snails for glass cleaning) to help keep the glass clean.

Should I perform blackouts?

I would not recommend blackouts as they could be detrimental to your corals if they are photosynthetic.

Should I add some chemical product?

My personal reef philosophy is to try more natural control before even considering a chemical product, but I don't mind some "uglies" in my tank at any time, since the war for control is natural.
Someone with experience with chemical control would need to answer to that.

Should I add some drops of ammonia so I have high nitrates in water?

I also would not recommend adding ammonia, as it will likely just fuel an algae outbreak in place of the dinoflagellates.

 

[marcosnano]

Thank you!

What about blackout if I remove corals to QT tank, QT tank has heater, airstone and AI HD light I'm using in my DT?

 

[Soren]

Thank you!

What about blackout if I remove corals to QT tank, QT tank has heater, airstone and AI HD light I'm using in my DT?

I don't have any direct advice on blackout due to no firsthand experience.
It seems a safe-enough option to consider if you remove the corals to a QT, but the underlying issue allowing the algae and dinoflagellates to grow will not be solved by blackout only, so they are likely to show up again after the blackout period.

It takes time for an ecosystem to stabilize.

 

[Reefbeast]

Im no expert but if it were me I would just scrape as much of the gunk off as I could and do a good water change of about 40%. I would continue doing water changes of about 25% every week after that to see if it made a difference.

 

[marcosnano]

Im no expert but if it were me I would just scrape as much of the gunk off as I could and do a good water change of about 40%. I would continue doing water changes of about 25% every week after that to see if it made a difference.

Many people will say not to perform WC for a while, a system needs to balance itself out.

 

[Reefbeast]

Yeah I know they will I've heard that before. But this is just my opinion its just how I would try and tackle it compared to more aggressive approaches. I personally do a lot of water changes on my nano. Weekly 25% even when it was going through the uglies. I believe it will balance out even while doing weekly water changes. Again just IMO

 

[Dweezilz]

It's really impossible to say what the brown algae is but fuzzy brown and bubbles on the ends is not a great sign. It's not a horrible thing either even if Dinos. Yes, do get a small inexpensive microscope from Amazon as it's literally the only way to know what exactly you are dealing with. Otherwise just doing random things can be a waste of time or worse, just bad. Not all dinos respond to the same treatment so it's critical to know what it is. Might be something else too. Throwing a bunch of stuff on the wall to see what sticks is just going to be frustrating for you. The microscope is easy and actually fun and addictive once you see all the other microscopic creatures besides the dinos! Get the Dino ID pdf and use the microscope and lookup remedies for what you find if it's dinos. You can even get a cheap microscope mount for your phone to take pictures and video.

 

[marcosnano]

Thanks @Dweezilz. Any recommendation for a low cost microscope from Amazon?

 

[Dweezilz]

Thanks @Dweezilz. Any recommendation for a low cost microscope from Amazon?

I got a swift sw200DL for about 85 but you can also find a similar Amscope on Amazon warehouse deals for 45-60.