Dinoflagellates or something else?

[spazthecat]

Hi,

I've been having algae issues over the past 3 months and I can't seem to make any progress. I have a brown to golden brown slime on the glass and the same colored "fuzzy" looking algae on the rock-work. The sand in my tank is also the same brownish golden-brown color. There is some green algae on the sand but it is predominately the brown stuff. Today I noticed some air bubbles trapped in stuff on the sand and on some of the rocks.

I originally thought my issues was high phosphates and I've been running Phosban but the appearance of the air bubbles in the algae in combination with the fact that I haven't been able to keep any snails alive is making me think it may be dinoflagellates. I had a dino problem about 2 years ago and it was the typical stringy, slimy, grey-brown looking stuff.

So, are dinos a possibility again? Diatoms perhaps?

Some info about my tank:

-75 gallon reef tank up and running for about 3 years.
-20 gallon sump with Urchin in sump skimmer
-lighting: 2 x 175 watt 10,000 K MH lights on for 10 hours per day; 1 x 96 watt PC actinic for 12 hours.
-Bioseas marine mix salt. RO water for all top offs and mixing salt.
-Current fish: 1 small yellow tank, 1 foxface, 2 percula clowns, 1 orchid dotyback
-Phos, nitrates, ammonia, always test zero (I confirmed these test results with 2 LFS)
-PH 8.4, Alk 3.4, Ca 460
-Temp 78 degrees F

 

[RedEyeElf]

cyano on sand, mixed with some diatoms, mix in some hair algae

dino's look the same almost all the time I have seen them
brownish/greenish snot on everything
Cyano can be many colors
the light goldenbrown is almost always diatom bloom

 

[spazthecat]

Thanks.

Diatoms in a 3 year old tank?

Looks like I need to step up the water changes. I had been doing 6 gallons every other week and things were OK.

I did notice something today that I thought was odd. The stuff on the sand was bothering me so, I scraped it into a pile and then took it out of the tank. While I was sifting through it to make sure I didn't snag a snail, I noticed this wicked bad sulfur smell. I seem to remember an article about sulfur in sand beds but I can't find it now. From what I remember this was not a good thing. Could my sand bed be the source of my current algae and snail issues?

Andy