Chrysophytes?

[pythpyth]

Hi all,

I am not certain, this tank has been running for 3 weeks now. I bought a new osmose system and re used my di module I did put new resin in it. My phosphates measure 0.06 my nitrates were 0 but are at 4 rn.

Its this brown/golden stuff? It doesnt seem really slimy? It does seem kinda matted on the substrate. But I can blow it off.

Any thoughts?

 

[EnterName]

Proper identification would require a microscope.

Usually young tanks start out with diatoms, but this shouldn't be restricted to the rocks and back wall. I would expect the substrate to be covered before anything else.

Dinoflagellates are also more common on the substrate but definitely can overgrow rocks and glass walls in more severe cases. They can also form these hairy/stringy bits you can see on the glass but they are often more slimy. I could imagine there actually is some hair algae involved there.

It's really odd that your substrate is free of that stuff so maybe you actually have one of those rare cases of Chrysophytes. It shouldn't be an issue in such a young tank though. Over time silicate levels will drop and diatoms will catch up with silicate consumption to counter chrysophyte growth.

I would still recommend finding someone with a compound microscope. I assume 200x - 400x magnification would suffice for the identification.

 

[pythpyth]

Proper identification would require a microscope.

Usually young tanks start out with diatoms, but this shouldn't be restricted to the rocks and back wall. I would expect the substrate to be covered before anything else.

Dinoflagellates are also more common on the substrate but definitely can overgrow rocks and glass walls in more severe cases. They can also form these hairy/stringy bits you can see on the glass but they are often more slimy. I could imagine there actually is some hair algae involved there.

It's really odd that your substrate is free of that stuff so maybe you actually have one of those rare cases of Chrysophytes. It shouldn't be an issue in such a young tank though. Over time silicate levels will drop and diatoms will catch up with silicate consumption to counter chrysophyte growth.

I would still recommend finding someone with a compound microscope. I assume 200x - 400x magnification would suffice for the identification.

I do got it on the substrate though! With the picture you can see it a bit more in the back

 

[EnterName]

Proper identification would require a microscope.

Usually young tanks start out with diatoms, but this shouldn't be restricted to the rocks and back wall. I would expect the substrate to be covered before anything else.

Dinoflagellates are also more common on the substrate but definitely can overgrow rocks and glass walls in more severe cases. They can also form these hairy/stringy bits you can see on the glass but they are often more slimy. I could imagine there actually is some hair algae involved there.

It's really odd that your substrate is free of that stuff so maybe you actually have one of those rare cases of Chrysophytes. It shouldn't be an issue in such a young tank though. Over time silicate levels will drop and diatoms will catch up with silicate consumption to counter chrysophyte growth.

I would still recommend finding someone with a compound microscope. I assume 200x - 400x magnification would suffice for the identification.

I do got it on the substrate though! With the picture you can see it a bit more in the back

I missed that, but it looks less severe and there is a lot of substrate that's not covered at all. Chrysophytes can also grow on the substate so it unfortunately doesn't narrow down the options.

Is the color different under white light? Blue light tends to mess with the perceived color and camera sensor. Maybe you can take one or two photos with only the white lights on?

 

[Mahi51212]

Hi all,

I am not certain, this tank has been running for 3 weeks now. I bought a new osmose system and re used my di module I did put new resin in it. My phosphates measure 0.06 my nitrates were 0 but are at 4 rn.

Its this brown/golden stuff? It doesnt seem really slimy? It does seem kinda matted on the substrate. But I can blow it off.

Any thoughts?

Size tank? And what is your clean up crew right now? Also what do you have going for flow?

 

[pythpyth]

I missed that, but it looks less severe and there is a lot of substrate that's not covered at all. Chrysophytes can also grow on the substate so it unfortunately doesn't narrow down the options.

Is the color different under white light? Blue light tends to mess with the perceived color and camera sensor. Maybe you can take one or two photos with only the white lights on?

This is a picture of 2 days ago. It got a little worse. But where I scrape it from the glass it doesnt seem to return? Or atleast for now.

End of August I will buy myself a microscope.

 

[pythpyth]

Size tank? And what is your clean up crew right now? Also what do you have going for flow?

150 gallons, I got like 30 trochus in right now? I still got my old tank running as well with another 70 trochus. Might add them all? I got 2 MP40s and a maxspect gyre rf316. Its a lagoon stylish tank. Just 16.5” high.

 

[EnterName]

I missed that, but it looks less severe and there is a lot of substrate that's not covered at all. Chrysophytes can also grow on the substate so it unfortunately doesn't narrow down the options.

Is the color different under white light? Blue light tends to mess with the perceived color and camera sensor. Maybe you can take one or two photos with only the white lights on?

This is a picture of 2 days ago. It got a little worse. But where I scrape it from the glass it doesnt seem to return? Or atleast for now.

End of August I will buy myself a microscope.

This indeed does look like chrysophytes. They grow these pale yellow/brown filaments sometimes.

However, I'm not 100% sure and still would prefer a microscope image. Either way, the tank is young and within the first months pretty much all sorts of outbreaks are expected and sort themselves out as long as the used RO/DI water is sufficiently pure to not introduce any more silicates and you are not adding too much nutrients by overfeeding or so.

 

[pythpyth]

This indeed does look like chrysophytes. They grow these pale yellow/brown filaments sometimes.

However, I'm not 100% sure and still would prefer a microscope image. Either way, the tank is young and within the first months pretty much all sorts of outbreaks are expected and sort themselves out as long as the used RO/DI water is sufficiently pure to not introduce any more silicates and you are not adding too much nutrients by overfeeding or so.

Yea I will get everything stable and indeed its the early stages. I will be testing for silicates this evening. And lets see what it’ll come up with.

I will tell if I found a solution, for anyone dealing with this after me :)

 

[Mahi51212]

150 gallons, I got like 30 trochus in right now? I still got my old tank running as well with another 70 trochus. Might add them all? I got 2 MP40s and a maxspect gyre rf316. Its a lagoon stylish tank. Just 16.5” high.

Flow sounds good, 30 trochus sounds good but do you have anything for when algae or diatoms get longer like this? Trochus are great but they seem to like more of the shorter film algae than longer algae. I am wondering if it was just getting to long for them to want to eat it and you need something in your crew to take care of longer algae or diatoms like this. Id say add some pithos crabs for the longer algae for on all the rocks, strawberry conch and some zombie snails for the sand bed. Trochus snails should take care of the rest. As for the water parameters I have the same high phosphates but that will go down in time as it stabilizes and getting corals in and it will be absorbed more. Right now you just want maintance not crazy changes. Let it work itself out and let a clean up crew manage it for you. Thats just my way of things though.