Contaminate?
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Hi everybody,
I'm seeing some contamination on one of my seed spools. They are triangular in shape, the same color as the sporophytes, and seem to be attached to the sporophytes. I have tested other spools in the same tank, and this is the only one I am seeing this on. I am curious what you all think this could be? (Eggs of some sort? Licmorphia algae?)
All water that spools are exposed to are from an underground well (not incoming seawater), filtered through a 0.5um filter and twice through a UV. F/2 is added but nothing living should be in the water besides the kelp. (I don’t think a snail got in) ;)
The spool seems otherwise in good shape, the sporophytes are 2mm and would have been outplanted this week (I’m not risking it). The contaminant doesn’t seem to move, nor does it seem to effect the growth of the kelp despite being attached to it.
I tried to get microscopic photos at 400x but it seems the best quality photos are 100x
Hi @elizabeth_savage19 , we haven't seen this before but it looks like it could be an epiphytic diatom in the genus Licmophora. Here's a webpage about it: https://diatoms.org/genera/licmophora/guide . Germanium treatment should be effective for treating these if they become overgrown.