Algae or Dino?

[Kyze]

Hello Fellow Reefers

Let’s start off with my story. I have a Waterbox 25 Peninsula. It is an AIO and has been up and running since late May/June. I have now stumbled across some sort of algae issue.

I am unsure if it’s algae or dinos or something else? I’m going to be honest I got lazy with testing. Anyway there are pictures attached to this post.

Basically I had a type of algae on the rocks and back glass looked like it had bubbles on it which I have been told could be potential dinos but not confirmed.

This might be coincidence but my partner went into labour and we was there for 4/5 days. When I left the tank was in a visual good looking order. Then we come back and it was a disaster? We had someone come over and feed the tank.

My tank as it currently is;
Chamber 1.)
- Intank Media Basket
- Filter Floss
- Stock Carbon
- Stock Bio Balls

Chamber 2.)
- Sponge

Chamber 3.)
- Stock Return Pump
- DD ATO
- 100w Heater

Next week I will be doing some upgrades, which follows as;

Chamber 1 I will be changing out the media, from stock carbon to Chemi-Pure Blue Nano, then change the bio balls to the Maxspect Nano Tech Bio Spheres.

Chamber 2 will have no change until the future.

Chamber 3 I will be swapping out the return pump to a TMC DC Reef 500 Pump.

Parameters Using Salifert.
Temp - 78.4f
Salinity - 1.023
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0.03
Nitrate - 1
phos - 0
PH - 7.4

Couldn’t test Alk as I’ve lost part of the kit, I know this test is important! I need to go and get another test.

Live stock
x1 Randalls Goby
x1 Pistol Shrimp
x1 Cleaner Shrimp
x1 Conch
x2 Turbo Snails.

My LFS have said that it looks like an imbalance within the tank something to do with my nitrate and phos… I’ve been told to over feed for 2 weeks then do a 10% change after 2 weeks which I usually do 10% every week on Saturday.

Tank before;

After the hospital

 

[Mechano]

You have a variety. Your params for phosphate and nitrate are quite low.

But in all honesty , it looks like a newerish tank. For the algae, get some Mexican turbos. But….before u do that , u really need a microscope to determine what u have on the sand bed and wall of the tank. It could be dinoflagellates but only 100% way to tell is getting a sample and putting it under a microscope and then taking a pic or video. Otherwise u are guessing

 

[Kyze]

You have a variety. Your params for phosphate and nitrate are quite low.

But in all honesty , it looks like a newerish tank. For the algae, get some Mexican turbos. But….before u do that , u really need a microscope to determine what u have on the sand bed and wall of the tank. It could be dinoflagellates but only 100% way to tell is getting a sample and putting it under a microscope and then taking a pic or video. Otherwise u are guessing

Thank you for the speedy response @Mechano I have been told to send off a sample to get it checked out if it’s dinos or something else.

I already have 2 Mexican turbos. But don’t want to add more livestock for the moment until I can get my Nitrate & Phosphate back up or find out what’s wrong with the tank.

Yeah it’s still quite new, been up since late may/early June. For the sample do I put some sand in a tube or scrape some off the glass and put that in a test tube?

Send off a tube or buy my own microscope

 

[VDC]

Does not look like Dino’s but I would put a UV wand in your sump just in case, it’s very effective, here is mine

 

[Tmuck44]

Does not look like Dino’s but I would put a UV wand in your sump just in case, it’s very effective, here is mine

what uv wand do you use?

 

[Freenow54]

Does not look like Dino’s but I would put a UV wand in your sump just in case, it’s very effective, here is mine

New to me interesting Thanks