Brown and Black Algae

[Theaviator]

I’m a bit discouraged at this point. Maybe someone here can help. I have a tank that I’ve set up for about a year now. 6 months ago I broke down the tank and moved. Ever since then, I’ve been having issues with algae. I only have one chromis at the moment just because I’m afraid to kill anything else that goes in here.
Starting off. I have this brown slimy algae. It was all over the tank. Now it just resides on the rock and sand bed. I thought maybe it was dinos so I got vibrant and started dosing it. It definitely got better. But it’s still sitting on the rock. Now I’ve started getting this spotty black algae on my rock and now it’s spreading to the sand bed. Can anyone help if this stuff and maybe point me in the right direction. I’m about to break down this tank and just call it a loss.
I took some rock out and took some pictures. You can see I was able to scrub most of the brown slime algae off. But not the black stuff.

 

[taricha]

That's gonna be "chrysophytes". Only thing that holds that kind of gelatinous shape outside water. Check the two threads.

Chrysophytes, AKA "Golden Algae" - How to identify, treat and remove it from your tank!

A wikipedia image for chrysophytes. For some time, I've been dealing with a mystery ailment in my aquarium. A wispy, slimy mass grew on almost every exposed area of my tank - no matter what I had tried, it kept coming back and stubbornly stuck with me for months. I started my current tank in...

www.reef2reef.com

Chrysophytes?! Help me cure it?

Chrysophyta (golden-brown algae) The Chrysophyta are the golden-brown algae and diatoms, which respectively account for 1,100 and 40,000-100,000 species of unicellular algae. These algae occur in both marine and fresh waters, although most species are marine. The cell walls of golden-brown algae...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Theaviator]

Oh wow. Thanks! Totally not what I expected!

 

[Theaviator]

Ok so I was able to scrounge around and find a microscope. Long story short I’ve had people tell me it’s anything from a sponge to Dino’s to chrysophytes. The only thing I could do I thought, was to get a good look.
In the micrososcope, nothing seems to be moving. Except a few of these circle looking things are doing small circles. Not sure what that’s about. What do you guys think this is? Comparing images, it looks like dinos. However, the pictures of the substance on the rock looks nothing like it. So now I’m at a loss again.

Here is a short video.

 

[>>klong<<]

YouTube is telling me I need to sign in to view the video.

 

[Theaviator]

YouTube is telling me I need to sign in to view the video.

Try now? It should be public.

 

[>>klong<<]

Yep. Works. Sorry, I can’t help. I’m poking around trying to figure out what’s in my tank.

 

[Theaviator]

Yep. Works. Sorry, I can’t help. I’m poking around trying to figure out what’s in my tank.

All good! It’s a learning experience that’s for sure! Good luck.

 

[taricha]

I lean chrysophytes. Especially if the affected areas are yellow/tan/light brown blobs.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is one of the more challenging algae’s. The walls of this golden-brown algae and diatoms are made of cellulose and pectic materials, a type of hemicellulose. In the diatoms especially, the cell wall is heavily impregnated with silica and is therefore quite rigid and resistant to decay. These algae store energy as a carbohydrate.
So in turn, using a combination of a LITTLE GFO and a UV sterilizer along with a few astrea snails and about a dozen blue leg hermit crab will be break this down and eliminate it

 

[Theaviator]

Thank you so much. I’ll give it a try. Right now I’m just using vibrant but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything.

 

[Thetankdoctor]

Just a quick note too. Maybe not run your lights for a few days. This may help with curbing any spread ...

 

[Theaviator]

Good idea. I can try that and see what happens. I’m done with this slime! I need to research GFO. This would be my first time using it.

 

[Thetankdoctor]

Try uv too. Uv clears up a lot of bad stuff...down good stuff too but I would for sure look at a uv to help this out too

 

[Theaviator]

I’ve heard these can be ineffective if it’s not big enough. I have an 80 gallon tank. Any idea on size that could work for this?

 

[Thetankdoctor]

May be a 24-36 watt uv. And just use the manufactures recommendation for flow. I have 200w of uv on my big tank. Really helps with disease and algea.

 

[Subsea]

This is one of the more challenging algae’s. The walls of this golden-brown algae and diatoms are made of cellulose and pectic materials, a type of hemicellulose. In the diatoms especially, the cell wall is heavily impregnated with silica and is therefore quite rigid and resistant to decay. These algae store energy as a carbohydrate.
So in turn, using a combination of a LITTLE GFO and a UV sterilizer along with a few astrea snails and about a dozen blue leg hermit crab will be break this down and eliminate it

why phosphate removal resin? GFO?

would silica removal resin be an option?

 

[vetteguy53081]

why phosphate removal resin? GFO?

would silica removal resin be an option?

It removes both. Seachem has a product called Phosbond has GFO.
Seachem’s PhosBond revolutionizes phosphate and silicate removal through a synergistic fusion of granular ferric oxide (GFO) and aluminuum oxide. This synergistic blend combines the best of both types of phosphate removers to deliver a high capacity media that will rapidly remove phosphates and silicates. Its high porosity and surface area give it a large binding capacity, while its physical strength and integrity assures that it will not break down from mechanical stress