Microscope image

[ThunderGoose]

I've been having an issue what what appears to be a fuzzy, brown colored algae. I've posted here before and life got in the way of solving the problem. Today I pulled some out and took a picture under the microscope. Any ideas?

Now that things are slowing down I'm upgrading my sump, going Triton, starting to feed corals again, doing more frequent water changes. I have a few months where life should be slow and I'm GOING to solve this problem, dangit.

Notice that some strands seem to have things attached to them - these are not on all strands. Some strands have those dark areas. But not all.

Any help with ID or advice is welcome.

 

[HotRocks]

@mcarroll

 

[Jose Mayo]

I've been having an issue what what appears to be a fuzzy, brown colored algae. I've posted here before and life got in the way of solving the problem. Today I pulled some out and took a picture under the microscope. Any ideas?

Now that things are slowing down I'm upgrading my sump, going Triton, starting to feed corals again, doing more frequent water changes. I have a few months where life should be slow and I'm GOING to solve this problem, dangit.

Notice that some strands seem to have things attached to them - these are not on all strands. Some strands have those dark areas. But not all.

Any help with ID or advice is welcome.

It would take a few more photos (macro and micro) to attempt a more positive identification, but apparently it appears to be a filamentous green alga, with a siphonous cell structure (no true cell divisions), with some filaments showing budding structures similar to spores and other filaments showing hundreds of structures adhered to the surface that resemble diatoms epiphytes ... I would think this is an image of Derbesia sp colonized by diatoms.

Regards

 

[mcarroll]

Yup, I agree...hair algae with diatoms, or some other epiphyte. (Diatoms seem the most likely.)

Do you have a thread where you've been documenting your tank....specifically what you've been up to with this algae? (Any test results, system changes....system details would also help....everything you can think of.)

 

[mcarroll]

Check out the examples in this picture-guide (phycokey) to see if one looks more like it that the others:

(click on "Siphonous..." (lower left image) and then Derbesia (next screen; top row) to see other samples of the algae Jose named.)

 

[ThunderGoose]

I thought it might be a combo problem. Thanks for the (approximate) identifications.

What am I doing? I've been hand removing algae regularly and reduced my lighting (I may do that again since I'm still having issues) and I even tried a three day blackout to little effect.

I've upped my water change schedule to about 8% a week (the bucket holds 4-5 gallons, the system holds 64 gallons) and thinking of doing that several times a week for a few weeks.

I'm target feeding the corals with reef roids or reef chili a couple of times a week.

I'm enlarging my refugium and I'm going to switch from dosing "2 part" to Triton (ICP testing showed I wasn't managing my nutrients very well).

Lots of changes.

I'm hoping the Triton dosing will be lower maintenance. I'm also looking into an automatic water change method. My life fluctuates between crazy busy and lots of free time. I realized I need to make maintenance easier and that's what I'm trying to set up before I get crazy busy again.

The @BRS videos have been very useful. I wish their test of the Triton system had come out before I set up the tank.

On the positive side I've had good results with fish and invertebrates, including anemones (BTA, mini-maxi and rock flower).