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Hi, thanks for the reply.Can you get a little more magnification or stain them? From photo best guess is Amphidinium.
Gram staining. It will increase the contrast of the cells actual structure and also allow you to identify if it’s positive or negative. A nice side effect is it also usually teases out a little more detail on lower end microscopes.
Here is a very basic video but if you want to go down the rabbit hole I suggest checking out the Microbiology Societies YouTube page.
Yeh i thought i have what looks like abit of briopsis maybe on the rocks? It was growing in the sandbed and also a small amount of bubble algae. First i tried to remove all the algae manually but they just kept coming back. Its the briopsis and bubble algae i was targetting more as i have quite a number of different CUC plus 2 fish that i thought would keep the GHA down.You have a couple types of algae in those photos plus possibly dinos. My experience is when you start to beat dinos you see an algae or sometimes a cyano bloom.
Ok sounds like a plan! I will set up the UV today and see what happens with the dinos. Is the fluconazole safe with fish and inverts etc?I would tackle one at a time. If it is Amphidinium, or any other dino that goes into the water, UV will handle it in a couple of days. As for the algae, if scrubbing it off is not an option, I would do 14 day fluconazole treatment.
Ok sounds like a plan! I will set up the UV today and see what happens with the dinos. Is the fluconazole safe with fish and inverts etc?
What other cuc would you recommend and how many? In my tank i currently have:I’ve used with:
LPS
SPS
Sponges
Urchins
Fish
Crabs
Shrimp
Sponges lost some colour but nothing else has even reacted. My urchins which react to peroxide don’t even notice it. Obviously if you have anything that only eats algae you may need to supplement as it dies off.
Looking at your photos though I’m not sure your tank needs it though. A few more CUC and you should be fine.
I have a little purple coralline on the back wall and some small patches on the rocks but the green hair is starting to take over so you cant see it all. I still think there should probably be a bit more for the age of the tank (running since march 2022) but i am still trying to figure out what works for the tank without bottoming out the nutrients but also trying to get the corals to thrive.Not seeing a lot of coralline but if you are willing to supplemental feed should need arise, a tuxedo urchin would do the job for sure. In a tank that size though you will almost certainly need to feed algae wafers or nori at some point though. The old go to of more hermit crabs would also help.
Yeh i have seen the pictures people keep posting on facebook with their urchins covered in nems and clove polyps! I have quite a few corals still on plugs in the sand and on a rack until i figure their places on the rocks etc. so the urchin might have to be a last resort!Tuxedos stay pretty small. I have one that’s around two years old and it’s under 3”. They will take any coral that’s not glued down. It’s not a might, they WILL.
HiDoesn't look like large cell amphidinium to me--no "beak" at the front--but I don't have a positive ID for this one. Also, for amphidinium (large cell) UV does not work, since they don't go into the water column. And UV only partially works for prorocentrum since they do and they don't go into the water column.
First post in this link is quite helpful:
Dinoflagellate Identification Guide
I've had this laying around for a while. Had some recent interest, so I tweaked it a bit and am posting it. Not really about cures just ID pictures, videos, and a few short facts. Hope it can be helpful.www.reef2reef.com
Good move. I've got some prorocentrum right now, and the UV does help. If I had to venture a guess I'd guess yours is proro dominant. UV + outcompete (can dose silicates to increase diatom population, or add different types of bacteria or mud/sand from ocean or other systems).Hi
Thanks for the link. Ive just had a look, it is a good read and helpful. Ive seen this file before from a facebook group i am in. I did have a read of it a week or so back but the cells i was seeing in the microscope seemed to fall into a few different sections! Some move and some dont plus they don't all look like the same shapes! I was wondering if you can have more than one type of dinos together?
I am dosing copepods and phyto more often this last couple weeks and some of it seems to have slowed up, such as the layer on the glass. I have had to scrape my glass sides everyday sometimes more than once but that seems to have slowed up now its the green/brown layer on the sand thats still there but even that doesn't seem as bad. Ive managed to get my po4 down to 0.06 and no3 is at 5.3 i thought i would set the UV going just to see if it made any difference.
Yeh i have also been adding MB7. I add it after my weekly water changes (usually every weekend) but I've been adding extra doses through the week.Good move. I've got some prorocentrum right now, and the UV does help. If I had to venture a guess I'd guess yours is proro dominant. UV + outcompete (can dose silicates to increase diatom population, or add different types of bacteria or mud/sand from ocean or other systems).