Help ID'ing Algae

[George9]

Hey guys

I'm dealing with a few different types if algae in my nano cube. Last week, I was convinced I had dinoflagellates, they looked like brown snot on the sand and rocks with an air bubble stuck to them. I did a black out for a while and most of it is gone, but there's some on the back wall I think. There's also some type of algae on the sand bed, looks like a combo of green, Dino's and a little bit of cyano (ughh) to me. I have no nitrates and phosphates, I have no fish or corals currently, the 0 readings are either from that, or the algae is sucking the nutrients up. I need some direction, not sure what I should do.













I was either gonna start with chemi pure elite, or phosban sometime soon, would this help?

Thanks!!

 

[George9]

Anyone?


I ordered some phosban over the CPE because it helps with both silicates and phosphates, hopefully it will help some of the algae, but I was thinking about running the phosban and doing a very strict, 0 light blackout for like a week to kill the Dino's for good. Not sure how the little bit of coralline I have would be affected,

 

[Ausfish]

Looks like regular diatoms to me. Are you still at the beginning of your cycle?

 

[George9]

Tank is about two months old, so it's still really new.

I thought that would be too dark to be diatoms compared to what I've seen in pictures.

What about the back wall?




And on the rock in the middle there's brown snotty stuff

 

[Ausfish]

On the rock it looks like a mix of diatoms, hair algae and cyano.
How are our water parameters? I'd guess your cycle is finished? If so, just keep the bioload light, don't put too many corals in and of so only softies.

The algae will disappear by itself as long as you keep doing your water changes 10-25% weekly

 

[George9]

On the rock it looks like a mix of diatoms, hair algae and cyano.
How are our water parameters? I'd guess your cycle is finished? If so, just keep the bioload light, don't put too many corals in and of so only softies.

The algae will disappear by itself as long as you keep doing your water changes 10-25% weekly

Thanks!

Parameters are all 0. Theres currently nothing in the tak and wont be til april. Im glad to hear its not dinos lol

What do you think is on the back wall?

 

[Ausfish]

Well you have to keep something in your Tank to keep the beneficial bacteria alive. If you have it empty for month you don't have an ammonia source which means a fresh cycle once you introduce the first fish.
All values 0 is good but in my opinion near impossible. Either you have a healthy tank, than all but nitrates and phosphates should be close to 0.
Or you have nothing in there that keeps the endless cycle of ammonia-nitrites-nitrates alive.

Back wall is the same IMO, diatoms

 

[George9]

Well you have to keep something in your Tank to keep the beneficial bacteria alive. If you have it empty for month you don't have an ammonia source which means a fresh cycle once you introduce the first fish.
All values 0 is good but in my opinion near impossible. Either you have a healthy tank, than all but nitrates and phosphates should be close to 0.
Or you have nothing in there that keeps the endless cycle of ammonia-nitrites-nitrates alive.

Back wall is the same IMO, diatoms

Thats probably why everythings 0, its been empty for a week. I have been throwing in fish food though to make some ammonia to keep it alive. Hopefully ill be good with that. I also plan on adding about 10 lbs mire of live rock in the next few weeks.

 

[chenzo9999]

If you are using flake, that is probably a large source of your phosphates.

If you are using frozen - make sure you rinse it first

 

[George9]

If you are using flake, that is probably a large source of your phosphates.

If you are using frozen - make sure you rinse it first

There's nothing in the tank and there is no phosphates, I'm throwing fish food in there to break down into ammonia to keep the bb alive while the tank sits fishless for a while.

 

[chenzo9999]

yeah the algae is using the phosphates that is why they are undetectable.

what kit are you using?

I understand you are feeding the bacteria - but a piece of chopped shrimp will do that.

 

[George9]

yeah the algae is using the phosphates that is why they are undetectable.

what kit are you using?

I understand you are feeding the bacteria - but a piece of chopped shrimp will do that.

I'm using the API one. Probably not the best kit, but it'll do for right now

Whats the difference if I use shrimp or food? They're both going to produce phosphates anyway, I could use a little bit of pure ammonia too I guess. That wouldn't have any phosphates and won't affect the algae

 

[George9]

I noticed today that all the brown on the sand has turned to grey, is this just the dead algae? I honestly did not even do a thing with the tank all week. Except, I've only been running the lights for about 3 hrs. Good news!!