Id?

[sequential]

Two things I'm trying to ID. The first appeared in my fuge recently:

The other is a bright green algae, which when it's forming looks like very small mold spores attaching to things. It comes off very easily and looks like a fine dust in the water. It's covering the tank and fuge glass pretty much every day. I've reduced the light cycle on both, which seems to reduce it, but not totally get rid of it. It forms on rocks, glass, and anything that doesn't move quick enough, like this rock:

What is the algae? What is the best way to remove it? I'm already using RO/DI, doing 10% or more water changes each week, refilling evap with RO/DI.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[acrocrazy]

that top picture is a dingleberry......that green algae is possibly a form of diotamacious algae....how long has the tank been runnung

 

[sequential]

acrocrazy, what exactly is a dingleberry? I've searched on Google and haven't found anything useful.

The tank is 2 years old. This is a new development. I assume it's related to phosphate levels, but I don't have the proper test. I was going to run some phosphate remover in my Duetto starting this weekend if I can't get rid of it otherwise.

The tank gets 10% or more water changes, using RO/DI, every week. I refill evap daily with RO/DI, to the tune of close to 3 gallons a week. I clean this stuff off the glass every day, but haven't cleaned it off the rock. The water quality (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) has been very stable for many months, but I haven't been testing for phosphates.

 

[AngeloM3]

a dingleberry is when you dont wipe your...... nevermind
looks like somekind of snail.... www.melevsreef.com has an ID page... might be able to id that for you

also dont add or subtract anything (like phosphate) unless you can test your levels of that certain thing

 

[sequential]

:lol: AngeloM3. My Google search turned up plenty of references to that kind of dingleberry.

I checked Melev's ID page before I posted. Nothing looks even close to my untrained eye. The thing in my fuge looks like an elongated acorn. It's a bell shape with no obvious signs of life. However, with very minimal flow in the fuge, I continue to find it in new places. There's no foot, no shell, no nothing. Hopefully someone will recognize it.

As far as running a poly filter or another phosphate remover, I was under the, perhaps mistaken, impression that it was safe to run these regularly or all the time. At least that's what some of the products claim. Is there ever a time when one might want phosphate in their tank? (Not that I generally disagree with your advice, but buying another test kit for something I can safely remove from my tank regularly, if not constantly, doesn't seem to make economic sense.) I suppose I can always take my water to the LFS and ask if they'll test it.

 

[bertoni]

The top picture is pretty much unidentifiable for me, but looks somewhat like a closed-up, loose polyp, maybe a zoanthid. Do you have any colonies in the tank.

The growth is definitely a photosynthetic microbe. I would expect dinoflagellates or cyanobacteria, if it disappears at night. They can be outcompeted for nutrients by many algae, IME, and nutritient control is usually a fine way to deal with them.

 

[sequential]

Thanks for the help, Bertoni.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6965831#post6965831 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
The top picture is pretty much unidentifiable for me, but looks somewhat like a closed-up, loose polyp, maybe a zoanthid. Do you have any colonies in the tank.

I do not, to the best of my knowledge, but it may have come in on some rock. Would placing it on a rock or taking out of my fuge and placing it under the big lights in a QT tank be of any use or should I let it sit there on the sand?

The growth is definitely a photosynthetic microbe. I would expect dinoflagellates or cyanobacteria, if it disappears at night.

It does not disappear at night, but it's hard to tell. The snails really go to town on it when they wake up.

By the way, dinoflagellates make me want to get a microscope and look at the stuff in my tank more closely. Wow, those are some nifty little things.

I didn't know cyanobacteia could be green, but a quick google search tells me otherwise. I learn something new every day!

They can be outcompeted for nutrients by many algae, IME, and nutritient control is usually a fine way to deal with them.

What do you mean by nutrient control?

 

[bertoni]

Well, the microbes, whatever they are, need food, so if you want to get rid of them, you could eliminate their food source, either by having a skimmer or macroalga remove it, or by limiting input to the tank.

If it is a closed zoanthid polyp, you could try cementing with a touch of superglue, upside right (hard to determine) on a rock, but I wouldn't bother at this point. It should open if it's a zoanthid, and I guess it's not, from your description.

I have a dissecting scope and a compound scope. The compound still requires a few more components, but they should both be fun.