Is this Cyanobacteria?

[magnetar68]

It is a rust brown color. It is not a thick film or hairy. It's more like a dusting. I am confused between diatoms and cyanobacteria. I have looked at a bunch of web pictures, but I think people get these confused because many of the pictures look the same. I think I have been feeding too much. I tend to see this more the day after I add a few drops of Phyto Feast.

 

[dmyers557]

Might be diatoms or the beginning of cyano. If it gets hairy and carpet like, its definately cyano.

 

[oneinamillion]

I got some diatoms last week and it looks like that in terms of color. Kind of threw me off cause of your black sand.

I thought cyano was red?

 

[cindyp]

that looks like diatomes.
diatomes are dusty and brown and can easily be blown off.
cyno is red and slimmy and can be sucked up in strands that stick together.
all the tanks I have setup I got diatomes 1st then a couple weeks later the cyno started for me it was about 30 days start to finnish then both were gone.
I watch my feeding and blow the diatomes so they can get filltered out and water changes this helps to get rid of it.
when then cyno starts I do the same thing only I manually remove it with a turkey basted.

 

[Reefmack]

I'd recommend stopping the Phytofeast - coral foods lead to problems like this - too much nutrient that never gets consumed by the corals.

 

[oneinamillion]

I had a diatom explosion but its pretty much 75% gone within a week's time frame now. cut the feed back, i even cut the lights a little bit. I also added 7 blue hermits and those things believe it or not, do eat diatom like crazy. Total i have 7 blue hermits, 3 red legged hermits and a couple snails. The snails are good for the glass and dont do much on the sand (once in a while the astreas will sweep the diatom on the way over to the rock but they usually stick to glass) but the hermits go hard at work especially during the night and eat away the diatom. I didn't want to add too much so i think an even 10 at the moment is a good #.

 

[ElTurco]

It is Dinoflagellates. It is more hard to get rid off. They are not like cyno.

Once established well, you may have to break your set up down. My urgent suggestions :

1- If Dinoflagellates are only on sand take them out this goes for rocks as well
2-Your water parameters should be as required because any deviation below triggers Dinoflagellates explosion.
3-Never make water change till you get rid of Dinoflagellates. Reduce feeding fish for a while not to have high levels of nitrate.
4- Keep the ph high around 8,5
5- Do not open the lights for a week. Or just give two hours if you have corals.
6- If you have direct sun light cover your aquarium with a blanket so no light goes in.
7- If you have let UV run a week.

Those are may personal experience and the way I got rid of Dinoflagellates. It need patience because all of a sudden they do not diseppear.

brgds

 

[Reefmack]

If it really is Dinos this may help:

Reefs.org: Where Reefkeeping Begins on the Internet - Dinoflagellates, or was that "Boogers with Bubbles"?

Lots of information on the internet.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

here a pic of dinoflagellates

 

[magnetar68]

Does this video help ID it?

I tested my chemistry this morning. Photoperiod has been 10 hrs/day, but I reduced that to 8 now to help curb this growth. Here is what my API tests yield:

* Temp: 78-80 (morning to evening)
* SG: 1.023
* Ph:8.0-8.2 (morning to evening)
* Alkalinity: 8dKH
* Calcium: 420 ppm
* Ammonia: 0.0 ppm
* Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
* Nitrate: 0 ppm
* Phosphate: 0.0 ppm

I let this grow a little to see what form it took when it got a little bigger. I raked it over after I took this video. Next time I will try to siphon it out.

It definitely forms a slime, not hairs or "snots," as some have described dinoflagellates. Does this video help anyone ID it?

Algae in Tank on Vimeo

 

[Reefmack]

I've seen cyano that starts out like that and then gets redder. My guess is a type of cyano, but I'm just guessing.

 

[magnetar68]

Tubros are eating it

I did a very thorough cleaning of my tank the weekend using a sharp edged scraper to get all of the algae off of the glass and the back of the tank. I cleaned the surface skimmer and the hydroflow. I also used the siphon vacuum to clean the top 1/8" of my substrate. This left me with a very clean tank. THis is probably how you are supposed to clean a tank, but I was always a little afraid to clean to much. This left my Turbo snails will little to eat, so today they did a pretty good job cleaning this red rust stuff off my substrate. Hopefully that and the reduced lighting will help me keep this stuff under control.

 

[Reefmack]

Sounds like a good cleaning. Let us know how it goes after a few days.

 

[dmyers557]

Good to hear