What kind of algea is this? HELP

[liamelias]

My reef tank has been setup for 9 months and Im still battling this horrible red algae. No matter how much I remove it just keeps coming back. My tuxedo urchin ate so much at first but not any more. The algae has wiped out 2 zoanthid colonies, covering them up in this red slime and wiping them out. I have tried everything, blackout, outcompeting with other bacteria, manual cleaning. I was told to just use the red slime remover and I may try it.
Can someone tell me what kind of algae this is. Does it look like cyano? I know you really can’t know without looking at it under a microscope, but any insight would be appreciated. My nutrients have been 0 for months no matter how much I feed, the algae just consumes it all

 

[Lavey29]

Looks like dinos to me. 0 nutrients caused it and 0 nutrients will allow it to continue indefinitely.

 

[Pickle_soup]

That looks more like dinos to me. I strongly recommend Microbacter7. It helped me a lot.

 

[liamelias]

That looks more like dinos to me. I strongly recommend Microbacter7. It helped me a lot.

Thank you. Just out of cruiosity. My nutrients have been 0. Isn’t Microbacter7’s goal to knock out high nutrients. Wouldn't this defeat the purpose and contribute to even lower nutrients?

 

[liamelias]

Looks like dinos to me. 0 nutrients caused it and 0 nutrients will allow it to continue indefinitely.

Thank you! Do you have any recommendations for solutions?

 

[Pickle_soup]

Thank you. Just out of cruiosity. My nutrients have been 0. Isn’t Microbacter7’s goal to knock out high nutrients. Wouldn't this defeat the purpose and contribute to even lower nutrients?

It does help control nutrients. However, it also populates that surface area with beneficial bacteria and doesn't allow dinos to reproduce. Supposedley some of the bacteria in MB7 also eats dinos (not sure how accurate this is) You should increase feeding to raise the nitrates and PO4 and daily remove the dinos. The most efficient way I found is to siphon the water into a filter sock and throwing it out. Slow down on water changes. 9 month old tank may not have enough beneficial bacteria to fight off dinos which are really good at thriving in low nutrient tanks.

 

[Dan_P]

My reef tank has been setup for 9 months and Im still battling this horrible red algae. No matter how much I remove it just keeps coming back. My tuxedo urchin ate so much at first but not any more. The algae has wiped out 2 zoanthid colonies, covering them up in this red slime and wiping them out. I have tried everything, blackout, outcompeting with other bacteria, manual cleaning. I was told to just use the red slime remover and I may try it.
Can someone tell me what kind of algae this is. Does it look like cyano? I know you really can’t know without looking at it under a microscope, but any insight would be appreciated. My nutrients have been 0 for months no matter how much I feed, the algae just consumes it all

How much of what are you feeding?

I am curious about the amount of protein nitrogen you are adding. Would you also look at the food package and see what the protein content is? I would like to calculate the total N for the daily feeding. It is possible that you are not adding much per day.

 

[liamelias]

How much of what are you feeding?

I am curious about the amount of protein nitrogen you are adding. Would you also look at the food package and see what the protein content is? I would like to calculate the total N for the daily feeding. It is possible that you are not adding much per day.

I currently don’t have fish in the tank. Just a shrimp and snails along with coral so I just feed the shrimp a few flakes. The packaging doesn’t specify the protein content since the store makes the flakes themselves. Just mentions the ingredients: Fresh frozen brine, shrimp, fish protein, hydrolysate, soy, yeast, gluten, egg, casein, marine plankton, shell free arternia, spirulina, paracoccus, lecithin, vitamin c, vitamin and mineral premix, beneficial bacteria.

 

[Dan_P]

I currently don’t have fish in the tank. Just a shrimp and snails along with coral so I just feed the shrimp a few flakes. The packaging doesn’t specify the protein content since the store makes the flakes themselves. Just mentions the ingredients: Fresh frozen brine, shrimp, fish protein, hydrolysate, soy, yeast, gluten, egg, casein, marine plankton, shell free arternia, spirulina, paracoccus, lecithin, vitamin c, vitamin and mineral premix, beneficial bacteria.

OK.

Just thinking out loud…

The widespread brown growth suggests to mean that it is being well fed across the entire system. If fish food is not the source of the nutrients, then sick or dying algae is feeding the brown growth directly or indirectly through bacteria digestion.

I am wondering about nitrate levels in your aquarium before adding livestock. Were they about zero before going to zero?

 

[liamelias]

OK.

Just thinking out loud…

The widespread brown growth suggests to mean that it is being well fed across the entire system. If fish food is not the source of the nutrients, then sick or dying algae is feeding the brown growth directly or indirectly through bacteria digestion.

I am wondering about nitrate levels in your aquarium before adding livestock. Were they about zero before going to zero?

OK.

Just thinking out loud…

The widespread brown growth suggests to mean that it is being well fed across the entire system. If fish food is not the source of the nutrients, then sick or dying algae is feeding the brown growth directly or indirectly through bacteria digestion.

I am wondering about nitrate levels in your aquarium before adding livestock. Were they about zero before going to zero?

I have not registered nitrates in over 5 months after the algae started taking hold. Before that they were about 4-8ppm my guess is the algae is absorbing them faster than they can register. Just really at a loss here since nothing works

 

[19Mateo83]

Have you ever added copepods to your system?

 

[Dan_P]

I have not registered nitrates in over 5 months after the algae started taking hold. Before that they were about 4-8ppm my guess is the algae is absorbing them faster than they can register. Just really at a loss here since nothing works

Thanks for the info and I am sorry that I have no solution for you.

I have been running experiments growing mixed slgae cultures under depleted nutrient conditions to understand when and why dinoflagellates take off. No luck so far and the going is slow. Experiments can last 2-4 months.

It seems ecosystem are slow to develop and slow to change, consistent with your dinoflagellate growth. Not much help other than confirming that your issue is behaving normally. I saw post recently that dosing carbon to grow bacteria which in turn grow in numbers that would starve out the dinoflagellates works. I want to test this under controlled conditions.

Good luck.

 

[liamelias]

Have you ever added copepods to your system?

I have not. No copepods population

 

[UMALUM]

My reef tank has been setup for 9 months and Im still battling this horrible red algae. No matter how much I remove it just keeps coming back. My tuxedo urchin ate so much at first but not any more. The algae has wiped out 2 zoanthid colonies, covering them up in this red slime and wiping them out. I have tried everything, blackout, outcompeting with other bacteria, manual cleaning. I was told to just use the red slime remover and I may try it.
Can someone tell me what kind of algae this is. Does it look like cyano? I know you really can’t know without looking at it under a microscope, but any insight would be appreciated. My nutrients have been 0 for months no matter how much I feed, the algae just consumes it all

Do you have any friends in the hobby with a well maintained established tank or a lfs that has a reef setup separate from their fish vats?

 

[liamelias]

Do you have any friends in the hobby with a well maintained established tank or a lfs that has a reef setup separate from their fish vats?

No friends in the hobby but my lfs is pretty reputable. Is there something that I could look for?

 

[UMALUM]

No friends in the hobby but my lfs is pretty reputable. Is there something that I could for?

The trick to getting back on track and beating what's going on is not as hard as some think. In your situation what you will want to do is aquire enough clean established water from a well maintained system in order to accomplish a 50% water change. Siphon as much of that nasty out as possible and blow it off the rocks before the change. Next add a nice cured piece of real live rock smack in the center of your sand bed even if it looks stupid. Add a fish or two and feed normally. Sit back and watch what happens.