What am I dealing with Algae/Bacteria

[Twoddler]

Mixed Reef Tank - 14mth old
No3 40
Po4 0.02
Alk 8

Dosing 10ml Nyos Phosphate/Day
Gravel vac every night after work ( Syphon into a reactor full of floss and back into sump )

Running uv and Gac

Just don't seen to be making a dent in this algae/Bacteria, brown and dusty on the rock and substrate, also powerheads.
It blows off rock easily with a turkey baster, easily siyphoned from substrate

Anybody any idea what I'm dealing with



Next day its back just the same, dissapears when lights out.

 

[Twoddler]

Mixed Reef Tank - 14mth old
No3 40
Po4 0.02
Alk 8

Dosing 10ml Nyos Phosphate/Day
Gravel vac every night after work ( Syphon into a reactor full of floss and back into sump )

Running uv and Gac

Just don't seen to be making a dent in this algae/Bacteria, brown and dusty on the rock and substrate, also powerheads.
It blows off rock easily with a turkey baster, easily siyphoned from substrate

Anybody any idea what I'm dealing with



Next day its back just the same, dissapears when lights out.

 

[whoasked]

I don't see stringy nastyness, and if it's powdery when you baster it, I would guess diatom bloom. Check for silicates in water supply. Nitrates are also pretty high, but it doesn't sound like algae to me.

 

[Twoddler]

I don't see stringy nastyness, and if it's powdery when you baster it, I would guess diatom bloom. Check for silicates in water supply. Nitrates are also pretty high, but it doesn't sound like algae to me.

Thanks for the reply, I'm hoping it is diatoms, I don't think it's cyano it's not matted together, I hope it's not Dino,s either.

Last ICP test although 4 weeks ago silicates were within normal range.

Nitates are usually around 20 ISH, I,ve stopped dosing NoPox just incase I'm feed what ever it is

 

[Spare time]

Could you post a pic under white light only?

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Cyano is the likely culprit, more common than dinos, you can dose chemiclean and if its fixes your issue it was cyano. Dinos are harder to remove.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

You can do your research on both cyano's and dino's to see what you need to work on to keep them at bay

 

[whoasked]

Thanks for the reply, I'm hoping it is diatoms, I don't think it's cyano it's not matted together, I hope it's not Dino,s either.

Last ICP test although 4 weeks ago silicates were within normal range.

Nitates are usually around 20 ISH, I,ve stopped dosing NoPox just incase I'm feed what ever it is

I literally used a little hand held microscope to ID dino to the point of beating them. Ostreopsis is super easy to beat. Cost $12 on Amazon, if you are truly worried. Has to at least hit 120x though.

 

[Twoddler]

Could you post a pic under white light only?

The photos are under whites , white as I could get my radion g4s. Photos aren't great thou crap camera.

 

[Twoddler]

Don,t really want to go down the chemical route, chemicleen isn't available in the UK, our equivalent is cyan flux rx by life, it just nuc,s your tank.

So, untill I get a microscope I'm carrying on with manual cleaning.

Bought a new uv bulb for my deltec 20 watt, also turned up the flow to roughly 2x turn over / hour

UV setup is not ideal, closed loop sump to sump separate pump.

 

[Twoddler]

I,ve tried a better photo, but this after manual cleaning, I'll take another picture tommorow before cleening

 

[Twoddler]

I,ve tried a better photo, but this after manual cleaning, I'll take another picture tommorow before cleening

 

[Twoddler]

Powerhead before cleaning

 

[Twoddler]

24 hrs after cleaning , seems to be a bit less.

No3 continuing to rise Po4 brought up to 0.05

Seems like I'm in a catch 22 situation, I have tried large water changes 30% but algae gets worse, so doing 2 x 15% weekly, I'm seeing an improvement although No3 rising.

I,ve turned Nopox back on @ 3ml just to see if I can keep No3 in check and hopefully not feed the algae/diatoms/Bacteria.

Lights I have put into acclamation mode

Flow increased with an extra powerhead low down at the back of tank.

A lot of changes at once which concerns me.

Fortunately live stock still looks OK.

 

[Lavey29]

Side comment, cool toadstool. What cleaners you got in there working your sand? Try a goby or add a bunch of pods. Cut out white light. Just run blue and uv only for a few weeks?

 

[Twoddler]

Side comment, cool toadstool. What cleaners you got in there working your sand? Try a goby or add a bunch of pods. Cut out white light. Just run blue and uv only for a few weeks?

Toadstool, had about 4 years, came out of my old tank.

Cuc hermits,snails, conches, sand sifting starfish, tuxedo urchin

Fish workers, Foxface, Tomini Tang, File Fish

Loads of pods, dosing live photo

Feeding 1 cube mysis / day or a pinch of flake & pellets

 

[Lavey29]

Toadstool, had about 4 years, came out of my old tank.

Cuc hermits,snails, conches, sand sifting starfish, tuxedo urchin

Fish workers, Foxface, Tomini Tang, File Fish

Loads of pods, dosing live photo

Feeding 1 cube mysis / day or a pinch of flake & pellets

I had a similar problem and found silicates in my RODI. I switched to a spectrapure silicate buster DI filter and my RODI has 0 silicates now so problem went away. I really think pods are good for stuff like this also on the sand. Cut out your white spectrum for 2 weeks. Just use blue and UV only.

 

[Twoddler]

So I bought a cheap microscope, took samples from various part of the tank, this is what I so, hopefully I'm wrong but I see dino,s. Not sure what type hopefully some one on here more knowledgeable can help me, I'd these little pests, and suggest a battle plan

 

[Twoddler]

Just a quick update, I'm dealing with dinoflagellate ( Prorocentrum )

Prorocentrum do not go waterborne when lights out, making UV treatment unlikely to work.

As far as I can see I have a couple of choices

Dose silicate ( water glass ) to induce a diatom bloom to out compete the Dino's.

Or remove the sanded

Any thoughts welcome

 

[whoasked]

I'm sure there may be many options on what you should do, and there could be multiple options. If you aren't afraid of chemicals, dino x is the way to go. It doesn't work on all dino and mixed reviews on safety of coral. I personally have used it on a strain that it worked on and one it didn't. Neither time had effects on my coral. If you don't want the chemical route, you could raise po4 only, since your no3 looks decent to grow some algae to compete, dose silicates to compete, and dose live phytoplankton to compete. I wouldn't mess with peroxide because it is mostly only effective on contact. That's my ¢2 on it, and I have battled dinos before. Be patient...and vow to avoid them at all cost in the future lol.