Can't get rid off this?

[howyegettinon]

I’ve been trying to sort this issue out for the past 3 month but can’t seem to get rid of it. Few pictures to identify it

Just to add I only syphoned the sand bed 2 days ago and put the tank into 1day blackout straight after it, the tank has light on for 1hour maybe in this pictures














On the rocks it looks like brown hair algae its grows on top and on bottom of the rock and looks like it’s a lot more dense in the high flow areas,
Not sure what’s on the window and sand bed diatoms maybe?

Tank is about 10 months old, I first encountered this problem when I moved house and my water was a lot harder here so for a good while I was using 25-30ppm RO water(its 230ish before RO) this was 3 months ago.

Since then
I have added a RI unit and my mixing water and top off is now 1ppm( I change out RI when it gets to 5-7)
I stick to 10% weekly or sometimes 20%-30% water changes if I miss a week.
I syphon the sand bed maybe every 2 weeks into filter sock and then swap out the filter sock
I tried blacking out the tank for 3 days, does help but the issue just comes back
I run carbon in a sock and its switched out monthly
I run phosphate reactor and switch media monthly RowaPhos

Live stock
Maroon Clown, Six Line Wrasse, Bangi Cardinalfish, middas blenny, and chromi
2 RBTA’s few softies, few LPS and SPS frags

Lights are on from 2pm to 11ppm, tank is near a large glass window so get a lot of natural light throughout the day

Here is my water parameters, cant paste my log its excell format so this is how the results have been over past month
temp 25-26
salinity 1025
ph 8
nitrate less than 2
phosphate 0

I think the reason my nitrate are staying low is because all the algae is feeding on it like crazy.
What can I do to identify and solve this problem?

[bat21]

Being next to a window could be a factor here. Maybe try blocking the light from the window for a week and see if it has any effect.

[howyegettinon]

Ive no way of blocking the light its one of those double glass doors and its in the kitchen too so cant really black it out.

Also what i've noticed its worse in the mornings, or the brown colour is darker in the mornings and kind of goes away toward the evening.

Can anyone confirm what it is even?

[Mishri]

I wouldn't get worked up too much about it. Looks like new tank algae to me. Give it some time and proper care.. keep on cleaning. I did read that you said you moved 3 months ago right? Give it at least another 6 more months before changing anything. You are already doing everything to minimize algae.

If it doesn't go away after 6 months I'd try some competing algae, either an algae scrubber or something in your sump...

Also, the natural sunlight is likely fueling it. you might effectively now have a 17 hour lighting schedule because of the window. It's always recommended to keep aquariums away from natural light sources. 1) they can heat up from the light, and 2) it causes algae to grow.

[sean357]

Do you have snails? Look into some of the online vendors as it can be a lot cheaper than the LFS (Much more than the normal online discounts). I just ordered some from KP Aquatics and they look good, reeflcleaners.org is popular and of course DR. F&S, etc. have them too.

[Dkuhlmann]

What do you have for a cuc? Snails and hermits should eat that up.

[Dans85]

Looks like dinoflagellates to me.

[Ant512]

I am curious what that is in the first 2 pics as it is on some of my rocks also

[Doogy]

Definitely dinoflagellates. I would do a 3 day black out (newspaper taped to sides and everything) it will definitely knock it. After 3 whole days, do a decent size water change. Like 30% or so to knock down the nutrients. Then you gotta figure out the long term solution because you have phosphates and nitrates..

[CStrickland]

I had that.
I bought my cuc too early, as soon as my noob nano tank was cycled I ordered one of those packages by tank size. I only had diatoms so I had to feed pellets for my nassarius, and once they ate the diatoms up, nori for the snails. That's a lot of phosphate to crank into an empty tank, but snails r dorbles. Eventually everything leveled out and it was a smooth ride for a while. I moved into a bigger tank and wasn't really paying attention to how every now and then I'd suck up an empty shell when I vac'ed the sand.

About 8 months in I looked up one day and realized that stuff was all over just like you. That night it clicked when the snails did their nightly march up the glass, I was down to like 12 snails in a 55. I re-upped to one per gallon the next day and that was that.

Idk what it is, but I think it's what they're eating when we aren't paying attention. It comes on slow so you don't freak out, you just wake up one day and realize ur tanks been brown for a month. Now that my coralline is filling in, it's def in remission. Like the snails knock it back and once the coralline estaishes it can't retake the territory. Or the rocks have finally dumped their phos so the biotype is shifting. Prolly that.

Either way your tank looks great, I wouldn't do anything drastic. Mine wasn't snotty like Dino's are, just like a film that isn't a dust or a plant or a slime, but it got thick so you couldn't see any white rock where the flow was high.

[CStrickland]

Just something to think about for your maintenance though, when you siphon the sand you are pulling out pretty nutrient rich water, even if you strain out a lot of chunks through a sock. When I do it, that's my water change. I wouldn't put any back in the tank for this stuff to eat. If I couldn't reach all the sand before I took out 10%, I'd just hit the rest during next weeks change.

[Dans85]

I beat it using chemi pure. It's kind of expensive, but it worked wonders. I have quite a bit of money wrapped up in my little biocube and my corals were looking pretty grim, so I was willing to try just about anything. Of you do use it, make sure you run an air stone, as it lowers the dissolved O2 in the water column, and do a large water change (40%-50%) 48 hours after adding it to the tank.

[aredhead]

I seem to have the same thing. The long white/green stuff is pretty bad. Hard hard to scrape off. I dont scrape it in tank. Seems to break off in tiny grains that stick to glass. The stuff growing on your gravel is probably different. I had that but got rid of it with this new tank but traded it for this long stuff on rocks. Mine seems to grow in high flow areas. The best animal that loves to eat this stuff is tuxedo urchins. They also dont mess with my rocks and coral unlike a pencil urchin. I have a small blue and a white. They were both the size of a quarter when I got them. Now after a year the white one is the size of a powerhead and the blue is ping ball size. My large white one has grown huge on this junk. It will stay on a powerhead all day till it's clean. I have a 50g cube, 20 gallon sump/fuge. I run chateo and mangroves, a huge power skimmer, etc.

I have raised my circulation flow up to max. I have pushed the skimmer to run very wet. I started dosing red sea nopox. I am dosing the very minimum to start. It's been two days so I will add comments in a few days. I am showing 0 no3 , and 0 no4. I ordered the red sea PRO test kit to get some better tests on this. If u have algae you have phosphates. I run a bag of Purigen, charcoal, and floss. I have 25 pounds live florida rock.

I have ordered some new light bulbs. I left the led world and I am running a 250 metal hallide with 4 -24" t5 fluorescent. The bulbs are no names so ordered new ones. Bad lighting in the wrong wave is said to cause problems. I ordered some ATI actinics, coral special, purple special. I also ordered a 14k mh bulb to get a little more blue out of it and less yellow. I will let you know about that also. I am shortning my mh time and than shortning my total light time ( fluorescents). I also have a window. I keep it shut for now.

I do 10gallon weekly water changes and pop a 20 gal when I have the time. I use red sea coral pro. I have yet to find my calcium or any foundation elements low in any of my tanks. It's worth the money.

I have my original four fish and shrimp and there seem to be no effect on any of them. I only have a couple of softy (little) corals. They have been wavering. I was feeding oyster and phyto fest but cut back on it when this crap started. I am using a feeder with a little flake food twice a day. Very little. I supplement with some mysis shrimp every other day.

Soooo.
Lower food to minimum.
Correct lighting and shorten light time.
Water changes and vacuum gravel/week
Test and try algae control
Nerite snails and urchin animal controls
Increase filtration, use chateo etc
Phosphate, coal, and floss
Look at possible bacteria supplement.
Patience and Time.

I am also using red sea coral energy a,b. It has had an immediate effect on my little corals. Using barely any and in 4 days they are so much more alive.

It takes time for the eco system to balance out. We'll get it.

It took a good year to get my last tank to really take off. Patience is a long lesson.

[amccann]

Dose hydrogen peroxide, if it is dyno, which is what it looks like, don't even waste your time trying the blackout stuff, do a Google search, will find the dosing amounts needed for your tank. I had similar problems, dyno usually doesn't even respond to lighting changes, it is a reason why many aquarium hobbyist get out of the hobby. It's very frustrating to deal with. I ended up getting a bucket and pulling liverock that had a lot of the dyno onnit out, placed in bucket with probably about 1/3 hydrogen peroxide, just the stuff you buy at the local drug store, used a scrub brush and then put it right back in my tank. All of my Zoas survived, even my anemone lived.

[amccann]

And by the way, a CUC won't touch the stuff, it's poisonous to them, can also try Ultra Algae X, supposed to be one of the few other things that works on Dyno

[eddiereefs]

not convinced its dinos, use a turkey baster and try to blow it off the rocks and if it feels slimey it is dinos. looks like some sort of hair algae. the sand looks like a dusting of diatoms more than likely cyano at this point in ur tanks life. either way run gfo and do weekly water changes and good skiming. 3 days lights out couldnt hurt, either way it will go away with good husbandry.

[cincyjim]

Originally Posted by amccann

Dose hydrogen peroxide, if it is dyno, which is what it looks like, don't even waste your time trying the blackout stuff, do a Google search, will find the dosing amounts needed for your tank. I had similar problems, dyno usually doesn't even respond to lighting changes, it is a reason why many aquarium hobbyist get out of the hobby. It's very frustrating to deal with. I ended up getting a bucket and pulling liverock that had a lot of the dyno onnit out, placed in bucket with probably about 1/3 hydrogen peroxide, just the stuff you buy at the local drug store, used a scrub brush and then put it right back in my tank. All of my Zoas survived, even my anemone lived.

I did the hydrogen peroxide for mine. It did get rid of it and pretty quick at that. My skimmer had to be taken off line for about a week because it would overflow like mad no matter how low I turned it down. Minor inconvenience though. It didn't appear to harm any coral, fish, or inverts. I will say though right after that stuff disappeared the GHA appeared in small areas. That is minor compared to the dinos though and I don't know if there is any relation to the dinos or not.

[amccann]

Originally Posted by cincyjim

I did the hydrogen peroxide for mine. It did get rid of it and pretty quick at that. My skimmer had to be taken off line for about a week because it would overflow like mad no matter how low I turned it down. Minor inconvenience though. It didn't appear to harm any coral, fish, or inverts. I will say though right after that stuff disappeared the GHA appeared in small areas. That is minor compared to the dinos though and I don't know if there is any relation to the dinos or not.

You supposed to turn off your skimmer, for most the time you're dosing it. I never had a problem with hair algae, at least not for a long time after. Mostly I get hair algae when I have my lights on too intense and too long, and I'm feeding heavily everyday. Dyno are a whole different thing from hair algae. The hydrogen peroxide is really the cheapest and from I've read the most successful route to take.

[cincyjim]

Thanks for the insight. Certainly explains my skimmer problem. Hopefully I won't have to do this again!

[aredhead]

Howyee, if u try the peroxide, let me know. I think im going to look at a digital phosphate meter also.

This stuff is stuck on the plastic like glue. I could pull out my own whiskers easier.

[aredhead]

Originally Posted by aredhead

Howyee, if u try the peroxide, let me know. I think im going to look at a digital phosphate meter also.

This stuff is stuck on the plastic like glue. I could pull out my own whiskers easier.

[howyegettinon]

Originally Posted by Mishri

I wouldn't get worked up too much about it. Looks like new tank algae to me. Give it some time and proper care.. keep on cleaning. I did read that you said you moved 3 months ago right? Give it at least another 6 more months before changing anything. You are already doing everything to minimize algae.

If it doesn't go away after 6 months I'd try some competing algae, either an algae scrubber or something in your sump...

Also, the natural sunlight is likely fueling it. you might effectively now have a 17 hour lighting schedule because of the window. It's always recommended to keep aquariums away from natural light sources. 1) they can heat up from the light, and 2) it causes algae to grow.

I moved house early January so its been over six months now, its only 3-4 month ago that i noticed how bad my new water was in the new house and I was probably feeding the tank with silicates phosphates promoting the grownth of bad algea for those few months.

Yeah I would like a refugium in my sump but I dont have too much room in it, but am looking into sqeezing another section for a refugium for some chetto maybe.

Also this stuff was all over everything in my sump also, like a think layer over everything so about 2 months ago I removed the whole sump cleaned it in the bath and took apart my skimmer and pumps and ran them through vinegar.
Since then my sump has stayed pretty clean

[howyegettinon]

Originally Posted by sean357

Do you have snails? Look into some of the online vendors as it can be a lot cheaper than the LFS (Much more than the normal online discounts). I just ordered some from KP Aquatics and they look good, reeflcleaners.org is popular and of course DR. F&S, etc. have them too.

Good point my clean-up crew is pretty weak, I keep meaning to add to it but keep spending money on corals instead

I did have about 8-10 blue hermits about 5-6 red hermits and 2 nassarius snails when i started the tank. I think I am down to about 2 blue and 1 red hermits and 1 snail, they have killed each other off over time.
So I will defiantly need to invest in a new CUC!!!

Oh yeah I have a cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp also

Those website seem to be US based, I am in Ireland so if anyone can recommend some Europe based online shops for CUC or livestock that would be great.

I only looked at the prices on reefcleaners.org !!!!!!!! SO CHEAP!!!!! I wish I lived over in the US.

Here is a few prices from my LFS
Nassarius snail euro7.50each (10$)
Turbo Snail euro4.50each (6-7$)
Blue hermit euro3.50each (5$)
Red hermit about euro4.50each (6-7$)

[howyegettinon]

Originally Posted by CStrickland

I had that.
I bought my cuc too early, as soon as my noob nano tank was cycled I ordered one of those packages by tank size. I only had diatoms so I had to feed pellets for my nassarius, and once they ate the diatoms up, nori for the snails. That's a lot of phosphate to crank into an empty tank, but snails r dorbles. Eventually everything leveled out and it was a smooth ride for a while. I moved into a bigger tank and wasn't really paying attention to how every now and then I'd suck up an empty shell when I vac'ed the sand.

About 8 months in I looked up one day and realized that stuff was all over just like you. That night it clicked when the snails did their nightly march up the glass, I was down to like 12 snails in a 55. I re-upped to one per gallon the next day and that was that.

Idk what it is, but I think it's what they're eating when we aren't paying attention. It comes on slow so you don't freak out, you just wake up one day and realize ur tanks been brown for a month. Now that my coralline is filling in, it's def in remission. Like the snails knock it back and once the coralline estaishes it can't retake the territory. Or the rocks have finally dumped their phos so the biotype is shifting. Prolly that.

Either way your tank looks great, I wouldn't do anything drastic. Mine wasn't snotty like Dino's are, just like a film that isn't a dust or a plant or a slime, but it got thick so you couldn't see any white rock where the flow was high.

Yeah thats exactly how it happens one day you just notice one rock being brown and start looking at the other ones and realise this crap has taken ove every rock and your tank!!

12 snails in a 55gal, I only have 1
I really need to invest in a clean up crew!!!
Anyone from Europe know cheap online shops or know shops that will ship to Europe?
If i was to buy 20 nass snails at my LFS prices it would be nearly 200$

[howyegettinon]

I will try get some better pictures of the sand bed when I get home, from looking at pictures online I am not sure it’s cayno, its more brown that the purple colour on google pictures.

To describe the stuff on the sand bed when it gets thick, it’s a web like texture when you disturb the sand or try use that gravel rake/shovel it fill drag like a film or a web stringing together, and it’s completely brown in colour.

The stuff on the windows is also brown dust like film that gets kind of hairy with time, it is really easy to clean off with scrubber using the Velcro material, and after cleaning the windows it just floats around the water in tiny brown dust particles until it settles down.


The hair on the rocks is also fully brown and hairy it grown on top of the rock where the light is and also on the bottom of the rocks where its in the shade.

Would like to identify exactly what everything is before starting to dose peroxide or anything else.

I've also started vodka dosing a week ago I am at 5ml a day at the moment, I started this to try knock the nitrate as low as possible to try and starve the algae.
What are your thought on vodka dosing? Should I continue dosing this or try another method?