Does anybody know what kind of algae this is?

[newhere]

This is through a microscope

my tank was doing great and I left on vacation and come back and my whole tank. Restarted it has a ton of just long brown algae all over it. I keep manually removing, but can’t get it all. Can anyone identify it? I have been trying vibrant weekly phosphate E almost daily when I noticed my phosphate is up and now I’m putting a little under a mg of hydrogen peroxide daily to help

 

[newhere]

This is through a microscope

my tank was doing great and I left on vacation and come back and my whole tank. Restarted it has a ton of just long brown algae all over it. I keep manually removing, but can’t get it all. Can anyone identify it? I have been trying vibrant weekly phosphate E almost daily when I noticed my phosphate is up and now I’m putting a little under a mg of hydrogen peroxide daily to help

Also when I was doing some test just to see I was putting vibrant and peroxide on the algae to see what happens and when I did I saw a worm come out.. I keep doing water changes but is there a thing as to much water change?

 

[newhere]

This is through a microscope

my tank was doing great and I left on vacation and come back and my whole tank. Restarted it has a ton of just long brown algae all over it. I keep manually removing, but can’t get it all. Can anyone identify it? I have been trying vibrant weekly phosphate E almost daily when I noticed my phosphate is up and now I’m putting a little under a mg of hydrogen peroxide daily to help

 

[newhere]

 

[Subsea]

Turn on your white lights to help with identification

When did you treat with Vibrant?

 

[Subsea]

I have read several of your threads. I suggest stop knee jerk reactions and allow natural biological processes to proceed. Adding Vibrant is not a long term solution.

If you want your algae identified, pull some off and take a picture with white light on a white plate.

 

[newhere]

I have read several of your threads. I suggest stop knee jerk reactions and allow natural biological processes to proceed. Adding Vibrant is not a long term solution.

Knee jerk reactions? This tank was perfectly fine and clean before I went on vacation. I restarted my cycle accidently & I’m just trying to figure out how to fix it. I went out and bought a microscope specifically for this and am trying. To identify it? So if you don’t have an answer or suggestion then stay out of it.

 

[Subsea]

Knee jerk reactions? This tank was perfectly fine and clean before I went on vacation. I restarted my cycle accidently & I’m just trying to figure out how to fix it. I went out and bought a microscope specifically for this and am trying. To identify it? So if you don’t have an answer or suggestion then stay out of it.
I’m talking about looking at vibrant under the microscope you dick.

Was this tank started August 24 and you posted this on Sept 6?

“13.5 fluvale evo have had for about 6 weeks two clowns in for a month paramaters are”

nitrate 0
ammonia .25
nitrate 0
ph 7.8

“added snails due to algea 3 last week and 5 more today. Is my tank cycled? should I add ph plus or anything?”


Also on the same day you posted this thread

“hello, I set up my tank last sunday I purchased a 66 gallon red sea reefer everythinbg looks great. The store owner told me to do a fish in cycle (thats how the owner tells me he does it. This is a very respectable and probably from what I have heard one of the best stores in so cal. I told him I heard it hurts the fish and he said no it doesn't at all. So I purchased a clown with his suggestion (I picked the snowflake) I know they are more expensive but im expecting everyhtinbg to be great for him.”

my paramaters are
ph 7.8
ammonia 0-0.25
nitrite 0
nitrate 0'


“is it just the waiting game now? & also i had people come by to check my tank yesterday and they said that the clownfish will not get along?? I have 2 storms in my other tank but its 13 gallons so I was planning on putting them all in here. I have a little quarintine box when i introduce them to the tank should I put them in that for a bit? any feed back good or bad will be appreciated! Thank you for your time”


@newhere
Which tank is overgrown with brown algae?

 

[JoJosReef]

Highly recommend you stop using Vibrant and throw it away. It is an algicide, specifically Poly(oxyethylene) (dimethylimino) ethylene (dimethylimino) ethylene dichloride AKA polixetonium chloride, the active ingredient in busan77 and AlgaeFix from API. It disrupts algal cell membranes (I'm still learning about its effects on other cell membranes).

While it may work on certain algae species, you don't seem to know what type if nuisance algae you have. By the looks of it, I would say you have dinoflagellates, but I can't tell the exact ID from your microscope image. You need more cells in different orientations to see clearly.

Importantly, as stated above, throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it won't make them go away, i.e., really go away. They are there for a reason. You say that your phosphates are up. What levels are they at? What are your nitrates at? I am assuming you started the tank (how long ago?) woth dry rocks -- correct me if I am wrong. You seem to only have a Cardinal and a few corals, so not much in the way of consumers and waste producers.

Dinos can be very easy or very hard to deal with. Need to know more about your tank, maintenance, feeding, nutrient levels and especially an exact ID on that brown snotty substance covering everything before we can really help

 

[newhere]

Highly recommend you stop using Vibrant and throw it away. It is an algicide, specifically Poly(oxyethylene) (dimethylimino) ethylene (dimethylimino) ethylene dichloride AKA polixetonium chloride, the active ingredient in busan77 and AlgaeFix from API. It disrupts algal cell membranes (I'm still learning about its effects on other cell membranes).

While it may work on certain algae species, you don't seem to know what type if nuisance algae you have. By the looks of it, I would say you have dinoflagellates, but I can't tell the exact ID from your microscope image. You need more cells in different orientations to see clearly.

Importantly, as stated above, throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it won't make them go away, i.e., really go away. They are there for a reason. You say that your phosphates are up. What levels are they at? What are your nitrates at? I am assuming you started the tank (how long ago?) woth dry rocks -- correct me if I am wrong. You seem to only have a Cardinal and a few corals, so not much in the way of consumers and waste producers.

Dinos can be very easy or very hard to deal with. Need to know more about your tank, maintenance, feeding, nutrient levels and especially an exact ID on that brown snotty substance covering everything before we can really help

Thank you. I have been doing weekly water. Changes and I am trying to adjust the flow now. I moved it around to knock out a dead spot. Other than just a weekly vibrant dose I have been doing phos x to bring down the phosphate to .03 it was at .9 the other day then I did the calculation for phosphate e and dosed that now it looks like my phosphate it .01 so I wouldn’t dose the vibrant anyway. Should I stick with the peroxide? Or ditch that also. Stated the tank in August as you can see from the creep above he went through my profile. I started it in August and it fully cycled in November then went on vacation early December and came back the tank was a mess my protien skimmer was overflowing in and before I left I changed out the sponge filter for a filter floss and forgot to put bio media back in and that’s what messed me up really bad. So you think u just keep doing the water changes and wait it out? It’s really effecting my acan

 

[Miami Reef]

Do you mind if I try to help?

You lowered your nutrients a bit too much with phosphate E and then dosed vibrant which killed the algae.

Dinoflagellates thrive with very low phosphate and no algae. They can beat the competition.

The cure is to maintain phosphate around 0.10ppm and to stop dosing vibrant. I need a closeup of the brown stringy stuff with that microscope please.

 

[revhtree]

I used some algaecide and cleaned this thread up! Please keep it friendly and no name calling. We’re all after the same goal here, a healthy tank! Thanks.

 

[Jackalope12]

Isn't this just Diatoms?

 

[Miami Reef]

Isn't this just Diatoms?

No. It’s dinoflagellates.

 

[Eric R.]

Agreed with the above posters. It may be hard to hear, but everyone is here to try to help you. Learning to take care of a reef tank is not an easy task. It’s easier if you take it slow and listen to feedback.

You don’t need to dose vibrant to your tank, unless you are specifically using it to eliminate an algae that you’ve already tried getting rid of other ways.

You probably need to let your tank mature and stabilize. There are a lot of living things too small to easily see that help to keep your reef tank alive. Messing around with nutrient levels and adding algaecides is going to make it hard for the things you want to stay alive, as they do best with time and stability. So instead you end up with things that you really don’t want, like dinos.

Bring your phosphate down from .9 to .03 is a big change, and doing this quickly can often cause more harm than good. And .03 is very low (I know some folks say aim for .03-.1, but algae really doesn’t need a lot of algae, and it’s easier for things like dinos to survive in low nutrient environments). I say don’t even worry about your phosphate, messing with it isn’t going to get rid of anything, and it’s going to make it harder for your tank to get stable. When you’ve been doing this a year or two and have a good handle on the basics, you can start to adjust it if you want.

If you want to ID the stuff in your tank, try to get a clearer video using the microscope if you can. Try to get the phone a little closer to the eyepiece to get a bigger image also.

 

[Eric R.]

Isn't this just Diatoms?

Diatoms are more of a dusting on the sand or rocks. They don’t form long strings in the water column. That’s more characteristic of dinos. Bringing nutrients too low quickly and killing other microorganisms is a good way to help dinos thrive.

 

[JoJosReef]

Lot to break down here, but first, Subsea is not a creep. They are a respected member of this forum who has helped a lot of people. If you ever get into clams or macroalgae you'll probably be hoping for their help. It is easy to search someone's recent posts to get more info that you may not have put in the original post--I do it often to give better advice instead of waiting for so much back and forth. Sometimes we can read someone's tone the wrong way, but I always advise responding respectfully -- the mods will remove your posts if you violate the TOS.

Will try a point by point below.

Thank you. I have been doing weekly water. Changes and I am trying to adjust the flow now. I moved it around to knock out a dead spot.

This is fine. You want good flow without dead slots. That will particularly help you with cyano (not what you have right now, I think).

Other than just a weekly vibrant dose I have been doing phos x to bring down the phosphate to .03 it was at .9 the other day then I did the calculation for phosphate e and dosed that now it looks like my phosphate it .01 so I wouldn’t dose the vibrant anyway. Should I stick with the peroxide? Or ditch that also.

One of the unfortunate bits of information not given to new reefers is that doing too much in the beginning can worsen the early problems. In essence, too many interventions can cause backlash in the tank. You kill something, but what happens is you just make space for something else to step in. That might be what is happening with the dinos. Did you have GHA on the rocks? That might all die, but what takes its place? If corals and anemones and other desirable things don't, then something else will--rocks don't stay bare in a reef tank.

My recommendation is to leave it be. Let it get a bit dirty. GHA is a better problem than Dinos. If notrates and phosphates are high, work towards more "consumers" (corals, macroalgae, anemones). Otherwise algae will step in as the consumer.

Stated the tank in August as you can see from the creep above he went through my profile. I started it in August and it fully cycled in November then went on vacation early December and came back the tank was a mess my protien skimmer was overflowing in and before I left I changed out the sponge filter for a filter floss and forgot to put bio media back in and that’s what messed me up really bad.

Could be part of it, but I imagine by that time the bio media in the back is playing a minimal role. The rocks in the display are going to be colonized with plenty of bacteria to keep your cycle going, and as long as ammonia levels aren't spiking, your living things will be fine.

I suspect this is growing pains for the tank, aka, ugly phase. Probably seeing the pendulum swinging hard after you left. The Vibrant + peroxide + phosphate control may have made an ideal niche for dinos to get a foothold, and when you went away and relaxed, it exploded. May have happened even if you hadn't gone on vacation.

So, I'd be less worried about the cycle and more about managing the ugly stage. My recommendation is to continually add consumers like easier corals while keeping the algae at bay with snails/crabs/manual removal. Of course, first you have a potential dinoflagellate problem. We need to see another picture of them under a scope to know if they are ostreopsis, prorocentrum or amphidinium dinos (or something else). They each have different methods of treatment.

So you think u just keep doing the water changes and wait it out? It’s really effecting my acan

Tough to say. Water changes can be fine, but dinos persist in low nutrient environments, so water changes might not help against them. Need to figure out the species first.

Hope that helps. Just one of many steps in this process.

 

[Eric R.]

Sorry, typos.

And .03 is very low (I know some folks say aim for .03-.1, but algae really doesn’t need a lot of algae

I meant to say “algae doesn’t really need a lot of phosphate”

 

[Jackalope12]

Diatoms are more of a dusting on the sand or rocks. They don’t form long strings in the water column. That’s more characteristic of dinos. Bringing nutrients too low quickly and killing other microorganisms is a good way to help dinos thrive.

Thanks my tank is cycling and came back from a long weekend to diatoms and the same string as op. So I just figured it was diatoms or diatoms on some string algae