Hello,
I've been having some issues for the past few months with relentless slime (looks like snot globs) clinging to coral, rock, and even the glass in my tank. I first suspected it was due to air fresheners, so I removed all of those, including candles and the snot remains. I have had a very low nutrient tank for a while now, not so much on purpose but its just settled in that way. I stopped into my LFS and showed him a few photos of the slime and he quickly said "dinos" and pointed me towards dosing nitrate and phosphate and overfeeding to dirty up the tank some and so that is what I've begun this week. I also have a lot of pineapple sponges and other filamentous rock cling-ons in low light areas.
Anyway, I took a few samples of the sludge itself and looked at it under the microscope and its always full of tiny spicules that someone on another page identified as sponge spicules. I suspected they were either a sponge or algae, and they basically clump together with other detritus and "stuff" and form the strings. I've looked at the strings of this stuff under magnification and included a video with what I believe is one dinoflagellete bopping around. I am hoping someone with more knowledge can take a look at the video and tell me if there is anything that need to work on eradicating, or any advice on how to move forward other than what I'm currently doing.
I also collected some of this debris and looked at several samples and they are all about the same, made up of the same stuff, more or less. Mostly the sponge spicules and some diatoms and somewhat rarely do I see a dinoflagellate moving around.
Video/photos are as follows:
1. Video of a concentrated hunk of sludge with LOTS of stuff going on
2. still photo of some sludge that I siphoned off and collected and allowed to settle in a bowl
3. Photo looking into the tank from the side, its not easy to see the sludge but you can see some of it clinging to the glass way in the back.
4. some type of algae I am guessing under the microscope
5. more of the spicules that seem to be all through the water column
I'm looking anything constructive that may help my tank including any ID of microscopic critters/algae/dino/diatom/etc.
I must add, my filter sock fills up SO quickly with the sludge. In the past I've dosed Dr. Tim's beneficial bacteria but it didn't do much. Any help is appreciated!
I've been having some issues for the past few months with relentless slime (looks like snot globs) clinging to coral, rock, and even the glass in my tank. I first suspected it was due to air fresheners, so I removed all of those, including candles and the snot remains. I have had a very low nutrient tank for a while now, not so much on purpose but its just settled in that way. I stopped into my LFS and showed him a few photos of the slime and he quickly said "dinos" and pointed me towards dosing nitrate and phosphate and overfeeding to dirty up the tank some and so that is what I've begun this week. I also have a lot of pineapple sponges and other filamentous rock cling-ons in low light areas.
Anyway, I took a few samples of the sludge itself and looked at it under the microscope and its always full of tiny spicules that someone on another page identified as sponge spicules. I suspected they were either a sponge or algae, and they basically clump together with other detritus and "stuff" and form the strings. I've looked at the strings of this stuff under magnification and included a video with what I believe is one dinoflagellete bopping around. I am hoping someone with more knowledge can take a look at the video and tell me if there is anything that need to work on eradicating, or any advice on how to move forward other than what I'm currently doing.
I also collected some of this debris and looked at several samples and they are all about the same, made up of the same stuff, more or less. Mostly the sponge spicules and some diatoms and somewhat rarely do I see a dinoflagellate moving around.
Video/photos are as follows:
1. Video of a concentrated hunk of sludge with LOTS of stuff going on
2. still photo of some sludge that I siphoned off and collected and allowed to settle in a bowl
3. Photo looking into the tank from the side, its not easy to see the sludge but you can see some of it clinging to the glass way in the back.
4. some type of algae I am guessing under the microscope
5. more of the spicules that seem to be all through the water column
I'm looking anything constructive that may help my tank including any ID of microscopic critters/algae/dino/diatom/etc.
I must add, my filter sock fills up SO quickly with the sludge. In the past I've dosed Dr. Tim's beneficial bacteria but it didn't do much. Any help is appreciated!
