Confusing stringy blooms plaguing tank. Including microscope photos.

[CraftedMiller]

I've had my Evo 13.5 running around a year and am still struggling with some sort of microbial balance/ugly phase. Even with dosing phosphates and nitrates I have a hard time getting them above 0, seemingly because the bacteria or algae is intaking whatever I'm dosing. I've had some cyano outbreaks which I've dosed Chemi-Clean with success. Although after the cyano goes away I'm stuck with this horrible symbiotic bioflim of sorts. Attached I have one photo of how it looks in the tank and a few photos of how it looks under a microscope. 

 

Under the scope it seems as though I can see the majority of the mass is bacterial. There are some cyano strings here and there and some dinos. I'm curious if there are any others on here that could see these photos and help identify what they may see and perhaps provide some assistance in how to fight these breakouts.

 

My thought right now is that these are bacterial blooms that are started by VOCs. I have my tank in my office at a laboratory and we make a lot of organic medias that are very powdery. I'm assuming these get airborne and fall into the tank. 

 

Curious of your thoughts. Thank you!

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, CraftedMiller said:

My thought right now is that these are bacterial blooms that are started by VOCs. I have my tank in my office at a laboratory and we make a lot of organic medias that are very powdery. I'm assuming these get airborne and fall into the tank. 

If you are dosing N and P and you can't keep them above zero while there are powdered VOCs in the air it makes perfect sense it's just bacterial blooms from the abundant carbon source. You are probably seeing dinos and cyano here and there under the scope because your nutrients are basically at zero, out of balance, and the tank is notcarbon limited. You definitely need to keep your N and P up even if it means dealing with more ugly bacterial blooms - t hey are infinitely better than dinos, chrysophytes, or any other nasties that thrive in ultra low nutrient and imbalanced conditions.

 

A skimmer with a particulate filter on the intake and good surface agitation should keep your oxygen levels up so the bacteria are nothing more than unsightly (and the skimmer will probably pull some bacteria as well). The good news is your coral and other macro life will go ham on that bacteria. If you keep your nutrients stable and the dust in the air is fairly consistent, eventually you'll reach a balance with the bacterial population and all the other stuff that consumes it. it's basically free food.

 

Outside of trying to limit carbon going into the tank by filtering the air in your office or something, I'd just focus on stability in nutrient levels, adding a bunch of calanoid pods, and letting your tank naturally balance with the bacterial population.