Pest ID

iaa12 · Oct 16, 2020

These guys are forming a green mat over patches of the sand. Looks brown under the LED lights, but when you take them out, it's green. What is it?(I have a feeling it starts with a d...)

Sorry it's not great quality, I'm using my phone and an old Bausch&Lomb off eBay.

Also worth noting, very few of these guys in the skimmate, so maybe not prevalent in the water, only on surfaces?

Little bit of background, I'm rehabilitating a neglected tank. Only 4 small fish, some zoas. Cleaned things up, maybe too well, nitrates/phosphates down to 0. Dosed nitrate back to 2ppm with potassium nitrate and phosphates to 0.1 ppm two days ago. Dosing Vibrant every 3 days. Any additional advice for getting rid of these guys welcome.

SHNICI · Oct 16, 2020

Hi, Welcome to the Hobby or at least to R2R
Can't say that's something bad, it look some sort of copepods or pods at all, so I'm not going to worry about.
What's the zoom you took the video under ?

SHNICI · Oct 16, 2020

I think you may have some diatoms, and or phytoplankton. if you don't have covered rocks or corals with bad nuisance algae then isn't that bad to worry about.
Usually isn't good to treat the tank on speed, the time and patience is the key in that hobby. So at the moment I'll observe and try to keep all under stable parameters. If you can make weekly water changes at least 10-15% to near 25%, don't dose anything if you don't have to and you aren't sure what you are threatening.
Why do you use the Vibrant for? Do you still have any SP of bad algae ?

iaa12 · Oct 16, 2020

SHNICI said:
Hi, Welcome to the Hobby or at least to R2R
Can't say that's something bad, it look some sort of copepods or pods at all, so I'm not going to worry about.
What's the zoom you took the video under ?

This was taken at 400x, 10x eyepiece, 40x lens.

SHNICI said:
I think you may have some diatoms, and or phytoplankton. if you don't have covered rocks or corals with bad nuisance algae then isn't that bad to worry about.
Usually isn't good to treat the tank on speed, the time and patience is the key in that hobby. So at the moment I'll observe and try to keep all under stable parameters. If you can make weekly water changes at least 10-15% to near 25%, don't dose anything if you don't have to and you aren't sure what you are threatening.
Why do you use the Vibrant for? Do you still have any SP of bad algae ?

I've been doing 20% weekly water changes for about 6 weeks as I vacuum the sand. Everything is under control except for this stuff which is blooming on the sand, but also grows on glass and other surfaces. Not on the rocks which are well covered in coralline. I've been dosing Vibrant every 3 days for about 4 weeks, figured I'd keep it going until I figure out what this stuff is. Here's what it looks like in the tank. It grows very fast, this spot was completely cleaned 3 hours prior to taking this picture.

ScottR · Oct 16, 2020

iaa12 said:
These guys are forming a green mat over patches of the sand. Looks brown under the LED lights, but when you take them out, it's green. What is it?(I have a feeling it starts with a d...)

Sorry it's not great quality, I'm using my phone and an old Bausch&Lomb off eBay.

Also worth noting, very few of these guys in the skimmate, so maybe not prevalent in the water, only on surfaces?

Little bit of background, I'm rehabilitating a neglected tank. Only 4 small fish, some zoas. Cleaned things up, maybe too well, nitrates/phosphates down to 0. Dosed nitrate back to 2ppm with potassium nitrate and phosphates to 0.1 ppm two days ago. Dosing Vibrant every 3 days. Any additional advice for getting rid of these guys welcome.

Dinoflagellate Identification Guide

I've had this laying around for a while. Had some recent interest, so I tweaked it a bit and am posting it. Not really about cures just ID pictures, videos, and a few short facts. Hope it can be helpful.

www.reef2reef.com

There’s a PDF in this thread with pictures that you can try to compare with.

SHNICI · Oct 16, 2020

For that short time (3h only) the only one thing can appear/spread is the Dinoflagellate, like @ScottR say.
To can treat Dinos, you have 1st to identify which one you have, after to treat it. Also there are some suggestions about, like darkening for days, using UV steriliser, dosing Oxigen Peroxid, dosing bleach (which can harm much more). But 1st ID which is the particular one you have, after look for treatments.