Help Identifying Coral QT Algae

[CayoHueso]

Today an algae bloom appeared in my coral quarantine tank. This is my first batch of coral frags and my first time setting up a quarantine for coral. The frags and tank have been setup for about a week. I used Biospira to seed the tank and used a fresh mix of saltwater to setup the tank. I'm assuming that they are likely Dinos because the tank is new and clean and I would assume that there are hardly, if at all, any nitrates and phosphates in the tank.

You can see it's really taken over the stony skeleton on the one blasto frag, and it's also starting to grown on the bottom of the Duncan skeleton as well. What caught my eye, and made me take notice, were these black patches on the frag rack. I'm not sure what they are either. They are very different from what's growing on the corals.

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Lavey29]

Did you test your water before adding corals? I doubt any of those corals will survive your one week old tank. What is your filtration?

 

[CayoHueso]

Did you test your water before adding corals? I doubt any of those corals will survive your one week old tank. What is your filtration?

They seem to be opening up and doing real well. Polyps up and nice colors. Besides the algae, which wasn't there yesterday. I'm not sure how to achieve a coral Quarantine Tank that's not a "new" system. According to BRS and other videos and threads I've read, people are setting up and breaking down coral QT's between batches of corals with no issues or forethought to cycling and the maturity of the system. But I also see all the warnings and advice that you should have a robust and mature system before adding corals. My DT is 6 months mature. Hence me setting up the QT so that I can begin adding corals.

I'd appreciate any advice. I notice lots of people just dip their corals and go straight to the their DT. I thought I was following best practices by setting up a temporary fish-less quarantine meant to be setup and broke down between new additions. And it seemed like that was possible from what I had gathered.

 

[Lavey29]

Well it takes more then just putting water in a box to create a coral QT. I think a lot of people use some rock or media from their DT to help create a good environment but just like your DT your water parameters, flow and lights need to be in proper levels even though the corals may be only in there for several weeks or months. This can be accomplished with simple HOB filter, cheap flow pump and cheap lights. Most frag tanks I've seen have clean up crews or even algae eating fish but if your going to start and stop yours it may not be necessary. With no fish there should be no waste really so simple water changes should keep it clean. I could see the need to dose a supplement for the corals since there is really no nitrates or phosphate production in a sterile tank.

 

[CayoHueso]

Well it takes more then just putting water in a box to create a coral QT. I think a lot of people use some rock or media from their DT to help create a good environment but just like your DT your water parameters, flow and lights need to be in proper levels even though the corals may be only in there for several weeks or months. This can be accomplished with simple HOB filter, cheap flow pump and cheap lights. Most frag tanks I've seen have clean up crews or even algae eating fish but if your going to start and stop yours it may not be necessary. With no fish there should be no waste really so simple water changes should keep it clean. I could see the need to dose a supplement for the corals since there is really no nitrates or phosphate production in a sterile tank.

I have all those things as well. I only mentioned the water because of my assumption that it was low nutrients that caused the algae bloom. I incorrectly assumed algae would need some sort of fish poop of food waste to get ahold. So I didn't think about the fact that the nutrients were low. I planned on adding the water I removed from my DT this week during my water change to the QT as part of it's water change. So there was some "dirty" water for the corals. But as I mentioned they seemed to be doing really well.

The tank's a eshopps deskmate Florida, I'm using the factory pump (provides plenty of flow for these LPS), the factory filter socks, eheim heater, I have 12 biosphere's in the tank that I seeded with the biospira, and I have an AI blade for lighting that set using an apogee PAR meter to match the parameters of the light on my DT. And it's currently in acclimation mode.

Any ideas on the algae identification? Does it look like Dinos?

 

[Lavey29]

I have all those things as well. I only mentioned the water because of my assumption that it was low nutrients that caused the algae bloom. I incorrectly assumed algae would need some sort of fish poop of food waste to get ahold. So I didn't think about the fact that the nutrients were low. I planned on adding the water I removed from my DT this week during my water change to the QT as part of it's water change. So there was some "dirty" water for the corals. But as I mentioned they seemed to be doing really well.

The tank's a eshopps deskmate Florida, I'm using the factory pump (provides plenty of flow for these LPS), the factory filter socks, eheim heater, I have 12 biosphere's in the tank that I seeded with the biospira, and I have an AI blade for lighting that set using an apogee PAR meter to match the parameters of the light on my DT. And it's currently in acclimation mode.

Any ideas on the algae identification? Does it look like Dinos?

I'm guessing just like every new reef tank various forms of algae develop as part of the tank maturing process. This will probably evolve different for you because you have no rock or sand to colonize beneficial bacteria. No fish means nutrients levels will be very low but I don't believe you have dinos in a new temporary set up. It's probably just some basic green or brown film algae that develops in our tanks once lights are turned on. You may want to move a few of the snails in your DT to your frag tank temporarily and then move them back when QT is done. Coral frags can have algae on them as you purchase and then this gets introduced to your system also. A few of your pictures look concerning to me. One shows some possible aptasia on the side and 2 pictures under white light show a brown substance covering the coral. Check that this is not BJD. Does it have a foul odor? Keep in mind to that algae on plugs or even on skeletal stocks (like torches) is common but algae in the flesh part of the coral means the coral is in distress and it's defenses are compromised.

 

[CayoHueso]

I'm guessing just like every new reef tank various forms of algae develop as part of the tank maturing process. This will probably evolve different for you because you have no rock or sand to colonize beneficial bacteria. No fish means nutrients levels will be very low but I don't believe you have dinos in a new temporary set up. It's probably just some basic green or brown film algae that develops in our tanks once lights are turned on. You may want to move a few of the snails in your DT to your frag tank temporarily and then move them back when QT is done. Coral frags can have algae on them as you purchase and then this gets introduced to your system also. A few of your pictures look concerning to me. One shows some possible aptasia on the side and 2 pictures under white light show a brown substance covering the coral. Check that this is not BJD. Does it have a foul odor? Keep in mind to that algae on plugs or even on skeletal stocks (like torches) is common but algae in the flesh part of the coral means the coral is in distress and it's defenses are compromised.

The one we've identified from a consensus on the forum, and thru the vendor, that they are feather dusters and not aptasia. The brown substance on the blasto coral is really what I was worried about most. Today the coral polyps have opened up much more, and you can't see the brown stuff on the skeleton. Can a Blasto get Brown Jelly Disease (is that what you mean by BJD)? I thought that was mainly a torch kind of disease. There is a slight odor coming from the tank. I checked ammonia and nitrites and the levels were good.

I'm going to add a small CUC like you mentioned. I also have a HOB UV filter on the way, along with some more bottled bacteria and NeoPhos and NeoNitro encase I need to dose either. I order some live phyto and pods for my DT. Thinking about doing the same for the QT.

 

[Lavey29]

The one we've identified from a consensus on the forum, and thru the vendor, that they are feather dusters and not aptasia. The brown substance on the blasto coral is really what I was worried about most. Today the coral polyps have opened up much more, and you can't see the brown stuff on the skeleton. Can a Blasto get Brown Jelly Disease (is that what you mean by BJD)? I thought that was mainly a torch kind of disease. There is a slight odor coming from the tank. I checked ammonia and nitrites and the levels were good.

I'm going to add a small CUC like you mentioned. I also have a HOB UV filter on the way, along with some more bottled bacteria and NeoPhos and NeoNitro encase I need to dose either. I order some live phyto and pods for my DT. Thinking about doing the same for the QT.

Most common for euphyllia to get BJD but any LPS can get it. Pull the coral out and smell it. Not sure pods will help your frag tank. They need rocks and sand to populate.