Jump to content
SaltCritters.com

Brown stringy slime in tank, corals seem to be dying


MDUllrich

Recommended Posts

I have been struggling with a bloom of some unknown brown slime/stringy substance in my tank for 3-4 weeks now, pictures attached below. My zoanthid colonies, red mushroom and ricordea mushroom are all closed up 24/7 and have been since this brown substance has shown up. Prior to this they seemed to be thriving and seemed to be growing/expanding fairly well. No major additions or removals to the tank. No changes in maintenance (weekly 10% water changes with parameter testing each week as below). Tank has been set up for approximately 2 years with really no major issues until now. I feed only about 8-10 small flakes of food to the fish each day and they seem to eat most of it. Below are details of my set up to help orient you to my system so you can hopefully help me to fix my tank before things get too bad. I have tried removing it via suction with each weekly water change and adjusting my photo period to decrease daytime lights with no change.

 

Set Up:

   Innovative Marine Fusion 10 gallon Nano tank

   NanoBox Mini Tide LED (Daytime photoperiod 12 hours)

   Innovative Marine Aqua Gadget ChaetoMax 2-in-1 Refugium LED (Reverse 12 hour photoperiod when main display lights are off)

         - Middle chamber in the back has chaeto in it

   Jebao WP10

   Cobalt Aquatics 50w neo-therm submersible heater

   Marineland Maxi-Jet 400 return pump

   Innovative Marine ATO system

 

Livestock:

   Gladiator clown

   Six line wrasse

   3 Scarlet reef hermits

   4 Trochus snails

   ~3 Cerith snails (Literally never see them though so not sure if they are alive)

   ~3 Mini nassarius snails (only ever really see 1 out at any given time so unsure of actual numbers at this point)

   2 zoanthid colonies

   1 ricordea mushroom

   1 red mushroom

 

Tank Parameters: (Very stable, they measure this way after weekly water change consistently for months now with almost no change)

   Temperature - 78 degrees

   Specific gravity - 1.025 (maintained by ATO system)

   pH - 8.0

   dKH - 8 (~143.2 ppm KH)

   Calcium - 420

   Ammonia - 0

   Nitrite - 0

   Nitrates - < 5

   Phos - 0

   Magnesium - no testing kit

 

Parameters of freshly mixed saltwater being used in weekly 10% water changes (Instant Ocean Reef Crystals):

   Specific gravity - 1.025

   pH - 8.0

   dKH - 9 (~161.1 ppm KH)

   Calcium - 480

   Ammonia - 0

   Nitrite - 0

   Nitrates - 0

   Phos - 0

   Magnesium - no testing kit

 

I have noticed that I have not needed to harvest any of my chaeto in the back chamber over the last 3 or so weeks which is not normal, the amount of chaeto in the back chamber has not really changed over that time. Any ideas on what this stuff is and how can I fix it?

 

IMG_20181029_221201.jpg

MVIMG_20181029_220950.jpg

IMG_20181029_220437.jpg

Screenshot_20181029-224032.png

Screenshot_20181029-224249.png

IMG_20181029_221223.jpg

Link to comment

Yea I use RO water, haven't been able to check TDS on it though because I don't have a tester but I've been getting it from the same place for the whole time I have had the tank. What do you think it is?

 

I'm just worried it's dino and not cyano...

Link to comment

It's a difficult one to get rid of.

 

There are various methods and I would do extensive research on all methods

 

long blackout periods, no waterchanges, Vibrant Cleaner, 3% peroxide dosing are the few methods I can think of.

Link to comment

3-5 day lights out to start

 

Get a bottle of nitrafying bacteria like Fritz Zyme 9 to boost up competing bacteria.

 

Add pods (they eat dinos) and dose phytoplankton to boost the pod population.

 

Test PO4 and NO3.  You want PO4 between 0.04 and 1.0.  NO3 between 5 and 15. Dose PO4 or NO3 to boost them up if they are low.

 

Stop doing water changes until it's eradicated.

 

No doubt, these steps cleared my tank permanently.

 

If you start to see GHA pop up, you'll know you are on the right track.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Oh, and while the lights are out, keep the tank well oxygenated like with a protein skimmer.  Also, run a filter sock or filter floss to catch the dying dinos and clean it daily.

Welcome to NR BTW!

Link to comment

This might be stupid question but what type of pods should I add? I've never dosed pods like this before and it seems like there are a lot of different kinds of pods...

Link to comment

Thanks for all the help! This might also be a dumb question but I have chaeto in my back chamber so when I do this blackout, does that mean all lights off 24/7 or just the display light off?

Link to comment

Okay plan of attack:

 

Black out of all lights for 3 days, during the 3 days I will be using additives to maintain a pH around 8.3-8.4 and I have been overfeeding/dosing just enough to bump nitrates and phosphates. No water changes until this stuff is gone. I'm going to add the nitrifying bacteria and tisbe pods/phytoplankton on day 3 of the blackout about middle of the way through the day to try to give them some time to be in the tank before I end the blackout. After I end the blackout, I am going to manually remove any remaining dino I can see. Hopefully then the lights will go back on and all this other stuff will outcompete the dinos.

 

After only 1 day of blackout, the dinos seem to be receding significantly, although they are still present. I will post an update once the lights go back on!

 

Thanks for all the help everyone

Link to comment
3 hours ago, MDUllrich said:

Okay plan of attack:

 

Black out of all lights for 3 days, during the 3 days I will be using additives to maintain a pH around 8.3-8.4 and I have been overfeeding/dosing just enough to bump nitrates and phosphates. No water changes until this stuff is gone. I'm going to add the nitrifying bacteria and tisbe pods/phytoplankton on day 3 of the blackout about middle of the way through the day to try to give them some time to be in the tank before I end the blackout. After I end the blackout, I am going to manually remove any remaining dino I can see. Hopefully then the lights will go back on and all this other stuff will outcompete the dinos.

 

After only 1 day of blackout, the dinos seem to be receding significantly, although they are still present. I will post an update once the lights go back on!

 

Thanks for all the help everyone

Why chase pH?

Link to comment

I just fixed the same issue in my tank. Complete blackout for 3 days. I put a towel over the entire tank. No feeding at all. And I dosed the proper amount of hydrogen peroxide everyday, and even after they were gone for about 2 weeks. I had no I’ll effects on anything. I would suggest removing as much as you can before anything. I used a toothbrush to scrub them off everything I could and ran a net around the tank until I could scoop up everything I could. I still see a few here and there but everyday I see less. Good luck! Dinos are no fun!

Link to comment
3 hours ago, MDUllrich said:

Okay plan of attack:

 

Black out of all lights for 3 days, during the 3 days I will be using additives to maintain a pH around 8.3-8.4 and I have been overfeeding/dosing just enough to bump nitrates and phosphates. No water changes until this stuff is gone. I'm going to add the nitrifying bacteria and tisbe pods/phytoplankton on day 3 of the blackout about middle of the way through the day to try to give them some time to be in the tank before I end the blackout. After I end the blackout, I am going to manually remove any remaining dino I can see. Hopefully then the lights will go back on and all this other stuff will outcompete the dinos.

 

After only 1 day of blackout, the dinos seem to be receding significantly, although they are still present. I will post an update once the lights go back on!

 

Thanks for all the help everyone

Dinos typically don’t show their full face until after a few hours of light being on so use caution if you do decide to turn the lights back on early. 

Link to comment

IMG_20181104_122719.thumb.jpg.67598842efc1257393d8f157c9d9f674.jpgMVIMG_20181104_122651.thumb.jpg.6f330d68c01ccbd2498e144ef01429ba.jpg

 

Maybe too soon to say but I had a limited photo period yesterday (4 hours) and have had the lights on since 8 am today and it's looking pretty clean! Even the zoa's are starting to open back up after being closed for weeks. Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

IMG_20181104_122707.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
On 10/29/2018 at 10:42 PM, MDUllrich said:

If it is dino... how do I get rid of it?

Take a beating hammer or throwing brick to the tank  :wink:  be prepared for water to get all over the place and I would suggest some safety goggles. 

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

After several months of trying everything I've been able to find as a possible cure for the dinos... I am finally giving up and starting from scratch. I will be upgrading to a Biocube 29 and starting with all new rocks and sand.

 

What should I use to clean/sterilize equipment from the old tank (i.e. heater, powerhead, etc) to ensure that the dinos do not transfer to the new tank?

 

Also, can I save the fish? What do I need to do to the fish before transfer to ensure they don't bring the dinos over with them to the new tank?

 

Thank you all for your help

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...