Algae ID - Possible Dinos?

[Brandon_]

Tank is about 3 months old. I expected to go through an ugly phase but this seems extreme. This brown algae is covering most of the sand, some patches on rocks and my coral as well. It seems to be stringy and brown. Not dusty or powdery.

This outbreak is definitely affecting the corals as well. Hammers, torches and zoas are shriveling up and not fully extending. They were doing great just a couple of weeks ago.

I do weekly water changes and have a low bio-load (2 juvenile clowns, a cardinalfish and clown goby). Running filter floss, extra bio-media and carbon.

I’ve tested PAR and I’m ranging between 75-100 in the sand and 300 at the highest point. Lights on about 8 hours a day, limited whites, reds and greens.

Nitrates = .5-1.0 (Salifert)
Phosphate = 0.22 (Hanna ULR)
Salinity = 1.026

 

[Kooma]

This looks more like hair algae than dino, but hard to tell in the photos. I don’t see any bubbles trapped.

Dino outbreaks come from overly clean water and an imbalance in nitrates and phosphates. Dinos are part of a corals photosynthesis but can get out of hand when the water parameters are off. For the amount of phosphates you have, you should be in the 20-25ppm nitrates.

I would either ammonia dose to raise nitrates slowly or feed more for a bit and maybe run a small amount of gfo to manage the phosphate. It will go away once the tank settles.

Don’t buy a bottle of quick fix for this, it won’t solve the problem long term if it is Dino’s.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I'm leaning more towards it not being dinos as well. What does your CUC look like?

 

[Brandon_]

I'm leaning more towards it not being dinos as well. What does your CUC look like?

It's a 20 gallon tank. I have 10 hermits, 4 trochus, 4 nassarius and 2 ceriths.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

What I would recommend doing is, during a water change, try to suck up some of the algae. That, along with your cuc and keeping your parameters stable (maybe raising your nitrates), should help eliminate your algae problems.

 

[Brandon_]

What I would recommend doing is, during a water change, try to suck up some of the algae. That, along with your cuc and keeping your parameters stable (maybe raising your nitrates), should help eliminate your algae problems.

Thanks I will try that. I have no problem being patient and waiting for this to pass, I'm just concerned about my corals as they are clearly bothered. I just don't want to move too slowly on a solution for this outbreak and have them die.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Thanks I will try that. I have no problem being patient and waiting for this to pass, I'm just concerned about my corals as they are clearly bothered. I just don't want to move too slowly on a solution for this outbreak and have them die.

The worst thing you can do is quick fixes for one coral. I definitely lost a couple of corals before due to me trying to make a quick fix to save a coral. It's better to lose one coral because you are being slower, than lose all of them because of a quick fix.

 

[BonnieB]

What I would recommend doing is, during a water change, try to suck up some of the algae. That, along with your cuc and keeping your parameters stable (maybe raising your nitrates), should help eliminate your algae problems.

Thanks I will try that. I have no problem being patient and waiting for this to pass, I'm just concerned about my corals as they are clearly bothered. I just don't want to move too slowly on a solution for this outbreak and have them die.

I wholly agree with all of the above. Not sure how big your tank is but if after you do everything @Gumbies R Us has recommended you might also add a tuxedo urchin if the problem persists.

 

[Kooma]

I’d suggest a pin cushion myself, I’ve seen lots of posts of tuxedo ignoring hair algae.

I wholly agree with all of the above. Not sure how big your tank is but if after you do everything @Gumbies R Us has recommended you might also add a tuxedo urchin if the problem persists.

 

[BryanM]

Highly agree, better to lose one than several, glad you have pateince.

I would recommend vacuuming as well, and definitely raising nitrates to at least 5... 10-20 even better IMO.

 

[Brandon_]

This looks more like hair algae than dino, but hard to tell in the photos. I don’t see any bubbles trapped.

Dino outbreaks come from overly clean water and an imbalance in nitrates and phosphates. Dinos are part of a corals photosynthesis but can get out of hand when the water parameters are off. For the amount of phosphates you have, you should be in the 20-25ppm nitrates.

I would either ammonia dose to raise nitrates slowly or feed more for a bit and maybe run a small amount of gfo to manage the phosphate. It will go away once the tank settles.

Don’t buy a bottle of quick fix for this, it won’t solve the problem long term if it is Dino’s.

The brown stuff growing on the rocks definitely has bubbles. Noticing that pretty prominently now. Might be different than what’s growing in the sand, or just harder to see the bubbles there.

 

[Kooma]

This looks more like hair algae than dino, but hard to tell in the photos. I don’t see any bubbles trapped.

Dino outbreaks come from overly clean water and an imbalance in nitrates and phosphates. Dinos are part of a corals photosynthesis but can get out of hand when the water parameters are off. For the amount of phosphates you have, you should be in the 20-25ppm nitrates.

I would either ammonia dose to raise nitrates slowly or feed more for a bit and maybe run a small amount of gfo to manage the phosphate. It will go away once the tank settles.

Don’t buy a bottle of quick fix for this, it won’t solve the problem long term if it is Dino’s.

The brown stuff growing on the rocks definitely has bubbles. Noticing that pretty prominently now. Might be different than what’s growing in the sand, or just harder to see the bubbles there.

Yep that looks like Dino’s. Try to get your nitrate up and give it a couple weeks. It will go away.

 

[BonnieB]

I’d suggest a pin cushion myself, I’ve seen lots of posts of tuxedo ignoring hair algae.

I wholly agree with all of the above. Not sure how big your tank is but if after you do everything @Gumbies R Us has recommended you might also add a tuxedo urchin if the problem persists.

Mine mows down hair algae