Algae ID help and solution

FishRN · Apr 19, 2024

I’ve been battling this algae for around 3 months now, I’m thinking that it is Dinos but not 100 percent sure. It’s redish brown in color and it frequently forms long wispy snot like strands. Sometimes it has air bubbles in it but I’m not sure if it’s just trapped micro bubbles. I’m frequently blasting it with a turkey baster and siphoning it out but it just keeps coming back. A few months before this showed I treated my tank with reefflux to get rid of bryopsis that came in on my live rock and had gotten out of hand.
Background info for the tank:
Waterbox 20 cube running for 1 year
Radion XR30 blues with attached settings
Nero 3 and Hyger gyre for flow
I’ve also dropped a cheap 20$ UV light from Amazon in the rear chamber
Parameters:
Temp:78-79
Salinity 1.026
Nitrates:12
Phosphate 0.15
Alk:9.0
Calcium:374
Mag: 1283
Ammonia and nitrites 0

I included photos of the strands and I tried to get a pic of it with a cheap microscope but it’s not the best. Any help getting this under control would be appreciated.

shakacuz · Apr 19, 2024

could be cyano from the increase in nutrients from the bryopsis dying off. but it seems more like dino's mixed with GHA in certain areas.

manually remove what you can without blowing it in the water column. try using a small water pump with vinyl tubing to siphon it out with a tooth brush into a bucket. the UV will help, but you gotta make sure to dose some beneficial bacteria to help compete against cyano/dino's. dosing hydrogen peroxide at a dosage of 1ml/10g while the lights are on can help clear it up. you can even use the syringe to apply directly to affected areas where the brush can't reach

cal/mag could be a bit higher, but shouldn't directly related to your current issue.