# Algae Identification help



## Habs73 (Jan 7, 2012)

Hi Everyone, looking for opinions if I possibly have a Dinoflagellates outbreak or just some nasty brown algae.

Tank is in its 4th month and from start I ran the zeovit system. Went through all the normal stages and had some really bright green coralline cover the rocks. Last month the brown algae started. 
Phosphates and nitrates read zero, but I'm not sure if it's because of the algae itself.

Over the last 2 weeks It seems to died off on the sand bed as it's turning white and looks more like cobwebs. I have been doing manual removal, and scrubbing rocks, but within 3 -4 days the rocks look like the pictures.

Feeding once a day two frozen cubes mysis/brine to 12 fish. Not much left within 7-8 mins and tank is clear once my return kicks back in.

Thoughts on the outbreak?

Third picture is my overflow.
























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## Wiser (Jun 8, 2017)

Looks like Dino to me. 

What tests are you using? I’m guessing your nitrates and phosphates are really high but being taken up by the outbreak. 

How big is your tank? The underlying problem is probably the 12 fish depending on tank size. 


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## Habs73 (Jan 7, 2012)

Thanks Wiser. 260 gallon display. Total volume just over 300. Lots of room for the fish as they are all small. Largest is a pair of blue throat triggers still small at 3”. 

I use salifert for testing nitrates and Hanna for phosphate. Both show zero. Testing 3 times per week. 

I know my alk got low and I have slowly brought it back up just over 8. The battle has been ongoing for more than a month but the algae is turning white and I seem to be slowing it down. 

Any experience eradicating Dino? All I have read is that it is not going to be easy. 


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## Orangutran (Oct 16, 2012)

Habs73 said:


> Thanks Wiser. 260 gallon display. Total volume just over 300. Lots of room for the fish as they are all small. Largest is a pair of blue throat triggers still small at 3".
> 
> I use salifert for testing nitrates and Hanna for phosphate. Both show zero. Testing 3 times per week.
> 
> ...


Looks like Dino and if it is, then it's because your nitrates and/or phosphate have bottomed out. It sounds counter intuitive, but dinos thrive when there are no other algae to compete with it. Besides the bubbly snot, do you get any other algae growth on the rocks or glass?

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## Habs73 (Jan 7, 2012)

Orangutran said:


> Looks like Dino and if it is, then it's because your nitrates and/or phosphate have bottomed out. It sounds counter intuitive, but dinos thrive when there are no other algae to compete with it. Besides the bubbly snot, do you get any other algae growth on the rocks or glass?
> 
> Sent from my LG-H831 using Tapatalk


I have to clear the glass weekly. Normal brown film but not overbearing. I had small spots of cyano and cleared that with manual removal. 
As well there is brown algae that is turning white as it's dying.

On the rocks when lights are out you can still see that the coraline is there and covers the whole rockscape.

I've been noticing that the stringy stuff has been slowing down. Just not stopping unfortunately.

If it is Dino any advice on removal. There's seems to be a lot of different answers around.

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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Get some fluconazole. Use it as directed on the many forums with instructions. It will not hurt your tank and will eliminate the algae.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/

In terms of who has fluconazole check with Big Show.


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## Habs73 (Jan 7, 2012)

Crayon said:


> Get some fluconazole. Use it as directed on the many forums with instructions. It will not hurt your tank and will eliminate the algae.
> 
> https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/
> 
> In terms of who has fluconazole check with Big Show.


Thanks Crayon. 
I actually found a different thread that speaks more to what orangutan said. 
Running zeovit I have created a low nutrient system and have zeroed out my phosphates and nitrates. Handing the tank over to Dino. 
I actually need and want to let them rise within control so that the Dino's can not thrive.

Lots more reading to do, but hopefully this natural method will work.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...u-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/page-43

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## Orangutran (Oct 16, 2012)

Habs73 said:


> Thanks Crayon.
> I actually found a different thread that speaks more to what orangutan said.
> Running zeovit I have created a low nutrient system and have zeroed out my phosphates and nitrates. Handing the tank over to Dino.
> I actually need and want to let them rise within control so that the Dino's can not thrive.
> ...


Hey, that's the thread that I followed! Everything should be summarized in the first post there. It has helped me rid my tank of dinos, with probably the least amount of work, just need some patience. I dosed Seachem flourish phosphorous to get my PO4 to .25 (Salifert kit, so not the most accurate), and my nitrates were already ~25, and after a month, 90% of the dino was gone. Now after 2 months, I'm more or less dino free. Knock on wood!

From memory, the main points are:
Aim for NO3=5-10ppm / PO4=0.1-0.25ppm
Introduce biodiversity (from live rock or live sand from a healthy system) to compete against the dino cells.
If you get an ID on the type of dino, a UV/diatom filter(?) may help neutralize it from the water column

Also, I stopped running GFO, not sure if that's something you can do on your larger system.

Help this helps, seems like your tank is already fighting back, so you may just need to help it along.

BTW: I'm not against fluconazole or any other chemical means, it's just that this method worked for me, and made the most sense long term.


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## Wiser (Jun 8, 2017)

Let us know how your battle goes!


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## Habs73 (Jan 7, 2012)

Thanks for the help and advice. 2 days since I syphoned the rocks into a sock and so far it’s looking a lot better. 
I’ll post pics in a week and update the parameters. 

So far the only thing I have done is stop dosing ZeoFood for a week, but kept up on zeostart and zeobak. 




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## Habs73 (Jan 7, 2012)

Update on the mess. After the syphon of the rocks as mentioned, some algae has continued to grow but no where near the mess that was originally there. Nitrates are still at 0 but phosphate has slowly crept to .05. 
This seems to have stalled the DINO and I plan to syphon what's left this weekend.

All I have done to date is stop ZeoFood dosing, while continuing to add zeostart zeobak and zeosponge.

Pics below of the same angles of the rocks originally posted. Definitely a slow process, but no additional chemicals aside from the Zeo line.

















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