Clear Algae or Bacteria? Need help please

[AJsTank]

Came out of my cycle, diatoms came and went, green hair algae came and went, now I have what I originally thought was clear algae clinging onto my rocks.

Doing some research on it, several people are telling me what it's bacteria. Tangs, Rabbit, snails, hermits and Sea Hare do not touch it.


I'm still getting conflicting feedback, so I wanted to hear what some of you had to say about it.


I am using bio-pellets, so I was thinking it came from a bloom or something. I do not have the output from my reactor going back into my skimmer, like some people suggest, but it's in the same chamber. I am running a UV sterilizer at the moment. I started dossing MB7 5 days ago and will be doing it for 14 days and then dossing it 1 time a week for my pellets. It's not going away, but it's not getting worse either.


This first pic is mine - It looks like clear fur



This pic is from someone else from another forum that is having similar issues. Mine looks just like this.

 

[preston469]

looks like dinoflagellate algae

 

[ReddyW]

I get something similar when I dose too much carbon. I would suggest you pipe the reactor to the skimmer or reduce the reactor flow and skim heavier till it dissipates.

 

[ReddyW]

I missed that this was a new tank. It could also be one of the many algae outbreaks you'll get with a new tank.

 

[AJsTank]

I posted this in a couple other forums and people are saying its bacteria and was most likely cause from too much carbon dosing like you suggested. I did increase my pellets from 30 to 80% and increased the flow dramatically about 2 weeks ago. Last night I plumbed the output of my reactor directly to the skimmer input, I increased the wet skimmimg and I turned the reactor down a lot. If I don't see an improvement in a few days I will take the bio pellets down to about 60% and decrease from there.

 

[Reefing Madness]

It is a bacteria, and if you are carbon dosing, then thats what it is from. The carbon dosing does grow bacteria big time, and if your skimmer isn't big enough to remove the left overs, that is whats caused. It does go away once the system has stabilized, with a lower dose of carbon.