Algae problem

[sully08]

Can anyone identify this algae for me and how I can get rid of it. My tank has only been running for about 5 months so maybe its new tank sydrome.
-220g with 72g sump and skimmer
-400w of brand new T5 lights
-6500g/hr of flow
-nitrite 0
-ammonia 0
-nitrate 0
-phosphates 0, maybe they are getting sucked up by the algae before I can detect them.
-RO/DI water used http://s1089.photobucket.com/albums/i342/sully21122/

[asylumdown]

Looks either like dinoflagellates or cyano. The colour is closer to stereotypical cyano, but cyano can come in all sorts of nasty colours (black, purple, green). Dinoflagellates are usually brown, but I'm pretty sure that's not a rule that's written in stone either. The streaming filamentous bits makes me think dino, though. Is the mat of them on the rocks filled with air bubbles?

In either case they can be hard to tell apart. Dinoflagellates are significantly more difficult to get rid of, but here's a decent article on how if that's what they are: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...sons-i-learned

However, in a 5 month old tank I think you should expect this sort of thing to happen, so if I were you I wouldn't embark on a drastic or time consuming intervention just yet. For now I would just keep my parameters as good as possible, remove as much of it as possible manually, and let the tank keep figuring itself out.

Maybe someone else can give you a more conclusive answer as to species.

[sully08]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Looks either like dinoflagellates or cyano. The colour is closer to stereotypical cyano, but cyano can come in all sorts of nasty colours (black, purple, green). Dinoflagellates are usually brown, but I'm pretty sure that's not a rule that's written in stone either. The streaming filamentous bits makes me think dino, though. Is the mat of them on the rocks filled with air bubbles?

In either case they can be hard to tell apart. Dinoflagellates are significantly more difficult to get rid of, but here's a decent article on how if that's what they are: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...sons-i-learned

However, in a 5 month old tank I think you should expect this sort of thing to happen, so if I were you I wouldn't embark on a drastic or time consuming intervention just yet. For now I would just keep my parameters as good as possible, remove as much of it as possible manually, and let the tank keep figuring itself out.

Maybe someone else can give you a more conclusive answer as to species.

Thanks for the feedback, I am not going to get to concerned about it yet. I will try to remove as much as I can through regular water changes and maybe cut back on lighting and food. Hope we are just going through some growing pains. There does not seem to be any air bubbles in the mats.

[chevyjaxon]

when i had an anemone it killed a few of my larger fish sadly they were buried down beneath the rocks and sand. shortly after this happened I had the same type of outbreak. my guess is the water was too rich with nutrents from the decaying fish in the tank. awhile later the outbreak disapeared. Mother nature has a weird way of taking care of herself give it time it should go away on its own. once your tank is better established perhaps feeding twice a week only will help your parameters. with a proper refugium and a light bio load your tank will start to feed itself and everyday feeding will not be nessesary

[fishytime]

What does your stock list look like?