Cyano or Dino (or may be something else)?

[sumant19]

Hi

I am seeing an outburst of some kind of algae in my aquarium from last 2 weeks or so.. It appears as brown algae on the sand (like in 1st pic) and bubbles on the rocks, power heads etc (2nd and 3rd pic).. I know when aquarium is maturing sometimes these out breaks do happen.. can you ID this algae and give me some suggestions on how to eliminate it? I have already added and extra powerhead for increased circulation and cut down the feeding (i was never big on feeding large quantities of food even before this outbreak)...

 

[sumant19]

bump

 

[jdeb101]

Looks like some form of Cyano... http://www.melevsreef.com/id/cyano.html

 

[JohnK]

The last pic looks more like dinos to me, but if it is dinos it's a very slight bloom.

Try touching the stuff, does it fall apart like nothing, or does it feel like snot?

 

[CoralJunkie]

i agree with John K looks like a small dino outbreak, when its dark, shut the lights off and look at it... if it looks like its flashing/ weird fog/ light coming from it then its definately dinos, if its too dark in the room and you cant see it use a really small flashlight and dont point directly at it

 

[sumant19]

The last pic looks more like dinos to me, but if it is dinos it's a very slight bloom.

Try touching the stuff, does it fall apart like nothing, or does it feel like snot?

It comes off pretty easily.. i usually use a brush to take it off the rocks/powerheads.. the thing comes back within 3-4 days and looks really ugly..

last time I had cyano bloom was with my old aquarium, and it was terminated pretty quickly when I add a small powerhead... Now I am running with 2 koralia 450gph powerheads along with RSM130D pumps.. and its still there.. that is making me freak out a little

 

[JohnK]

Huh, dinos usually seem to come back in minutes or hours at the most, but that pic sure looks a lot more like dinos than cyano. Again, I wonder if it's because it's just a tiny bloom?

 

[sumant19]

One thing I forgot to mention... I checked the parameters on Tuesday this week.. the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels were fine.. ammonia and nitrates were 0 and nitrite was between 0 to 0.05

I am planning to do a 6 gallon water change today... that is around 17% of total water volume.. is it advisable? I always use RODI and check the TDS before putting any water in.. so guess silicates wont be a problem?

 

[sutton6989]

If it is dinos doing a water change will feed them if.I'm not.mistaken

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

 

[sumant19]

If it is dinos doing a water change will feed them if.I'm not.mistaken

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

yup.. thats what I heard as well.. and it is the silicates that they feed on.. Does RODI unit with 0 TDS o/p take care of silicates in the regular water? If not I will hold off the water change...

 

[mchartier]

and it is the silicates that they feed on

I think you have it mistaken with diatoms.

Apparently the absence of silicate favours dinoflagellates including the DSP toxin producing Dinophysis spp.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5486e/y5486e0h.htm

 

[sumant19]

I think you have it mistaken with diatoms.

ah.. yes i read that about diatoms... i will do a small water change (5% or so)and see how the things go

 

[twiddledog]

It looks exactly like dinoflagelettes..(dinos). Maybe I am wrong but it looks like it to me si nce I have the same.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=60

I am fighting a small outbreak myself at the moment..it can spread and get worse so I would treat it early.
If you search on dinos on the forum you will find some treatments or google it. I just started a 3 day blackout and dosing with hydrogen peroxide. I hope this works because the past few days it has gotten worse on my back glass and rocks.
Good luck