Algae ID Help

[fredyang]

Hey reefers! I’ve recently been dealing with a nasty algae problem in my tank. There are brown, slimy strings growing all over the place — the sand bed, rocks, and even my corals. Sometimes, there are bubbles trapped in the strings.

At first, I Googled the symptoms and suspected dinos, so I got a microscope to try to identify the species. However, after taking multiple samples of those brown strings, almost everything I see under the microscope is pizza-shaped cells, which I believe are Licmophora (a type of diatom). I can barely find any other cells that move around and look like dinos.

I did manage to capture one of these moving, roundish cells in the video, but most of the microorganisms in my samples are still those pizza-shaped ones.

Could anyone help me figure out whether the moving cell in the video is actually a dinoflagellate, or if it might be something else? And if most of what I'm seeing is Licmophora, could that mean the brown strings are caused by something other than dinos?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Subsea]

@fredyang
I am not much good on the microscope.

How about you take a full tank shot with white light so we can see what you see. Help us to help you.

I see this is your first post. Consider starting a tank journal in members tank forum.

How long has tank been cycled?

How did you cycle this tank? What was the source of your rock and substrate?

Livestock in tank, including clean up crew.

What are your parameters?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I also would like to see some full tank photos under white lights!

 

[fredyang]

I also would like to see some full tank photos under white lights!

@fredyang
I am not much good on the microscope.

How about you take a full tank shot with white light so we can see what you see. Help us to help you.

I see this is your first post. Consider starting a tank journal in members tank forum.

How long has tank been cycled?

How did you cycle this tank? What was the source of your rock and substrate?

Livestock in tank, including clean up crew.

What are your parameters?

Hi everyone!

Here’s what the algae looks like under white light.

I recently upgraded from my original 15-gallon tank to a 25-gallon tank. I didn’t do a full cycle for the new tank because I transferred my original live rock and water over and then added new saltwater. However, I did replace the entire sand bed with new sand.

Livestock:

• Rainbow BTAs
• Black Widow BTA
• 2 clownfish
• 1 small Blue Tang
• 5 blue-leg hermit crabs
• 2 Trochus snails
• 2 Nassarius snails
• 1 Tiger Conch
• 3 Goniopora frags
• 2 hammer frags
• 2 torch frags
• 2 Acans frags
• 3 Zoas frags
• Mushrooms

Water parameters (as of 11/1):

• Salinity: 1.026
• Phosphate: 0.04 ppm
• Nitrate: 4.1 ppm
• Calcium: 509 ppm
• Alkalinity: 7.7 dKH

Any advice on identifying and dealing with this would be greatly appreciated!

 

[EnterName]

Licmophora sp. is an appropriate ID judging from the shape and environment. They can become quite numerous and are a very common sight in reef tanks.

The moving cell can be some sort of flagellate judging from the jittering movement, but the video quality is insufficient to get a more specific ID. Either way, even if it's a single Amphidinium sp. cell for example that's nothing to worry about. Dinoflagellates are absolutely normal in our tanks, just not in large numbers. A discoloration would in your case be caused by the diatoms not the single cell here and there.