Please help me id this!

Munted_Mango · Dec 2, 2022

Hey guys, newish reefer here.

I have been combating this algae/bacteria/Dino for around 2 months now in my 1 year old tank and can't seem to shake it. At first I thought it was dinos because it first appeared when my nitrates were undetectable (which I am now dosing) but can't positive ID it with my microscope shots. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Tank parameters are attached and i got a icp test done and the only thing that was alarming was copper in my tank which was fixed with cuprisorb. Also i well aware phosphate is swinging a little too much.

Weekly water changes, running cheato, gfo and a skimmer.

If I need to provide more info don't hesitate to ask.
Cheers

Idoc · Dec 2, 2022

Frustrating! I've seen this named before, but can't recall. But, at least it isn't dinos or chrysophytes! If I recall, it was just a type of algae...but I think you already knew that, lol. Parameters look pretty good, though.

Munted_Mango · Dec 2, 2022

Idoc said:
Frustrating! I've seen this named before, but can't recall. But, at least it isn't dinos or chrysophytes! If I recall, it was just a type of algae...but I think you already knew that, lol. Parameters look pretty good, though.

Well atleast I know it's out there. I have been scouring the forums for any information but to no prevail. I might look at getting a uv steriliser and see if that works. Any other suggestions on combating it?

Lavey29 · Dec 2, 2022

Munted_Mango said:
Well atleast I know it's out there. I have been scouring the forums for any information but to no prevail. I might look at getting a uv steriliser and see if that works. Any other suggestions on combating it?

If you thread search here there is a text document that is like the encyclopedia Britannia for dinos with pics to match up and remedies. I will try and find it.

Edit. I found it

https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/dinoflagellateid12_12_2019-pdf.1324729/

Munted_Mango · Dec 2, 2022

Lavey29 said:
If you thread search here there is a text document that is like the encyclopedia Britannia for dinos with pics to match up and remedies. I will try and find it.

Edit. I found it

https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/dinoflagellateid12_12_2019-pdf.1324729/

Thanks for the reference material! Well looks like it may be Symbiodinium-like (Chrysophyte?). Atleast that's a starting point for me. Now time to get to the books and do some research. The best part of this hobby is all the rabbitholes I am about to go down!
Thanks!

Lavey29 · Dec 2, 2022

Munted_Mango said:
Thanks for the reference material! Well looks like it may be Symbiodinium-like (Chrysophyte?). Atleast that's a starting point for me. Now time to get to the books and do some research. The best part of this hobby is all the rabbitholes I am about to go down!
Thanks!

You need nitrates at 10 that's part of your main problem. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only no whites. Weekly water changes to siphon what you can or just siphon them into a filter sick in between water changes.

Munted_Mango · Dec 2, 2022

Lavey29 said:
You need nitrates at 10 that's part of your main problem. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only no whites. Weekly water changes to siphon what you can or just siphon them into a filter sick in between water changes.

My plan was to get my nitrates to 5 and hold them there and see what happens, but if you are suggesting to get them to 10 I will do that over the course of a few weeks. I will give the lights a crack too and will post back in a few weeks if that helps.

Reading up on the topic had gotten me a bit worried because it seems to be very stubborn and alot of people are saying vibrant is the only way of fixing it. I hope I don't have to go down that road, but I am going to order a bottle for a back up plan if raising the nitrates and lowering the photo period doesn't help.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate it.

MrGisonni · Dec 2, 2022

I beat down turf algae and some hair algae recently with manual removal and then added a bit a caulerpa algae to my display. The caulerpa grows fast and out competed the nuisance algae. I have to keep up with clipping it back though, it stripped my nitrates down really fast.

Lavey29 · Dec 2, 2022

Munted_Mango said:
My plan was to get my nitrates to 5 and hold them there and see what happens, but if you are suggesting to get them to 10 I will do that over the course of a few weeks. I will give the lights a crack too and will post back in a few weeks if that helps.

Reading up on the topic had gotten me a bit worried because it seems to be very stubborn and alot of people are saying vibrant is the only way of fixing it. I hope I don't have to go down that road, but I am going to order a bottle for a back up plan if raising the nitrates and lowering the photo period doesn't help.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate it.

These are not overnight battles and harsh chemicals should be your last resort because it will kill good bacteria also and affect you biome. Dosing phyto daily can help along with making sure ample pods. I highly recommend using PNS probio which is all natural heterotrophic bacteria that breaks down organic waste which feeds the algae. If you have corals, you want nitrates at 10 and phosphate at .05 to .1. You should expect a month or 2 battle here but your outbreak does not look overly serious yet.

Munted_Mango · Dec 2, 2022

Lavey29 said:
These are not overnight battles and harsh chemicals should be your last resort because it will kill good bacteria also and affect you biome. Dosing phyto daily can help along with making sure ample pods. I highly recommend using PNS probio which is all natural heterotrophic bacteria that breaks down organic waste which feeds the algae. If you have corals, you want nitrates at 10 and phosphate at .05 to .1. You should expect a month or 2 battle here but your outbreak does not look overly serious yet.

I got some extra pods in my tank last week to try and combat it and last night I was watching them munch it under the microscope which was really cool to watch. But I deffinatly will look into the pns probio.

I don't want to use vibrant at all because it will cause more problems, but like I said that will be the very last resort if I can't get this sorted in a few months. At the moment I mostly just have a softies with a couple of lps thrown into the mix. My zoas don't look happy when it's grown all on it but I manually blow it off every night with a baster.

I just hope I have got onto this before it becomes a big problem.

Again thanks for the tips! It has given me alot to look into and a decent starting point now! This community is very welcoming and helpful! I feel very lucky to be apart of it. I hope I can help someone in the future like you are helping me!

Munted_Mango · Dec 2, 2022

MrGisonni said:
I beat down turf algae and some hair algae recently with manual removal and then added a bit a caulerpa algae to my display. The caulerpa grows fast and out competed the nuisance algae. I have to keep up with clipping it back though, it stripped my nitrates down really fast.

I have cheato in my fuge already so that should do the same thing. But in essence I don't think it's something that can be outcompeted with nutrient export. I hope I am wrong, and it's a easy fix like that but the research I have done so far doesnt point towards that as a solution. I will keep you guys posted on what I am doing and what seems to work but it's going to be a waiting game here on out!

Idoc · Dec 5, 2022

Lavey29 said:
If you thread search here there is a text document that is like the encyclopedia Britannia for dinos with pics to match up and remedies. I will try and find it.

Edit. I found it

https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/dinoflagellateid12_12_2019-pdf.1324729/

This is a good resource, but what OP has is not dinos...

Lavey29 · Dec 5, 2022

Idoc said:
This is a good resource, but what OP has is not dinos...

Yea I couldn't remember if it covered some other algae to or not

Idoc · Dec 5, 2022

Munted_Mango said:
Thanks for the reference material! Well looks like it may be Symbiodinium-like (Chrysophyte?). Atleast that's a starting point for me. Now time to get to the books and do some research. The best part of this hobby is all the rabbitholes I am about to go down!
Thanks!

What you have is NOT chryophytes...or dinos! Chrysophytes are golden colored but as a clump, they are not green...they are yellowish grouped together. Your picture makes them look golden, but I suspect that is because your bright light source is probably bleaching out the colors a bit.

I would monitor nutrients very closely and work to keep their numbers stable...focusing more on stabilizing the number. Whether you change from 5 or 10ppm nitrates isn't always the answer vs just keeping the nitrates as close to stable as possible...as well as your phosphates. I would also siphon out as much as you can during your water changes.

A UV sterilizer is helpful somewhat for controlling some free floating algaes that are in the water column...if you set your flow rate through the UV correctly to combat algae.