Algae or bacteria?

[JohnnyTabasco]

Hey I'm not sure what I'm dealing with here.
It's a hazy film on the rocks it dosen't come off if i scrub it or blow on it.
I suspect biopelletes could be the cause.
I have 0 fish in the tank.

My tank is about two years and is around 80 liter ( 20-25 gallons)
Po4 is <0,15 (using the Hanna high range - so I'm not a 100% sure)
No3 is 4
alk is 8,5 - 9
cal is 455
mag is 1350

I have 45 ml of all in one biopelletes. I had 60 ml before that but I brought it down as the algae/bacteria started.
I also dose 10 drops of vinegar now, but I just started that, so I don't think that's the cause..
I use 30 ml carbon in a mesh.
I dose 2 ml of that red sea coral algae stuff to keep up with my alk.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Looks like a common slime algae or chrystophyte.
Most often it's not seen as snails clean it up pretty quickly.
Yes the carbon source will feed it too.

Not blowing off or scrubbing off also make me think it's confirmation of an algae rather than a bacteria.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What is the purpose of making this distinction between algae and bacteria?

 

[JohnnyTabasco]

What is the purpose of making this distinction between algae and bacteria?

Might be easier to fix if I know what it is.
I heard of others getting cyano and other bacterial related problems from bio pellets.

 

[rck329]

I believe I have the same thing and I believe it is the brown algae Ectocarpus. At least, that's what it looks like to me under the microscope. Other threads have mentioned Chrysophates, but I haven't been able to pick that out from the various samples around the tank I've put under the microscope.

Mine thrives on low nutrients and seemed to worsen when I was carbon dosing (Zeovit system). Zeo also seems to add a lot of silicates to the tank from the stones so I'm not sure if that was something that was feeding them, but I did have them before Zeo so not causative.

They have been a very difficult to battle - manual removal, but they seem to come right back. I do have one astrea snail that eats it so I would try some of those - and probably from various sources because they may be hit or miss.

I'm in the process of upgrading tanks, so I've been experimenting while I take my current tank down. Feels like I'm making some headway. Here's what I've done:

- discontinued Zeovit/carbon and went back to GFO.
- feed heavier and more consistently (there are some cyano ramifications from this, but I find cyano much easier to deal with)
- raised my lights (MH/T5 combo) - actually did this when I started to remove rock from the tank for ease of access - the algae seemed to darken which I feel like is the right direction (complete hunch)
- my sole brown algae eating astrea snail - wish I could clone him - but he's really taken a liking to the darker form and is eating it on my overflow. And where he has eaten, it hasn't come back so I think he's getting the fast holds too.


on rocks (it's everywhere too)

under microscope

on overflow and darkened from lighting changes - you can see the portion at the top that my astrea snail has eaten

 

[JohnnyTabasco]

I believe I have the same thing and I believe it is the brown algae Ectocarpus. At least, that's what it looks like to me under the microscope. Other threads have mentioned Chrysophates, but I haven't been able to pick that out from the various samples around the tank I've put under the microscope.

Mine thrives on low nutrients and seemed to worsen when I was carbon dosing (Zeovit system). Zeo also seems to add a lot of silicates to the tank from the stones so I'm not sure if that was something that was feeding them, but I did have them before Zeo so not causative.

They have been a very difficult to battle - manual removal, but they seem to come right back. I do have one astrea snail that eats it so I would try some of those - and probably from various sources because they may be hit or miss.

I'm in the process of upgrading tanks, so I've been experimenting while I take my current tank down. Feels like I'm making some headway. Here's what I've done:

- discontinued Zeovit/carbon and went back to GFO.
- feed heavier and more consistently (there are some cyano ramifications from this, but I find cyano much easier to deal with)
- raised my lights (MH/T5 combo) - actually did this when I started to remove rock from the tank for ease of access - the algae seemed to darken which I feel like is the right direction (complete hunch)
- my sole brown algae eating astrea snail - wish I could clone him - but he's really taken a liking to the darker form and is eating it on my overflow. And where he has eaten, it hasn't come back so I think he's getting the fast holds too.


on rocks (it's everywhere too)

under microscope

on overflow and darkened from lighting changes - you can see the portion at the top that my astrea snail has eaten

Great stuff. Thanks... I have some zeo stones in my sump. I will try to pull them out first.
I'm not sure I understand why you feed heavy? If the algae thrive in low nutrient water, don't you think they will thrive in high nutrient water?

 

[rck329]

Well, the increased feeding was more because my SPS are pale. Combined with the other things it hasn't caused a problem though.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

There are a few folks working with Dino's and chrystos using nitrate and phosphate dosing to remove them.

There appears to be a huge difference between the feeding strategy between these and typical green red algaes where nutrint reduction is oft reccomended.

 

[rck329]

Did you always have zero fish in the tank? Why dosing vinegar? Were you having problems with nitrates?