Microscopy Thread

[Rob A]

Any tips on using a Tomlov generic amazon camera scope. I worked with microscopes in a lab environment for years and though this was the best way to start. I notice there are a lot of decent binocular scopes on facebook marketplace and when I see a good I might pick one up. I would like one with a camera mount.

 

[TheMachinistReefer]

Ostreopsis aside, I like the large diatoms. Is it a young tank or did you manage to maintain their population somehow? In my tank diatom diversity has declined over the years and I would really like to understand how to get some of these larger diatoms back.

At the time of this video, the tank was 1.5 months old. Once the dinos were ID'd, i brought phos from 0.00 to .02 by feeding pretty heavily and small doses of britewell NeoPhos. They were eradicated in 3-4 days. I also read somewhere on here that diatoms would out compete the dinos. At that time, I was also using tap water for top off to introduce silicates. I don't know if that was a good choice or not. I am on well water that is really good. Incoming water tests on average from 2-8 on the tds meter. Now, I'm back to using rodi for top off and the tank has settled down on all algae fronts, except a small patch of red cyano due to a flow dead spot i suspect.

 

[BonnieB]

Following. I have a cheap microscope I got for an early Christmas present and now I’m trying to learn to use it!

 

[EnterName]

Have you guys ever wondered what these tiny thin white/tan bristles are that are growing on rocks or in your sump?

(Click on the images to get a better view)
​

These guys are one of my favorites because they are creepy as hell:

I had to add some phytoplankton (the tiny dots floating around in the video) to the slide to lure this specimen out of its tube, but I think it was worth the wait. As you can see it uses branching "tentacles" with hundreds of cilia to filter through the water. I'm not sure what they are Sabellidae, Serpulidae, or Ampharetidae maybe?

 

[Fish Fan]

Following. I have a cheap microscope I got for an early Christmas present and now I’m trying to learn to use it!

This is a real basic overview, kind of for kids, but these ladies do a good job explaining things if you're brand new to microscopy:

 

[BonnieB]

Following. I have a cheap microscope I got for an early Christmas present and now I’m trying to learn to use it!

This is a real basic overview, kind of for kids, but these ladies do a good job explaining things if you're brand new to microscopy:

That’s exactly what I need!!

 

[EnterName]

Have you guys ever wondered what these tiny thin white/tan bristles are that are growing on rocks or in your sump?

(Click on the images to get a better view)
​

These guys are one of my favorites because they are creepy as hell:

I had to add some phytoplankton (the tiny dots floating around in the video) to the slide to lure this specimen out of its tube, but I think it was worth the wait. As you can see it uses branching "tentacles" with hundreds of cilia to filter through the water. I'm not sure what they are Sabellidae, Serpulidae, or Ampharetidae maybe?

@ISpeakForTheSeas, it's not urgent and I know you get a lot of questions, but I know you are really good at this and if you find the time: Any Idea what post #24 is? (see quoted message)

Sabellidae, Serpulidae, Ampharetidae, or something completely different? It has a total of 6 eye spots (3 on each side) if that helps :D

 

[Fish Fan]

@ISpeakForTheSeas is excellent at ID questions, and so is @thamnasteroid if available.

Also need to tag @DaJMasta to this thread, he's very knowledgable about microscopy.

 

[EnterName]

@ISpeakForTheSeas is excellent at ID questions, and so is @thamnasteroid if available.

Also need to tag @DaJMasta to this thread, he's very knowledgable about microscopy.

So I have reached my goal if I find something in my tank they can't identify :D

Unfortunately I started with 100% dry rock and sand, so I assume there won't be any surprises.
I wonder if they know to what sponge the #6 (Parenchymella larvae) belongs... I'm not sure if pineapple sponges can produce such larvae.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas, it's not urgent and I know you get a lot of questions, but I know you are really good at this and if you find the time: Any Idea what post #24 is? (see quoted message)

Sabellidae, Serpulidae, Ampharetidae, or something completely different? It has a total of 6 eye spots (3 on each side) if that helps :D

Not Ampharetidae; either Sabellidae or Serpulidae - the easiest way to tell them apart is their tube material: Sabellids have mucus and sediment tubes while Serpulids have calcium carbonate tubes.

I can't tell for sure, but it looks like yours have calcium carbonate tubes, so that would mean Serpulids of some kind.

I can tell you from the tube (which is a calcium carbonate tube that's hard rather than a mucus and sediment tube that would be leathery and flexible) that this is a Serpulid worm (family Serpulidae), but doing a species specific ID would require very close up pics, including some microscope pics (which wouldn't really be possible to get on the live worm without risking its health).

the tube shape and operculum/opercular peduncle (the "stalk" of the operculum) can theoretically tell us quite a bit, but I'm not familiar enough with Serpulid taxonomy yet for it to be of much use at the moment I'm afraid (with ~95 recognized genera in the family, it's a lot to learn about, and I currently only know useful info for about 5 specific genera). The body shape, eyes, specific body parts and certain chaetae (at the microscopic level) are all also used in the identification of specific species, and most of these aren't visible without removing the worm from the tube.

OP, if you want to try for an ID, you'd need super clear pics of the feather crown, the operculum and opercular peduncle, any eyes you can find, and any pics of the worm's body you can get (removing it from the tube would be stressful, so I wouldn't suggest it). Showing the shape of the crown and operculum would be important. This info may at least be able to get us down to a subfamily/tribe level, but there's no guarantee.

This second quote was for Sabellid worms, but with the focus being on showing the eyespots and such, it would still be useful here to give an idea of what to look for with any eyes the worm may have:

Does the worm have any eyes on the tentacles there? I don't see any compound eyes, but does it have any eyespots? (They'd look like little, dark dots/tiny balls on the tentacles themselves; they can be hard to see when they're on the dark colored portions of the tentacles - for examples, Figures 2B, 2M, 3B, 13F, 16E, 16I, 21F, and 22F; you can see them in others as well, but they're harder to pick out).
View of <strong>A taxonomic guide to the fanworms (Sabellidae, Annelida) of Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, including new species and new records</strong> If your worm has eyespots, note as much info as you can about them (things like, do they come in groups, pairs, rows, singularly, etc.; where they're found on the tentacles; how close they are to worm's mouth/body on the tentacle; etc.).

 

[EnterName]

Not Ampharetidae; either Sabellidae or Serpulidae - the easiest way to tell them apart is their tube material: Sabellids have mucus and sediment tubes while Serpulids have calcium carbonate tubes.

I can't tell for sure, but it looks like yours have calcium carbonate tubes, so that would mean Serpulids of some kind.

Thank you so much!
The tubes are very brittle and you are probably right that they are CaCO₃ based. The difference to other "tube worms" in my tank (and those in the threads you have linked) is that they are far thinner and far more abundant.

 

[Magok]

I took some intresting photos under scope,

A piece of coraline algae


Suspecting this is diatom but I'm not sure (looks too big?).

 

[EnterName]

I took some intresting photos under scope,

A piece of coraline algae


Suspecting this is diatom but I'm not sure (looks too big?).

I really like the mosaic structure on the coralline algae.

It's large but probably still some diatom. There are a lot of probably Licmophora spp. diatoms as well. I wonder if most reef tanks have these triangular shaped ones sooner or later.

 

[Jamie9]

How do you all take your samples?

I tried the other day to turkey baste out near where I thought I had some diatoms in the sand, then I let it sit in a cup for a while, then tried to eye dropper out from where I thought I saw something clumped up. Wasn't able to see much under my microscope...but also at that time realized my $30 microscope was useless...got another one coming this week.

 

[Magok]

How do you all take your samples?

I tried the other day to turkey baste out near where I thought I had some diatoms in the sand, then I let it sit in a cup for a while, then tried to eye dropper out from where I thought I saw something clumped up. Wasn't able to see much under my microscope...but also at that time realized my $30 microscope was useless...got another one coming this week.

$30 microscope is fine if you dont need super clear images. When I pull a sample, keep the wavemakers off or use syringe to pull and then seperate and clean what I want to see in a petri dish. Then place the sample on a microscope slide and cover it with a coverslip.

Thats mostly it based on what I wanna see I use more ornless light , magnifications or whatever...

 

[peopleschoice]

I’ve been seriously considering purchasing a microscope recently and I think this thread has just pushed me over the top. Can anyone recommend a beginner friendly but capable microscope around $75-$100. I’m looking to be able to spot coral pest but also some bacteria etc. any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[EnterName]

I’ve been seriously considering purchasing a microscope recently and I think this thread has just pushed me over the top. Can anyone recommend a beginner friendly but capable microscope around $75-$100. I’m looking to be able to spot coral pest but also some bacteria etc. any help is greatly appreciated.

It's a great hobby, I can highly recommend it :)

If you want a cheap microscope, maybe try to get a used one from a student or so. I recommend getting a compound microscope so your money goes into optics and not a display for a digital microscope or similar. Used microscopes are really a great way to get more out of your money.

Most bacteria are too small for light microscopy. No matter how much you spend. You will only see tiny dots/rods/spirals moving around (there are some exceptions though). Light's wavelength limits the detail you can actually see, making magnifications beyond x1000 pretty much useless. If your first microscope "only" reaches x400 that's fine. Of course you will sometimes wish to get even closer, but you will lose a lot of contrast, detail, and depth of field. Especially with cheap optics. I nearly never use x1000.

Cyanobacteria in reef tanks appear a bit larger, because they attach to each other forming strings that consist of many individual bacteria. You will however be able to see diatoms, protists (e.g. dinoflagellates), ciliates, copepods, ostracods, nematodes, and many other things just fine and in great detail with x200 or x400.

 

[EnterName]

How do you all take your samples?

I tried the other day to turkey baste out near where I thought I had some diatoms in the sand, then I let it sit in a cup for a while, then tried to eye dropper out from where I thought I saw something clumped up. Wasn't able to see much under my microscope...but also at that time realized my $30 microscope was useless...got another one coming this week.

I use pipettes to collect samples, the simply put a drop onto a clean slide and add a cover glass. Very often there is too much liquid under the cover glass so I take bits of paper towels and try to hold it next to the cover glass so it absorbs a bit of the water without disturbing the sample too much. This will flatten the sample which can make a huge difference in image quality.

If you don't want to risk larger specimens, you can put some petroleum jelly on the edges of the cover glass or use two cover glasses left and right from the sample to slightly elevate the actual cover glass in the middle.