my reef is being ruined by snot algae..please help

[t4zalews]

For the past couple weeks bubbles have started to form all over the rocks and on the sand bed. Now it has creeped to brown snot algae. Currently treating tank with chemiclean to see if that will help. I have .03 phosphates (Hanna) and top off with RO/DI water with brand new filters. I've tried cutting back on feedings, if I cut back more my fish dont eat. None of my SPS are dying or anything. But these bubbles and snot algae are literally making my tank unbareable to look at. Please help.








I know its not my skimmer, because these photos were taking 24 hours after my skimmer was turned off the for the treatment. Only things I can think of that have changed are....I started toping off with baking soda to help alk stay constant (8 dkh) and I use reef crystals now instead of red sea pro salt.

[jedheuer]

looks like dino flagellates

[sslak]

Originally Posted by jedheuer

looks like dino flagellates

+1 dinos

Is it worse during the end of the light period, then recedes during the dark period? These grow and die with light, and can be dangerous as when they die they use up oxygen in the water. (if I recall my readings correctly)

There are threads about possible solutions, I have no first hand experience.

[Eric45]

I just had a battle w/dino's. Run lots of gfo and cut the lights way down. I shut the lights off for a couple of days. Vacuum out the dead algae and be patient. It will keep coming back for a while but w/ less and less vigor. Does your sump smell?

[t4zalews]

hmm..i have been running GFO and carbon on my tank. No my sump does not smell. I dont feel comfortable dropping the lights too much..i have a carpet anemone

[Gangrene]

Is there a cleaner crew that can deal with that?

[t4zalews]

I just ordered some neriths, margaritas, a couple super nassarius and a tonga fighting conch

This should held mow down some of it...I'll be performing a 20% water change tomorrow and Im going to up the ante on the GFO.

[jedheuer]

Hold off on the water change. Dino's feed off of the silica in new salt water. I beat dino's with no water changes, frequent rock blasting with turkey baster, and changing the filter sock daily.

[RadReefer]

I went through a bout of dinos that was pretty bad...I also noticed that after a water change they came back worse, I tried a lot of different stuff that I read but ended up biting the bullet and doing a 3 day blackout...when I turned the lights back on they were completely gone. My SPS definitely lightened up and LPS polyps weren't fully extended but after a week everything was back to normal and not being smothered by stringy snot. If you have a healthy system everything will bounce back. Oh yeah... when I turned the lights back on I drastically reduced the photoperiod from 10 hours to 5 and then gradually built back up...this assured that they had no chance of returning.

[njdevilsfan]

do you have tangs
i think what you have is some odd hybrid non toxic dino something
a bunch of us had this like 2 years ago
what i did was
vacum it up often
blast the stuff and try to skim very wet
try to keep ur ph high
add flow
feed less
get a sea hare
add sand to your existing sand bed

which of these worked i havent a clue
but that nasty brown snot went away

good luck

[troyman]

nothing eats it so dont bother had it a while ago i usesd phodoguard by seachem and a good grade carbon and purigen by seachem changed the phosoguard every 3 days it did go away iron based gfo does not remove silica as good as the white phosphate removers has never had it again and did not turn lights off or cut back on feeding dont do water changes till its gone you will only feed the fire good luck

[t4zalews]

Well, I have to do a water change because I dosed the tank with chemiclean. but after this waterchange I'll hold back for awhile til I get this problem solved. Clean up crew is on its way...but I needed them anyways.

[troyman]

chemiclean wont work its a algae that feeds on silica mostly chemiclean will kill bacteria such as cyno

[Captinshinyside]

Suck out as much as you can and run three days lights out! Your corals will be fine and so will your fish.

[beefcake78]

+1 on the lights out total darkness for 3-4 days. I had to do this twice

[t4zalews]

so this is my sandbed after day 1 of no lights. Is this normal? I hope brown represents die off and not growth. Is it a big deal if I DONT do a water change after using chemiclean? From what I hear, a water change wont help my dino problem..but if a water change NEEDS to be done I will do one. I turned back on my skimmer and hooked back up the carbon/GFO.

[outy]

Originally Posted by jedheuer

Hold off on the water change. Dino's feed off of the silica in new salt water. I beat dino's with no water changes, frequent rock blasting with turkey baster, and changing the filter sock daily.

+1 as long as this is not a new tank, if its new then its going through its new phase and is normal. you just need to ride it out.

change water asap because you want your skimmer going to help pull junk out of the water

when your DI resin in the ro/do unit gets old diatoms can and will happen

[t4zalews]

this tank has been running for 3+ years..been moved twice last time was december of 2008

[outy]

you need to figure out the source of the silica causing the diatoms

plus remove as much as possible, filter sock, syphon, skim ect

[Eric45]

I found water changes to be helpful but I checked my replacement water and it had no measureable silicates. If you're using ro/di water, check it and use it if no silicates are present.

The lights out idea should work. But when you start up again, do so gradually w/no more than six for a few days. If dino's come back, cut the lights back again. Your corals will be fine.

[t4zalews]

my RO/DI make up water reads 0 TDS, and the DI resin is fairly new (~1 month).

[The Reef Expert]

Eww gross! I spy aiptasia! haha snot algae; achoo! lol

[bmullikin1]

dino's, if this is the case, the only thing that worked for me was elevating alk very slowly up to 14dkh range for a while until this cleared up. some coral werent to happy , but i was at the point of breaking down anyway and it has worked very well. good luck

[t4zalews]

I know..there are soem majanos and aptasia that I have to take care of. In my current situation, I'd be happy to see only those as a problem.

I dont feel comfortable raising my alk to such a high level. I have too many sps to just do something like that. If I had a bunch die on me, I'd probably lose it

[SaltwaterAdict]

Mexican Snails all the way!! Also, try an Urchin. I'd siphon as much out as possible. I'd try to find the source, something must be unbalanced. It'd help to change out ur GFO n carbon. I don't know about killing the lights seems to sketchy, short term solution to long term problem. A fuge with Chaeto n GFO will starve the algae. I'm pretty sure most salt should be silica free unless u buy some cheap kind. WC IMO would help out because ur taking out the dirty water that the algae is feeding on! Y don't u have a clean up crew in the first place!?! Good luck! Beat that Algae!