Microscope ID

[MTLReefNoob]

Hi everyone

I’ve been fighting what appears to be dinos so I bought a microscope. I took a few videos and posted them here. I think it’s some kind of dino. They’re growing on most of my rocks and some on my glass as well

I also don’t know what those little green dots are if anyone can help out with that too!

Thanks!

 

[MTLReefNoob]

Video didn’t work so I posted it here:



I also have other videos too if needed

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Full tank shot under whites?
How long has it been running?

 

[taricha]

give us a pic of the nuisance part of your tank. I'm gonna bet chrysophytes (the tiny motionless spherical cells)

 

[MTLReefNoob]

give us a pic of the nuisance part of your tank. I'm gonna bet chrysophytes (the tiny motionless spherical cells)

Here are a few pics (I realize that under white light it looks a lot worse than I thought). Tank has been running for almost 2 years but the last 6 months have been a struggle with bryposis and aiptasia. I treated with fluconazole in September and killed that but it looks to be coming back a bit now and I was planning to do another fluconazole treatment

See a few additional notes:
- I’ve been struggling with phosphate at zero for months and I recently started dosing Fauna Marin elemental P to get it up
- I’m currently seeding some new rocks and was planning to add them into my tank to redo my scape
- I lost two frogspawns in the last month and I can’t figure out why… one I had for almost 2 years and the other one was recent (added in December)
- I just sent out an ICP test because I’m suspecting high silicates
- I noticed a coralline algea die off. I had a similar thing happen in October.
- I always thought I was struggling with dinos but it does look like chrysophytes when I’m comparing my microscope videos to pictures online

 

[taricha]

Looks like it could be a mix of hair algae and chrysophytes.

 

[MTLReefNoob]

Looks like it could be a mix of hair algae and chrysophytes.

Great thank you! In your opinion, should I deal with the chrysophytes first? And should I keep dosing phosphates to get them above zero?

It’s been a challenge but I really want my tank to look nice

 

[taricha]

phosphates detectably above zero is a fine goal whether it helps with the nuisance or not.
search for what other people are doing against chrysophytes. I don't think there's a clear set of guidance on this nuisance yet. (They are susceptible to the algaecide in algaefix etc.)