Diatom or algae?

[kevin n]

Tank been up for about 8 weeks now.
parameters are:
alk 8.5, test with hanna.
cal 430, red sea test kit
mg 1300, with salifert
nitrate cant be detected right now, test with red sea test kit
phosphate 0, cant be detected right now, test with salifert
ammonia 0, went down from 8 to 0 from week 3-4, tested with api
TDS = 0

I'm unsure if this is diatom or algae? This has been going on since I've added the light roughly about 4 weeks ago.

 

[JaimeAdams]

I can't tell frop, the pics, but have you compared it to pictures of dinoflaggelates?

 

[PlanktonB]

I can't tell frop, the pics, but have you compared it to pictures of dinoflaggelates?

I did tried to compare this algae against the algae guide but I’m unable to pin point it. I have a microscope coming tomorrow to help narrow this down. But as of right now I did try to pull some out by hand, and this is what I got. These came from the green algae rock picture 1.

 

[SurfLife]

I have a microscope coming tomorrow to help narrow this down.

That is your best bet. They are not too difficult to identify using a microscope. Know what you have before attacking.. is what I learned recently. Had more than one person tell me that I had without a doubt, Dino in my tank based on pictures. It was not. Almost made big mistakes with my plans to treat something I never had.
Good Luck, will be interested in what your results are.

 

[PlanktonB]

That is your best bet. They are not too difficult to identify using a microscope. Know what you have before attacking.. is what I learned recently. Had more than one person tell me that I had without a doubt, Dino in my tank based on pictures. It was not. Almost made big mistakes with my plans to treat something I never had.
Good Luck, will be interested in what your results are.

 

[PlanktonB]

I still don’t know what it is...

 

[Turbonut]

It’ Mostly looks like algae. However I mite see a few Dino in there. Can you get a better pic?

 

[PlanktonB]

It’ Mostly looks like algae. However I mite see a few Dino in there. Can you get a better pic?

The microscope is terrible! But I will give it another try when I get back home. I just need to identify what type of algae it is for treatment. I started GFO yesterday just incahse my phosphate is undectable.

 

[PlanktonB]

The microscope is terrible! But I will give it another try when I get back home. I just need to identify what type of algae it is for treatment. I started GFO yesterday just incahse my phosphate is undectable.

 

[Town-916]

This does not look like the diatom that I have gotten in the past .

 

[Turbonut]

This does not look like the diatom that I have gotten in the past .

That is not diatom that is some sort of algae

 

[User1]

You can do a quick search to compare what diatoms are compared to what you are showing. What you have here isn't diatoms which are brown. Some form of green algae though - just not exactly sure what. You can also search a bit on marine algae or reef tank cycle algae and compare. I am having a diatom outbreak now with my 210 that recently completed its cycle and merging of my 40 breeder into it. Once I moved the smaller tank to its now home and kicked on the lighting it started - as well has some of the higher Nitrates and phosphates I'm dealing with. All part of the new tank and cycle - small clean up crew is in route to help along with what I already had while I work on the smaller water changes and basic husbandry skills like remembering to rinse frozen food, etc.

 

[O'l Salty]

I see a few Dino's in the microscope. They are a golden/brown and oval shaped. When you prepare the slide don't squish it too firmly together as you can rupture them and then it just looks like a mess. Movement is important in identifying the type of Dino' so keep an eye on that.

 

[User1]

Here are a couple examples of diatoms - I have a bloom inbound that is part of my cycle finishing. Cycle finished first week of March. Tank was more or less idle with lights off till April 7th or so. I started up skimmer then lightings and moved my 40 breeder over around the 15th. Heading into May 1st I'm starting the diatom bloom. Light brown, covers sand and rocks, moves when I apply water pressure from a turkey baster - it is a dust effect. Snails are eating it and it is related to new tank, higher Nitrates, and of course phosphates. I did a water change yesterday and will do another over the weekend.

Right now I'm sort of just riding it out and happily waiting for the hair algae outburst next. I know it is there but has long has everything is healthy I'm cool. I know a few of my hammers are not happy so may have to be dumped. I had 4 large 15" or so pieces but moving them was a pain and several broke. Those that broke are these and they are not happy. I'm not too worried about it but will have to improve my handling next time I guess. More to learn.

Anyway I tried to highlight or point with red arrows. Hopefully you can see some of the brown. The rock on the upper right, first/top image is brown anyway so not as much diatoms per say but they are there. Others you can see snail track, dusting of brown, etc.

 

[chevegan]

some kind of algae or diatom. I don't think dino's. When I ran a sample of my dino's through the microscope all I could see were moving oval bacteria. Yours is a combination of algae and diatoms from what I could tell. Also it's only in low flow areas throughout the tank. If it's not proliferating or hurting any corals I wouldn't let it bother me. It's only ugly to reefkeepers. Ever go diving? it's everywhere lol. How long has it been there? Has it progressively been getting worse? Do you have a Fuge with chaeto or other macro to suck up extra nutrients?

Try a 3 day blackout. Works WONDERS as a routine btw.