Are these Dino's?!?!

[PhillyGeeks]

I am beginning to suspect what I have are Dino's and not algae and would appreciate any help with ID. See attached pics

Tank has been up since November and has since had a diatom bloom which died off, cyano bloom which died off most markedly after starting some GFO. After the cyano bloom died off I started to notice growth depicted in the picture below and at first assumed it was algae, but now am wondering if they are dinoflagellates.

Temp 78.5
pH 8.28
dKH 9 - Hanna
Ca 425 - RedSea
Mg 1250 - RedSea
Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia unreadable on API
Don't check for phos but run gfo

Have trochus, cerith, nassarius and nerite snail. aside from the bigger trochus, most snails seem to be very sluggish. nassarius snails have tended to die

When we clean the stuff off during maintenance it grows back quick within a day

Lawnmower blenny won't touch the stuff, although he/she also eats a lot of mysis shrimp and Rod's food for a supposed herbivore

 

[PhillyGeeks]

Additionally, there aren't bubbles in the strands. Any input?

 

[isomorphic85]

I had something very similar recently... what are you using for lighting? I was running t5's only 2 out of 8 on my tank and the tubes were about 8 months old.

I upgraded to AI hydra 26 HD LEDs and have been running them at 60 percent.... all of the spots that look like yours started to get bubbles and would off gas, it has dramatically gotten lighter in color and is disappearing quite fast.

i wonder if you have older t5 tubes in use? try changing them or increasing your light output to see if you then begin to get off gassing from these areas.

 

[CoralNerd]

I'm thinking it's not dinoflagellates, due to to no bubbles.

I would try Algae-Oust and micro bubbling, it might help. GL

 

[PhillyGeeks]

I have 2 Kessil A360W over a 57g tank 36x18x30

I had the light at max 35% intensity. Since I had no idea what that intensity meant in real life, I bought the apogee 420 PAR meter. The lights are about 12" above water. When measuring about 5" deep that PAR was only 60. I have since ramped up intensity to 65% and measured PAR yesterday at the same level and got a reading of 100.

since increasing the light I have seen no development of bubbles on the stuff in question in the DT. However, the similar stuff in the sump did end up having some bubbles, which has been under a 6500K hardware store LED flood light

Since the post I have been keeping my pH 8.3-8.5, cleaning off new growth often and skimming heavily. It seems to be slowly improving, so will keep at what I am doing. Will also replace carbon and gfo more frequently for now

on a side note, I am glad I bought the PAR meter. The few corals I do have look much better and the birds nest is now starting to grow new branches.

 

[isomorphic85]

any update on this?

I believe I have exactly what you have going on here.

 

[PhillyGeeks]

Haha. I updated about 1 hour ago, 50 minutes before your post

I'm not completely convinced they are Dino's, but going to keep on with what I posted above

 

[Bent]

Looks like plain old hair algae to me. Dinos are kind of like the boogie man. Yeah they happen but not with the amount of frequency you'd think.

 

[PhillyGeeks]

Bent, I have been hoping for a comment like that for a couple weeks now!! As I mentioned, all is getting better....slowly. I'm going to continue on the path I have been since all is improving. Hopefully, just a bloom of algae as the tank continues to mature.

One concern is the identical strands I found in the sump did have bubbles

 

[isomorphic85]

lol sorry i missed it.... whats also weird to me in my scenario is that it's literally one half of the tank.... the lighting is identical on both sides.... the one side that has the algae/dinos whatever the heck this actually is does have more flow that is directed at the rock work which is where this stuff is... thoughts? is yours similar by any chance to flow ?

 

[Bent]

Bent, I have been hoping for a comment like that for a couple weeks now!! As I mentioned, all is getting better....slowly. I'm going to continue on the path I have been since all is improving. Hopefully, just a bloom of algae as the tank continues to mature.

One concern is the identical strands I found in the sump did have bubbles

The bubbles actually don't mean anything. Cyano and even hair algae will trap bubbles too.

Anytime someone suspects dinos, I'm highly skeptical. Not that it can't happen, it can.

 

[PhillyGeeks]

As most of the material I have read on the matter refers to bubbles in the strands, I wonder if the lack of bubbles on the strands in my DT have any significance in determining the likelihood of my outbreak not being Dino's of the pathogenic or nuisance type?