do I have dinoflagellates?

[hng]

I've had a fuzzy brown algae on my glass and rocks for a few weeks now and it is getting worse. I'm worried that it might be dinoflagellates. It seems like it is "hairy" or filamentous and is worse in areas with light exposure. It does have bubbles sometimes. My nitrates are 0 with my test kit and I use carbon in the sump. I have also recently added a phosphate remover (phoszorb) in the sump and have been adding Essential Elements by Kent the last three weeks. So....what kinda problem do I have here?

[pyron88]

How long has your tank been set up? Do you have a skimmer? How much and how often do you feed. It's just algea. From the pic it looks like hair and bubble. Do you use tap or RO/DI water? CK. phosphates

[hng]

I doubt that it's hair algae. It started before I had a fish and there was absolutely no nutrient inport into the tank. I use ro/di water for everything and do run a skimmer as well. It looks too fine to be hair algae to me, I think hair alage should be more coarse and green. This stuff is a light tan color. Maybe it is the reason why my LPS and xenia aren't doing to hot.

[PowerManJ316]

I have something similar in my tank...been setup for a while and I only get it on the halide side of the tank. It looks real slimy when I scrape it off. I am not too worried because it doesn't seem to affect anything. I have xenia that is exploding right now it is growing so fast. Unless you see it overwhelming the tank I woulnd't worry.

Keep in mind that PH's see more flow that just about any piece of your tank, so this is going to be the first place algae accumlates.

HTH,
Jeff

[pyron88]

Hair algea is pretty fine and not always green. Gets kind of brownish sometimes. Depends where it is in the tank. We still need to know your equip. and what all you have in the tank. How big is it etc. The phos could be comming from your rock. The algea might have been on it to start with.

[LISound]

when was the last water change?
I'd say get a few more snails or a sailfin...every tank should have one!

[hng]

You could read about my tank in detail in the build thread. A brief summary: 30 gal display with 15 gal sump, about 5 months old, 5 gal water change every month, coralife super skimmer 65, carbon and phosphate remover in sump, auto topoff with kalk, 2 vho lamps and 1 t-5.

[pastina]

oh hng i hope you dont get the dingo's

i remember before my outbreak my rocks had this clear bio film looking stuff on them. i blew off all my rocks and within a week the dingo's started. now in that week alot went on so im not sure what caused it, but between the blowing of the rocks, adding all sorts of invert foods and what really brought it out is when i used that red slime remover stuff (i forgot the name of it)
i learned to leave my tanks alone, and ya know what they never looked so good. i think all that pickin' and fussin' isnt good

[hng]

Thanks for the input Pastina, I'm just not sure what is going on . Lately, I just haven't been real happy with my tank. It seems like my corals have "failure to thrive", they're alive, but just not doing well. I though maybe it was due to this stuff growing in the tank. I plan on doing some major water changes this week when I have more time.