Algae or dinoflagellates

S

sparky5785

New member
Hi this just popped up in my aquarium never seen it before hope its some kind of algae and not like dinoflagellates or something really bad. An ID would be awesome and if you know what it is how to get rid of it would be great.

Tank perameters
PH:8.2
Nitrate:10ppm
Phosphate:0ppm
Ca:100ppm
Alk:15dKH
SG:1.025
Temp:76.2
Daylights:7h
Actinics:9h
Nitrates are a little high in the process of getting a refugium going with a DSB live rock rubble and Cheato.

Finally heres the pics. Thank you in advance for the help.

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IMG_20120208_154057.jpg
 
And yes my Ca is that low also looking to remedy that situation.Using premixed artificial saltwater for LFS also looking for my own rodi so i can mix my own.
 
Does look like Dinoflagellate, anyone else with a 2nd opinion?

Your ALK is ridiculously high, should be between 8-10 for a reef
Your Cal is ridiculously low, should be around 400-450
 
Yes, you need to bring water with you when you guys come over for that group buy pickup, I want to double check your params and make sure its not a bad test kit you are using. I will also check your magnesium levels as well.
 
I'm guessing your mag might be off, it affects your cal/alk/pH
to get rid of dino, you have to agressively use GFO to zero out your phophates. you might need to change them more often too, probably every week. Do a water change too.
 
If your parameters are that far apart you likely have a Mg issue that is causing the problem. As far as the algae it looks like Dino, but on occasion diatoms will look like that. Look at the tank at night with a flashlight, if the stuff mostly goes away at night and comes back in full force during the day it is most likely Dinoflagellates.
 
High pH and low nitrates will help fight it off. The tricky part is knowing what your nitrate level really is at, because the dino sucks out the nutrients to flourish like algae. Getting that refugium up and running will help as well if you get enough chaeto in there and run a grow lamp on it 24/7 and cut the light back to a few hours a day on your display until the dino recedes
 
Either you are misreading the test kits, they are bad, or your salinity is WAY lower than you think. Where are you getting your water from? What kind of salt do they use? Is there precipitate on your pumps/glass/impellers?
 
What is precipitate? Unfortunately aquarium adventure in bolingbrook but I think I'm just going to go somewhere else. The test kits may be bad they sat unused for a while.
 
Is that why my water always seems cloudy? Like its snowing? I figured it was microbubbles but it seems that may not be the case. How do I rectify this?
 
I checked last night and this morning and it does not look like it went away so I don't know but nevertheless I will be taking recommended measures to battle this foe. Lights 5h a day reduce feeding aggressive water changes working on refugium looking into better/new test kits gfo media reactor etc.
 
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