Algae ID? Im a bit confused.

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

I've had what i thought was green hair algae growing strong on my rockwork for the past 3 months probably and its just progressively gotten worse and worse. I have a patch of green hair algae in another tank and it looks similar but the more this stuff grows it is starting to appear more brownish.

Anyone have an idea what this is? I posted some photos of the other tank(the one with a smaller amount of algae) so that you can see the difference between the appearance in the two types of algae.

Tank 1 is the one i am confused on.

 

[andrewey]

Picture 1: GHA
Picture 2/video (Tank 1): Likely Dinos, Cyanobacteria, or a mix of the two. I'm leaning towards cyanobacteria.

 

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

Picture 1: GHA
Picture 2/video (Tank 1): Likely Dinos, Cyanobacteria, or a mix of the two. I'm leaning towards cyanobacteria.

Hmm ill have to do some test i mean it grows on my corals and they havent had any major issues and it is pretty stringy. Ive had cyano before in other tanks and it has always been pretty pink/maroon and doesnt string out like this stuff.

Also i considered dynos but nothing is having major issues aside from some snails and an emerald dying off recently. Plus my nitrates are pretty high and my understanding is dynos show up when nitrates zero out

 

[andrewey]

I wouldn't use the levels of nitrates to rule in or out dinos. I've had dinos when my nitrates were 50 . The fact that you're having snail die off should definitely point you to at least entertaining dinos. You should try and do the coffee filter test if you haven't already (although a microscope would instantly solve this conundrum!).

 

[Bnichols124]

Feeding to heavy or not a sufficient filter (fuge/reactor/media) to manage phosphate and nitrate input of the tank

 

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

Hmm ill have to do some test i mean it grows on my corals and they havent had any major issues and it is pretty stringy. Ive had cyano before in other tanks and it has always been pretty pink/maroon and doesnt string out like this stuff.

Also i considered dynos but nothing is having major issues aside from some snails and an emerald dying off recently. Plus my nitrates are pretty high and my understanding is dynos show up when nitrates zero out

Feeding to heavy or not a sufficient filter (fuge/reactor/media) to manage phosphate and nitrate input of the tank

Ok but what kinda algae/bacteria do you recon this is? I try to be stingy on feeding the tank but i did recently have to clean my fuge out and havent gotten my hands on more macro. I popped a protein skimmer in the meantime but ill probably have to hop on getting more asap

 

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

I wouldn't use the levels of nitrates to rule in or out dinos. I've had dinos when my nitrates were 50 . The fact that you're having snail die off should definitely point you to at least entertaining dinos. You should try and do the coffee filter test if you haven't already (although a microscope would instantly solve this conundrum!).

Ok ill go ahead and try that out it looks kinda like dynos the more i go back and look pictures of dynos

 

[Bnichols124]

I'd personally treat it like cyano as its easier to treat. If not move on to treating dinos, will need a microscope to identify what dino it is and corse of treatment. I beat dinos with micro bubbling and adding a urchin take out my ulva explosion. The other algea is gha. The gha could be consuming all nutrients feeding the dinos.

 

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

I'd personally treat it like cyano as its easier to treat. If not move on to treating dinos, will need a microscope to identify what dino it is and corse of treatment. I beat dinos with micro bubbling and adding a urchin take out my ulva explosion. The other algea is gha. The gha could be consuming all nutrients feeding the dinos.

So i test fairly regular some stuff i test daily and multiple times a day and others i test every few days or weekly.

Tested this morning and here is how i was sitting.

NIT: 15PPM
PHOS: .01-.02
CAL: 450
MAG: 1300
SAL: 1.025

I went through and siphoned as much as i could from the rock work and pulled it from my tank. It looks like a lot of the undergrowth of this stuff is greenhair algae and now dinos are growing all through it.

I did the ole coffee filter test and i came back with some snotty looking substance that formed back up in the filtered water.

I have been dosing vibrant weekly for the past 2 weeks im thinking i may up the dose and possibly even the frequency. I also ordered some more sea lettuce from algae barn so hopefully i can keep the dinos out of my refugium but it looks like i do have some lingering around in here but currently i dont run the light in the refuge due to a lack of macro algae

 

[hyprc]

I have been dosing vibrant weekly for the past 2 weeks im thinking i may up the dose and possibly even the frequency. I also ordered some more sea lettuce from algae barn so hopefully i can keep the dinos out of my refugium but it looks like i do have some lingering around in here but currently i dont run the light in the refuge due to a lack of macro algae

Vibrant is likely why your inverts are dying off. I'd still stay it's worth keeping it up though. Does a number on most algae but may make your cyano worse (assuming it's not dinos), that's a problem you have to allow 'nature' to solve or azithromycin (with great caution/care).

Also Ideally, you want your phosphate a little bit higher, not much but a little. If it's a young system (less than 1.5 years) you're just gonna have to ride out some uglies. Worse to try and force them out, IMO.

 

[Bnichols124]

If i recall vibrant is know to leave you with cyano.

 

[hyprc]

If i recall vibrant is know to leave you with cyano.

Only if you haven't dealt with it properly in the past (using a bandaid like Chemiclean...). Cyano is in EVERY tank, it's a basic building block of the reef. It simply must be outcompeted. You can't just 'eliminate' it... Too many think of it as an algae. Its bacteria, granted, one that can photosynthesize which makes it interesting IMO heh.

 

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

Vibrant is likely why your inverts are dying off. I'd still stay it's worth keeping it up though. Does a number on most algae but may make your cyano worse (assuming it's not dinos), that's a problem you have to allow 'nature' to solve or azithromycin (with great caution/care).

Also Ideally, you want your phosphate a little bit higher, not much but a little. If it's a young system (less than 1.5 years) you're just gonna have to ride out some uglies. Worse to try and force them out, IMO.

Hey so i messed up im using the basic red sea phosphate kit that isnt really very precise. My phosphate is actually between 0.10-0.20 ppm (from what i seen online thats still kindof high)

 

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

Vibrant is likely why your inverts are dying off. I'd still stay it's worth keeping it up though. Does a number on most algae but may make your cyano worse (assuming it's not dinos), that's a problem you have to allow 'nature' to solve or azithromycin (with great caution/care).

Also Ideally, you want your phosphate a little bit higher, not much but a little. If it's a young system (less than 1.5 years) you're just gonna have to ride out some uglies. Worse to try and force them out, IMO.

Also im trying to hammer down when they started dying off but i think my conch snails and one of my turbos started dying before i dosed any vibrant. I think theyve progressively been dying faster since dosing vibrant but i also have tons of baby astrea snails that have popped up in the last month too so its weird some snails are doing better than others and even thriving

 

[TFD Live Reef Foods]

This is what im used to cyano looking like. I know the algaa/bacteria in question looks slightly red but it definitely looks a lot different from cyano outbreaks ive had in other tanks. The dinos im fairly certain are growing in here but i think they are growing over the top of gha. I did a massive cleaning last night so i will post a picture later today when lights turn on

 

[hyprc]

Hey so i messed up im using the basic red sea phosphate kit that isnt really very precise. My phosphate is actually between 0.10-0.20 ppm (from what i seen online thats still kindof high)

This is why I strongly recommend Salifert for all testing. That level of po4 isn't really an issue IMO. I'd want no3 a little higher with .10 to .20 po4 but it's not a HUGE deal (I recently had po4 go up to 3.0 due to a dosing error, nothing missed a beat). Cyano can grow on top of other algae and look weird so it's possible but getting it under a microscope and posting up good pics would allow the true 'biologists' on here to give you a positive ID on what you're dealing with. Again, time and patience is your friend and, unless you're losing valuable coral, I would try to 'keep your hands out of it' as much as possible. A young tank should be in the lower nutrient range (because you shouldn't have as much decaying organics and mature bacteria culture vs an older tank) to keep algae in check but again, time and patience is your friend.