What is this algae?

[Macimage]

Thank you in advance for your help. My tank has been running fallow for the past two years. I’ve been running the lights, wave makers, main pump and heater. I just finished a course of Blue Life RX Red Cyano which took care of the red cyano bacteria within an hour. I also have this brown algae (?) growing on the rocks. It’s about 1/4” high.

I am ready to purchase a cleanup crew and was wondering if they will take care of this algae or if I should do some type of a treatment before there is any livestock in the tank?

If the cleanup, crew will take care of this, which critters would be best?

Thank you in advance,
Joyce

 

[Dan_P]

Thank you in advance for your help. My tank has been running fallow for the past two years. I’ve been running the lights, wave makers, main pump and heater. I just finished a course of Blue Life RX Red Cyano which took care of the red cyano bacteria within an hour. I also have this brown algae (?) growing on the rocks. It’s about 1/4” high.

I am ready to purchase a cleanup crew and was wondering if they will take care of this algae or if I should do some type of a treatment before there is any livestock in the tank?

If the cleanup, crew will take care of this, which critters would be best?

Thank you in advance,
Joyce

Difficult to see much from this angle, but I will guess dinoflagellates.

 

[Not_Erick]

Would you be able to post a pic with higher whites?

 

[mjw011689]

Definitely looks like dinos. Just got through the same thing

 

[Macimage]

Here is a better photo I hope.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

No clean up crew is going to be able to handle that much algae, regardless of what type it is. Aggressive manual removal (by you) is the first step.

 

[Macimage]

No clean up crew is going to be able to handle that much algae, regardless of what type it is. Aggressive manual removal (by you) is the first step.

That is a close-up shot so that someone can try to tell me what type of algae it is. As you can see in this photo, it is not as bad as the close-up appears. I do intend to remove what I can by hand prior to my 25% water change this weekend. As a note, I did not have this algae prior to using the blue life cyano red.

So back to my original question. What type of algae is this, what critters might help with the cleanup and lastly, is there a product that I should use on the tank before I add any livestock?

 

[LandLockedJones]

It’s probably Dino’s. That is usually what give you the stringy algae and bubbles on the end.

There isn’t much other than copepods I think that eats them in my research. But I think there are several types of it and I don’t think copepods eat all of them.

take a look at the tank overnight and see if the bubbles are still visible. If not, they are likely releasing themselves into the water at night and you can add a uv sterilizer to fry them so they die before they can spread.

Dinoflagellates are photosynthetic and so can be starved out by shutting off the light and then wrapping the tank in something for 72 hours. (I am using brown wrapping paper right now) then ramp the lights up slowly over a week or so if you can control the light.

They generally grow rampant in tanks that have 0 nitrate or phosphate. And if the nutrient imbalance is not fixed then they will probably come back when you turn the lights back on.

So, knowing your parameters, tank size, and stocking list could be helpful.

If the tank only has a few fish and you change your water consistently. You may have a reason to add more fish, or to start dosing nitrate and phosphate directly.

 

[paintman]

No clean up crew is going to be able to handle that much algae, regardless of what type it is. Aggressive manual removal (by you) is the first step.

Yes! don't listen to the CUC cult here on R2R. You need a toothbrush, turkey baster, and power filter.

 

[LandLockedJones]

Haha cuc cult sounds dirty.

I just removed the end of my siphon and sucked them out with the hose because the flow rate increases drastically. Don’t just pull the bubbles though, try and take the part growing on the rocks as much as you can.

Then black out the tank for a few days. I am trying this right now. Lights come back on today. I’ll let you know if I was successful haha.

Again though, you said it popped up right after removing cyano, so you cleared the way for the Dino’s to move in. If you don’t figure out what caused them in the first place, they will likely return. Your tank is a war zone.

In my case, I quit feeding as heavy for a while because I convinced myself that was the problem causing a massive green hair algae outbreak.

Brs claims copepods will eat them in their investigation series. But I think you have to dose phytoplankton to keep them alive or the Dino’s will persist. I have added copepods in the past, but not sure if they survived as I never started dosing phyto.

 

[Macimage]

Thank you for all of your help. I’m going to do my 25% water change tomorrow which was recommended after the blue life red Cyano treatment. I will suck as much of it off with the siphon hose as I can and of course manually pull off the longer pieces, and scrub with a toothbrush. There is currently no livestock in my tank as it’s been running fallow for two years. I am ordering the Hanna egg meters to get a better handle on the phosphates and nitrates.
I’m going to stock the tank with a cuc as I want one. I didn’t realize I should’ve lightly fed the tank while it was running fallow as all my copepods, amphipods, bristol worms etc. have died off.

 

[LandLockedJones]

Seems like you have a good plan. Keep us posted!

 

[Macimage]

Here is an update for those that were interested and helped me out.
I used the blue life red cyano as directed. The red cyano miraculously disappeared, but was replaced by what appears to be these brown dinos.
Sunday night I did a total blackout of the tank and I left it on until Thursday morning. All of the dinos were gone.
Now 10 days later, I am getting some green algae growth on the rocks, it’s very spotty and short. I will be adding a cleanup crew which I hope can take care of it.
Thank you in advance for all that commented.