Help ID this pest substance

[InLimbo87]

I can not figure out what this stuff is for the life of me, and it just won't go away. It gets stuck to my glass and stuck in the pumps. Its this white, stringy substance that you can see (hopefully) attached to the pumps in these pictures.

Every week when I do my water change I pull out all the pumps and clean this off of them thoroughly and siphon out as much as I can from the tank during the change. But lately, every week it comes back full force. Does anyone know what this is, and how it can be stopped??

[abulgin]

Looks like hair algae.

[InLimbo87]

Originally posted by abulgin
Looks like hair algae.

I had a green hair algae problem in a past tank, and this seems to be a good bit different in consistency. Its almost like a mucus/silky consistency. Could this be a different type of HA?

[landlord]

Picture number 2 looks as if the hairs are a slight brown color. This resembles the dinoflagellates that I had except mine had bubbles of air trapped on the end of the strands. This stuff would literally grow before your eyes. Routine water maintenance am turkey basting daily wet a nice wet skim and a slightly reduced photo period got mine under control. I believe it was part of my cycle at the time but just thought I would throw out my thoughts for you.

--landlord

[InLimbo87]

Originally posted by landlord
Picture number 2 looks as if the hairs are a slight brown color. This resembles the dinoflagellates that I had except mine had bubbles of air trapped on the end of the strands. This stuff would literally grow before your eyes. Routine water maintenance am turkey basting daily wet a nice wet skim and a slightly reduced photo period got mine under control. I believe it was part of my cycle at the time but just thought I would throw out my thoughts for you.

--landlord

Thanks for your help! After looking up some info on these, it definitely looks like it could be a variation of dinoflagellates. I'll have to keep up on manual removal and cut down my photo period/feeding..

A "wet skim" is a light-colored skim that collects quickly in the cup, right? I always get those confused

[landlord]

Yes. A wet skim IMO is the term I use to describe getting at least a cup of green tea colored skimmate from my collection cup. Mind you my collection cup holds around 2 cups of fluid. Dino's in my tank were brown in color and many if not all of them held onto a tiny bubble. The bubble I believe is a waste gas produced by the dino, I could be wrong there not that it matters just simply trying to help identify your issue.

Let me stress that in my situation for my particular outbreak this stuff would re-colonize itself daily. I mean I would turkey baste the entore 90 gallon tank until the water column was full of dino fragments blowing around like crazy. The water would eventually clear up due to filtration but by the end of the 8 hour photo period it would literally be grown back to its original size and quantity.

--landlord

[InLimbo87]

Originally posted by landlord
Yes. A wet skim IMO is the term I use to describe getting at least a cup of green tea colored skimmate from my collection cup. Mind you my collection cup holds around 2 cups of fluid. Dino's in my tank were brown in color and many if not all of them held onto a tiny bubble. The bubble I believe is a waste gas produced by the dino, I could be wrong there not that it matters just simply trying to help identify your issue.

Let me stress that in my situation for my particular outbreak this stuff would re-colonize itself daily. I mean I would turkey baste the entore 90 gallon tank until the water column was full of dino fragments blowing around like crazy. The water would eventually clear up due to filtration but by the end of the 8 hour photo period it would literally be grown back to its original size and quantity.

--landlord

This sounds very similar to what's going on with my tank, just not at the same rate. It takes about 5 days before its really back in full force again...

[landlord]

How new or old is your current setup. My dinos seemed to be part (the later part) of my cycle process? bLike the 5th or 6th week.

I have a feeling my fast colonizing regrowth was due to 800 watts of MH on a 90 gallon, maybe yours is slower because of less wattage, I dunno.

[InLimbo87]

The tank is about 6 months old right now, but this stuff's been hanging around ever since my cycle. It seems to have gotten worse lately, and has gone away/come back a couple time it seems...

[landlord]

I wish I had a surefire answer to help give you some piece of mind. Mine seemed to have gone away with consistent management (regular and consistent water chages using RO/DI, turkey basting, wet skimming, etc...)

Godd Luck!

[InLimbo87]

Originally posted by landlord
I wish I had a surefire answer to help give you some piece of mind. Mine seemed to have gone away with consistent management (regular and consistent water chages using RO/DI, turkey basting, wet skimming, etc...)

Godd Luck!

Your answers have helped a ton! Thanks! Looks like I'll just have to continue with manual removal (including turkey basting), wet skimming, and I'll try lowering my photoperiod a little bit.

I'll need all the luck I can get it seems,