Several things going on

[Ashley13]

So i had some type of algea start in my sandbed, it's a brown/dark red color and when you mix it up in the sand it clunks up and has hair like pieces in it and it doesn't go away at night. I used to have tons of copepods, you could shine a light at night and they were running everywhere. Well they've disappeared when the algea started. I have a mandarin so im having to add pods to the tank (one bottle a week for past 3 weeks) The lfs told me to dose phyto so i bought reef nutritions phyto-feast, is this the right kind of phyto? All of my cuc has died off except 1 turbo snail and 1 hermit crab, most likely old age cause they were purchased with the tank setting up 4 years ago. Lfs said a cuc and dosing phyto and adding pods should help my algea issue. I've tried water changes, 3 day black outs and chemiclean. None has helped.

 

[Troylee]

Looks like Dino’s unfortunately… plenty of help threads but a pain to treat and takes time.. you’ll have to start with a microscope to find the strain then figure out a plan of attack..

 

[bluemon]

Do you have your tank parameters? What do you have in terms of nutrient export? (Refugium, ATS, etc)

 

[Ashley13]

Do you have your tank parameters? What do you have in terms of nutrient export? (Refugium, ATS, etc)

Nitrate-5
Nitrite-0
Ammonia-0
Calcium-410
Alkalinity-9.2
Ph-8.4
And i ran out of phosphate hanna regent so i checked it with a fluval test but the card reading isn't precise. It has 0 clear and the next number is 0.25 with a hint of blue. My test came out clear so it's somewhere around the 0 mark but it could be a little higher just can't see the color change.
I have a refugium and skimmer.

 

[Ashley13]

Looks like Dino’s unfortunately… plenty of help threads but a pain to treat and takes time.. you’ll have to start with a microscope to find the strain then figure out a plan of attack..

I've been asking around to borrow someones microscope, lfs didnt have one. I have just order one so i can get to the bottom of this. How do i sample it? A sample of water and a sample of the stuff on the sand? What magnification do you recommend? There is so many to choose from.

 

[Chris Nano Reef]

Could be Dino’s. Does it have any air bubbles inside of the algae? Here’s a good read could help identify it but a microscope will be best.

 

[Ashley13]

Could be Dino’s. Does it have any air bubbles inside of the algae? Here’s a good read could help identify it but a microscope will be best.

Okay thanks, I'll check it out. No bubbles, that's whats throwing me off, all the dinos I've ever seen has bubbles.