Mass algae death

[JohnL]

There are times when you just guess and hope in this hobby.

Many times

 

[Timfish]

Ya
but even the algae on the glass?

I need to get the gook out and then survey things.
All 3 tanks are affected. All of the macro algae was in the 75 in the fish room.

No, only time I've seen hair algae on glass die off that fast was when PO4 was quickly dropped to zero. If most of your macro algae went first I'd expect the opposite to happen with PO4 and nitrates. As alluded to above there could be something microbial that was caused by the macros going first. I often see algae free irregular circles in teh algae on glass so it certainly seems reasonable to me there are microbial processes that moderate algae growth.

 

[kharmaguru]

I must have missed the reference to "goo". Without a scope you could only guess which slime it might be. I have a minimal persistent population of chrysophytes that will always glob onto dying algae. I have a 3 inch square of it right now. Regardless of what your particular goo is, I would say it's just opportunistically feeding on the dying algae and not the cause ( I know you were not suggesting it was).

Rather than a toxin that selectively took out all your algae, I'm more inclined that something meaningful but unmeasured bottomed out.

 

[wvned]

I must have missed the reference to "goo". Without a scope you could only guess which slime it might be. I have a minimal persistent population of chrysophytes that will always glob onto dying algae. I have a 3 inch square of it right now. Regardless of what your particular goo is, I would say it's just opportunistically feeding on the dying algae and not the cause ( I know you were not suggesting it was).

Rather than a toxin that selectively took out all your algae, I'm more inclined that something meaningful but unmeasured bottomed out.

What I am talking about are Coraline and that calcified green algae on the glass. The kind a Tunzze scraper won't remove and you have take a razor blade in your hand to get off. It died and came off easily. That green band you get along the gravel.

I must have missed the reference to "goo". Without a scope you could only guess which slime it might be. I have a minimal persistent population of chrysophytes that will always glob onto dying algae. I have a 3 inch square of it right now. Regardless of what your particular goo is, I would say it's just opportunistically feeding on the dying algae and not the cause ( I know you were not suggesting it was).

Rather than a toxin that selectively took out all your algae, I'm more inclined that something meaningful but unmeasured bottomed out.

I have heard of chrysophytes and read threads about them. I don't think I have ever seen them. Maybe I have now.
Your explanation fits.
If anything my N and P are rising. The LaCl went from 45ml/day to 25 and I turned it down again. I am hoping to do away with dosing it.
I turned down the sulfur reactor flow so N would rise as P did.

Perhaps the new salt brought a bonus component this stuff needed to grow. More water made with it went in yesterday.

The volume of stuff in the tank does not seem to be still increasing though.

 

[kharmaguru]

What I am talking about are Coraline and that calcified green algae on the glass. The kind a Tunzze scraper won't remove and you have take a razor blade in your hand to get off. It died and came off easily. That green band you get along the gravel.

I have heard of chrysophytes and read threads about them. I don't think I have ever seen them. Maybe I have now.
Your explanation fits.
If anything my N and P are rising. The LaCl went from 45ml/day to 25 and I turned it down again. I am hoping to do away with dosing it.
I turned down the sulfur reactor flow so N would rise as P did.

Perhaps the new salt brought a bonus component this stuff needed to grow. More water made with it went in yesterday.

The volume of stuff in the tank does not seem to be still increasing though.

Well one observation about chrysophytes vs say dinos or cyano, is it takes longer to rebound after being vacuumed out. It would not all be back tomorrow if you vacuumed it out today. It would take a few days to weeks.

Edit: Of course I'm making observations in my own tank. The kingdoms these organisms populate are huge and diverse so I shouldn't really make blanket statements about their potential behavior. Too late!

 

[wvned]

Well one observation about chrysophytes vs say dinos or cyano, is it takes longer to rebound after being vacuumed out. It would not all be back tomorrow if you vacuumed it out today. It would take a few days to weeks.

Edit: Of course I'm making observations in my own tank. The kingdoms these organisms populate are huge and diverse so I shouldn't really make blanket statements about their potential behavior. Too late!

I looked
low calcium causes these
I realized I screwed my test up the other day. I got mixed saltwater and not RODI to add to the vial. Went to the wrong vat to get it.
My Ca is 300 and not 500
Making a gallon to add
add another 1/2 of one tomorrow.

 

[shred5]

As a person who keep macro tanks I have never seen this at least not where all crash overnight and dissolve.
Algae can just crash overnight though.
Algae require certain things to grow and without them they can just crash.
They need Carbon, nitrogen and phosphate and if one leg is missing it can crash.
They also require other things like micro nutrients like Iron, magnesium and potassium etc. Iron loss especially can cause a crash.

Macro tanks can be very tough. To much nutrients and they get covered in film algae or dino, Too little and they die off.