Help diagnose my stubborn brownish algae?

[sderlug]

Hi there! Longtime lurker, Can't tell if i have the dreaded dino or not... Can someone tell from these photos? My tank is about 8 months old... Everything doing pretty well superficial, I got acros growing and all that, but i cannot for the life of me get this algae despite Daily water small changes for months and one huge one on the weekend...

 

[andrewey]

Does it blow off the rock if you apply a turkey baster to it? The tricky part is that even if it's not primarily dino, you can also have dinos living together with different algeas. My first guess was either calothrix or lyngbya. Do you have a microscope by any chance?

 

[sderlug]

Yea perhaps it is a combination of algae! Because some DOES blow off quite easily, but for the most part it does not... Very weird.

I've tried this algae product from continuum aquatics bacter clean from continuum aquatics and for the most part it helped but very little.

Parameters are actually pretty good. Phosphate is real low, under .1 consistently (again, acros feel ok... well, all except one). nitrates ok range as well. Run carbon and GFO with chemi pure blue.

 

[sderlug]

Does it blow off the rock if you apply a turkey baster to it? The tricky part is that even if it's not primarily dino, you can also have dinos living together with different algeas. My first guess was either calothrix or lyngbya. Do you have a microscope by any chance?

oh yes and sorry, but sad to say i do not have a microscope

 

[andrewey]

If you really want to be 100% certain, if you are able to mail me a sample ($4), I can always scope it out. Otherwise, it gets a little tricky- it's doable to treat both at once if you do in fact have dinos, but it's certainly a lot easier to treat lyngbya as lyngbya or dinos as dinos (or whatever the unwanted organism is). If you don't want to first class mail a sample, another great option is to get a cheap student microscope ($25) and try and post some photos that way.

 

[sderlug]

If you really want to be 100% certain, if you are able to mail me a sample ($4), I can always scope it out. Otherwise, it gets a little tricky- it's doable to treat both at once if you do in fact have dinos, but it's certainly a lot easier to treat lyngbya as lyngbya or dinos as dinos (or whatever the unwanted organism is). If you don't want to first class mail a sample, another great option is to get a cheap student microscope ($25) and try and post some photos that way.

Could you recommend a cheap microscope that allows taking photos through it? $25 is not bad for such an expensive hobby! I was thinking of a much heftier price tag. My continuum product was more..

 

[andrewey]

Unforuntately, I just checked the intorduction microscope I usually suggest is not available right now. I see plenty of ones in that price range on amazon, however due to my unfamiliarity with them and their picture quality (as many don't have fine focus), I'm going to page @taricha who might have a specific reccomendation of a scope that will get the job done without being a waste

 

[taricha]

Yeah, @andrewey...
My necessities on a scope - things I'd be super annoyed and feel less capable without:

• Stable metal body
• Coarse and fine focus
• light control / diaphragm
• All glass optics.
• Powers from 40x-400x+ (when used with 10x eyepeice.) The cheap plastic ones that claim 1000x magnification, I have no idea how they get that, and the pics through them don't show anything like what a quality scope gives you at 400x (40x objective + 10x eyepeice).

This puts you in the 60-80 dollar range, But I'd feel a real loss if I had to use something less.
AMscope student microscope $76

If I were going to add nice extras I would find worthwhile
Lighting option from above as well as below
Binocular eyepeices

Tagging @Wampatom because I want to know what scope he uses. His pictures make me jealous.

 

[Wampatom]

I have one of the best microscopes available -- in 1972 lol. A Zeiss Photomicroscope II. The built-in film camera no longer works. The light source no longer works. The local university was getting rid of it so now it is in my basement. When I was ordering parts to attach a digital camera, I was mistakenly sent a new Swift microscope. It is binocular with 4, 10, 40 and 100x objectives. This retails for about $200. I took advantage of testing it out before sending it back. I think the quality of the optics are equivalent to the old Zeiss.

The problem is attaching a camera. I purchased an am-scope adapter for an eyepiece-to-Nikon mount. There was substantial vignetting and blur at the edges. Holding an iphone over the eyepiece works well if you have a very steady hand. My old Zeiss has a second camera port with a c-mount. I purchased a used 4/3 Olympus dslr to directly fit on this port without any additional optics required. I believe this is the reason I can get good pictures. It is surprisingly difficult to get good camera mounts.

I don’t have good direct comparisons between the microscopes but this was taken with the Swift microscope and iphone.

 

[andrewey]

I've played around with this mount and while it's not perfect and there is a bit of a learning curve, it can take some great shots. You'll have to size appropriately to your eyepiece and phone, but it works decently.

 

[taricha]

Zeiss photomicroscope II. wow, beautiful!
I looked it up and some models have fluorescence color filters. @Wampatom Do you have any of those?
You could do some real fancy pigment imaging stuff if so.

 

[Wampatom]

I have most of the parts for fluorescent and phase contrast imaging but I think I am missing the power supplies. It is a fine example of German engineering but it has had a hard life.

 

[sderlug]

Does it blow off the rock if you apply a turkey baster to it? The tricky part is that even if it's not primarily dino, you can also have dinos living together with different algeas. My first guess was either calothrix or lyngbya. Do you have a microscope by any chance?

I dont know if anyone has a solid recommendation for a microscope? Seems to be some variance of opinion at least? So perhaps this time might be ok to send a sample? (HAppy to pay for it as well). Can you please send me instructions on how to collect and send the samples? Thanks so much!

 

[andrewey]

Unfortunately the cheaper one I was thinking isn't an option, so I think taricha's $75 seems like a good bet. After that, my recommendation for affordability and picture quality would likely be the OMAX 40-2000x. In terms of sending a sample, I'd be more than happy to scope it out for you if you want to message me.