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brown filmy and stringy algae?


dandelion

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It starts as a film on the rocks then become a string flowing in the current. Tip of the string would form a little ball. Only happens on rocks but not the sanded. Last I check PO4 is 0 and NO3 is 0. Any idea?

 

It's floating between the 2 zoa frags. The dark string sticking out from underneath the zoa on the right is a loose piece of chaeto.

 

41AD3024-8D6F-48EA-ABF6-7201F663F018_zps

 

1595E01E-1ADC-4C74-9831-CC90DE9062D6_zps

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Polarcollision

I had something like that in my 8 gallon. Is it a light brown color? Mine ended up being dinos and nothing I did would kill them off. I gave up but let the tank run. It took 6 months but they finally burned themselves out. If this is the same thing, my turning point was after I added another inch of fine grain sand used water from the big tank at a water change.

 

It also looks like a hair of some kind.

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I would guess dinoflagellates- especially when you mention a ball on the string-- they get little bubbles.

If fairly new tank- just watch amount of feeding and how long the light cycle is. Run some carbon. Make sure water circulation is good.

Work on water changes and give time. Alot of newer tanks will have minor blooms that run their course over couple of weeks and then sort of burn themselves out.

good luck

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+1 on dino most likely.

 

What was the source of the rock? Just throwing out a guess based on what I've seen several times, that the rock likely has PO4 bound in it, which gives the algae a source of nutrients that doesn't exist in the water column or the sandbed.

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I would guess dinoflagellates- especially when you mention a ball on the string-- they get little bubbles.

If fairly new tank- just watch amount of feeding and how long the light cycle is. Run some carbon. Make sure water circulation is good.

Work on water changes and give time. Alot of newer tanks will have minor blooms that run their course over couple of weeks and then sort of burn themselves out.

good luck

I second the guess!

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Sounds like dinos. I just got over the fight with them. Did a 3 day black out and dosed hydrogen peroxide once in the morning and once at night. Seemed to do the trick!

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Dinoflagellates can usually weather a blackout without issue... they're very good at ensuring they get fed. ;)

 

I've had some decent luck with the PH approach (boosting PH to 8.4-8.5 with kalk or 8.4 for a few days & holding it there) but that doesn't work for every variety out there. Great easy test I came across on another forum (not my idea, but have personally used it) for the "do I have dinos or cyano/hair algae" question:

 

1. Siphon out a few ounces of tank water along with some of the "threads" and strain it through a paper towel into a clear plastic cup. If the brown threads don't stay attached to rock, it's likely you have cyanobacteria or dinoflagellates rather than than hair algae.

 

2. Leave the cup sitting in bright light for 45-60 minutes. If threads & clumps of crud form again despite the water initially looking clear, you've got dinoflagellates.

 

Another decent way determine what's what is to get an el-cheapo led-illuminated pocket microscope with a 60x-80x magnification setting off Amazon - not a bad tool to have in your reefing kit in any case. But the above has been a useful quick test to figure out which problem's being faced.

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I'm doing the paper towel test right now. I could only get a small sample because 1) they stick real good on my rocks and 2) some seem to have gone away after I added a second small pump for my pocillopora.

 

I got dry rocks from my LFS so I'm really not sure where they got it from. My tank is indeed fairly new started only in October. I don't have any fish in it so it makes it a bit easier to control nutrients. Lights are on ~ 8 hours a day. Nitrate and phos are both at 0. pH at 8.1, Ca 480 and alk 12. Of note I do notice my snails dying. I had 4 Astrea snails. 2 died, 1 probably on its way, and 1 doing fine. The dwarf ceriths are living happily though. That gave me a feeling it could be Dino.

 

So far it is only causing a nuisance and not any trouble. Should I just keep normal maintenance and if it starts blooming raise my pH and reduce photo period? I have a QT that I can move my corals to if need be.

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Snails suddenly dying is indeed a possible harbinger of dinoflagellates - many varieties are toxic to snails. But in my own case I can't keep astreas alive for more than a few months, dinos or no.

 

I have several ceriths and trochus, as I've found them generally more useful and hardier.

 

Parameter-wise I'd get a bead on your magnesium level just to make sure you've got a complete baseline... in my tank the brown crud only shows up if mag levels have sunk below 1100ppm or so, but that high an alkalinity would suggest it's fine. You MIGHT want to consider lowering alk to around 8-9, but I'm not sure if you're running hot to encourage stony coral growth... mixed opinions abound on that but if everything else in your tank is doing well don't fuss with it.

 

I looked back over my notes from a couple years ago... if dinos you'll need to boost & hold the pH to at least 8.5, not what I posted earlier. Let the Dixie cup be your guide and attempt the blackout if it turns out to be cyanobacteria.

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Those snails are new. So it most likely is Dino. Wonder why the 1 is still alive though. Maybe it's smart enough not to touch that stuff.

 

I tested my Mg last month and its 1500. Seeing my calcium and carbonate are in high end of the normal range I figured Mg should be holding at a healthy level. My Alk is high just because I'm still figuring out how much supplement to put in my ATO. There was a time my alk was dropping 2 dKH every 3 days until it suddenly stabilized (calcium and magnesium stayed the same).

 

I'll have to find a way to increase pH without increasing alk. Kalk is probably not a good idea. Any suggestions?

 

Snails suddenly dying is indeed a possible harbinger of dinoflagellates - many varieties are toxic to snails. But in my own case I can't keep astreas alive for more than a few months, dinos or no.

 

I have several ceriths and trochus, as I've found them generally more useful and hardier.

 

Parameter-wise I'd get a bead on your magnesium level just to make sure you've got a complete baseline... in my tank the brown crud only shows up if mag levels have sunk below 1100ppm or so, but that high an alkalinity would suggest it's fine. You MIGHT want to consider lowering alk to around 8-9, but I'm not sure if you're running hot to encourage stony coral growth... mixed opinions abound on that but if everything else in your tank is doing well don't fuss with it.

 

I looked back over my notes from a couple years ago... if dinos you'll need to boost & hold the pH to at least 8.5, not what I posted earlier. Let the Dixie cup be your guide and attempt the blackout if it turns out to be cyanobacteria.

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You'll need to use a buffer, then. Keep a close eye on calcium/magnesium while running it and drop whatever you're dosing to maintain alkalinity. If you're running a skimmer you might want to try feeding the air intake from outside air or through a CO2 scrubber to make your pH trend a bit higher.

 

I tend to use Aqua vitro 8.4 when treating dinos in mine But my tank has a tendency to burn through alkalinity quickly... lotta coralline for such a small water volume. Doesn't help you in your case, admittedly.

 

What was the Dixie cup result? Spontaneous re-crudding or clearcat the end of an hour?

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I couldn't get a good sample of those stuff. They're stuck on the rocks pretty bad. I only managed to get a small sample and it didn't seem like it aggregated back to a huge clump. I'll try the test again later. I have more pressing issues right now: one of my clowns went MIA in my 29G FOWLR and I also noticed BOTH heaters died at the same time, dropping temperature to 72. Reheated water slowly and dosed prime in the middle of the night. Will test for ammonia when I get home tonight.

 

You'll need to use a buffer, then. Keep a close eye on calcium/magnesium while running it and drop whatever you're dosing to maintain alkalinity. If you're running a skimmer you might want to try feeding the air intake from outside air or through a CO2 scrubber to make your pH trend a bit higher.

I tend to use Aqua vitro 8.4 when treating dinos in mine But my tank has a tendency to burn through alkalinity quickly... lotta coralline for such a small water volume. Doesn't help you in your case, admittedly.

 

What was the Dixie cup result? Spontaneous re-crudding or clearcat the end of an hour?

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I did a 72 hour black out and dosed a little bit of peroxide. I also took out the lid so my ATO will top off more frequently (hence more carbonate dosing). pH tonight is 8.4 and it seems like the Dino has retreated. I can't say it's eliminated, but it seems to have set them back quite a bit. If I can't eradicate it, I may do black out once a week at least to contain it. The SPS didn't seem to mind the 3 day black out too much.

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Ive had to battle them twice already and the best suggestion is a multipronged attack.



1) Weekly Blackouts (3-4 Days)


2) Add bacteria or phytoplankton daily to help outcompete


3) Manually Remove as much as possible as often as possible


4) Add a UV Sterilizer (Highest wattage you can add to your system and very low flow)



You should see a dramatic reduction in their numbers with this method. The main goal is to cultivate healthy numbers of good bacteria and/or phyto which will outcompete the dinos and keep their numbers in check.


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