Algae ID

[SubParReefer]

Hi,

Could any of you wonderful people help me ID this algae/bacteria that is on my sand bed / rock work?

I scrape it off the glass everyday and it releases like a film and try to siphon as much out during a weekly water change but end up pulling lots of sand up with it.

Params

Temp: 26C
Salinity: .026
Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: between 0-0.03ppm
pH

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi,

Could any of you wonderful people help me ID this algae/bacteria that is on my sand bed / rock work?

I scrape it off the glass everyday and it releases like a film and try to siphon as much out during a weekly water change but end up pulling lots of sand up with it.

Params

Temp: 26C
Salinity: .026
Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: between 0-0.03ppm
pH

It’s diatoms which is a brown algae often associated with new setups and formed by silicates from new rock and/or sand
Will dissipate in time but you can lightly siphon, reduce white light intensity and add snails such as astrea, turbo, nerite and nassarius to lessen the appearance

 

[SubParReefer]

It’s diatoms which is a brown algae often associated with new setups and formed by silicates from new rock and/or sand
Will dissipate in time but you can lightly siphon, reduce white light intensity and add snails such as astrea, turbo, nerite and nassarius to lessen the appearance

Thank you, that was my initial thought but I thought diatoms had a powdery texture. This is like a film on the glass and is clumpy when the sand is siphoned

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you, that was my initial thought but I thought diatoms had a powdery texture. This is like a film on the glass and is clumpy when the sand is siphoned

Diatoms stick to many surfaces

 

[SubParReefer]

Resurrecting this thread with more clear photos, I expanded my CUC and lowered my feeding and my nitrates are now around 5ppm but the problem seems to be getting worse.

The brown stuff looks stringy when on sitting in the sand bed and I found some on the rock which looks super stringy, this couldn’t be dinos could it?

There are also these small brown/black dots scattered on the sand bed at the front and side of the outlet pump and I can’t find anything online about what they may be. They’re about 1mm wide:

And lastly, before I start to dose H2O2 can someone confirm this red slime is cyano? It’s got “hair” coming off of it and air bubbles trapped underneath it:

 

[SubParReefer]

And if someone could provide a course of treatment or proven way to positively ID this stuff I'd be eternally grateful.

 

[Polyp Punk]

Resurrecting this thread with more clear photos, I expanded my CUC and lowered my feeding and my nitrates are now around 5ppm but the problem seems to be getting worse.

The brown stuff looks stringy when on sitting in the sand bed and I found some on the rock which looks super stringy, this couldn’t be dinos could it?

There are also these small brown/black dots scattered on the sand bed at the front and side of the outlet pump and I can’t find anything online about what they may be. They’re about 1mm wide:

And lastly, before I start to dose H2O2 can someone confirm this red slime is cyano? It’s got “hair” coming off of it and air bubbles trapped underneath it:

that last picture is deffff cyano..

 

[Dburr1014]

I don't believe to be diatoms. Diatoms are fluffy when scraped off not like a sheet. That is more like dinos.
I'm leaning to dinos, were you ever at zero nutrients?
The red is cyano.