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Anybody have experience dealing with euglena?

IDd euglena in my tank yesterday and there's very little info on how to treat it. Cheers!
Learn something new everyday! I've never heard of that algae before. Just did a quick search on R2R and found several forums on the topic..Just tread lightly if you decide to add chemicals for treatment...Here is one of the forums on euglena treatment..Good luck
Paul

 
Updating this thread:

The euglena disappeared every night, and came back with the light cycle. My interpretation of this was that they went into the water column at night, meaning they'd be vulnerable to UV, so I went ahead and put a UV sterilizer in my sump.

The sterilizer didn't seem to be doing much in and of itself (no reduction in euglena during the day), so I hypothesized that:
  1. There may be too much euglena to be killed in a single day by the UV before it replicates,
  2. There may be a 'cyst' stage where they stay in the sand (and repopulate over the next day or so), and/or
  3. Increased competition in the form of bacteria will help get them under control.
I did a 36 hour blackout (8 PM lights off Monday night to 8 AM lights on Wednesday morning). At the start of the blackout, I added the indicated amount of Microbacter 7 to the indicated amount of tank water, took a turkey baster, and 'injected' the bacteria into the sand. I rationalized this would kick euglena up into the water column, along with getting the bacteria into the sand where they could compete. While I had euglena all over the sand bed, I only did this in the center of the tank (so I'd have an experimental condition, and a control elsewhere).

48+ hours after the end of the blackout, I don't have any euglena and the sand looks nice. I don't think the bacteria did anything (no appreciable difference between the 'treated' sand and 'control' areas), but it's nice to have clean sand again.
Tank Update.jpg
 
I’m surprised/skeptical that such a short blackout would kill them all but thanks for the update and thought process.
 
I’m surprised/skeptical that such a short blackout would kill them all but thanks for the update and thought process.
You're not the only one. I had the UV on the tank for roughly a week prior to the blackout. The purpose of the short-term blackout was to determine whether this knocked them back/inhibited their growth, since I wanted a quick answer before deciding whether to move towards silicate dosing to try and outcompete them with diatoms.

I'm honestly REALLY surprised that such a short blackout killed them off.
 
Euglena? I thought Euglena was free plankton. Do you have a photo of what it looked like in your tank? I ask because a couple weeks ago I pulled out a ton of GHA from my rockwork and end of last week I saw green blobby slime algae in its place. Was hoping to siphon it out this week and do a very, very long overdue water change.
IMG_3440.JPG
 
Euglena? I thought Euglena was free plankton. Do you have a photo of what it looked like in your tank? I ask because a couple weeks ago I pulled out a ton of GHA from my rockwork and end of last week I saw green blobby slime algae in its place. Was hoping to siphon it out this week and do a very, very long overdue water change.
View attachment 36306
Not my picture, but it looked more or less like this over the sand of the tank:

1647155610374.png



I was also getting lots of film algae on the glass of the tank, and it started getting 'bubbly' towards the end of the light cycle. It didn't look like what you're showing me here; however, if you'd like, I'm happy to grab a sample if you'll be at the frag swap/want to meet up in SJ and look at it under my microscope.
 
Thanks for the photo, info, and scope offer. I have microscopes, just no time. I will try to siphon off my green goo.
Keep us posted on if your sandbed stays clear. That is really interesting how the euglena disappeared in the night but came back with the light.
 
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