High Tide Aquatics

Help identifying Algae (diatoms/cyano/dino) ?

FindingNemo9

FindingNemo9

Supporting Member
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Hello,

My tank suddenly had this in a day. Earlier there were some diatoms on the sand bed and most of the algae was floating in water.

From the last 3 days, water seems clear but the rock and sand both have alage as shown in pictures.

I don’t see any sliminess, but see small string like algae and water bubbles on rock.

I recently read that trapped bubbles could be a sign of dino? (Currently freaking out)

—-

Tank parameters

Nitrites - 0 for past few weeks
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - saw 5 ppm once, and it fell down to 0 for 2 weeks straight and currently seeing a 1 ppm
Ph - 8.4
phosphates - 0

Feeding (2 feedings per day)
——
Brine shrimp - 1/2 cube per feeding
Mysis shrimp - 1/2 cube per feeding
Pellets - 4-5 per fish (2 fish)

——
Tank history

1-1/2 month old
No protein skimmer
Sponge filter, bio filters media, carbon filter, filter floss
Ai prime 16hd

IMG_0523.jpeg


Inhabitants
——
2 nano clown
6 crabs (got 4 this week after alage bloom)
2 turbo snails (got this week after algae bloom)
 

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Probably Dino or a mix of the uglies. Your tank is so young it’s gonna go through funky stuff stages. I would not overreact or stress about this and let it ride for a while. Especially if you started with dry/dead rock.

If anything keep feeding and hopefully you’ll see some nutrients show up.
 
5k Copepods jar from algae barn & microbacter clean. Not a miracle cure but might help with your ugly stage find balance faster.

Edit:
Maybe not that jar, how big is the tank?
Just want different species of pods jar.
 
I'm not sure what size cube your refeering to, but I feed half a cube only once a day split between 3 different tanks.

2 big maroon clownfish 3 inches/ 4.5 inches
2 adult perc clownfish 2-3 inches
A 6 line wrasse 2.5 inches
2 large cardinals 3 inches each

And dozens of crabs/ snails.

I know there are different size cubes, so hopefully your not feeding the larger ones that often.

Going by your orginal post you said
1/2 cube of brine, 1/2 cube of mysiss, and 4-5 pellets per fish.

What exactly do you feed in each feeding?

My initial thoughts soley based on what you indicated above, is you may also be feeding way to much.

The potential issue here is any uneaten food, fouls up your water, makes alages grow, when things build up to a certain point it can effect the health of your fish.

For two fish, you should probably be feeding like 1/4-1/5 of a cube.

No more than fish can eat in two minutes. With goal that very little food stays uneaten long enough to drift to the bottom of the tank.

Also if you become a supporting member, you will find many members willing to go out of their way to help out. We have a great group here. On our main page we have a members only frag swap coming up on June 1st, Would love to see you there if you consider signing up.
 
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NBD - Don’t freak out. Your course of action will be pretty similar regardless of test results IMO. With such a light bioload:
  • Let’s get some water changes going. Siphon it out each time. RODI?
  • Feed every other day, and only once each time. You’re over feeding by a lot and your inhabitants need less than you think.
  • Get rid of the filter floss.
  • Get rid of the sponge filter or commit to keeping it ridiculously clean.
  • Few corals, so a 3-day blackout is an option if the above items aren’t enough.
  • Consider getting 2-3 Nassarius snails.
  • Skip the turbos. Consider trochus.
 
Last edited:
iCon said:
NBD - Don’t freak out. Your course of action will be pretty similar regardless of test results IMO. With such a light bioload:
  • Let’s get some water changes going. Siphon it out each time. RODI?
  • Feed every other day, and only once each time. Your fish need less than you think.
  • Get rid of the filter floss.
  • Get rid of the sponge filter or commit to keeping it ridiculously clean.
  • Few corals, so a 3-day blackout is an option if the above items aren’t enough.
Click to expand...
If it is Dino’s, depending on the type, wouldn’t water changes and reduced feeding be bad? Looks like his nitrate/phosphates have bottomed out and water changes + reduced feedings would just make the issue worse. Obviously we can’t tell without a microscope ID but his pics look similar to the dinos I had when I first started my tank and I actually stopped water changes, increased feeding, and turned off the protein skimmer and after a while it cleared up.
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
If it is Dino’s, depending on the type, wouldn’t water changes and reduced feeding be bad? Looks like his nitrate/phosphates have bottomed out and water changes + reduced feedings would just make the issue worse. Obviously we can’t tell without a microscope ID but his pics look similar to the dinos I had when I first started my tank and I actually stopped water changes, increased feeding, and turned off the protein skimmer and after a while it cleared up.
Click to expand...

I see he has what looks like a gyre, I wonder if the bottom of his tank is getting enough flow?
 
Dinos and diatoms cannot be easily distinguished by the eye. Microscope is the best way forward.

Given the nutrients are bottomed out, it will most likely be some type of dino, which is unfortunate. The microscope will tell what type (post here) and this will then inform next steps.

Current thinking is to not do water changes and to not add inverts until you know what type of dinos you have, as many of them are toxic to inverts, and they will not eat them anyway.

Immediate next steps: reduce lighting by 50%, and increase nutrients to get readable levels. And get a microscope picture.

Additional comment: if things start dying before you get the microscope picture, add activated carbon ASAP, to offset the toxins.
 
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MarcosDelgado0 said:
If it is Dino’s, depending on the type, wouldn’t water changes and reduced feeding be bad? Looks like his nitrate/phosphates have bottomed out and water changes + reduced feedings would just make the issue worse. Obviously we can’t tell without a microscope ID but his pics look similar to the dinos I had when I first started my tank and I actually stopped water changes, increased feeding, and turned off the protein skimmer and after a while it cleared up.
Click to expand...

That’s why I’d go the route outlined above - Should work for any and all of the potential nuisances :)
 
MichaelB said:
I'm not sure what size cube your refeering to, but I feed half a cube only once a day split between 3 different tanks.

2 big maroon clownfish 3 inches/ 4.5 inches
2 adult perc clownfish 2-3 inches
A 6 line wrasse 2.5 inches
2 large cardinals 3 inches each

And dozens of crabs/ snails.

I know there are different size cubes, so hopefully your not feeding the larger ones that often.

Going by your orginal post you said
1/2 cube of brine, 1/2 cube of mysiss, and 4-5 pellets per fish.

What exactly do you feed in each feeding?

My initial thoughts soley based on what you indicated above, is you may also be feeding way to much.

The potential issue here is any uneaten food, fouls up your water, makes alages grow, when things build up to a certain point it can effect the health of your fish.

For two fish, you should probably be feeding like 1/4-1/5 of a cube.

No more than fish can eat in two minutes. With goal that very little food stays uneaten long enough to drift to the bottom of the tank.

Also if you become a supporting member, you will find many members willing to go out of their way to help out. We have a great group here. On our main page we have a members only frag swap coming up on June 1st, Would love to see you there if you consider signing up.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the comment. I'm referring to https://www.hikariusa.com/frozen_folder/mysis_shrimp.html cubes. In one feeding i feed 1/2 a cube (3.5 oz) of either Mysis or Brine or 8 pellets (4 for each fish) (Small Pellets - 1.2mm).

I'll probably decrease my feeding as per your suggestion. What do you recommend to get my Nutrients up (NO3).

Joined as a supporting member. I honestly did not how to something like it existed. Thank you for info
 
MichaelB said:
I see he has what looks like a gyre, I wonder if the bottom of his tank is getting enough flow?
Click to expand...

Hello ... Yes, this is a gyre pump. Max speed set to 20%. I read somewhere that Gyre pumps are good for LPS corals and hence got this one. Do you recommend adding another flow pump near bottom-back of the tank?

Thank you.
 
FindingNemo9 said:
Thank you for the comment. I'm referring to https://www.hikariusa.com/frozen_folder/mysis_shrimp.html cubes. In one feeding i feed 1/2 a cube (3.5 oz) of either Mysis or Brine or 8 pellets (4 for each fish) (Small Pellets - 1.2mm).

I'll probably decrease my feeding as per your suggestion. What do you recommend to get my Nutrients up (NO3).

Joined as a supporting member. I honestly did not how to something like it existed. Thank you for info
Click to expand...
You could dose nutrients with something like NeoPhos and NeoNitro. That’s what I did when I had Dino’s. If your problem really is Dino’s, heavy feeding would actually help raise your nutrients. You don’t want to be at 0. What are you using to test? Confirm your issue is dinos first and ID the type before dosing anything into your tank.
 
I’m going to throw one into the mix cuz this happened to me a few months back. My frag tank would grow this snot looking slime. I was sure it was Dino’s. I know what Dino’s look like and how they act. Super positive. So I treated for Dino’s. Cuz I was lazy to get a microscope and be 100%. Well 3 months went by. And my treatment wasn’t working. I finally got a microscope and posted a what is this on Mack’s Dino’s Facebook page. It turns out I had high silicas from my ro/di. Cuz my unit was at 1 ppm. So I changed corse of action. And it’s gone. I’ve been in this hobby for a very long time. And I’m still learning. And learning. Moral of the story. Do your homework.
 
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