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Early Cyano or early Dino? Brown, hairs, BUBBLES


Ash1176

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So the tank is 2 month old, at first I thought it was just diatoms.... but it seems different, I noticed bubbles in the tank, so I did some research, a few threads popped up, it was 50/50 split between early stage of Cyano or early stage Dino... so I’m at loss here because they have completely opposite ways to deal with them... 
the bubbles are only during the lights on, so it photosynthetic, the brown has tiny little hairs. 
No fish in the tank, 2 died last week of brook, only 6 snails and a cleaner shrimp and 3 corals... 
nitrates are 2ppm and phosphates zero, been trying to feed extra to get phosphates up but I’m thinking I’m just some kind of algae now
I running carbon for a about a week, water was dirty and moved some corals. 
Not running any GFO
Ph and kh stable 
Thinking of doing a black out, and water change after with gravel vac. Unless I’m completely sure what it is 
I do t want to add chemicals right away, I would rather learn what it is and and try an counteract this the natural way 
Let me know what you think?

the algae next to the frag plug could be different and has come from the plug, but wandering if this is the source...

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The bubbles could be micro bubbles just attaching to algae.

 

Dino is more stringy with bubbles in it.

 

Over feeding never really helped my tank get phosphates. 

 

It wasn't until i dosed small amounts of phyto that worked

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DISQUALIFIED-QQ

It looks like microalgae. The photos make it look greenish. Dinos will definitely be long and stringy and generally comes after you hit 0.0 nitrates and 0.0 phosphates generally.

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2 hours ago, Ash1176 said:

Ok so will do some water changes and gravel vac soon, should I run GFO and cut down feeding the tank?

I would not use gfo if you have 0 phosphates. You need phos in the tank.

 

Gfo should be used as needed when phos gets very high.

 

Manual removal during regular waterchanges and some cuc will help.

 

If you don't have high nutrients, there is no need for an increase in waterchanges.

 

You will reduce nitrates to eventually 0, you only have 2ppm.

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1 hour ago, Ash1176 said:

Ok so just wait it out for now? 

Just continue with regular waterchanges, manual removal, cuc, increase phod

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Also, keep nutrients up. 0.05 phosphate and 5-10 nitrate is good. That will help the less invasive algaes establish themselves, where they can compete with the invasive algae. It also keeps your corals fed. 0 nutrients will starve your corals.

 

How big is the tank? You might just need more snails. .

 

Algae is normal in new tanks. As long as it's not smothering your corals (and you can blow it off with a pipette if it tries), it won't hurt anything. 

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On 7/30/2020 at 10:06 AM, Clown79 said:

Just continue with regular waterchanges, manual removal, cuc, increase phod

Did a small water change on Friday, but now nitrates are at zero just like phosphates! 
 

trying to keep feeding this tank but I’m getting no readings... 

54 minutes ago, Tired said:

Also, keep nutrients up. 0.05 phosphate and 5-10 nitrate is good. That will help the less invasive algaes establish themselves, where they can compete with the invasive algae. It also keeps your corals fed. 0 nutrients will starve your corals.

 

How big is the tank? You might just need more snails. .

 

Algae is normal in new tanks. As long as it's not smothering your corals (and you can blow it off with a pipette if it tries), it won't hurt anything. 

yes I’m less worried about the algae, just putting it down to new tank, just trying to get my nutrients up which is harder without fish...

 

im have 2 bags of seachem matrix, I’ve had Them since I started cycling the tank for extra BB, but seachem matrix removes nitrates, should probably pull a bag out ???

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4 hours ago, Ash1176 said:

Did a small water change on Friday, but now nitrates are at zero just like phosphates! 
 

trying to keep feeding this tank but I’m getting no readings... 

yes I’m less worried about the algae, just putting it down to new tank, just trying to get my nutrients up which is harder without fish...

 

im have 2 bags of seachem matrix, I’ve had Them since I started cycling the tank for extra BB, but seachem matrix removes nitrates, should probably pull a bag out ???

Over Feeding isn't always a reliable method. It doesn't work for everyone.

 

I can over feed my tank to high heaven and it never got my levels up. I had to resort to phyto or liquid foods like red sea energy for phos and dosing nitrates because neither increased my nitrates.

 

Maybe you are doing too large of a waterchange or too often. Possibly using too much media?

 

I stopped doing weekly waterchanges to increase my nutrients in conjunction with the other methods. Once i got them up a bit, i started doing smaller weekly waterchanges.

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At this age of the tank, and with the green hair algae in the first shot, if it was me I would add turbo snails and dose microbacter 7 for a couple weeks to help the tank develop a balance of beneficial bacteria in its ecosystem. 

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3 hours ago, Tired said:

Yes, you should take out the nitrate-removing media when you need to increase your nitrates.

You got me there! Haha 

i’ll use my newbie card for this one 😉

what I meant is that I’m not sure how much Nitrate is removed by matrix, and I’m concerned by taking it out I’ll be loosing a lot of my beneficial bacteria that have been on matrix since the beginning...

I think I’ll take the half out and see what happens

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1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

Maybe you are doing too large of a waterchange or too often. Possibly using too much media?

 

I stopped doing weekly waterchanges to increase my nutrients in conjunction with the other methods. Once i got them up a bit, i started doing smaller weekly waterchanges.

My last water change was less than 2 gallon, but yah won’t be doing water changes for a bit until I see something.

and I’m gonna remove some matrix 

 

i think I actually remember you saying in one of the first posts on my thread to watch out for too much media! Should have listened 

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Basically all of your biological filter is in your rocks, and a bit in your sand. The filter media is only important for biological filtration in freshwater tanks. You're removing a tiny amount of surface area compared to the rest of the tank. 

 

Just keep the corals cleaned off, let the water get a bit dirtier, and maybe toss a few snails in. How big is the tank? Might need more snails. I suggest some ceriths to stir your sandbed a bit.

 

Some tanks need really infrequent water changes, especially ones without fish, or they just get stripped of nutrients. I know a few people on here do just a couple water changes a year. Granted, some of those are macroalgae tanks, but still.

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Yah will take the big bag out and see how that goes, thanks!!!

the tank is 13.5 gallon (Fluval Evo) 

I have 3 nassirius, 3 trochus and a cleaner shrimp, I’ve been trying to get some cerith for the last month but no luck at the Lfs’s 

so far 

 

 

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I keep sacks of matrix media in the back chambers of all my tanks... just chiming in here that I would keep the matrix, add a custom cleanup crew from reefcleaners.com, and add the microbacter 7 that I mentioned previously... 

 

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Nassarius eat leftover food, not algae. They aren't going to help much, though at least they'll move the sand. 

 

I second the ReefCleaners suggestion. You could also grab a hardy macroalgae from them, they have some nice stuff. Or some pods! Never hurts to add pods (of a suitable species) to a new tank, especially when there are no fish yet. Get that population going.

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Yah I’m going to keep one bag of matrix (I have 2) I got some snails working already trying to find some more though, mainly cerith.

like I said though I would rather wait to see if I can work this out before adding anything from a bottle. I have vibrant on hand just going to use it as last resort, but it does strip your nutrients... right now I’m not worried about the algae anymore, just wanting to get my nutrients up 

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10 minutes ago, Tired said:

Nassarius eat leftover food, not algae. They aren't going to help much, though at least they'll move the sand. 

 

Yes my Nassarius are for leftovers, my trochus were gonna be my maingrazers, will probably get more various snails! 
 

funny you say that my pod population just bloomed, i never knew I had some until there was no fish and then they were everywhere. Also added some live rock from the Lfs hoping to get more biodiversity (did the CaribSea liferock (dry rock) and kinda regret it being to sterile of an environment)

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Sounds ideal. Pods and biodiversity are your best friends in reefing.

 

Did you add the live rock right before the algae started up? Might be there was some living on it that's capitalizing on the free space. That doesn't change anything, it would just explain the surge. 

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No just added added it. Figured there would no fish to bother what’s on it! but yeah it might bring in different algae now haha

just trying to find my balance 

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On 7/29/2020 at 9:14 PM, Diamonds x Pearls said:

It looks like microalgae. The photos make it look greenish. Dinos will definitely be long and stringy and generally comes after you hit 0.0 nitrates and 0.0 phosphates generally.

I’m experiencing a similar problem. My phosphate is <0.03 ppm and nitrates are near undetectable. What should I do to get rid of Dino?

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