DmitryB
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It's a new tank, only up for a few months. Is this normal green algae/ugly phase? I'm concerned about the air bubbles on it? Or are these dinoflagellates? (This is under white lights; it looks brown under blue lighting.)
What algae is this?
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How many months is a few months?
If it's stuck to the rocks but you can't see it growing in hairs or slime it's probably green coralline algae which is pretty common for young tanks. It's part of the ugly phase that takes a while until red/purple coralline algae overgrows it. Very short hair algae is also possible.
When it starts to get slimy I would take a closer look (preferably with a microscope), we had a nasty Euglenida outbreak recently here on the forum.
If it's stuck to the rocks but you can't see it growing in hairs or slime it's probably green coralline algae which is pretty common for young tanks. It's part of the ugly phase that takes a while until red/purple coralline algae overgrows it. Very short hair algae is also possible.
When it starts to get slimy I would take a closer look (preferably with a microscope), we had a nasty Euglenida outbreak recently here on the forum.
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DmitryB
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It's running since May, with live rock and ocean live sand. In reading up on dinos, it seems like low Nitrates and Phosphates might be contributing? I did have a fairly large drop in Phosphates over the last 3 months (from .9 to .17.) And yesterday people pointed out my Nitrates were getting a bit low. Can that be contributing to possible dinos?
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DmitryB
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I'm ok with the ugly phase; it's the air bubbles that worry me since that could be dinos.
If dinoflagellates are a symptom or the cause of bottoming out nutrients is a controversial topic that gets discussed repeatedly on R2R. Dinoflagellates can certainly appear in both environments: High and low nutrient.
I personally can get them to appear in my system when I stop adding ammonia and phosphate. As soon as I start dosing again, they disappear just as fast. However I'm running an ultra low nutrient system where we are talking about nutrient levels far below yours and actually below the detection limit of home test kits (even Hanna Checkers) when I stop dosing.
0.17ppm PO₄ is more than enough, but if you are worried that 1ppm NO₃ is insufficient, you can take a look at ammonia dosing: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/. It might actually help you get rid of some phosphate which would be a nice side-effect.
If that growth is actually caused by dinoflagellates you should be able to blow some slime off the rocks using a feeding pipette or similar. If you know someone with a light microscope (cheap ones are fine) and manage to get some of that stuff off from a rock, we can look for a proper diagnosis/identification.
As your tank is just a few months old, I wouldn't stress it, even if it were dinoflagellates. They are very common in young tanks and don't have to become a problem. Before I started adding nutrients they were constantly present and slightly discolored the substrate while everything else was left alone growing fine.
Bubbles can be caused by everything that uses photosynthesis if the flow isn't strong enough to carry away the oxygen. They are just more frequently observed when Dinoflagellates are present because their mucus is trapping the bubbles.
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DmitryB
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There ARE bubbles flying around. I've been trying to work out the flow and it's tough. I want surface to move, but can't raise neither the Nero nor the MP 10 close enough to surface without getting those annoying vortexes, and that sends lots of bubbles. Otherwise I don't get much surface movement.
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