What's this? I used Microscope

[JM Kang]

I used a cheap microscope to look at what might be green algae, dinos, or cyano in my tank, but I still have no idea what it is. It's not a high-end microscope, so the image quality isn't the best. Could anyone knowledgeable take a look and help me identify it?

 

[EnterName]

I would say a bunch of filamentous green algae (Cyanos usually move, get discolored in reef tanks to more red/purple, and don't really branch)

The rest seems like detritus or bacterial biofilm. Hard to tell from the overall quality.

Check out my microscopy thread if you find more interesting things you can't identify, but obviously you can always simply ask in a thread like this one
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/

 

[JM Kang]

I would say a bunch of filamentous green algae (Cyanos usually move, get discolored in reef tanks to more red/purple, and don't really branch)

The rest seems like detritus or bacterial biofilm. Hard to tell from the overall quality.

Check out my microscopy thread if you find more interesting things you can't identify, but obviously you can always simply ask in a thread like this one
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/

Wow, what magnification is needed to get a shot like the one in the post?

 

[EnterName]

I would say a bunch of filamentous green algae (Cyanos usually move, get discolored in reef tanks to more red/purple, and don't really branch)

The rest seems like detritus or bacterial biofilm. Hard to tell from the overall quality.

Check out my microscopy thread if you find more interesting things you can't identify, but obviously you can always simply ask in a thread like this one
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/

Wow, what magnification is needed to get a shot like the one in the post?

The image quality depends mostly on optics (well designed objectives) and the illuminaton technique. Your microscope uses simple bright-field which is a good "alround" method but specimen appear flat and translucent things can sometimes become very hard to see. That's why there are other techniques which can help with that:

Dark-field for example doesn't illuminate the specimen from below, but instead from the sides and the background appears dark. The first posts of the clownfish eggs were created in dark-field.

Most other images were taken using "Differential Interference Contrast" (DIC) which is a very advanced illuminaton technique using a polarizer, a prism, followed by the light passing through the specimen, then through another prism and another polarizer. This gives a "3D" impression of the specimen which otherwise would look flat.

Regarding magnification you will have to name the specific post/image what magnification would be required. Note that everything beyond 1000x with a light microscope is pretty much worthless as visible light can't resolve more detail. It's like a "digital zoom" at that point, nothing new gets revealed.

 

[Mahi51212]

I would say a bunch of filamentous green algae (Cyanos usually move, get discolored in reef tanks to more red/purple, and don't really branch)

The rest seems like detritus or bacterial biofilm. Hard to tell from the overall quality.

Check out my microscopy thread if you find more interesting things you can't identify, but obviously you can always simply ask in a thread like this one
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/

The microscopy thread is pretty Awsome I’m not gonna lie. Now I need to find a microscope that’s budget friendly haha

 

[EnterName]

I would say a bunch of filamentous green algae (Cyanos usually move, get discolored in reef tanks to more red/purple, and don't really branch)

The rest seems like detritus or bacterial biofilm. Hard to tell from the overall quality.

Check out my microscopy thread if you find more interesting things you can't identify, but obviously you can always simply ask in a thread like this one
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/

The microscopy thread is pretty Awsome I’m not gonna lie. Now I need to find a microscope that’s budget friendly haha

Thank you for the kind words I hope I can offer more content again soon. I started contacting some online shops hoping to get various samples, maybe even parasites, etc.

There are many cheap microscopes that get you some decent bright-field images up to 400x magnification. 1000x is often useless for cheap scopes but even though I have expensive optics for that range I barely use them. I still have some upgrades coming to improve quality significantly but the actual jump to DIC is the really expensive part and what makes the images look the way they do. With bright field they will always look flat, but it still has it's charme and is very fun and sometimes also useful