Dinos, Cyano or? Any idea what this stuff might be?

[islander84]

Its like a thick slime/sheet algae or something, never seen this stuff before. Snails and tangs eat it but it won’t go away regardless of nutrients.

 

[Hemmdog]

What are your nutrient levels? Maybe dinos of some kind. That looks bad

 

[islander84]

Hanna Phosphorus- 5ppb / 0.015ppm

API NO3 - 0

I dosed KNO3 a couple months ago but stopped because all my corals faded and then STN

 

[islander84]

Tank has been running for a little over a year. Started with dry rock and dry sand.... 9 fish and lots of poop. Tangs eat that stuff all day long so there is an abundance of tang poop. Problem I have with that stuff is it keeps my rocks covered preventing corraline from growing. And of course it looks bad

 

[islander84]

I’ve had dinos in the past but this stuff is completely different.

 

[islander84]

Does anyone know what it could be? Going to order a microscope this week and see what it looks like magnified.

 

[Dan_P]

Its like a thick slime/sheet algae or something, never seen this stuff before. Snails and tangs eat it but it won’t go away regardless of nutrients.

The green fuzzy stuff looks like hair algae. Picture of rock is not in focus enough to see what is growing.

 

[islander84]

The green stuff is part of the overall algae or whatever it is. Its not stringy like hair algae but rather a slimy layer of sheet algae or something.

 

[RyanSweet]

Looks like either green film algae or calothrix to me

 

[canadianeh]

GHA = Green hair algae

Get few emerald crab

 

[islander84]

Looks like either green film algae or calothrix to me

After looking at some what shows up in search as calothrix, I’m pretty sure that’s what I have. Other searches indicate it could also possibly be Lyngbya? Or maybe they are the same thing because of confusion..... Thank you for the response!

 

[RyanSweet]

After looking at some what shows up in search as calothrix, I’m pretty sure that’s what I have. Other searches indicate it could also possibly be Lyngbya? Or maybe they are the same thing because of confusion..... Thank you for the response!

Lyngbya is usually more stalky (if that is the correct description). Calothrix is very commonly mistaken for both Dino’s and cyano as it can grow in multiple colors including green, brown, and red. Hope this helps, best way to fight calothrix is nutrient control, flow will help a little but not as much.

 

[islander84]

Its kind-of a greenish brown and almost transparent. Definitely not stalky and more of a thick film