Dinos?

[MACHO]

Hello reefers. Today I bring something I haven’t seen in my aquarium I reset this tank three months ago dry rock and dry sand currently I have 0.08 po4 and no3 at 6.8 started off with diatoms then this stringy algae came at the 3 month mark no idea what it is. Any help would be appreciated. You can also see that the rocks look a very dark brown. This is a fairly high flow tank with high intensity lighting. Makes me think it’s gha but I’m not sure.

 

[Reffetsevla]

Pics with white only would help, does it produce air bubbles at all?

 

[MACHO]

Pics with white only would help, does it produce air bubbles at all?

I do see bubbles from time to time build up on the rock.

 

[MACHO]

Pics with white only would help, does it produce air bubbles at all?

Just couldn’t imagine it could be cyano or dynos cause the parameters are in the relative good range

 

[Dburr1014]

Hello reefers. Today I bring something I haven’t seen in my aquarium I reset this tank three months ago dry rock and dry sand currently I have 0.08 po4 and no3 at 6.8 started off with diatoms then this stringy algae came at the 3 month mark no idea what it is. Any help would be appreciated. You can also see that the rocks look a very dark brown. This is a fairly high flow tank with high intensity lighting. Makes me think it’s gha but I’m not sure.

Looks like blue review. Rocks are not brown, there blue!
Any pics in white light?

 

[Reffetsevla]

"Just couldn’t imagine it could be cyano or dynos cause the parameters are in the relative good range"

I'd agree but it's tough to tell with that pic. Also if there's not enough competing bacteria or organisms, the dino's will still beat out the others. Since you reset the tank, you likely removed the majority of the bacteria, resulting in an opportunity for Dino's to resurface, since there's nothing else to compete for the PO4 and NO3, the dinos win. I'd dose pods, then live phyto and try to raise PO4 to 0.1 and NO3 to about 15, and temp to 80, that's the point I started to see my other bacteria flourish and start out-competing the dinos.

 

[MACHO]

Looks like blue review.
Any pics in white light?

 

[Reffetsevla]

"Just couldn’t imagine it could be cyano or dynos cause the parameters are in the relative good range"

I'd agree but it's tough to tell with that pic. Also if there's not enough competing bacteria or organisms, the dino's will still beat out the others. Since you reset the tank, you likely removed the majority of the bacteria, resulting in an opportunity for Dino's to resurface, since there's nothing else to compete for the PO4 and NO3, the dinos win. I'd dose pods, then live phyto and try to raise PO4 to 0.1 and NO3 to about 15, and temp to 80, that's the point I started to see my other bacteria flourish and start out-competing the dinos.

Again I'm not an expert but that is what really helped my tank establish and stabilize after setting up. You're essentially doing a new cycle too at this point.

 

[MACHO]

"Just couldn’t imagine it could be cyano or dynos cause the parameters are in the relative good range"

I'd agree but it's tough to tell with that pic. Also if there's not enough competing bacteria or organisms, the dino's will still beat out the others. Since you reset the tank, you likely removed the majority of the bacteria, resulting in an opportunity for Dino's to resurface, since there's nothing else to compete for the PO4 and NO3, the dinos win. I'd dose pods, then live phyto and try to raise PO4 to 0.1 and NO3 to about 15, and temp to 80, that's the point I started to see my other bacteria flourish and start out-competing the dinos.

I added live rock that was 5 years old from a fellow reefer about 20 pounds that is sitting in the refugium as well as I see tons of pods on the glass.

 

[Reffetsevla]

I added live rock that was 5 years old from a fellow reefer about 20 pounds that is sitting in the refugium as well as I see tons of pods on the glass.

Perhaps time to feed the bacteria/pods a bit with live phyto? It does kind of look like dinos but without using a microscope to confirm for sure it's tough and I am terrible at that identification lol The concept though is the same, you need to starve whatever this is of the nutrients it's using. If dinos that's PO4 mainly. Best way would be to get the competing bacteria and such thriving. That rock still looks pretty white, the 5yr old rock, was it in a display or where specifically?

 

[MACHO]

Perhaps time to feed the bacteria/pods a bit with live phyto? It does kind of look like dinos but without using a microscope to confirm for sure it's tough and I am terrible at that identification lol The concept though is the same, you need to starve whatever this is of the nutrients it's using. If dinos that's PO4 mainly. Best way would be to get the competing bacteria and such thriving. That rock still looks pretty white, the 5yr old rock, was it in a display or where specifically?

It was in a fish only tank display that why I took it lol

 

[Reffetsevla]

For comparison, below is a shot of mine from a few days ago, the live rock there is about 4-5 months in tank, just seems to have more color than the above pics. I would expect a lot more deeper colors for 5yr old rock

 

[Reffetsevla]

It was in a fish only tank display that why I took it lol

Oh that explains much haha I think your LR is just missing that competing bacteria some. What helped me the most was dosing live phytoplankton for about a week. Once lights off, turn off all pumps and power heads, shake the phyto gently and then pour over the entire tank. Need to leave the pumps off for about 30-40 min to let it all settle. I saw a huge difference in weeks after that. Tank and everything started coloring up like mad.

FWIW I used about a 16oz bottle over 5 days, just tried to do it evenly. Skimmer off for a few hours too, it'll go nuts lol

 

[Dburr1014]

Sand looks like dinos
Rock looks like some kind of algae
Still hard to see

 

[MACHO]

Oh that explains much haha I think your LR is just missing that competing bacteria some. What helped me the most was dosing live phytoplankton for about a week. Once lights off, turn off all pumps and power heads, shake the phyto gently and then pour over the entire tank. Need to leave the pumps off for about 30-40 min to let it all settle. I saw a huge difference in weeks after that. Tank and everything started coloring up like mad.

FWIW I used about a 16oz bottle over 5 days, just tried to do it evenly. Skimmer off for a few hours too, it'll go nuts lol

Never done that before are you not having nutrient issues from that?

 

[Uncle99]

If it leaves the sand at lights out and returns when lights on that can be Dino’s.
Might indicate unstable chemistry.
UV them and vacumn daily.
You’ll win.

 

[MACHO]

If it leaves the sand at lights out and returns when lights on that can be Dino’s.
Might indicate unstable chemistry.
UV them and vacumn daily.
You’ll win.

Stays when lights out

 

[Uncle99]

Then likely Just Diatoms, normal in new system.
Just suck them out.
Brownish strings with trapped air bubbles.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I think I see dino in one pic but you need to help us out here. A couple of pics under white lighting will help with assessment
Dino does not always have bubbles until accelerated stage. Starts stringy

 

[Dburr1014]

If it leaves the sand at lights out and returns when lights on that can be Dino’s.
Might indicate unstable chemistry.
UV them and vacumn daily.
You’ll win.

Not all dinos go into the water colum at night.