Dino or Golen Algae ID Confirmation

[AquaNanoNZ]

Hello,

 

I have been having a problem with an algae recently, a few things first though.

 

I suspected dinos but am now thinking it's possibly golden algae maybe?

 

It's a 50L nano which is around 8 years old, I don't have many test results to share since I haven't tested I years and thrown them away sometime (I have ordered some more)

SG is 1.025

 

Recently I have slacked a bit on maintenance but suspect this nuisance algae is possibly dinos, the rock is slimy to the touch and is encroaching on my hammer corals making them unhappy.

 

I have a couple of pictures, hopefully are good enough to work something out.

Any help would be great!

[mcarroll]

Doesn't look like either one very much, but if I was forced to choose without the benefit of a microscope photo I'd have to pick "golden algae" or Chrysophytes.  Certainly your tactile description matches – chrysophytes are slimy.

 

Can you get a sample pic through a microscope?  (Even a toy scope is sufficient.  Phone cameras work well to take the pic.)

 

For what it's worth, I had something like that (also no p positive ID since I didn't have a microscope at the time) take over my tank at around the same age.  I hadn't been testing, it had been YEARS since I'd had any cleanup crew.  It made quick work of any corals it covered, so I had to siphon it out frequently....eventually the tank transitioned from this to hair algae.  Not better, since I still had no cleanup crew, and there were no longer any stores to buy at in my area.

 

In my case, nutrients were PROBABLY all at 0.00 ppm, or close (no test kits at the time, like you), and I suspect that's what eventually allowed this algae to "overpower" the regular periphyton my tank had been hosting.  Restoring nutrient levels was my co-strategy, along with siphoning it out almost every day.

[AquaNanoNZ]

Thanks for your reply, I picked up some reagents for my hanna checker and my PO4 is 0

 

I suspect this is because I have been using seachem filter media in the 100ml bags which are massive overkill for a 50L system

 

I also got a microscope and took a few snaps of the offending substance 

 

 

Hopefully these are good enough for you to make a positive ID on

 

I guess the first step is going to be removing the 100ml bags and switching to an amount which is more suited to the size of my system 

[mcarroll]

Not quite a specific ID, but the spheroid shape does indicate (eg) chrysophytes.

 

Definitely cease with the extra filter media...shouldn't be necessary in most cases, but certainly withhold use until the algae has passed.

 

How is your cleanup crew?  How many and what critters?

[AquaNanoNZ]

I don't actually really have a cleanup crew. Here in New Zealand crabs, snails, starfish and shrimps are not that easy to find, they do get imported every now and then but are not readily available 

 

I do have alot of copepods in the tank, I used to have brittle stars but haven't seen them for a while now and do find the odd bristle worm

[mcarroll]

6 hours ago, AquaNanoNZ said:

I don't actually really have a cleanup crew.

As mentioned, having no cleanup crew was at the base of my problem, IMO.  

 

6 hours ago, AquaNanoNZ said:

Here in New Zealand crabs, snails, starfish and shrimps are not that easy to find, they do get imported every now and then but are not readily available 

Snails or urchins would be the best things to get (snails #1) if possible.

 

Until you find something, you'll have to keep removing this algae by hand until it gives up.  Nice to have the snails to help!  🙂 

 

6 hours ago, AquaNanoNZ said:

I do have alot of copepods in the tank, I used to have brittle stars but haven't seen them for a while now and do find the odd bristle worm

Good signs!

[AquaNanoNZ]

So after a bit of reading of how other people have dealt with chrysophytes the key thing seems to be increasing nutrients

 

So what I have done so far is removed 100ml bag of purigen, replaced 40ml of sea gel with 30ml GAC instead and increased feedings to bring up nutrient levels and keeping up with manual removal

 

I will check my nutrient levels this weekend to see where I'm at and that I'm going in the right direction 

 

[brandon429]

No I disagree (but only for the health of your tank)

 

 

There's a better way to help your reef

 

 

People have been turning their tanks into gha farms by altering nutrients, or dinos

 

That's the pattern from large work threads on dinos or chrysophytes, with occasional lucky fixes along the way agreed. That's the carrot everyone hopes for

 

but in the giant work threads on reef2reef, people don't routinely get cures 

 

that's why providing an ID is not helpful, it's not like per species anyone can link us to a working fix thread. Jobs that don't involve rip cleaning cycle between hair algae, dinos and cyano over and over during the nutrient changes and resulting blooms

 

but rip clean threads: pure compliance

All entrants, happy. 

 

This is a pretty old reef as far as nanos go

 

When someone loses a yearslong investment they tend to reef differently on the next go round

 

Feel free to experiment with methods that don't involve rip cleaning. If you see it's not working, there's a way to clean your rocks, clean your sand of all pent up waste, that leaves the entire system sparkling clean. You're missing being told about the deep cleaning angle which has all the wins and doesn't involve ID or testing or any type of might not work scenario

 

If you want that tank fixed and set to run another 8 years, a deep cleaning is the safest thing you can do. 

 

If you ever want to run one for the betterment of your tank, we could run it right here with a typed order of ops

 

Then we could make an article on the outcome you get, whether it was a predictable outcome or not. 

 

I once lost a five year old reefbowl due to simply allowed invasion

 

Nobody told me i could simply take it apart and clean it back into compliance

All the boyds chemi clean i dumped in: nothing

 

So on the next go, in 2006. I decided the moon will fall from the sky before I permit an algae to take foothold in this v2 reefbowl. Plant will not win over man twice in this game

 

Enter the rip clean

 

In 2024 the reefbowl is any nano on this site's grampa except Ralph's super old nano. 

 

You don't put up with any crap from your tank, and you require it to comply by your physical action. That's the secret sauce man, that's how to not lose an old tank

 

Being able to melt off internally the offender from the system is merely the ideal

 

The fallback method is forced control. Agreed where above MC said you require it to comply until you get so good the work isn't required. 

[mcarroll]

Don't forget about that cleanup crew!  🙂 

[AquaNanoNZ]

26 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Don't forget about that cleanup crew!  🙂 

I ordered 2 turbo snails last night 😄

[AquaNanoNZ]

On 4/11/2024 at 7:02 AM, brandon429 said:

If you want that tank fixed and set to run another 8 years, a deep cleaning is the safest thing you can do 

As much as I want to do this, I am really put off by the amount of work it's going to be

 

I do vacuum the sand during water changes and stir up bits of sand

[jservedio]

On 4/10/2024 at 3:02 PM, brandon429 said:

No I disagree (but only for the health of your tank)

 

 

There's a better way to help your reef

 

 

People have been turning their tanks into gha farms by altering nutrients, or dinos

 

That's the pattern from large work threads on dinos or chrysophytes, with occasional lucky fixes along the way agreed. That's the carrot everyone hopes for

 

but in the giant work threads on reef2reef, people don't routinely get cures 

 

that's why providing an ID is not helpful, it's not like per species anyone can link us to a working fix thread. Jobs that don't involve rip cleaning cycle between hair algae, dinos and cyano over and over during the nutrient changes and resulting blooms

 

but rip clean threads: pure compliance

All entrants, happy. 

 

This is a pretty old reef as far as nanos go

 

When someone loses a yearslong investment they tend to reef differently on the next go round

 

Feel free to experiment with methods that don't involve rip cleaning. If you see it's not working, there's a way to clean your rocks, clean your sand of all pent up waste, that leaves the entire system sparkling clean. You're missing being told about the deep cleaning angle which has all the wins and doesn't involve ID or testing or any type of might not work scenario

 

If you want that tank fixed and set to run another 8 years, a deep cleaning is the safest thing you can do. 

 

If you ever want to run one for the betterment of your tank, we could run it right here with a typed order of ops

 

Then we could make an article on the outcome you get, whether it was a predictable outcome or not. 

 

I once lost a five year old reefbowl due to simply allowed invasion

 

Nobody told me i could simply take it apart and clean it back into compliance

All the boyds chemi clean i dumped in: nothing

 

So on the next go, in 2006. I decided the moon will fall from the sky before I permit an algae to take foothold in this v2 reefbowl. Plant will not win over man twice in this game

 

Enter the rip clean

 

In 2024 the reefbowl is any nano on this site's grampa except Ralph's super old nano. 

 

You don't put up with any crap from your tank, and you require it to comply by your physical action. That's the secret sauce man, that's how to not lose an old tank

 

Being able to melt off internally the offender from the system is merely the ideal

 

The fallback method is forced control. Agreed where above MC said you require it to comply until you get so good the work isn't required. 

 

So I've never responded to a rip clean suestion before in all the years I've been on here because in the past I had mostly disagreed with the approach since I'd beaten dinos (2 rounds), chysophytes, and bryopsis by boosting nutrients (or at least changing the balance in the bryopsis case) with a mature system. But now that I've got some rock in my tank that isn't a decade old and entirely covered in coral, it's a giant pain in the ass to get rid of the GHA, turf algae, or bubble algae that ends up out-competing whatever the problem was and I've come around to rip cleaning, at least to a gentle version.

 

Did a rip clean on my newer rock (not even 4 years old compared to the rest being 14) without touching the old stuff just scrubbing in wastewater with no peroxide or anything to kill holdfasts and it was pretty easy other than my entire room smelling like a dirty fish store that hadn't been cleaned in a decade from disgusting algae getting flung all over. Once all the big algae was gone, the CUC had no problem keeping up with anything popping back up and I didn't have to nuke the rocks or sump them. It angered the acros a bit, but nothing is small so they recovered.

 

Just make sure you test every day for a while afterward and have NeoNitro and NeoPhos available to dose so your nutrients don't get out of whack again and start your problems all over again. Also test you alk every day because with nutrients in the water column that aren't immediately going to feed whatever the hell you had, growth is going to pick back up quickly and alk consumption will change.

 

I've definitely come around....at least in tanks that are too small for tangs! In any case, it's infinitely better than using chemicals. I guess seeing your walls of text for like...15 years straight about rip cleaning you wore me down. Thanks!

[AquaNanoNZ]

So since discovering my nutrients were both at zero I have removed my filter media and increased feedings

 

I tested my water just now and my No3 is 0.3 and Po4 is 0 still

 

I have now begun dosing both No3 and Po4 solutions and will retest in a few days, it does look like the algae has slowed and patches of coraline have become uncovered again

 

[mcarroll]

PO4 is most important at this point.....dose that first in preference.....hit 0.10 ppm at minimum and keep it there just like you would dose alkalinity – test and dose every day until you have it nailed down.  👍