White fuzzy stringy Algae ID

[chrisjj625]

Hi,

Trying to figure out what this algae is. My tank was started with dry rock and is about 5 months. I fully understand that algae is to be expected, but just trying to ID what the heck this is. I assume my nitrates and phosphates are low due to the algae. This stuff blows off in pieces, I would say some of it stays on the rocks. I am just starting to get coralline hoping this helps out compete whatever this is. Finally, nothing in the tank coral wise seems to be negatively affected. I have 4 fish that I feed pellets twice daily. Thanks in advance for any assistance you may provide! Parameters are as follows:

Salinity = 1.026
Cal = 415 Salifert
Alk = 7.3 Salifert
Nitrate = .5 Salifert
Phosphate = undetectable Salifert

 

[lapin]

Can we get a shot under white light?

 

[chrisjj625]

Can we get a shot under white light?

 

[lapin]

Still looks blue but im going to guess its cyano if it blows off in sheets.

 

[chrisjj625]

It stays on the rocks though. Not like cyano I’ve seen before.

 

[taricha]

turn off the lights and give us a shot under normal room lighting or a flashlight or something.
The bubbles and the growth pattern on top of the rocks says its photosynthetic.

 

[lmm1967]

It's very possibly a bacteria bloom and not algae.

Does it disappear or significantly fall back when lights are out?

I tried adding some of that purple painted dry rock (I forget what the name is) to an established tank. Within 2 weeks I was fighting a bacteria bloom that took a couple months to make go away.

If that is what it is - be sure your skimmer is always skimming - bacteria blooms can deplete dissolved oxygen from a tank.

 

[chrisjj625]

turn off the lights and give us a shot under normal room lighting or a flashlight or something.
The bubbles and the growth pattern on top of the rocks says its photosynthetic.

Third attempt at a picture. I think it is photosynthetic because it only appears in spots with lighting. Further, it does not recede at night.

 

[chrisjj625]

Any other thoughts?

 

[Redfoxtang]

I’ve had something similar to this before and I thought it was bacterial and dosed chemiclean with no luck. What worked for and stayed away till this day was doing a 3-4 black out on the tank. Still not sure what it was as mine was similar to a booger or snot like substance. Hope this will help with yours.

 

[chrisjj625]

I’ve had something similar to this before and I thought it was bacterial and dosed chemiclean with no luck. What worked for and stayed away till this day was doing a 3-4 black out on the tank. Still not sure what it was as mine was similar to a booger or snot like substance. Hope this will help with yours.

Mine definitely has some of those characteristics. However, I have a bunch of corals so I don’t think I can get away with a blackout.

 

[taricha]

That's a very small amount of color, but that could be due to the very low N and P levels. hmmm.....
What's it like when you suck or pull it out? fibrous/stringy? break into hunks/pieces? blows apart to dust?
Can you give close-up pics of some of it pulled out?

 

[chrisjj625]

That's a very small amount of color, but that could be due to the very low N and P levels. hmmm.....
What's it like when you suck or pull it out? fibrous/stringy? break into hunks/pieces? blows apart to dust?
Can you give close-up pics of some of it pulled out?

I’ve never really pulled any out. When I blow it off it’s kind of clumpy and snotty. I’ve been blowing it off every couple days to hopefully catch some in the filter pad. It doesn’t all come off some sliminess always stays behind. It won’t completely blow off the rock if that makes sense.

 

[taricha]

Ok, so it's not starved GHA. N-Starved cyano can go yellow-ish, but not as light as this, nor does the texture / separation sound quite right.
It sounds like maybe Chrysophytes, but that's a pretty rare thing. So it'd be weird to jump to that without positive microscope ID.
Check this thread and see if it sounds like your stuff.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chrysophytes-help-me-cure-it.263759/

 

[chrisjj625]

Ok, so it's not starved GHA. N-Starved cyano can go yellow-ish, but not as light as this, nor does the texture / separation sound quite right.
It sounds like maybe Chrysophytes, but that's a pretty rare thing. So it'd be weird to jump to that without positive microscope ID.
Check this thread and see if it sounds like your stuff.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chrysophytes-help-me-cure-it.263759/

Thanks for the link! This is very close to what I have. Seems like some good maintenance my take care of it. I’ll keep blowing everything off any maybe try and do some siphoning with my WCs.

 

[1ByLand2BySea]

I am not sure what that is exactly as I have tried to look it us and discuss it with a few expert and marine biologist. Nothing but a few guesses. They are whitish (vs tan or yellow) and almost translucent. I have seen it in a friend's tank with somewhat of smilier parameters with low NO3 and almost zero PO4 and relatively a new tank. It went away after a days of no light and clean up crew but it was a predecessor to a really bad case of Dinoflagellates shortly after.
I would suggest increasing your PO4 if it zero and close it and keep a close eye on it.

 

[chrisjj625]

I am not sure what that is exactly as I have tried to look it us and discuss it with a few expert and marine biologist. Nothing but a few guesses. They are whitish (vs tan or yellow) and almost translucent. I have seen it in a friend's tank with somewhat of smilier parameters with low NO3 and almost zero PO4 and relatively a new tank. It went away after a days of no light and clean up crew but it was a predecessor to a really bad case of Dinoflagellates shortly after.
I would suggest increasing your PO4 if it zero and close it and keep a close eye on it.

Thanks for the tip! Is there an easy way to increase outside of feeding? Is the salifert test even helpful or so I need to invest in Hanna?

 

[1ByLand2BySea]

Thanks for the tip! Is there an easy way to increase outside of feeding? Is the salifert test even helpful or so I need to invest in Hanna?

I am a bigger fan of Hanna cause it takes the personal vision errors out of the equation.
I would also suggest dosing PO4 as I have found increasing feeding will add other nutrients, vitamins and amino acids in the water column.
Please let me know how it turns out and what your observation is in weeks to come. This is a rather unusual thing that I have come across in the past and I like to know if anyone else have experienced it.

 

[chrisjj625]

I am a bigger fan of Hanna cause it takes the personal vision errors out of the equation.
I would also suggest dosing PO4 as I have found increasing feeding will add other nutrients, vitamins and amino acids in the water column.
Please let me know how it turns out and what your observation is in weeks to come. This is a rather unusual thing that I have come across in the past and I like to know if anyone else have experienced it.

what do you recommed as a target level? Or dosing product

 

[1ByLand2BySea]

what do you recommed as a target level? Or dosing product

Every tank is different and there are lot of people here who keep a successful reef tank at various ranges. I personally like to keep PO4 around 0.05 ppm and no lower than that.
I am not sure what kind of corals do you have and planning to keep but that is a relative factor. e.g. soft corals thrive in higher levels of phosphate.
As far as PO4 additive, any reputable brand will work. Brightwell, ATI, Triton are all good and offer a proper instruction how to dose it in saltwater tanks. But I am sure there are a lot of people on R2R who can recommend other ones.
If you are relatively new to reefing, try to keep the NO3 and PO4 not too low.