Hitchhiker ID Please

[thesassyindian]

Hello BAR,
This is my first ever aquarium and it is about 8 weeks old.

After it was done cycling - in the 5th week, I added 2 clownfish, 3 Nassarius and 2 Trochus snails.

Exactly 2 weeks ago, I added one frag each of Duncan, Zoa and a GSP.

Last week, I saw these white sacks appear on my glass, and the numbers have been steadily growing.

They are about 1mm in diameter, and 2mm long, and seem to have something wiggling inside them - see video.

The left half of the first picture is looking at these straight through the glass, and the right half is looking at them along the tank glass.

Can anyone help identify what these are?

Thanks!!

 

[rygh]

Looks like some sort of tunicate to me.
Sea squirt.

 

[thesassyindian]

I doubt it @rygh , these are far too small - also, clearly look like egg sacks that are about to hatch.
Are you able to see the wiggling stuff inside the egg? (see center egg sack in the video).

 

[glee]

Welcome to BAR. Where did you pick up the corals?

 

[thesassyindian]

@glee Bought them at Aquatic Collection - sadly, the GSP and Zoa aren't looking so well with my dino bloom
They've been systematically dying over the past week.

 

[thesassyindian]

I will be looking to buy new corals soon after i solve my dino problem - any suggestions?

 

[Coral reefer]

Uv light and 3 day blackout.

 

[MonkeyReefer]

I will be looking to buy new corals soon after i solve my dino problem - any suggestions?

what’s your nitrate and phosphate level?

 

[thesassyindian]

@MonkeyReefer Nitrates are 5-10ppm (API) and Phosphates are 0ppm (Salifert).

 

[MonkeyReefer]

@MonkeyReefer Nitrates are 5-10ppm (API) and Phosphates are 0ppm (Salifert).

I had dino for a few months with near zero NO3 and PO4. Initially raised NO3 to 5ppm, using KNO3 (stump remover), installed an inexpensive UV filter, and tried removing dino with skimmer and filter pads (changed every day to every other day) for a few weeks, but dino kept coming back. I raised PO4 to about 0.05-0.15ppm using Seachem Flourish, while maintaining NO3 at around 5ppm, kept that for a week, UV and skimmer still on, then turned off the light for 3 days (not complete blackout, just light off). When I turned the light back on, Dino was 90% gone, and it’s been 4 weeks and the tank has been dino free (I saw bits here and there for a few weeks tho) but everything is back to being happy and thriving. U sure it’s dino? Not diatom or cyano?

 

[thesassyindian]

@MonkeyReefer I dont have positive ID yet - I did place an order for a microscope from Amazon, which is sitting in my mailbox right now. Once I get back home, I'll put some of the algae in a petri dish and post pictures here.

Any idea what the egg sacks above would be?

 

[JVU]

I don’t know what the egg sacs are, but I doubt they’ll be a pleasant surprise

 

[MonkeyReefer]

“If you don’t know what it is, remove it” is what I usually go with [emoji2958]


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[thesassyindian]

Yep! I am mentally prepared for something nasty. I'll make a slide of that too - super curious what that can be.
I am feeding Hikari frozen mysis - maybe these are the eggs that the cubes had in them?

 

[thesassyindian]

I do want to remove these eggs with an airline tube and siphon them out, but until i identify what algae i have, i dont want to do a water change. I hear that dinos can explode with certain trace elements.

 

[MonkeyReefer]

Keep us posted!


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[thesassyindian]

You can count on it!

Thanks!!

 

[Coral reefer]

Zero nitrate and or phosphate is no bueno.
I’ve seen snail egg sacks like that before, but no wiggling inside them.

 

[thesassyindian]

@Coral reefer my nitrates are between 5-10ppm. I do have a brown dusting of algae on my sand that increases when my lights have been on for a few hours. I was told this could be Diatoms, and was told to run Chem-Pure Elite in my tank, thats probably why my Phosphates are showing up as 0ppm.

What do you suggest?

Also, per your experience, which snail eggs would you guess these were?

 

[svreef]

Diatoms will clear up on their own once they run out of silicates. Best to let them run their course without adding any chemicals. I’m in the same boat with ugly brown sand.