Chrysophyte (I think) Help

[FriendoFish]

Hi all,

I’ve had a huge outbreak of what I believe are chrysophytes. I have included pictures of my tank and under a microscope below if it’s helpful (please don’t judge—this exploded while I was out of town). I am at such a loss of what to do because based on my research I can’t seem to find a particular method that reliably eliminates them. If anyone has suggestions I’d really appreciate it. My nitrates and phosphates are pretty steady at 3ppm and .03ppm respectively. I also always use 0 TDS RODI water to make my saltwater and top-off my tank. Any help appreciated!

 

[dwest]

I agree with your assessment of chrysophytes. Unfortunately, I don’t have any suggestions other than frequent manual removal and maintaining some phosphates and nitrates (your current numbers are good if your are using reliable test kits) to encourage the growth of green algae. And lots of patience.

Let’s see if @taricha has any better advice.

 

[taricha]

People also found algaefix etc. to be effective.

 

[FriendoFish]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will try to figure it out. I’m also just confused as to what causes these? It seems like people get them in all types of conditions and I can’t understand what I did wrong.

 

[Zoajohn]

Fluconazole kills chrysophytes. After I wiped them out, Dinos filled the void. I would take chrysophytes 100 times over than dinos. I would make sure you have and maintain detectable, or even slightly high nutrients if you go this route though.

 

[taricha]

Fluconazole kills chrysophytes.

MAybe, but this is a minority experience.
I've seen more than one person say that they used Fluco on microscope confirmed chrysophytes without effect.
@ScottB did a lot of stuff against these guys that didn't work

 

[Zoajohn]

MAybe, but this is a minority experience.
I've seen more than one person say that they used Fluco on microscope confirmed chrysophytes without effect.
@ScottB did a lot of stuff against these guys that didn't work

I'll amend my statement to fluconazole killed MY chrysophytes lol.

Strange that this isn't typical, it was like dropping a nuke on them in my tank. They were gone almost overnight

 

[taricha]

I'll amend my statement to fluconazole killed MY chrysophytes lol.

Strange that this isn't typical, it was like dropping a nuke on them in my tank. They were gone almost overnight

Thanks, do you have pics, or a link to where you may have posted about it?

 

[Zoajohn]

Thanks, do you have pics, or a link to where you may have posted about it?

Here's an old thread where I mentioned it in the past: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chrysophytes-help-me-cure-it.263759/page-9 I unfortunately don't have the pics on my phone anymore. Might be able to recover them from my old phone though

 

[ScottB]

I cannot really explain what conditions allow these guys to thrive but man, once they spool up they multiply like mad. Stuff that DID NOT work for me:
UV
Bottled bacterias
Hydrogen peroxide

I solved for them eventually with an Algaefix equivalent (cough, cough). I was pulling a few levers at the same time so I cannot be completely certain as I was also reducing nutrients and added a foxface that would eat them. YMMV.

 

[brandon429]

Zoajohn

that's crucial input, to know a matched killer for the target. your dinos happened due to mass left in the system, capitalized on by the alternating generation of invader

to change that up: don't treat an invaded system like the masses do, they add medicine to a full-mass condition.

take the rare path: rip clean your system, make it 0% mass, then treat with fluc as a preventative on the 0% mass condition, it won't spurn dinos then. it'll be a preventative, not the remover + rot in system. merely knowing that fluc targets this stuff I thought was a handy find, I didn't know that. I'll now use ordered rip cleans + fluc in my private chats for chryso invasion work/thank you for that clue we can really use.