Is this red stuff Cyanobacteria or Dino’s?

[Sushiboy225]

Hello, I am having a takeover of this unknown organism. It was die to me using tap water to make my saltwater. I have now been using ro/di water for 3 weeks. 2 weeks now with a much higher quality salt.

I have taken some of the red stuff off and put it under a microscope. I can’t seem to identify if it is Cyanobacteria or dinoflagellates. It doesn’t look like either to me lol. Was expecting long stands of Cyanobacteria or the usual spikes of dinos. Any help would be fine. I assume the orange things are pennate diatoms.

Thank you!

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

For what it's worth, it looks like cyano from my experiences...

 

[Sushiboy225]

For what it's worth, it looks like cyano from my experiences...

Thank you

 

[Sushiboy225]

For what it's worth, it looks like cyano from my experiences...

Any experience getting rid of it? If I’ve been using tap water for 4months and just switched to ro/di would you just say wait it out and nutrients will be used up?

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

@Sushiboy225 I used Redcyano RX when I had out breaks early on. If you used tap water for 4 months there is a good chance your rocks already absorbed lots of the phosphates from the water, and they'll be slowly leaching it over time...My recommendation, since you switched to RODI, is to ride it out. If you use Redcyano RX, know it works great (follow all instructions and use a airstone and pump when using it) but, it will only be a quick solution and not a final solution. Keep your water changes consistent and combined with good nutrient export methods (skimmers, refugium, reactors, etc.) you should be in the clear soon enough.

 

[Sushiboy225]

@Sushiboy225 I used Redcyano RX when I had out breaks early on. If you used tap water for 4 months there is a good chance your rocks already absorbed lots of the phosphates from the water, and they'll be slowly leaching it over time...My recommendation, since you switched to RODI, is to ride it out. If you use Redcyano RX, know it works great (follow all instructions and use a airstone and pump when using it) but, it will only be a quick solution and not a final solution. Keep your water changes consistent and combined with good nutrient export methods (skimmers, refugium, reactors, etc.) you should be in the clear soon enough.

Awesome! Thank you so much!

right now I’m running a biocube 32. Is the red Cyano rx harmful to inverts or corals?

 

[taricha]

Whoa!!
I would have 100% said the stuff in the tank pic is cyano, but the scope pics are not at all how we see cyanobacteria in the hobby. These are free single cells on surfaces, Not filaments. They are also huge - judging by the diatoms, I'd guess we're looking at 20-40 micron wide cells.
I have seen mysterious large single cell pink spheres like these before in my sand rarely but only a couple of them. Had no idea they could bloom to dominate.

Can you describe the flow in your tank?
I do believe these are a kind of cyano - the pink phycoerythrin pigment pretty much narrows it down to cyano or a single-cell red algae, and that growth habit seems really unlikely for a red algae.
But I can't figure out why there'd be a dominant single cell cyano on the surface that isn't forming filaments.
Seen any of these weirdos before, @Dan_P ?

and yes, I think chemi-clean would probably kill it, but I'd suck it all out a few times first.

 

[dhanking]

My rainfords goby loves cyano.

 

[Dan_P]

Whoa!!
I would have 100% said the stuff in the tank pic is cyano, but the scope pics are not at all how we see cyanobacteria in the hobby. These are free single cells on surfaces, Not filaments. They are also huge - judging by the diatoms, I'd guess we're looking at 20-40 micron wide cells.
I have seen mysterious large single cell pink spheres like these before in my sand rarely but only a couple of them. Had no idea they could bloom to dominate.

Can you describe the flow in your tank?
I do believe these are a kind of cyano - the pink phycoerythrin pigment pretty much narrows it down to cyano or a single-cell red algae, and that growth habit seems really unlikely for a red algae.
But I can't figure out why there'd be a dominant single cell cyano on the surface that isn't forming filaments.
Seen any of these weirdos before, @Dan_P ?

and yes, I think chemi-clean would probably kill it, but I'd suck it all out a few times first.

I am jealous! I want some of these!

They certainly make me think of cyanobacteria. They are whoppers though. I am familiar with the small isolated hemispherical type on sand grains. I assume if these things were an alga we could see chloroplasts. The filamentous growth pattern is interesting for round cells. Any chance that in sampling the filamentous cyanobacteria were missed?

 

[taricha]

Any chance that in sampling the filamentous cyanobacteria were missed?

Good Q. @Sushiboy225 those microscope pics are what you find when you suction up the pink material right off the rock, correct?

 

[Sushiboy225]

Whoa!!
I would have 100% said the stuff in the tank pic is cyano, but the scope pics are not at all how we see cyanobacteria in the hobby. These are free single cells on surfaces, Not filaments. They are also huge - judging by the diatoms, I'd guess we're looking at 20-40 micron wide cells.
I have seen mysterious large single cell pink spheres like these before in my sand rarely but only a couple of them. Had no idea they could bloom to dominate.

Can you describe the flow in your tank?
I do believe these are a kind of cyano - the pink phycoerythrin pigment pretty much narrows it down to cyano or a single-cell red algae, and that growth habit seems really unlikely for a red algae.
But I can't figure out why there'd be a dominant single cell cyano on the surface that isn't forming filaments.
Seen any of these weirdos before, @Dan_P ?

and yes, I think chemi-clean would probably kill it, but I'd suck it all out a few times first.

Thank you. I put these under the scope and was immediately confused lol. I agree with everything you said. I almost thought it was a red single cell algae I’ve seen in prepared slides but not that grow like this. I’ve tried siphoning it out and it worked a little but comes back aggressively. Im guessing whatever was in my tap water if fulling this. I think over time It will get better now that I’m using ro/di water and a higher quality salt.

 

[Sushiboy225]

I am jealous! I want some of these!

They certainly make me think of cyanobacteria. They are whoppers though. I am familiar with the small isolated hemispherical type on sand grains. I assume if these things were an alga we could see chloroplasts. The filamentous growth pattern is interesting for round cells. Any chance that in sampling the filamentous cyanobacteria were missed?

It is possible. When I get a chance I am going to take more samples and larger from different areas of the tank. I will post more pictures when I do. To collect it I used tweezers to pull it off of the rock. Maybe this caused the filaments to break apart. But bit to the degree where none of them are connected

 

[Sushiboy225]

Good Q. @Sushiboy225 those microscope pics are what you find when you suction up the pink material right off the rock, correct?

Yes this is is from the surface of the rocks. I didn’t suction it. I used tongs to grab it. I will try using a puppet to get less potentially damaged sample

 

[terraincognita]

Watching this one. Interesting scope shots. Never seen that.

 

[terraincognita]

Any experience getting rid of it? If I’ve been using tap water for 4months and just switched to ro/di would you just say wait it out and nutrients will be used up?

I think this, coupled with some really, really, really good cleaning's and WC's spaced 1 week or so apart would be your best natural and probably effective option.

When I say really good cleaning I mean like try to manually stir/up remove as much as you possibly can and suction out, and then remove the rest in the water column it with a filter sock/pad/floss Coupled with WC's 30 minutes after and then let it all settle, chill out, and do it again next week.



Unless this is some mutant devil bacteria, which is also why I'm following

 

[Dan_P]

Whoa!!
I would have 100% said the stuff in the tank pic is cyano, but the scope pics are not at all how we see cyanobacteria in the hobby. These are free single cells on surfaces, Not filaments. They are also huge - judging by the diatoms, I'd guess we're looking at 20-40 micron wide cells.
I have seen mysterious large single cell pink spheres like these before in my sand rarely but only a couple of them. Had no idea they could bloom to dominate.

Can you describe the flow in your tank?
I do believe these are a kind of cyano - the pink phycoerythrin pigment pretty much narrows it down to cyano or a single-cell red algae, and that growth habit seems really unlikely for a red algae.
But I can't figure out why there'd be a dominant single cell cyano on the surface that isn't forming filaments.
Seen any of these weirdos before, @Dan_P ?

and yes, I think chemi-clean would probably kill it, but I'd suck it all out a few times first.

This photo won’t help at all just as interesting. It is an organism that grew in one of my cyanobacteria cultures. It came from system.

 

[flampton]

What magnification were these pics taken at OP?

 

[Dan_P]

I am jealous! I want some of these!

They certainly make me think of cyanobacteria. They are whoppers though. I am familiar with the small isolated hemispherical type on sand grains. I assume if these things were an alga we could see chloroplasts. The filamentous growth pattern is interesting for round cells. Any chance that in sampling the filamentous cyanobacteria were missed?

Thanks to @taricha for reminding me about this post. I got my wish. Just today I looked at a newly formed red slime that I would have sworn would be filamentous cyanobacteria. Here is what it looked like. These are sand grains associated with the red slime mat under the microscope with the sample lit from the top with an LED spot light. These cells are surrounded by a large clear circular or spherical clear material material.

 

[taricha]

I poked around through guides on thise again.
Man, the single-cell cyano and red algae options are just so thin. I can't even come up with a plausible look alike that ought to act this way.

 

[DE FISH]

Pics look like cyano red mats, Dino are usually brown and snotty