Clear/brown stringy growth. Bacteria? Dinos?

[pmang6]

Ive got some weird stuff growing in my tank. It presents as thin, almost hair like brown or transparent strings coming from the rocks and coral skeletons. It appears to piss off xorals when it touches them and it isnt terribly consistent, seems to bloom then die back.

 

Probably worth noting that I have never had good growth from anything in this tank, not even coraline or other algaes. Not even film algae on the glass. The one exception is bacterial blooms but I seem to have solved that issue for now.

 

Alk: 9.5-10

Nitrate:~20ppm

Phosphate: undetectable

 

I can also test for nitrite and ammonia if needed. 

 

Pics and video:

 

 

 

[dling]

Maybe try Vibrant along with some more frequent or larger water changes. I have the

some problem and that's what I have started doing.

Here a good article. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

[pmang6]

6 hours ago, dling said:

Maybe try Vibrant along with some more frequent or larger water changes. I have the

some problem and that's what I have started doing.

Here a good article. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

Vibrant is something I've considered. I'm not sure about increasing water changes at this point because I think phosphate deficiency may be part of the problem. 

 

I've read through that thread and I'm going to go ahead and do the simple clumping test to check for dinos.

[pmang6]

The clumping test detailed in the r2r post linked above seems to suggest that this is dinos. The brown stuff recongealed in a matter of minutes after I placed it in a test tube and gave it a good minute of hard shaking.

[Gourami Swami]

Does look like dinos to me, the way to be sure is with a microscope.

The dinos don't look too thick, you may have caught it early.

From the reading I've been doing, less water changes increasing phos and nitrate levels while adding another bacteria to outcompete it and possible a short blackout, seem to have worked for people. I am currently fighting dinos as well and this is the method I'm using. They do seem to be retreating for me using Dr. Tim's waste away, cutting WCs back to a small one every two weeks, and increasing feeding.

I used to have them back to full population 2 days after I would manually remove them and do a waterchange, thick on the sand. Now it is taking about 2 weeks for them to come back full strength and they are less thick on the sand. And I haven't done the blackout or finished the Waste-away doses yet.

Good luck to you, will be watching to see how it goes.

[pmang6]

1 minute ago, Gourami Swami said:

Does look like dinos to me, the way to be sure is with a microscope.

The dinos don't look too thick, you may have caught it early.

From the reading I've been doing, less water changes increasing phos and nitrate levels while adding another bacteria to outcompete it and possible a short blackout, seem to have worked for people. I am currently fighting dinos as well and this is the method I'm using. They do seem to be retreating for me using Dr. Tim's waste away, cutting WCs back to a small one every two weeks, and increasing feeding.

I used to have them back to full population 2 days after I would manually remove them and do a waterchange, thick on the sand. Now it is taking about 2 weeks for them to come back full strength and they are less thick on the sand. And I haven't done the blackout or finished the Waste-away doses yet.

Good luck to you, will be watching to see how it goes.

 Thanks, and yea, I'm thinking phosphate deficiency is the big issue here. It just explains a lot of what has been going on in my tank. 

 

Heres my journal btw, gonna move the discussion there now that I have this ID'd:

 

[risk1994]

14 hours ago, pmang6 said:

Ive got some weird stuff growing in my tank. It presents as thin, almost hair like brown or transparent strings coming from the rocks and coral skeletons. It appears to piss off xorals when it touches them and it isnt terribly consistent, seems to bloom then die back.

 

Probably worth noting that I have never had good growth from anything in this tank, not even coraline or other algaes. Not even film algae on the glass. The one exception is bacterial blooms but I seem to have solved that issue for now.

 

 

This describes my issues perfectly.  repeated algae issues and crappy coral growth.

 

Your phosphates are zero and didn't mention your nitrates.  I think this was my issue, both were zero for me.  Check out my thread for details..my tank is looking better.

 

 

[Clown79]

16 hours ago, pmang6 said:

Ive got some weird stuff growing in my tank. It presents as thin, almost hair like brown or transparent strings coming from the rocks and coral skeletons. It appears to piss off xorals when it touches them and it isnt terribly consistent, seems to bloom then die back.

 

Probably worth noting that I have never had good growth from anything in this tank, not even coraline or other algaes. Not even film algae on the glass. The one exception is bacterial blooms but I seem to have solved that issue for now.

 

Alk: 9.5-10

Nitrate:~20ppm

Phosphate: undetectable

 

I can also test for nitrite and ammonia if needed. 

 

Pics and video:

 

 

 

I had dino's in 2 tanks and was able to get rid of them within a month. After doing a crap ton of research I learned.

 

Dino treatment is completely different than for1 other algaes.

 

Waterchanges, blackouts, don't work.

 

Most products actually make it worse.

 

Natural methods seem to be the best.

 

I detailed every step I took in my journal. It's really detailed so here's a link. It starts page 7.

 

Hope it helps.

 

[pmang6]

9 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I had dino's in 2 tanks and was able to get rid of them within a month. After doing a crap ton of research I learned.

 

Dino treatment is completely different than for1 other algaes.

 

Waterchanges, blackouts, don't work.

 

Most products actually make it worse.

 

Natural methods seem to be the best.

 

I detailed every step I took in my journal. It's really detailed so here's a link. It starts page 7.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Thanks! I had actually read some of your posts in another thread. It seems like phosphate is the big issue for me as i have no shortage of nitrate. Really want to smash this before it takes hold. 

[Clown79]

6 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

Thanks! I had actually read some of your posts in another thread. It seems like phosphate is the big issue for me as i have no shortage of nitrate. Really want to smash this before it takes hold. 

It definitely helps getting at it from the beginning before it gets bad.

 

Phosphate is the problem. I always had issues with no phosphate. It seems to be the reason for dino's and lack of biodiversity