Algae I.D. and help?

[tescalante]

Recently had an algae outbreak and need help to I.D. and what to do to solve problem?
I'm brand new to the hobby and any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[Reefer5640]

Looks like dinoflagellates to me but the pics aren’t super clear, at least not on my phone. Can you get your hands on a microscope by chance? If you can there are people in this forum who have a lot of experience in identifying the specific type you’re dealing with. How you go about beating them off depends on what type you have. If you don’t have a microscope answering a few questions will help confirm it’s Dino’s. Does it look like stringy brown snot? Does it trap bubbles in the stringy snot? And when you try to remove it does it just fall apart or is it easily dislodged by blowing on it with a baster? If so it’s most likely Dino’s.

 

[tescalante]

I don't have access to a microscope, but your description would definitely describe what it looks and acts like.
What would you recommend doing to solve the problem.

Thanks
Tomy

 

[Reefer5640]

Well without knowing which one it is I’d have to say start with these things;

-Run Carbon
-Definitely run UV if you’ve got one, if not it’s a good idea to get one if you can swing it. It’ll help with a lot more than Dino’s
-Make sure there is no direct sunlight lighting the tank or even a lot of ambient sunlight
-Dont do water changes, they feed off certain trace elements in the salt
-Manual removal and keep your filter socks/pads changed out daily
-0.0ppm nitrates and phosphate are a bad thing, they thrive off an ultra low nutrient environment. Shoot for at least 1 ppm nitrates but 5 is better. (But be careful not to get there too fast, you don’t want to overwhelm your tank and then end up with an algae break out
-Run a refugium
-And if you can get your hands on some acartia copepods they will help eat them.

This is just what I’ve done to beat it the times I’ve ran into it and it’s worked every time I’ve dealt with Dino’s (which has been a good handful of times over the last 15 years). But, there are other types out there that I haven’t dealt with so I can’t say this will necessarily work for you without a positive ID on which type you’re dealing with. Your best bet is to get your hands on a microscope and get some good pics or better yet a good video.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully one of the Dino experts can chime in and give you better advice.

 

[tescalante]

Has anyone had success using Vibrant?

 

[tescalante]

My current parameters if this helps:
14 Gallon peninsula

Temp 77.7
Salinity 1.026
PH 8.15-8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Alkalinity 9.6
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1250
Phosphate 0

Also been dosing All-For Reef 2ml daily- just started a week ago

 

[Subsea]

You are flirting with disaster with zero nitrates & zero phosphates.

You don’t need chemicals.

With that small of a tank, I would do a RIP clean.

[Run Carbon
-Definitely run UV if you’ve got one, if not it’s a good idea to get one if you can swing it. It’ll help with a lot more than Dino’s
-Make sure there is no direct sunlight lighting the tank or even a lot of ambient sunlight
-Dont do water changes, they feed off certain trace elements in the salt
-Manual removal and keep your filter socks/pads changed out daily
-0.0ppm nitrates and phosphate are a bad thing, they thrive off an ultra low nutrient environment. Shoot for at least 1 ppm nitrates but 5 is better. (But be careful not to get there too fast, you don’t want to overwhelm your tank and then end up with an algae break out
-Run a refugium
-And if you can get your hands on some acartia copepods they will help eat them.]

 

[tescalante]

What is the best way to raise nitrates, I’m new to the hobby so any advice.

Thanks

 

[Subsea]

What is the best way to raise nitrates, I’m new to the hobby so any advice.

Thanks

What is your fish load? Feed the fish. What is in your clean up crew.

A full tank picture with white lights would help.

PS. Is protein skimmer running? I would turn protein skimmer off.

 

[tescalante]

What is your fish load? Feed the fish. What is in your clean up crew.

A full tank picture with white lights would help.

PS. Is protein skimmer running? I would turn protein skimmer off.

Fish:
Black Clownfish and firefish goby
CUC-6 Assorted Snails & 2 Hermit Crab

 

[tescalante]

Well without knowing which one it is I’d have to say start with these things;

-Run Carbon
-Definitely run UV if you’ve got one, if not it’s a good idea to get one if you can swing it. It’ll help with a lot more than Dino’s
-Make sure there is no direct sunlight lighting the tank or even a lot of ambient sunlight
-Dont do water changes, they feed off certain trace elements in the salt
-Manual removal and keep your filter socks/pads changed out daily
-0.0ppm nitrates and phosphate are a bad thing, they thrive off an ultra low nutrient environment. Shoot for at least 1 ppm nitrates but 5 is better. (But be careful not to get there too fast, you don’t want to overwhelm your tank and then end up with an algae break out
-Run a refugium
-And if you can get your hands on some acartia copepods they will help eat them.

This is just what I’ve done to beat it the times I’ve ran into it and it’s worked every time I’ve dealt with Dino’s (which has been a good handful of times over the last 15 years). But, there are other types out there that I haven’t dealt with so I can’t say this will necessarily work for you without a positive ID on which type you’re dealing with. Your best bet is to get your hands on a microscope and get some good pics or better yet a good video.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully one of the Dino experts can chime in and give you better advice.

Hope this video will help I.D.?

 

[Reefer5640]

Your vids didn’t work. Most people have better luck uploading the video to YouTube and the post it that way

 

[Subsea]

At 7 months set up, your tank is not mature and is going thru uglies phase. By running nitrogen & phosphate near zero, competitors of nuisance algae suffer and uglies prosper.

Feed your fish, allow cuc to eat also.

 

[Subsea]

What will eat dinoflagellates?
And, when the job is done, the flourishing algae is happily consumed by a very wide variety of aquarium creatures such as copepods (which, incidentally, put even more pressure on heterotrophic varieties of dinoflagellates by competing for organic waste products).

 

[tescalante]

Thanks for all the help. Looks like getting some acartia copepods would help. Does anyone
have a recommendation on where to buy them online. Can't seem to find them, or would other species work?

 

[Reefer5640]

This is the blend I use for all my tanks. It has acartia pods in the mix. Or see the second link, you can get straight acartia directly from RUSalty.com. I believe you can get the mixed blend from them as well I just can’t find it. Their website isn’t as clear and easy to find what you’re looking for as on getpods.com

5 Types Mix

Buy Copepod subscriptions for sale at GetPods and get high density copepods to use as live fish food for coral and saltwater reef tank aquarium. Get Copepod subscription and save.

getpods.com

Acartia

Buy Acartia Copepods. Free Shipping. Get Acartia Copepods and Save. Copepods for Sale. Acartia tonsa is very useful in ornamental aquaculture for feeding larval fish and crustaceans, seahorses and invertebrates such as corals.Acartia's nutritional profile makes it ideal for feeding both...

www.google.com

 

[tescalante]

You are flirting with disaster with zero nitrates & zero phosphates.

You don’t need chemicals.

With that small of a tank, I would do a RIP clean.

[Run Carbon
-Definitely run UV if you’ve got one, if not it’s a good idea to get one if you can swing it. It’ll help with a lot more than Dino’s
-Make sure there is no direct sunlight lighting the tank or even a lot of ambient sunlight
-Dont do water changes, they feed off certain trace elements in the salt
-Manual removal and keep your filter socks/pads changed out daily
-0.0ppm nitrates and phosphate are a bad thing, they thrive off an ultra low nutrient environment. Shoot for at least 1 ppm nitrates but 5 is better. (But be careful not to get there too fast, you don’t want to overwhelm your tank and then end up with an algae break out
-Run a refugium
-And if you can get your hands on some acartia copepods they will help eat them.]

Just purchased a UV, should I run the 24 hours and day?
Also is it okay to run my protein skimmer as well or just limit to a few hours a day. With lighting should I limit time the lights are on, I don't get any direct sunlight. Or would you recommend a black out for 3 days?

Thanks
Tony

 

[terraincognita]

I would also recommend increasing your bio diversity. i.e. adding more species of coral, some Zoanthids, and maybe a few Euphyllia are easy.

Also increasing nutrients, if your tank is too "clean" dino's can invade.

I strongly recommend using the least amount of chemicals as possible. I try to have all new reefers stay away from different chemicals. As generally while you may have Dino's as visible symptom there could be other things going wrong in your tank as well you're un-aware of just because you've never had to check for it or even deal with it. Things in water parameters etc.

Sometimes dosing chemicals or treatments to handle 1 thing, can make an unknown thing pop up suddenly as an adverse reaction. Then starting a "dwindling spiral" of inevitable tank crash. I've seen it hundreds of times.

UV is fine, skimmer is fine, lighting could be reduced while fighting dinos, but not needed per se but will help 100%.

Look over my 10G Build thread. I handled Dino's with bio-diversity alone.


Increasing nutrients without doing anything else though like adding bio-diversity or carbon dosing, or adding UV or, or ,or could possibly make dinos WORSE and make other problems appear.

So don't just feed more and hope it'll handle the problem lol. Just a disclaimer.

 

[terraincognita]

D

Hope this video will help I.D.?

Does it blow away wit ha turkey baster? Or do you have to pick it off?


Also to increase bio-diversity, another clown, skunk cleaner OR peppermint cleaner shrimp, Rock flower anemones are hardy and good should do fine with basic lighting.

 

[Subsea]

Just purchased a UV, should I run the 24 hours and day?
Also is it okay to run my protein skimmer as well or just limit to a few hours a day. With lighting should I limit time the lights are on, I don't get any direct sunlight. Or would you recommend a black out for 3 days?

Thanks
Tony

I don’t recommend black out.

With respect to your protein skimmer, if you are able to run wet skimmate, consider draining skimmate into sump. You will no longer be exporting carbon and you will be maximizing air exchange which is critical in a reef tank.