I've been battling this green "algae" for a few weeks and I have no idea whether I'm dealing with green cyano, something else or even worse, a combo.
As if that wasn't enough, I've been also battling dinos (Small Cell Amphidiniums) but today I spent several hours looking under the microscope and couldn't find any, so I'm cautiously optimistic and hoping that whatever is still in my tank (cyano, diatoms, et al) helped to outnumber and hopefully eradicate the dinos. Few weeks ago, I had a lot of brownish stringy algae, and confirmed under the microscope that I was in fact dealing with diatoms and dinos. As of today, I only see the stringy brownish algae on the back glass, and I under the microscope I can only see diatoms.
This is how, what I think is cyano, looks to the naked eye in my tank
Tons of bubbles, slimy but pretty easy to remove from the rock. The bubbles are released at times and stay floating next to the glass all around my tank. Certainly, not pleasing to the eye.
Under the microscope, it gets more interesting.
Sometimes I see green curly strands made of small little "blocks".
But sometimes, I see A LOT of small individual green blocks like this, in no specific order or shape at all (NOTE: I took this picture a couple of weeks ago, when I could still find SCAs at times, there's one right in the middle)
In this video, you will see a stream of these little green globblins. It's entirely possible that the stream was caused by the microscope lens being too close to the slide, but it's also possible these little guys were moving by themselves.
My Nitrates and Phosphates ratio is getting worse and worse by the week. These are the numbers I've recorded in the last couple of weeks (I use Hanna checkers to test)
The trend is clear, it's going down. I ordered a bottle of NeoPhos (which I just got today) to try to fix the NO3 - PO4 balance, but I was definitely not expecting my nitrates to go down today as well.
Some numbers and data that you might want to know:
Tank size: 100g + 35g sump
Livestock: 2 clownfish, some LPS and softies. I have a small Blue Hippo tang in QT that I will transfer to my DT in the upcoming days.
Tank age: ~5 months
Cycled: I used Dr Tims One and Only to cycle. CaribSea life rock and sand
Lights: 3 XR15, running LPS/Soft preset at 40%. I turned all whites and reds down to 0.
Flow: 2 MP40s running lagoon preset at 6%, Vectra M2 at 15%
Filtration: Nyos 160 running 24x7. Poly-filter/filter cups. MarinePure cubes in sump
Feeding schedule: ~1/3 Easy Masstick cube daily. Frozen mysis shrimp every other day.
Some of the questions I have so far
1) Should I go ahead and dose NeoPhos?
2) Should I also dose NeoNitro?
3) Should I try turning my skimmer off for a few hours? Maybe at nights?
4) What about water changes? The last one was 2 weeks ago (10%) and it seems things got worse since then.
Hopefully the bright minds in this forum can help me figure out what I'm dealing with, and even better, a plan to fix it.
Thank you in advance for the help!
As if that wasn't enough, I've been also battling dinos (Small Cell Amphidiniums) but today I spent several hours looking under the microscope and couldn't find any, so I'm cautiously optimistic and hoping that whatever is still in my tank (cyano, diatoms, et al) helped to outnumber and hopefully eradicate the dinos. Few weeks ago, I had a lot of brownish stringy algae, and confirmed under the microscope that I was in fact dealing with diatoms and dinos. As of today, I only see the stringy brownish algae on the back glass, and I under the microscope I can only see diatoms.
This is how, what I think is cyano, looks to the naked eye in my tank
Tons of bubbles, slimy but pretty easy to remove from the rock. The bubbles are released at times and stay floating next to the glass all around my tank. Certainly, not pleasing to the eye.
Under the microscope, it gets more interesting.
Sometimes I see green curly strands made of small little "blocks".
But sometimes, I see A LOT of small individual green blocks like this, in no specific order or shape at all (NOTE: I took this picture a couple of weeks ago, when I could still find SCAs at times, there's one right in the middle)
In this video, you will see a stream of these little green globblins. It's entirely possible that the stream was caused by the microscope lens being too close to the slide, but it's also possible these little guys were moving by themselves.
My Nitrates and Phosphates ratio is getting worse and worse by the week. These are the numbers I've recorded in the last couple of weeks (I use Hanna checkers to test)
Date | Nitrate | Phosphate |
---|---|---|
4/4 | 12 | 0.08 |
4/12 | 11 | 0.05 |
4/19 | 9.5 | 0.03 |
4/24 | 9.6 | 0.03 |
4/30 | 4.5 | 0.01 |
The trend is clear, it's going down. I ordered a bottle of NeoPhos (which I just got today) to try to fix the NO3 - PO4 balance, but I was definitely not expecting my nitrates to go down today as well.
Some numbers and data that you might want to know:
Tank size: 100g + 35g sump
Livestock: 2 clownfish, some LPS and softies. I have a small Blue Hippo tang in QT that I will transfer to my DT in the upcoming days.
Tank age: ~5 months
Cycled: I used Dr Tims One and Only to cycle. CaribSea life rock and sand
Lights: 3 XR15, running LPS/Soft preset at 40%. I turned all whites and reds down to 0.
Flow: 2 MP40s running lagoon preset at 6%, Vectra M2 at 15%
Filtration: Nyos 160 running 24x7. Poly-filter/filter cups. MarinePure cubes in sump
Feeding schedule: ~1/3 Easy Masstick cube daily. Frozen mysis shrimp every other day.
Some of the questions I have so far
1) Should I go ahead and dose NeoPhos?
2) Should I also dose NeoNitro?
3) Should I try turning my skimmer off for a few hours? Maybe at nights?
4) What about water changes? The last one was 2 weeks ago (10%) and it seems things got worse since then.
Hopefully the bright minds in this forum can help me figure out what I'm dealing with, and even better, a plan to fix it.
Thank you in advance for the help!