How do I ID an algae species with a microscope?

[brandon429]

Fair point. I advocate only hand guiding as long as needed, which pretty much coincides with how long we're going to be adding things to our tanks

During the addition phase of stocking which is basically forever on large tanks, invaders cycle in and hopefully out for the life of the tank, so different tanks require interventions at varying times using that hands off approach. The number of tanks we clean nicely and guide back into compliance, I find to be a pattern.

I don't have to clean my tank very often at all, it's old and was hand guided. No invader dna exists across the spectrum; typical green dot microalgae ubiquitous in all reefs is there, and a cyano potential as well. Cyano/stringy algae are the main invaders that all aquariums actively exchange with the surroundings, so it's recurring anywhere as potential including my old pico reef.

I'm finding pattern in my threadworks that people who keep the least detritus have the least ongoing work as they hand guide and then as the tank ages and we stop adding things one can be a little lax / tank doesn't become invaded

My entire position is that the hands-off cruising self balanced ecosystem everybody wants you cannot start by assembling reef materials and sitting back - you have to earn it by timed intervention. Reef parenting just my technique for assembling works.

 

[RussC]

Lots of good discussion on this. Right now my phosphates and nitrates are registering zero. That’s one of the things that got me suspecting Dino-extremely low nutrients. But if it turns out to be a different algae, then there has got to be a source of nutrients somewhere. Before recently I didn’t clean the substrate. So I believe that would be a logical suspect for now for nutrients. I just need to know what I’m dealing with. That would really help me combat this.

 

[Hans-Werner]

Cyanos typically grow best when phosphate concentrations in the water are very low. I guess it is because of reduced competition of corals for trace elements or maybe nitrogen. Corals slow down or stop growing at very low phosphate concentrations while cyanos take up phosphate from the sand and rocks they are growing on. This is also the cause why they preferably grow on sand, also new coral or life sand, or other substrates with significant phosphate concentrations.

 

[sbazain]

As I read, I just saw a picture of Calothrix algae. Wow, very similar looking to what I have in my tank. Down to the bubbles. Now, IDing what it is is even more important. Darn sure don't want to go fighting Dino if I have Cyano. Or vice versa.

Had a bout with Cyano before dino. Cleaned the tank with ChemiClean. Wonderful results. Beautiful white sand. Then this showed up. Wondering now if I have a different strand of cyano?

Quite frankly, when I was looking today, I thought to myself how some parts looked so much like cyano, just brown, not the other colors. There are bush-like algae on my rocks. Matted algae on my substrate. And then the algae with bubbles in it that got me thinking Dino to begin with. But Calothrix does the same thing. And is very very similar in color.

Am battling the same problem its not easy to get rid off already tried h2o2 and nothing dont want to go into medicine I hate to put the tank on stress but I think that's the only way other than starting again