Dinos........I think.

[Pennywise the Clown]

Okay, I have changed my light setting back to the BRS AB+ setting for my Hydras.
Today was the first day of the week I have been able to properly test my phosphates and Nitrates due to working throughout daylight hours. Result is zero phosphate and zero nitrate! I really don't get it. I am feeding my fish so much that they start to turn their noses up at the food I am putting in later in the day.
So I decided to check my Salifert kits on tap water, and they are working just fine.
On the plus side, my sand bed is 95% white with just very small patches of rust coloured algea/diatoms/whatever it is (doesn't look like dinos or cyano)
I am not doing anything extra special on the filtering front, just a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer and 1 litre of Syphorax in the sump.
I just don't get how my nutrients are so low?

 

[dwest]

Okay, I have changed my light setting back to the BRS AB+ setting for my Hydras.
Today was the first day of the week I have been able to properly test my phosphates and Nitrates due to working throughout daylight hours. Result is zero phosphate and zero nitrate! I really don't get it. I am feeding my fish so much that they start to turn their noses up at the food I am putting in later in the day.
So I decided to check my Salifert kits on tap water, and they are working just fine.
On the plus side, my sand bed is 95% white with just very small patches of rust coloured algea/diatoms/whatever it is (doesn't look like dinos or cyano)
I am not doing anything extra special on the filtering front, just a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer and 1 litre of Syphorax in the sump.
I just don't get how my nutrients are so low?

I had to remove my siporax to keep a measurable amount of nitrates. I removed mine over the course of 6 months or so, but I probably could have removed them all at once. Although I might have kept my siporax if my dinos went away like it appears yours have.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

This is what my overflow looks like now. If I raise my whites it looks greener than in the photo.
Nitrate levels are maybe 1 at most. Phosphates are roughly 0.05.
No sign of dinos and my 5 micron filter sock is not really removing anything at all at night.
I'm not sure on the way forward.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Lastly, though it is hard to see in the photo, the algae directly underneath the return nozzle contains a lot of air bubbles. I was letting the algae grow on my side glass but my OCD has gotten the better of me and I have cleaned it. It came off in sizeable sheets.
Definitely lastly, I have thousands of small white specs, which are hard, growing on the glass (some form of calciferous worm i think) and pineapple sponges growing in my sump.
I've not done a water change for nearly 2 weeks and I'm wondering if I should do one?
And should I carry on with the heavy feeding?

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Could one of the experts please look at the photo of my overflow above and comment on what is growing there?
And should I just let it grow if it is not anything nasty?

Thank you.

 

[dwest]

Could one of the experts please look at the photo of my overflow above and comment on what is growing there?
And should I just let it grow if it is not anything nasty?

Thank you.

I’m not an expert, but think you have mostly green hair algae with possibly some cyano, diatoms, and maybe even dinos. Did you scope it? I would keep doing what you are doing.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

The algae on the overflow and back wall of the DT has now turned brown. My snails are eating it so it is not toxic.
I'm still feeding a huge amount but my phosphate/nitrate are reading zero so I am assuming that whatever is growing on the back of my tank is consuming it. No sign of dinos.
I'm tempted to remove the ugly stuff and see what happens?

 

[dwest]

The algae on the overflow and back wall of the DT has now turned brown. My snails are eating it so it is not toxic.
I'm still feeding a huge amount but my phosphate/nitrate are reading zero so I am assuming that whatever is growing on the back of my tank is consuming it. No sign of dinos.
I'm tempted to remove the ugly stuff and see what happens?

If your snails are alive, that is great! I don’t see any harm in letting your cuc remove it or manual removal. Your call.

 

[Ray668]

Looks like green hair algae to me. Manually remove it. And then check nitrates. You will probably find nitrates to be higher cause the algae is consuming them. Good luck

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

If your snails are alive, that is great! I don’t see any harm in letting your cuc remove it or manual removal. Your call.

My snails are have been clearing a pretty big area on the back wall to the left of the overflow and have been happily munching away for probably 2 weeks now. There's only 3 of them so they've got their work cut out. I've got other types of snails but they stay on the rock work. I think it will have to be manual removal.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Looks like green hair algae to me. Manually remove it. And then check nitrates. You will probably find nitrates to be higher cause the algae is consuming them. Good luck

It was green as the picture shows. It's turned brown now for some reason.

 

[Ray668]

Your nitrates may of dropped which in turn the algae don’t have as much food and will start to die off

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Your nitrates may of dropped which in turn the algae don’t have as much food and will start to die off

I did think that could be the reason but the amount of food I am feeding it just doesn't make sense that my nitrates are zero.
I even switched my skimmer off for 24 hours and it didn't make a difference.

 

[Richgoose]

looks like you need a new powerhead. getting some flow through that area should help more than anything

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Well I feel so depressed. The problem is back and with a vengeance. It's now covering virtually my entire tank, sand rocks and corals and all this has happened in the last couple of days since I scrapped off what was growing on the back of the display. If I raise the whites on my hydras, the tank looks orange, a complete mess.
I've ordered some Seachem phosphorous and nitrogen to try and raise my levels as overfeeding was not doing anything.

 

[dwest]

Well I feel so depressed. The problem is back and with a vengeance. It's now covering virtually my entire tank, sand rocks and corals and all this has happened in the last couple of days since I scrapped off what was growing on the back of the display. If I raise the whites on my hydras, the tank looks orange, a complete mess.
I've ordered some Seachem phosphorous and nitrogen to try and raise my levels as overfeeding was not doing anything.

Sorry Steve. Sounds like you are trying the best next step. Good luck. Did you ever ID them or try UV?

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Sorry Steve. Sounds like you are trying the best next step. Good luck. Did you ever ID them or try UV?

I'm trying to borrow a microscope off a mate but buying one is not an option at the moment. Niether is getting a UV.
My lights have been off for an hour and I've just checked my sandbed under torchlight and it is lovely and clear. It's dinos, just not sure what type. Hopefully, now that I will have means to raise my nutrients, things might to start to get better.

 

[Quirkyturtle]

Any chance of an update here? I think my tank has the exact same issue. The pictures look exactly like my overflow.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Any chance of an update here? I think my tank has the exact same issue. The pictures look exactly like my overflow.

I'm still battling dinos unfortunately. At the moment I am dosing nitrates and phosphates and have started growing green algae and cyanobacteria but the dinos are still present. I will be installing a UV sterilizer later this week which I hope will finally see them off.

 

[Robert Binz]

I posted this on another part of the forum so apologies if you have seen it before.

My Reefer 250 is 5 months old. Apart from the usual diatom outbreak I have never had any algae other than having to clean the glass. My phosphates and nitrates have never registered a reading and I use Rowaphos.
About 14 days ago I did a deep clean of the sand bed and since then this rust brown algae has appeared and is getting worse.
It disappears over night and is back within an hour of the lights coming on. Yesterday I was sure that it was dinos, there was bubbles and stringy bits. Today though, it looks more like diatoms. It is only along the back of the tank, the front is clear.
I have also had a big out break of pineapple sponges in my sump. My fish seem healthy and my snails are still going strong.
My plan is to try and raise my phosphates and nitrates to encourage other algae to out compete the dinos, if indeed it is dinos.

It’s crystophytes