This algae has been with me for a few months. This zoanthid is definitely the epicenter. The algae is thickest directly on the zoa's tissue. It's spreading to the sandbed in the vicinity, but it's not really anywhere else in the tank. It almost completely disappears overnight - everything on the sand bed goes away and the only thing that remains is the long stringy bit on the zoa, and it comes back during the day. It hasn't responded to chemiclean.
Algae ID
- Thread starter jgranata13
- Start date
- Tagged users None
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
Agree. Try to increase flow over the zoa.
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
Can you take a pic with white light. Also can you post your parameters.
Google dinoflagellates.
A hobby microscope will give you a definitive answer
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
Ive had cyano do that. Cyano on zoas would make them less than happy
Subsea
5000 Club Member
Their are many, many differrent species of cyno. Your description points toward cyno. Remove rock and soak in a 10% solutipn of peroxide. Vacuume sandbed and any rocks.
Does it blow off easily?
Ok here’s a more thorough explanation and another vid.
Whatever this is is coming on the heels of a long algae battle that went on for six months. First it was chrysophytes, which I treated and eradicated with Vibrant. As that went away, dinos took over, which had come in on a frag that I purchased not too long before (not speculation; its confirmed that that *was* the source). I got rid of them with another (really aggressive - I’m talking 20x the recommended dose) course of Vibrant combined with a two week blackout.
At this point I should mention that the only corals I have right now are an anemone and that zoa colony. If I had more, I would’ve been a lot more careful with the vibrant and blackout. I ratcheted the dose up slowly and only kept going because the fish looked totally unaffected.
I do think that such an aggressive treatment screwed up the ecological balance of the system. For one, all the fan worms on my rock died off. This is to say that things are out of whack and still stabilizing.
And now we come to whatever this algae is. I agree that it looks like cyano, but I’m having a hard time reconciling that with the fact that it’s not spreading. This morning I looked under different lighting, and it turns out that the algae on the sand is just diatoms; it’s not the same as whatever’s growing on the zoa. So to be clear, it’s really only growing on the zoa tissue itself. Moreover, params are great: undetectable nitrate, phosphate 0.02ppm, mag 1350, alk 7.5, calcium 450, salinity 0.26, temp 78. I have an apex, and dosing system so these are all super stable. Regarding flow around the zoa, it’s directly in the path of one of my MP10’s. A few inches away from the zoa (on the other side of it from where the MP10 iS) is a ridge of sand created by the flow. I don’t think flow is an issue there.
Last night I also found two patches of a white slimy substance growing out of the sand bed near the zoa. It’s shown in the vid below. The lighting in the vid is a little strange (room light and iPhone flash), but to the eye this slime is WHITE. Like paper. There’s also a closeup of the algae on the zoa.
What do you guys think about the white stuff, Also, does any of this new info change the ID? I’m gonna take out the zoa colony later today and try to remove the algae and then dip.
Whatever this is is coming on the heels of a long algae battle that went on for six months. First it was chrysophytes, which I treated and eradicated with Vibrant. As that went away, dinos took over, which had come in on a frag that I purchased not too long before (not speculation; its confirmed that that *was* the source). I got rid of them with another (really aggressive - I’m talking 20x the recommended dose) course of Vibrant combined with a two week blackout.
At this point I should mention that the only corals I have right now are an anemone and that zoa colony. If I had more, I would’ve been a lot more careful with the vibrant and blackout. I ratcheted the dose up slowly and only kept going because the fish looked totally unaffected.
I do think that such an aggressive treatment screwed up the ecological balance of the system. For one, all the fan worms on my rock died off. This is to say that things are out of whack and still stabilizing.
And now we come to whatever this algae is. I agree that it looks like cyano, but I’m having a hard time reconciling that with the fact that it’s not spreading. This morning I looked under different lighting, and it turns out that the algae on the sand is just diatoms; it’s not the same as whatever’s growing on the zoa. So to be clear, it’s really only growing on the zoa tissue itself. Moreover, params are great: undetectable nitrate, phosphate 0.02ppm, mag 1350, alk 7.5, calcium 450, salinity 0.26, temp 78. I have an apex, and dosing system so these are all super stable. Regarding flow around the zoa, it’s directly in the path of one of my MP10’s. A few inches away from the zoa (on the other side of it from where the MP10 iS) is a ridge of sand created by the flow. I don’t think flow is an issue there.
Last night I also found two patches of a white slimy substance growing out of the sand bed near the zoa. It’s shown in the vid below. The lighting in the vid is a little strange (room light and iPhone flash), but to the eye this slime is WHITE. Like paper. There’s also a closeup of the algae on the zoa.
What do you guys think about the white stuff, Also, does any of this new info change the ID? I’m gonna take out the zoa colony later today and try to remove the algae and then dip.
Subsea
5000 Club Member
It dodsn’t matter which algae it is, hydrogen peroxide will kill it.
Sounds good; will try. Thanks
Update: before taking out and dipping the whole frag, I harvested what I could with tweezers to do some tests. The “algae” itself did not react whatsoever to being dropped in 100% hydrogen peroxide for half an hour. Could it be something else altogether like a fungus?
