Algea Identification

[Aub_C]

Hello all,

Can anyone confirm that these are indeed Dinos? The tank has been cycled for a few months now and things were doing great. I had a ton of coralline growing then I had a really bad algea outbreak that has taken over my coarl, rocks and substrate. I think I have things under control now. The LFS diagnosed as Diatoms, but I wasn't so sure. I started taking actions for Dinos. I removed carbon, GFO, turned off skimmer, and picked up on feeding. I think I've slowed it down, today I'm not seeing the large daily growth as I was in the last week or so. The microscope came today so I thought I'd like to get a positive ID. Thanks in advance.

PH 8.12
TMP 77
ALK 8.5
CA 441
MA 1396
NITRATE 2
PHO undetectable, trying to raise.

 

[Saltyreef]

This unfortunately looks like Dinos.

 

[vetteguy53081]

They are dinos. This is what i always recommend which works:
Blow loose with a turkey baster. It will capture and clean more surface area. Here is full program:
Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15%) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5nights. If you dont have light dependant coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

 

[Aub_C]

They are dinos. This is what i always recommebnd which works:
Blow loose with a turkey baster. It will capture and clean more surface area. Here is full program:
Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15%) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5nights. If you dont have light dependant coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Thank you!! I will start the program. Whoops, I fed reefroids last night trying to get the phos up a bit. I hope that didnt do more harm. I have acros and other sps in my tank. I'm not sure, maybe 72 hours lights out instead of 5 days?

 

[Aub_C]

Happy to say I am finally Dino free!!

I have cleaner shrimp so I was hesitant to dose Hydrogen Peroxide. I did dose Hydrogen Peroxide, but for only 3 nights. It did seem to help even though it was a short time and my shrimp are still healthy.

I never did do full blackout, but I did cut back on lighting just a bit. I raised the temp in the tank to 82 degrees, shut off the skimmer, I stopped water changes, and dosed Aquavitro Seed for several days until the bottle was gone. I was still having a pretty bad breakouts daily.

After picking up feeding, my phosphates were still undetectable by the Salifert tests and my nitrates were around 2 PPM. I decided I was going to dose to bring those numbers up. I ordered some MEcoral Phosphate and MEcoral Nitrate. A few days later I dosed PO3 one time, but I dosed PO4 for several days, testing many times. The PO4 was still undetectable, and still is today.

After a couple more days of blowing off my corals with the baster and siphoning out the algae into a filter sock and changing the socks every time, I started to notice that the algae was no longer re-producing. the next couple of days I was having bacteria blooms from what I thinks was from the Seed.

I decided that is was time to turn my skimmer back on. I had an instant frothy green mess. I had to dump the skimmer several times that day. The next day, the tank was back to as if the Dinos were never there.

I did loose a couple corals, but it could have been much worse. Another thing, I had corraline growing pretty rapidly before the outbreak, 3/4 of the coralline has died and is no longer growing. Just white spots on my rocks now. I'm hoping it starts growing again. I'll be sending out an ATI test today.