Algae I think - ID Please

[Sculpin]

I've had this brown stuff in my tank for a few weeks now. I also had it for a few weeks before the frag swap and the week following the swap I kept my MH lights off (just running T5s) for about 5 days to help the new corals acclimate, and the brown stuff disappeared. It has come back now and I'm guessing it's related to over feeding my fish and corals, so I've dialed that way back. I had a problem with hair algae a while back and it totally went away when I put in a phosban reactor and biopellets. I noticed a couple weeks back that the media in both of these had stopped tumbling, probably because of a power outage, so I don't know if the water got too stale and may have compromised their beneficial properties (possibly reset the clock on when they would be helpful again)? Could phosban or biopellets cause something like this? Regarding the over feeding, when I added Coral Frenzy to my tank, I noticed the brown stuff start to emit gas almost instantly, and small strands of the stuff would float to the surface of the water attached to the small gas bubbles.

The picture is of the stuff on the sand bed, where it grows on the larger media (e.g. shells) that have collected near my glass, but not on the fine sand. It also grows on the rocks and will create a film across some of my SPS. I tried adding a powerhead to blow directly at an area that doesn't get much flow and seemed worse that other areas (also happens to get more light), but that just seemed to make the situation worse.

Lots of variables and theories about what may be contributing to this, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Sculpin

 

[Krish]

Looks like dino's. Take a peek at the write up I did last night under dinoflagalettes and see if that looks like it.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/showthread.php?t=63768


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[mercenary-grunt]

oh gees +1 dino

 

[estanoche]

and yeah - if your pellets went stale, then your nitrates and phosphates are probably spiking again, causing the dino cycle

may have to wait this one out until your pellets get back up to speed!

 

[jezzeaepi]

Here is how to tell for sure if it is dinos:
Dinos disappear at night when the lights go off, and reappear during the day in full force.
When you blow it with a turkey baster, it disperses. This is in contrast to cyano which can be sucked up in large sheets using a turkey baster.
The dinos are usually covered in bubbles as well.

 

[Sculpin]

Thanks all! I'm sure it's dinos.

Thanks for the link Krish, the link in your article took me to all kinds of other resources and I learned a ton.

Looks like I'll be lowering lights, reducing food, raising PH, trying to syphon as much off as possible every day.

 

[Krish]

Thanks all! I'm sure it's dinos.

Thanks for the link Krish, the link in your article took me to all kinds of other resources and I learned a ton.

Looks like I'll be lowering lights, reducing food, raising PH, trying to syphon as much off as possible every day.

No problem at all! Glad it helped and good luck getting rid of it!


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