what is this stuff?

[pascal32]

I seem to have some hazy clearish stuff growing on some of my frag plugs. any ideas what this stuff could be? I was able to siphon the longer strings of it out with a solid airline. the shorter (1/4" to 3/8" or so) wont budge...

salinity 35ppt
KH 9.5
Calcium 400
Magnesium 1300
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
phosphate 0

120 gallon + 20 gallon frag tank + 20 gallon frag tank + 40 gallon sump

running carbon and GFO. 16 gallon water change every week

display tank looks good.

thanks!

 

[acdraindrps]

Dinoflagellates.

 

[pascal32]

considering how tough this week has been I'm going to hope you are wrong. Sounds like a real annoyance.

 

[tmz]

Could be dinos. Usually they have a brown tint and siphon off rather easily with a turkey baster but these things bubble like dinos. Could also be bacteria. Are you dosing any organic carbon?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

if

if

they're actually dinos (and even if they aren't!)

what's your pH over there?
do you dose kalkwasser?

link to more info:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

We give Dinos a bad rap; though they once did make me quit trying I wouldn't just call them Dinos though; I believe diatoma can do some similar things as well as bacteria. I find a piece of rigid ro tubing with an air line tubing run through it to a bucket a super good tool for doing syphon work like that. Here's a cool article about this amazing group: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/a-tale-of-two-flagella/?hp

 

[tmz]

Thanks for the link.

 

[Steve Canyon]

The question stands. Are you carbon dosing? When I was doing it (vodka), I had a two week period with what looked identical. It went away after that with no recurrence since. It even coated my overflow foam prefilter to the degree that I had to remove it a couple times a day to rinse it off. I believe it to have been a form of bacteria. Good or Bad I don't know.

 

[pascal32]

Sorry for the late response, I've been working too much.

I run carbon 24/7 - phosban 150 which is 3/4 full.
PH - not sure, meter broke, new one is here, just haven't calibrated it yet. API kit (junk) says 8.2

this stuff is weird. there are parts I can vacuum out with an airline, and parts I can not. the stuff on the plug almost appears to be hair algae with no color whatsoever.

An interesting note, the snails in the Frag tank are all doing fine. So if it is Dino's, it's not the poisonous kind...

strange...

 

[GMaquarium]

Dinoflagellates as a phylum is huge. Its a group of phytoplankton that includes even the zooxanthellae, a symbiotic group of dinos that live in corals. Its not simple to ID this stuff going just by picture alone. If you happen to have a scope I would be looking at that first.

I remember reading something about chrysophytes in marine water, will try to look up that study. It could be something very common that is overlooked or just bunched into "dino" term.

Is this kinda spongy, yellowish mass that comes of the rock in jelly like blobs? Can you test for sio3 sillicate?

Regardless of what this actually is you need to look at the following for a fix. Nutrients, minerals and metals, flow, light and photoperiod. Sio3, po4, n03, ph, dkh would be top on the list of things we can test for. As for a clean up animal to eat this stuff I would try a diadema urchin, pacific trochus and maybe turbos.

 

[GMaquarium]

strombus conchs are also worth a try. Give them a shot one at the time so you can actually learn who eats it.

if you are in my area you are welcome to bring me some of it to play with.

 

[pascal32]

Thanks for the responses! Turbo doesn't seem interested.

Photo period:
8-11 atinics 2xt5
11-5 daylight 4xt5
5-9 atinics

It desnt seem yellowish, pretty much clear.

 

[tmz]

As GM noted dinoflagellates come in wide varieties and even include the dreaded oodinium,aka marine velvet, in their ranks. Some are clear, but those that usually infest reef tank surfaces are photosyhnthetic and carry a faded brown color. I'd still lean toward a bacteria but really can't say with any certainty. Perhaps some form of hydroid as a reach.