Getting ready to freak the freak out.

[Ecsurfer76]

So I have been around long enough to know up from down right from left. I cant crack thos Brown flipping algae. I am running poly media between one overflow, 100micron filter media in another two carbon bags in my display return chamber with my skimmer and 12 mangroves with miracle mud in my fuge and a uv sterilizer on a bypass to the display from my sump. My ro filter is putting out water at 3ppms and befor I mix I chk it in the bucket it is reading 3ppm as well. I have 75 to 100 pounds of LR and 1 1/2 sandbed. Two small clowns, 1 mid size sailfin, 1 small blue hippo, 1 mandarin, 1 hawk, 4 blue damsels, a few sps and a few lps with some mushrooms and 1 small BTA. 3 turbos, 2cleaner shrimp, 1banded coral shrimp,
A bunch of hermits , ciths and a few other snails.

WHAT IN THE HECK IS CAUSING THIS. I have changed 30% of the water this week . Vacumed sand three times in two weeks keep lights off for days pissed fish and corals off doing that. This stuff keeps getting worse and now the rocks are covering and so is one of my caps. I m gonna get my shopvac out and suck all sand out of tank and saltwash all the rock and go bare bottom and hope its in the sand somewhere. In the process I will prolly stress everything out and it will all die... so guess I will be looking to buy some morw live stock soon.

 

[Trevor]

Cut back on your feedings, change your ro filters so they read 0ppm and suck it out doing water changes every 3ish days, cut back your light cycle, it'll eventually go away

 

[Ellabug]

Sounds like dinos, very hard to get rid of. I've heard that people often have to really wage war with 4 day blackouts and daily water changes to really beat them down. Good luck!

 

[22engine]

Do u think its dinos? Is it snotty with some air bubbles? If it is I had it and it was a pain in the you know what. I share what I did if its look like that

 

[this is me]

The water coming out of your RO will be not 0. No RO membrane is 100% efficient.
If the water coming out of your DI(after the RO) has a TDS of 3, then you have to check what's the TDS coming out of your RO. Most likely a lot higher than that.
2-4ppm of TDS coming out of the RO is typical. The DI will take care of the rest.
I make sure my TDS of my RO/DI system is 0 before collecting it and put the salt to mix.

 

[JohnK]

Post a pic if possible. If it is dinos water changes sometimes seem to fuel the problem.

If you had to choose between; "dusty/dustlike" or "velvety" or "snot like" which would best describe this algae?

 

[CaptainAndy]

There are threads in RC that suggest that holding off on frequent water changes improves the condition. They suggest the fresh supply of micronutrients encourages growth.

 

[Turbosnail]

If it is dinos and it sounds like it is. You will want to do at least a three day lights out and stop doing water changes. I also used h2o2(peroxide) to dose the tank for a while.

 

[P-Nut]

Why don't you try using distilled water for a few weeks? Its 80 cents/gal in walmart (jugs with purple cap).
Maybe that will help.

 

[acrofragger]

Why don't you try using distilled water for a few weeks? Its 80 cents/gal in walmart (jugs with purple cap).
Maybe that will help.

i use distilled ..water from market basket ...and gfo and i just clean the glass 1 a week

 

[Ecsurfer76]

I am ordering the di unit for the ro now. Cut my lights down to just actinic and changining these junky t5 bulbs to the right spectrum cause I found out that wrong spec bilbs will or may promte wrong growth. And yes its diatom I know that for a fact. So I am going ro tey no water changes for a while then use rodi not ro cause my luck the 003ppm in my water are the ones causing this. Just hope corals survive this one.

 

[22engine]

I did lights out for three days and dosed hydrogen peroxide as well like turbo said. It needs light. After lights out the tank looked new again. Came back till I got my water straight though.

 

[stingythingy45]

Diatoms are from silicates.
The DI when exhausted lets through the silicates.
Chances are you're fueling it by doing water changes.

Also,it's not really all that uncommon to have diatom during the first several months in a new tank.

 

[SteveDola]

BOB is right on. its from silca due to bad filters. replace your prefilters (Sediment and carbon block with low micron filters) and get a spectrapure silcabuster DI cartridge.

 

[Ecsurfer76]

Just ordered the di unit from brs. Gonna keep only actinics on for daytime light. When I get the di unit running will clean sand and do a massive water change and see what happens..

 

[JohnK]

I am ordering the di unit for the ro now. Cut my lights down to just actinic and changining these junky t5 bulbs to the right spectrum cause I found out that wrong spec bilbs will or may promte wrong growth. And yes its diatom I know that for a fact. So I am going ro tey no water changes for a while then use rodi not ro cause my luck the 003ppm in my water are the ones causing this. Just hope corals survive this one.

Just to double check since sometimes the names get mixed up, you are sure it's diatoms (dusty/powdery) and not dinoflagellates (snot like usually with bubbles stuck in it)?

Sorry if this ^ is an unnecessary and redundant question, just looking to make sure we don't mix up the ID. It's happened before



Diatoms mean excess silicate, fixed with new RO filters, and GFO can help to pull out the existing excess.
Dinos mean a much bigger problem, usually treated with long black outs, elevated PH and or peroxide dosing.

 

[Ecsurfer76]

No John its diatoms for sure. Its dusty brown. Not slimy at all.

Just to double check since sometimes the names get mixed up, you are sure it's diatoms (dusty/powdery) and not dinoflagellates (snot like usually with bubbles stuck in it)?

Sorry if this ^ is an unnecessary and redundant question, just looking to make sure we don't mix up the ID. It's happened before



Diatoms mean excess silicate, fixed with new RO filters, and GFO can help to pull out the existing excess.
Dinos mean a much bigger problem, usually treated with long black outs, elevated PH and or peroxide dosing.

 

[Ecsurfer76]

 

[Ecsurfer76]

 

[JohnK]

Just checking. Yup, that looks like diatoms (and probably some misc green micro algae as well), and not all that bad IMO. Keep you Ca, alk and Mg good and coralline will take over