Albertstank
New Member
HI guys, Looking for some help in identifying a nuisance algae.
I have seen brown stringing algae, with no bubbles, that form on my toadstool coral. I have treated these like Dinos and see some results, but cant seem to lick them. Today I took some pictures under a microscope and am hoping someone can help me figure out at least what I have, so I can attack them properly. This happens more in areas with moderate flow. The only other algae I have really is some darkening on rock with high flow and my powerheads, and a strange, almost impossible to scrape off green dotted algae on the glass.
Background -
Biocube 32 Tank that is over a year old. I inherited the tank, with some livestock (picture when things are relatively clean included too just for fun!). Parameters were all high and I did a ton of water changes over the first few months to bring them down. About 2 months ago I had a bad GHA outbreak that I licked with hydrogen peroxide and a 3 day blackout.
About 2 weeks later I had an outbreak of brown stringy algae (with no bubbles) coming from the underside of my toadstool leather. These seemed not so bad at first light, but as the day went on, they get worse. They had spread to a nearby Xenia, wrapping up the coral so it could not open properly.
Another 3 day blackout and h2O2 dosing wiped them out again.
2 weeks later, rinse and repeat. This time I treated with Dr. Tims bacteria (both probiotic and waste away), did a 5 day blackout, and raised the temperature to 82 degrees. I noticed after this round of treatment my pH has dropped to 7.9-8.0 from 8.3.
2 weeks later, and I am back.
Current tank parameters are:
Salinity - 1.026
Phosphate - 0
Nitrate - dropping - from 0.99 ppm last week to 0.39 ppm this week, no water change
pH - 7.8
Nitrite - 0.00
Ammonia - 0.10
Alkalinity - 7.0 (dropped from 9.3 following Dr. Tims dosing).
Running Chaeto, chemipure elite, and Purigen.
Lighting - 10 hours per day. - Stock biocube LEDs.
Livestock - 2 clowns, 1 PJ Cardinal, royal grammas, 1 emerald crab, 4 nassarius snails, 10 astrea, 10 cerith, 1 small urchin.
Apologies for the horrible pictures. Who would have thought using a microscope from 1967 and a camera from 2022 wouldn't work!
Thank you all for the help. This one has me stumped.
I have seen brown stringing algae, with no bubbles, that form on my toadstool coral. I have treated these like Dinos and see some results, but cant seem to lick them. Today I took some pictures under a microscope and am hoping someone can help me figure out at least what I have, so I can attack them properly. This happens more in areas with moderate flow. The only other algae I have really is some darkening on rock with high flow and my powerheads, and a strange, almost impossible to scrape off green dotted algae on the glass.
Background -
Biocube 32 Tank that is over a year old. I inherited the tank, with some livestock (picture when things are relatively clean included too just for fun!). Parameters were all high and I did a ton of water changes over the first few months to bring them down. About 2 months ago I had a bad GHA outbreak that I licked with hydrogen peroxide and a 3 day blackout.
About 2 weeks later I had an outbreak of brown stringy algae (with no bubbles) coming from the underside of my toadstool leather. These seemed not so bad at first light, but as the day went on, they get worse. They had spread to a nearby Xenia, wrapping up the coral so it could not open properly.
Another 3 day blackout and h2O2 dosing wiped them out again.
2 weeks later, rinse and repeat. This time I treated with Dr. Tims bacteria (both probiotic and waste away), did a 5 day blackout, and raised the temperature to 82 degrees. I noticed after this round of treatment my pH has dropped to 7.9-8.0 from 8.3.
2 weeks later, and I am back.
Current tank parameters are:
Salinity - 1.026
Phosphate - 0
Nitrate - dropping - from 0.99 ppm last week to 0.39 ppm this week, no water change
pH - 7.8
Nitrite - 0.00
Ammonia - 0.10
Alkalinity - 7.0 (dropped from 9.3 following Dr. Tims dosing).
Running Chaeto, chemipure elite, and Purigen.
Lighting - 10 hours per day. - Stock biocube LEDs.
Livestock - 2 clowns, 1 PJ Cardinal, royal grammas, 1 emerald crab, 4 nassarius snails, 10 astrea, 10 cerith, 1 small urchin.
Apologies for the horrible pictures. Who would have thought using a microscope from 1967 and a camera from 2022 wouldn't work!
Thank you all for the help. This one has me stumped.
