All of a sudden the algae on the sand bed is producing bubbles...what does that mean?
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- Thread starter NanCrab
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It just means things are progressing nothing extra to worry about
Ok cool. Looked at it under my grandsons microscope and all we (4 of us!) can see is little oval shaped clear and brown things swimming around. I did add 64 oz of Copepods at least a month ago. Does algae swim? Don’t see any tails or antennae on any of them though but very active.
Also, those little round things sound like ostreopsis, which are a type of dinoflagellate.
Here's a reef2reef post I found. This will give you a little more to compare what you're seeing under the microscope.
www.reef2reef.com
Here's a reef2reef post I found. This will give you a little more to compare what you're seeing under the microscope.
Is this ostreopsis?
I have been battling with somehting for months now, but i think its dinos. All started with dosing vibrant to kill the small amount of bubble algae i had. Now i wish i hadnt as this problem has hurt more corals than i had bubble algae. I looked at some tank water under a microscope and i was...
www.reef2reef.com
Yes they do look like this under the microscope! Especially the smaller ones. It’s literally a little kids microscope so I doubt it does 200x so couldn’t see tails just brown or clear ovals but very very actively swimming
Yes it looks EXACTLY like this.
They have similar shape but none of the videos show active swimming. What I’ve got was actively swimming. It was crazy. Wondering if I’m seeing Copepods. Might get some algae off rock too for comparisonAlso, those little round things sound like ostreopsis, which are a type of dinoflagellate.
Here's a reef2reef post I found. This will give you a little more to compare what you're seeing under the microscope.
Is this ostreopsis?
I have been battling with somehting for months now, but i think its dinos. All started with dosing vibrant to kill the small amount of bubble algae i had. Now i wish i hadnt as this problem has hurt more corals than i had bubble algae. I looked at some tank water under a microscope and i was...
How in the world did I get these? I’ve quarantined and dipped every frag
It's nothing you can really do to prevent.. it's just under some certain scenarios that they come out. I had them to and battled with them for two months.
Well what do I do? Increase nutrients? Someone told me Dr Tim’s Waste Away took care of his? Was just searching on r2r for ideas. I’m so sad.
Yeah you should increase nutrients. I did a three day lights out. Some people do a full blackout where they cover the tank so no light gets in. Also the thing that finally did it for me was adding a UV filter.
Since my tank is so new and I only have frags and 3 fish in it plus lawnmower blenny and fire shrimp should I just move everything back to my QT tanks except clean up crew and try to get rid of the Dino’s? Should I get rid of some of my dry rock and find some live rock?
I already have a skimmer and a UV running on a dedicated pump set to the algae killing speed per the instructions. I’m just wondering if it’s really dinos or did I maybe just stir up the bubbles by all I did yesterday. 10% water change and stirred sand and brushed off rocks and turned my turnover rate to highest I could. Tank looked amazing this morning. For the first time in weeks it looked so clear because new algae film hadn’t reformed on the glass, which it was doing every few hours. The lowest my PO4 ever got was .01 with Hanna checker. Everything else is perfect except pH still a little below 8 and dKH low normal at 8. 1.025, 98.5 A/N/N 0/0/5ppm. The fish and corals seem to be doing fine.
Before you dose anything make sure you diagnose correctly. BRS made these great 5 minute videos going over all the new tank issues. Not entirely convinced you have dinos.
you have a sterilizer, so make sure it is set up for proper flow. The other thing is that the infestation has to be able to get into the UV meaning I needs to be in the water column.
Does the brown stuff stay even when lights out? Have you turkey basted it to see if it sticky or free floating like dust? Sometimes bubbles form on algae from the sand and are not Dinos it is just a newer sand bed. Watch some of the BRS 5 minute videos and that might help.
Here is the video specific to Dino but watch the other ones on nuisances first before you decide what to do:
www.bulkreefsupply.com
you have a sterilizer, so make sure it is set up for proper flow. The other thing is that the infestation has to be able to get into the UV meaning I needs to be in the water column.
Does the brown stuff stay even when lights out? Have you turkey basted it to see if it sticky or free floating like dust? Sometimes bubbles form on algae from the sand and are not Dinos it is just a newer sand bed. Watch some of the BRS 5 minute videos and that might help.
Here is the video specific to Dino but watch the other ones on nuisances first before you decide what to do:
The Dreaded Dinos! What To Do About Dinoflagellates
Dinos or dinoflagellates tend to look more like bubbly snot as opposed to slimy cyanobacteria which is often confused to be the same thing. Depending on the exact type you have, they often reduce or disappear at night and then come back when the lights turn on. They are unsightly, compete with...
www.bulkreefsupply.com
Ok Shari thank you so much for this post. You and @Steve Burton are amazing.
First let me say that this explosion happened after a programming problem with my lights. They are supposed to shut off at 9 pm and stay off until 9am when they slowly ramp up and down over the 12 hours. I had decreased the intensity. However, I made a programming error when I changed the settings and the lights were turning on shortly after midnight and blazing all night long for at least 3 nights straight. After I sent my programming to Matt Stanin he figured out the problem. So last night the didn’t come on, all wa dark as it should be all night and when we got up this morning.
ALSO new this morning is that the brown stuff has substantially decreased and the bubbles are completely gone. I did absolutely nothing other than fix the lighting issue. Don’t have anything on hand to dose, all the critters look great so I’m not sure. I’m more inclined to think the critters we saw swimming like crazy are Copepods and not dinos. The videos I’ve watched on the different species of dinos is that they are slow moving bumper cars that mostly seem to turn in circles. The stuff I sucked off the sand bed was zooming around and all different sizes and translucencies. When I took a sample of the algae off the rocks there weee no swimmers at all, in fact we both had difficulty identifying anything in that sample although we could see the algae on the slide with our regular old people vision.
At this point I am going to wait and see. Sometimes no intervention is the best intervention. Thanks for everyone’s input.
Gonna spend my day sewing some nice face masks so everyone can protect their neighbors from their germs.
First let me say that this explosion happened after a programming problem with my lights. They are supposed to shut off at 9 pm and stay off until 9am when they slowly ramp up and down over the 12 hours. I had decreased the intensity. However, I made a programming error when I changed the settings and the lights were turning on shortly after midnight and blazing all night long for at least 3 nights straight. After I sent my programming to Matt Stanin he figured out the problem. So last night the didn’t come on, all wa dark as it should be all night and when we got up this morning.
ALSO new this morning is that the brown stuff has substantially decreased and the bubbles are completely gone. I did absolutely nothing other than fix the lighting issue. Don’t have anything on hand to dose, all the critters look great so I’m not sure. I’m more inclined to think the critters we saw swimming like crazy are Copepods and not dinos. The videos I’ve watched on the different species of dinos is that they are slow moving bumper cars that mostly seem to turn in circles. The stuff I sucked off the sand bed was zooming around and all different sizes and translucencies. When I took a sample of the algae off the rocks there weee no swimmers at all, in fact we both had difficulty identifying anything in that sample although we could see the algae on the slide with our regular old people vision.
At this point I am going to wait and see. Sometimes no intervention is the best intervention. Thanks for everyone’s input.
Gonna spend my day sewing some nice face masks so everyone can protect their neighbors from their germs.
