Dinos? Hair algae? Or Both?

[SaltyinNJ]

So I had an outbreak of cyano a few months back and battled that for a while only to give in and treat it with chemoi-clean. It did a good job with the cyano but within a few days the reddish/brown stuff appeared on my sand. Originally thought it was cyano coming back then realized it was different.

Checked Nitrates and Phosphates which were both bottomed out at 0. Doing research about bottomed out nutrients I thought they were Dino’s . At that time my rock only has a light coating like the sand not looking like diatoms or hair algae. So I started treating like Dino’s and started feeding more and increasing my nitrates and phosphates, physically removing, changing filter sock often, reducing photoperiod and lighting intensity, vacuuming the substrate, adding pods, etc. I don’t have a microscope so haven’t confirmed Dino’s. But my rock is starting looking more like hair algae to me now.

So now I am not sure what I am dealing with. Tank parameters
PH 8.0
Salinity 35 ppm
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .03
Temp 78 F
Alk. 8.6

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Dan_P]

So I had an outbreak of cyano a few months back and battled that for a while only to give in and treat it with chemoi-clean. It did a good job with the cyano but within a few days the reddish/brown stuff appeared on my sand. Originally thought it was cyano coming back then realized it was different.

Checked Nitrates and Phosphates which were both bottomed out at 0. Doing research about bottomed out nutrients I thought they were Dino’s . At that time my rock only has a light coating like the sand not looking like diatoms or hair algae. So I started treating like Dino’s and started feeding more and increasing my nitrates and phosphates, physically removing, changing filter sock often, reducing photoperiod and lighting intensity, vacuuming the substrate, adding pods, etc. I don’t have a microscope so haven’t confirmed Dino’s. But my rock is starting looking more like hair algae to me now.

So now I am not sure what I am dealing with. Tank parameters
PH 8.0
Salinity 35 ppm
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .03
Temp 78 F
Alk. 8.6

Any thoughts or suggestions?

The fuzzy growth on the rocks looks like sickly hair algae

 

[SaltyinNJ]

So I had an outbreak of cyano a few months back and battled that for a while only to give in and treat it with chemoi-clean. It did a good job with the cyano but within a few days the reddish/brown stuff appeared on my sand. Originally thought it was cyano coming back then realized it was different.

Checked Nitrates and Phosphates which were both bottomed out at 0. Doing research about bottomed out nutrients I thought they were Dino’s . At that time my rock only has a light coating like the sand not looking like diatoms or hair algae. So I started treating like Dino’s and started feeding more and increasing my nitrates and phosphates, physically removing, changing filter sock often, reducing photoperiod and lighting intensity, vacuuming the substrate, adding pods, etc. I don’t have a microscope so haven’t confirmed Dino’s. But my rock is starting looking more like hair algae to me now.

So now I am not sure what I am dealing with. Tank parameters
PH 8.0
Salinity 35 ppm
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .03
Temp 78 F
Alk. 8.6

Any thoughts or suggestions?

The fuzzy growth on the rocks looks like sickly hair algae

Thanks, yes some of it is greenish but looks like dying hair algae to me also. But I am not sure about the sand. So not sure if my low nitrates and phosphates were from hair algae eating it up and giving me false readings.

 

[SaltyinNJ]

So I had an outbreak of cyano a few months back and battled that for a while only to give in and treat it with chemoi-clean. It did a good job with the cyano but within a few days the reddish/brown stuff appeared on my sand. Originally thought it was cyano coming back then realized it was different.

Checked Nitrates and Phosphates which were both bottomed out at 0. Doing research about bottomed out nutrients I thought they were Dino’s . At that time my rock only has a light coating like the sand not looking like diatoms or hair algae. So I started treating like Dino’s and started feeding more and increasing my nitrates and phosphates, physically removing, changing filter sock often, reducing photoperiod and lighting intensity, vacuuming the substrate, adding pods, etc. I don’t have a microscope so haven’t confirmed Dino’s. But my rock is starting looking more like hair algae to me now.

So now I am not sure what I am dealing with. Tank parameters
PH 8.0
Salinity 35 ppm
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .03
Temp 78 F
Alk. 8.6

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Hi anyone else have any thoughts or suggestions? I am not sure if I should be trying to lower or raise nutrients. I plan to continue manual removal but not sure what else I should be doing now.

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

Looks like GHA to me.

If nitrates are still 0, I wouldn't try to lower them because then you'll get dinos, but I wouldn't raise them much since there is still nitrate in the tank, it's just getting used up by the GHA.

I would manually remove them and sees if it grows back.
If it doesn't, tune your lighting schedule and add more CUC.

 

[code4]

There is supposed to be a way to test for dinos. Something with putting them in a container and seeing if they clump together within a certain period of time. I bet you can find the information.

Shelley

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I'll reccomend this thread just in case if you have dinos

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

[Utubereefer]

How are you manually removing? I’d suggest you take the rock out of the tank and scrub it in tank water when you do a water change. Also maybe think about an algae scrubber

 

[metro6775]

Looks like dinos in your sand, but not 100% sure.