Algae identification help - microscope pictures included

[Viking_Reefing]

Hi guys! I’m dealing with a situation that has me scratching my head…and completely new to me even after 20+ years of reefing.

If you have a look at the below thread I detail my setup, nutrient levels, ICP tests etc etc

Extremely fast algae growth in glass…for no reason?

Hi there! I’m actually kind of stumped when it comes to this situation and it’s something I’ve never dealt with in over two decades of reefing. Since transferring over to this system (almost two years ago) I’ve, for the most part, been dealing with very fast algae growth on the glass. Now, it’s...

www.reef2reef.com

Anyways, I scraped some of this crap of a side panel where I let it grow wild. I figured that if I let it mature I would have an easier time finding a positive ID. It basically starts of like a light brown/green dusting and ends up like this:

Here are pictures under different magnifications:

Any idea of what the heck this stuff is? It has lately also started affecting the sand bed.

 

[Dan_P]

Hi guys! I’m dealing with a situation that has me scratching my head…and completely new to me even after 20+ years of reefing.

If you have a look at the below thread I detail my setup, nutrient levels, ICP tests etc etc

Extremely fast algae growth in glass…for no reason?

Hi there! I’m actually kind of stumped when it comes to this situation and it’s something I’ve never dealt with in over two decades of reefing. Since transferring over to this system (almost two years ago) I’ve, for the most part, been dealing with very fast algae growth on the glass. Now, it’s...

www.reef2reef.com

Anyways, I scraped some of this crap of a side panel where I let it grow wild. I figured that if I let it mature I would have an easier time finding a positive ID. It basically starts of like a light brown/green dusting and ends up like this:

Here are pictures under different magnifications:

Any idea of what the heck this stuff is? It has lately also started affecting the sand bed.

Microscope photos not clear enough to make a positive ID. Visually, the growth looks like short filaments. The last photomicrograph looks as if the organism consists of a chain of cells. Diatoms and I think also cyanobacteria can do this. There might also be quite a bit of other microorganisms making a home amongst the chained organism. @taricha?

 

[taricha]

I like diatoms as the explanation, too. They can do this zigzag sort of chain occasionally.
it also fits that there's a nice path of snail grazing on this glass....

This is what the glass looks after about two days:

 

[exnisstech]

Following.