What type of algae is this?

[hannernanner]

Hi all,
Hitting a bit of a rough patch with my tank. It's been set up since Dec of last year, so I was hoping I'd be nearing some sort of leveling out/maturing point with it. Various waves of algae have come and gone (GHA, suspected dinos), and my approach is usually to wait it out, manually remove, and keep parameters stable. This has worked until this most recent wave. Not sure what this globby brown stuff is. I've been removing it by hand every time I change water (every 2 wks) but it persists. Been living with it for three months, maybe longer? NO3 tests 1ppm consistently, despite the fact that I've bumped up fish feedings and been dosing NeoNitro. PO4 is consistently .02. I'm also a little bummed I haven't seen any coraline algae yet, but maybe it's not there because this stuff has taken over... other occupants are a few fish and a handful of corals. Mostly softies but a few LPS that are surviving, but I wouldn't say they're thriving (not sure why, since I'm on top of nutrients and params have been stable). Any ideas? I could really use some success right now!
Thanks,
Hannah

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like chrysophytes. It’s is an algae/bacteria combo.
To combat, remove rock, scrub with firm toothbrush and hydrogen peroxide and return to tank and increase water flow towards rock

 

[Just John]

How have things progressed with this?

 

[hannernanner]

How have things progressed with this?

Hi John,
Thanks for checking in. The struggle continues. I bought a microscope and have been sampling the stuff just today. I posted a thread in the nuisance algae forum for some help ID'ing. I actually think it may be Dinos, as the cells in this photo were definitely moving around. Doesn't really look like chrysophytes to me under the scope, based on what I've seen from other posters. In the original photo in this thread, my zoas are actually open. After a deep clean and removal of the brown gunk, all my zoas have closed up and they haven't been back out for about two weeks. Sigh.

 

[Just John]

I guess you have tried water changes and charcoal for the zoas. I think they will probably open back up before long. Does it look like these snot blobs I had? I decided these were dinos.

 

[hannernanner]

I guess you have tried water changes and charcoal for the zoas. I think they will probably open back up before long. Does it look like these snot blobs I had? I decided these were dinos.

Yeah, looks like it could be the same stuff.

 

[Just John]

I determined it was dinos. Fortunately I was able to get rid of it eventually and things returned to normal.

 

[Just John]

I forgot to ask, what magnification was that in your photo. I may buy one, but I want to make sure it is strong enough. They come back every now and then, so I might get one on sale with the black Friday deals.

 

[hannernanner]

I forgot to ask, what magnification was that in your photo. I may buy one, but I want to make sure it is strong enough. They come back every now and then, so I might get one on sale with the black Friday deals.

I think that was at 600x? But to be honest I’m new to the microscope thing and not really sure how to know that. It’s an Amscope, got it for around $40.

 

[Just John]

I think that was at 600x? But to be honest I’m new to the microscope thing and not really sure how to know that. It’s an Amscope, got it for around $40.

Thanks!