ID - Brown hair algae, Dino’s?

[Ky_acc]

Hi folks, looking for some guidance on an algae that has shown up quickly in a few places and started to really grow quickly

I’ve been slowly reducing a phosphate spike over the past few weeks and with a combination of water changes, feeding reductions, and light rowaphos addition I’ve reduced phosphates down to a range of .08 to .12

That said I’m trying to determine what this algae is (Dino’s) and come up with a plan to clear it up.

Thank you for the help!

 

[Formulator]

Looks like dinos to me. You are lucky it seems pretty isolated and the bare bottom is working in your favor. How are your nitrates?

FWIW, I “cured” my tank of a massive dino infestation purely through nutrient management and time. Not sure how many folks do it this way anymore, but the bottled products scare me…

 

[Dan_P]

Hi folks, looking for some guidance on an algae that has shown up quickly in a few places and started to really grow quickly

I’ve been slowly reducing a phosphate spike over the past few weeks and with a combination of water changes, feeding reductions, and light rowaphos addition I’ve reduced phosphates down to a range of .08 to .12

That said I’m trying to determine what this algae is (Dino’s) and come up with a plan to clear it up.

Thank you for the help!

Chrysophytes could look like this as could cyanobacteria. I don’t think it is only dinoflagellates. Could some of this stuff be dying hair algae?

 

[AlyciaMarie]

Do you have a microscope? Putting it under a microscope will tell you if it's dinos. Can you list your parameters?

Here is a thread with examples of what dinos can look like under a microscope: Is this dinos under a microscope?

 

[Ky_acc]

Thanks everyone — I took a brush to it this evening and it brushed of really easily… too easily…

Makes me think Dinos, but still not positive. I don’t have a microscope @AlyciaMarie - what type of investment in a microscope is needed to be able to see what you’re looking for?

Parameters
Salinity 1.024 - need to do better keeping this up
Alk 8.2 - 8.7
Cal 420
Mag 1300 give or take 20
Nitrate 10-20 - a bit high but acceptable for me
Phosphate .08-.12 - still recovering from a spike