My first thought (8 months ago) was that it would correct itself on its own. But the brown never really went away...and then became worse. I will cut out the light and put black plastic around it. I will keep it that way for 3 days. And perhaps reduce the light cycle. In terms of nutrient load - it is low not high. And whatever I put in is aggressively consumed so much so that I cannot get chaeto to grow in the sump...but something sure was... I will report the changes...
Dinos and Cotton Candy Algae - need a turn around
- Thread starter IPWitan
- Start date
cablez
Non-member
best of luck! please keep us informed, this is an interesting thread. It's a pretty common issue that no one really seems to understand (dinos) EXACTLY how it works, or by which process it happens. Do your dinos float away at night by any chance? or is it the stringy snot one? If it is the floaty ones, that has been shown to be eradicated by UV....maybe borrow one for a bit if possible.
I would recommend that you put some 100 micron filter socks in your system. they are going to clog fast as the dinos die and get flushed, so be ready to swap them out with clean ones pretty regularly. Depending on volume, you might go through as many as 6 or 8 in the last day of black out and day following.
Mixed Reefer
Well-Known Member
Remember it’s going to take time to start getting better. You’ll get a spike on testing because of die off. What lighting you using? Watch your spectrum. Blue red light can cause algae if improper stay up on maintenance and monitoring. Let me know how it goes. Best of luck
They are there at night and in the morning. No noticeable change. I can only assume that my dinos are not the ones that float in the water column and these wouldn't be killed by UV. Thus, I do not plan on going that route.
Dinos seem to represent an imbalance in a ULN system. Cotton candy seems to be something that thrives in ULN systems too. I have always like refugiums and good skimmers. So virtually every time I have ever tested my water it had zeros for nitrates and phosphates - it was pointless testing. This is over 10+ years. Yes, there was algae of some kind but controlled. I believe a refugium was a place to provide critters as food.
A few years ago I have a beautiful SPS tank. It was growing like crazy. Little growing sticks everywhere. But then everything started to go south. My conclusion (today) is that it went ULN with virtually no nitrates/phosphates. The recommendation was to make my tank cleaner, which made things worse. Today, people would say add nitrates and phosphates. I have never had big fish loads. I could never keep acans alive. I had a very large leather toadstool that grew very well. I removed it thinking it was poisoning my tank. I went after the cotton candy in sump because it too may have been poisoning the tank. It never really took off and slid into a mess of problems. The neglect followed.
Right now I think I have a big battle between the dinos and cotton candy - they are fighting each other. I wasn't all that concerned, initially, because the fish were fine. In fact, my 2 clowns are still trying to lay eggs. The clam is also growing. But the brown is ugly and not how I want my "garden" to look. And I will not be paying the month upkeep to look at that. I also think the clam may clean the tank too well.
Here's to turning out the lights...maybe that will work...
Dinos seem to represent an imbalance in a ULN system. Cotton candy seems to be something that thrives in ULN systems too. I have always like refugiums and good skimmers. So virtually every time I have ever tested my water it had zeros for nitrates and phosphates - it was pointless testing. This is over 10+ years. Yes, there was algae of some kind but controlled. I believe a refugium was a place to provide critters as food.
A few years ago I have a beautiful SPS tank. It was growing like crazy. Little growing sticks everywhere. But then everything started to go south. My conclusion (today) is that it went ULN with virtually no nitrates/phosphates. The recommendation was to make my tank cleaner, which made things worse. Today, people would say add nitrates and phosphates. I have never had big fish loads. I could never keep acans alive. I had a very large leather toadstool that grew very well. I removed it thinking it was poisoning my tank. I went after the cotton candy in sump because it too may have been poisoning the tank. It never really took off and slid into a mess of problems. The neglect followed.
Right now I think I have a big battle between the dinos and cotton candy - they are fighting each other. I wasn't all that concerned, initially, because the fish were fine. In fact, my 2 clowns are still trying to lay eggs. The clam is also growing. But the brown is ugly and not how I want my "garden" to look. And I will not be paying the month upkeep to look at that. I also think the clam may clean the tank too well.
Here's to turning out the lights...maybe that will work...
Lights are 6 t5. The bulbs are 5-6 months old over a 75. unit is about 10 inches off the water. I had a red/purple light over the refugium, but it never really grew chaeto. I blame my low nutrients, though, not the light.
Greg Hiller
BRS Moderator
I've not read through all of this, but I will offer one suggestion. In many cases even keeping nutrients low might not help much. If you cannot get the correct snails to eat the form of algae you are having problems with I'd consider some long spine urchins. I've had really good results with them eating ANY form of algae. Yeah, they knock stuff over, but you can secure things in your tank if you do a bit of work.
Progress. After 4 days of blackout the tank looks the best it has a while. Dinos are not there...let's recheck tonight! The 2 clowns, tang, clam, and at least 1 of the new mexican turbos look good. I put in 3 mexican turbos at the blackout. I see 1 moving around but don't see the shells of the other 2 either - they moved somewhere... The iridescent toadstools have not popped out yet, but give them some time.
I will likely try Vibrant. If it kills the cotton candy, that would be awesome. Worth 30 bucks to find out... Research suggests mixed results. Some say it worked and others said it didn't. I will post that research too.
I will look at the urchin, but that sounds like a control v gone concept.
I may also take a drastic turn at trying to dip the few rocks with zooanthids on them in h2o2 to see if that kills the cotton candy and NOT the zoas. If it works, then start over. But it is on the shell of the clam - how is that going to work? I will look for threads on how to start over.
I will do some water changes tonight and test all the parameters.
I will likely try Vibrant. If it kills the cotton candy, that would be awesome. Worth 30 bucks to find out... Research suggests mixed results. Some say it worked and others said it didn't. I will post that research too.
I will look at the urchin, but that sounds like a control v gone concept.
I may also take a drastic turn at trying to dip the few rocks with zooanthids on them in h2o2 to see if that kills the cotton candy and NOT the zoas. If it works, then start over. But it is on the shell of the clam - how is that going to work? I will look for threads on how to start over.
I will do some water changes tonight and test all the parameters.
