Cyano? Spirulina? Chrysophyte?

[Jlahr16]

Well I have been battling what I thought was initially Dinos, because it just seems so common these days, but after getting my microscope in the mail today I cant seem to find that ID. Though I'm not entirely sure exactly what I am looking at. I was never really good with science, I am just an electrician (looking at you twillard ).

The tank has a nice reddish/brownish slimy algae, but no bubbles like "typical" dino's seem to form. The tank is a little over a year old, very lightly stocked with a few frags (duncans, some zoas and some nice slime algae) as well as 3 small fish (royal gramma, clownfish, and a blue chromis) and a fire shrimp. The frags were recently transferred over from a qt tank so for about a year the feedings have been pretty light in the tank but I have recently upped my feedings hoping to raise my nitrate/phosphate naturally. I do not run GAC or GFO, just a simple filter sock/Chaeto/skimmer setup.

I have 1pmm nitrate (nyos)
0ppb phosphate (hanna ulr checker) which lead me to initially believe this was dinos.
Salinity 35ppt,
alk was low at 6.7dkh (hanna dkh) but started brs 2 part alkalinity dosing tonight and brought it up to 7.7 on initial dose, will do another tomorrow to bring it up towards 9dkh.
Calcium is 464 (hanna checker) so I am not currently dosing this part of the 2part hoping alk raising will lower this a bit.
Mg is at 1600 (out of date Red Sea test kit by 1 month, new one arrives tomorrow)
Temp is 77.2-78.4 throughout the day.

Here are some pictures of the tank and microscope findings at different magnifications from 400x-1000x

2 days after water change/Vaccum:

 

[Dr Jen]

There are diatoms there. Not sure what the filamentous algae is, maybe cyanobacteria

 

[Gareth elliott]

Looks like cyano from the microscopic pictures.

The 0 phosphate might be assisting the microalagae. Would get above zero .01-.1. You can siphon off what you see during a water change.

If you chaeto isnt growing after a week of increased phosphate considering dosing iron.

 

[40B Knasty]

Take about 2oz of tank water. Place it in a white bowl. Place some of the bacteria in the tank water. Put about a 1/2oz of H²O²(hydrogen peroxide) 3%. Let it sit for 24hrs. If the bacteria turns green and the water tints a red. It is a spirulina cyanobacteria. If the bacteria stays that reddish-brown you have cyanobacteria.

 

[Subsea]

Good to know the name of algae. What is the solution?

 

[40B Knasty]

Good to know the name of algae. What is the solution?

For cyanobacteria you can always increase the flow so it has trouble latching on to each other. Frequent water changes siphoning the sand bed. Clean out sponges/filter floss/filter sock(s) daily. It can take awhile to work its way out of system. Took my cyanobacteria bloom 3 months. I did try Red Slime Remover, but it did not work and killed 2 corals and almost my flame angel. That stuff depletes O² like you would not believe and you never want to deplete O² from the water. I had taken every precaution and thank God I did. It still wasn't enough to be safe for a tanks inhabitants. I removed it all the 2nd day. Big water change and carbon. Otherwise I would have lost more.
I seen a veteran of the hobby talking about how everyone runs for the quick instant gratification. These are just all ugly phases of the hobby and the tank finding it's balance. I could not agree more. Some take longer than others. Do what you can naturally to assist it out of the system to the balance is found.
Another thing I used to do was take some filter floss and place that in a fish net. Kick up the sand bed and collect as much as I could swishing the fish net back and forth in the water column. The floss acts like a mechanical filtration.

 

[Subsea]

For cyanobacteria you can always increase the flow so it has trouble latching on to each other. Frequent water changes siphoning the sand bed. Clean out sponges/filter floss/filter sock(s) daily. It can take awhile to work its way out of system. Took my cyanobacteria bloom 3 months. I did try Red Slime Remover, but it did not work and killed 2 corals and almost my flame angel. That stuff depletes O² like you would not believe and you never want to deplete O² from the water. I had taken every precaution and thank God I did. It still wasn't enough to be safe for a tanks inhabitants. I removed it all the 2nd day. Big water change and carbon. Otherwise I would have lost more.
I seen a veteran of the hobby talking about how everyone runs for the quick instant gratification. These are just all ugly phases of the hobby and the tank finding it's balance. I could not agree more. Some take longer than others. Do what you can naturally to assist it out of the system to the balance is found.
Another thing I used to do was take some filter floss and place that in a fish net. Kick up the sand bed and collect as much as I could swishing the fish net back and forth in the water column. The floss acts like a mechanical filtration.

Often, cynobacteria & nuisance hair algae thrive with low nitrogen conditions. Considering that macro algae combines carbon/nitrogen/Phosphate in the ratio of 560/30/1, I dose ammonia to promote macro competition. I consider cyno as a bioindicator for phosphate, when cyno shows itself and I use phosphate removal resin.

 

[Jlahr16]

Wow thank you for all the insight, I will definitely try the peroxide test tonight when I’m home from work, will other algae such as gha outcompete cyano? Or is it typically the other way around? I have some new greenish algae growth on the rocks ever since I upped feedings

 

[Gareth elliott]

Wow thank you for all the insight, I will definitely try the peroxide test tonight when I’m home from work, will other algae such as gha outcompete cyano? Or is it typically the other way around? I have some new greenish algae growth on the rocks ever since I upped feedings

Cyano is great at pulling nutrients out of limited resources. In these instances cyano tends to win out. Once there is more nutrients more complex organisms tend to outcompete.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I've battle cyano for years and what's really helped when all else fails is not touching the sandbed. Too often when setting up a tank, we think keeping the sandbed clean by turning it over and stirring up the detritus keeps organics and nutrients from building up. We we forget is the purpose of a sandbed to begin with. I don't really want to get into the science behind sandbed refugiums that house biodiversity and anerobic bacteria but if we keep disturbing the sand, this little sandbed environment (if you will) will never establish.

You can stir the top layer to remove cyano but don't turn over the entire sandbed. Doing this with some nitrate dosings and you'll see some improvement.

Here are some images where you see the cyano literally turn green and start to disappear on its own. Very limited interaction on my part.

 

[Jlahr16]

So I was able to put together the cyano/spirulina test before leaving for work this morning. I used 2oz of tank water, some of the reddish/brown algae strands and I added 1/2oz h2o2 3%. Tonight when I got home the algae has already turned green, though the water does not seem to be tinted red

 

[reeferfoxx]

So I was able to put together the cyano/spirulina test before leaving for work this morning. I used 2oz of tank water, some of the reddish/brown algae strands and I added 1/2oz h2o2 3%. Tonight when I got home the algae has already turned green, though the water does not seem to be tinted red

Sorry, I missed if you were asking which one it was. Your microscope pictures show spirulina.

 

[Jlahr16]

Sorry, I missed if you were asking which one it was. Your microscope pictures show spirulina.

Thanks for the clarification so whats the protocol to fight this stuff? From the small info I've been able to gather it looks like 1.5x recommended dosing of chemiclean?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thanks for the clarification so whats the protocol to fight this stuff? From the small info I've been able to gather it looks like 1.5x recommended dosing of chemiclean?

Sure. Or just leave the tank alone for a couple months. Maintain water changes and keep your hands out of the tank. Look into elevating nitrates. Should be good to go.

 

[Stanzo13]

I've battle cyano for years and what's really helped when all else fails is not touching the sandbed. Too often when setting up a tank, we think keeping the sandbed clean by turning it over and stirring up the detritus keeps organics and nutrients from building up. We we forget is the purpose of a sandbed to begin with. I don't really want to get into the science behind sandbed refugiums that house biodiversity and anerobic bacteria but if we keep disturbing the sand, this little sandbed environment (if you will) will never establish.

You can stir the top layer to remove cyano but don't turn over the entire sandbed. Doing this with some nitrate dosings and you'll see some improvement.

Here are some images where you see the cyano literally turn green and start to disappear on its own. Very limited interaction on my part.

I get that this is often considered a problem but I think that looks beautiful (for algea)

 

[reeferfoxx]

I've battle cyano for years and what's really helped when all else fails is not touching the sandbed. Too often when setting up a tank, we think keeping the sandbed clean by turning it over and stirring up the detritus keeps organics and nutrients from building up. We we forget is the purpose of a sandbed to begin with. I don't really want to get into the science behind sandbed refugiums that house biodiversity and anerobic bacteria but if we keep disturbing the sand, this little sandbed environment (if you will) will never establish.

You can stir the top layer to remove cyano but don't turn over the entire sandbed. Doing this with some nitrate dosings and you'll see some improvement.

Here are some images where you see the cyano literally turn green and start to disappear on its own. Very limited interaction on my part.

Excuse the dirty glass, but you can see here where the cyano is making it's departure.