An Orange Algae

[krafty]

I have what I believe to be an algae growing in my tank. I just got rid of a cyano problem and now this stuff has popped up.

It is orange in color. There are some places where it forms strands that can be rather long. It is collecting on the overflow boxes. What I notice the most about it is that when I turn the powerheads off to feed it collects around surfaces and looks like cigarette smoke floating through the water.

Can anyone tell me what this is?

My tank is 125gal. The levels are all good. There are three small blue/green chromis' in there, one brown tang, two misbar anemone fish and a Bubble tip anemone.

If you need photos please let me know and I will take them.

Thanks.

Josh

 

[Samala]

Hi Josh, I'd definitely like to see some photos. This doesnt sound like something we often see, unless it is some sort of mutant cyano.

>Sarah

 

[krafty]

Here are the photos. The first is the "smoky" consistency that it gets. This is only when water movement is at a minimum (ie power heads are off). It will not start like this but over the course of a few minutes is is like the alga collect together to form this "smoke". When the pumps come back on it looks like someone split a feather pillow open in the water except for orange.

The second picture is a strand of it.

Thanks for the help!

josh

 

[krafty]

P.S.

I had a red snotty cyano in my tank for a while. It has disappeared and now I have this. I am skimming.

 

[Samala]

Ouch. Looks like dinoflagellates to me. Anyone else any guesses?

>Sarah

 

[graveyardworm]

Hard to say exactly, but to me it looks like dinoflaggelates. With perhaps some other alga mixed in like diatoms and cyano. Impossible to say for sure without veiwing it under a microscope.

Does it cover everything like film with bubbles in it, if you siphon a bunch out or blest it off the rocks does it grow back really fast like within hours?

 

[krafty]

I will have to try siphoning some of it out and seeing how fast it grows back.

Is this bad? Are they something that will eventually stop blooming? Any help in that direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[krafty]

Well, i did some reading and it would seem that they are dynoflaggelates. I will get a microscope to check them out to tell for sure.

I also read of a few things to help control the bloom.

1.) pH to 8.4 Mine is pretty close but I will see if I can get a system down to measure it and get it up a little.
2.) Something to absorb phosphates. Mine are measuring 0 on a hobby test kit but maybe there are enough in there to survive.
3.) Shorten photoperiod. I am going to drop this down to 4-5 hours a day. I have 10K halides so the lighting is pretty intense.
4.)This was something I did on my own but I took the carbon I have had in there for about three months out. It was good carbon so I do not think it was leaching phosphates into the water but you never know. Plus, I think the lifetime of carbon is something in the three month range.

Any other advise? I read that these dynoflaggelates can be toxic so I will have to watch the fish for any signs of that.

This is a new take so I expect soma algae but I dont want to crash the tank.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[graveyardworm]

What kind of live stock do you have? Have you read the big thread of dino's?

 

[krafty]

I have

1 Scopas (Brown) Tang
3 Blue/Green Chromis
2 Misbar Anemone fish
1 BTA
Various Mushrooms/Polyps

I have not read that thread. I will read it.

Thanks.