Brown Algae

Sylvester

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I’m almost giving up. I have 0 phosphates .5 Nitrates 460 calcium 1260 mag 8dkh temp 77
Tank has been up for a year. I’ve lost so many corals to this crap. I’ve tried GFO and run carbon and UV sterilizer 24/7

please any suggestions

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Looks like a mix of Cyano and Dinos. Can you send a close-up picture that is extremely clear? I would also recommend taking a picture with a microscope so someone can confirm what it is. In case it is dinos, I recommend removing your Goby. Some dinos are toxic enough to kill fish, and since Diamond Tail gobies are sand sifters, it may get sick.
 
Just to clear - there is definitely cyano (siphon it out asap) and potentially dinos. I recommend lowering your nitrates and increasing your phosphates.
 
Thank you. I’ve read posts but sooooo many opinions and I’m all over with what to do. I’m gonna do my water change today so I’ll suck it out. I’ll get the Phosphates up like you say.
 
If you can get a microscope pic, that would definitely help to identify if it is dinos and then what type. There are some that are more toxic than others...some that are minimally toxic.

Elevate your nitrates to around 5-10ppm and phosphates around 0.06-0.10ppm. The GFO is not your friend right now...I'd stop it immediately. There are more threads on dino infestations after people use GFO and reducing Po4 too quickly. Do not let either of these nutrients bottom out...that's a recipe for dinos and cyano!

If a UV didn't work, then there's a good chance you are dealing with small cell amphidinium dinos. If that is the case...they are not very toxic and shouldn't have any effect on sand sifting fish, such as gobies. But, they are also one of the most difficult to clear out of a tank. There probably won't be a quick fix for this situation...best to expect a longer treatment for many months and learn to get excited by small improvements. I battled small cell amphidinium dinos for probably over a year until I won the fight...and i still get them to show up occasionally but in small manageable groupings.

Many will tell you to do a 3 day blackout...this won't work if it is small cell amphidinium. It took me about 9.5 days of blackout in a quarantine tank to clear this species out. And then they always seem to make a comeback somehow. This smaller blackout does works for some other types, though.

As you can see, you really need to know the type of dino you are dealing with in order to create an attack plan. One of my best reef purchases was an Amscope M150C microscope for around $75. I use if often.

Look up the Elegant Corals Dino/Cyano treatment recipe on R2R. This is actually the only treatment that worked for me to get control of my dino infestation...and I tried many, many things! But, you have to run it exactly as prescribed.

Good luck!
 
If you can get a microscope pic, that would definitely help to identify if it is dinos and then what type. There are some that are more toxic than others...some that are minimally toxic.

Elevate your nitrates to around 5-10ppm and phosphates around 0.06-0.10ppm. The GFO is not your friend right now...I'd stop it immediately. There are more threads on dino infestations after people use GFO and reducing Po4 too quickly. Do not let either of these nutrients bottom out...that's a recipe for dinos and cyano!

If a UV didn't work, then there's a good chance you are dealing with small cell amphidinium dinos. If that is the case...they are not very toxic and shouldn't have any effect on sand sifting fish, such as gobies. But, they are also one of the most difficult to clear out of a tank. There probably won't be a quick fix for this situation...best to expect a longer treatment for many months and learn to get excited by small improvements. I battled small cell amphidinium dinos for probably over a year until I won the fight...and i still get them to show up occasionally but in small manageable groupings.

Many will tell you to do a 3 day blackout...this won't work if it is small cell amphidinium. It took me about 9.5 days of blackout in a quarantine tank to clear this species out. And then they always seem to make a comeback somehow. This smaller blackout does works for some other types, though.

As you can see, you really need to know the type of dino you are dealing with in order to create an attack plan. One of my best reef purchases was an Amscope M150C microscope for around $75. I use if often.

Look up the Elegant Corals Dino/Cyano treatment recipe on R2R. This is actually the only treatment that worked for me to get control of my dino infestation...and I tried many, many things! But, you have to run it exactly as prescribed.

Good luck!
+1
Can you clarify what you meant by .5 Nitrates? If you meant .5ppm, you need to raise those too. I just saw you mentioned that you use a UV, but you need to know how UV works. The UV only kills things that pass through it, so you need to make those dinos waterborn for it work. If they still don't die, than @Idoc is right and you're probably in for a long fight. I personally beat dinos after a 3 day blackout. Mine looked similar to yours and survived my UV. This blackout occurred after I got my water chemistry back to normal - and that is something that should be noted as Dinos thrive in low nutrients (and some in high nutrients)
 
If you can get a microscope pic, that would definitely help to identify if it is dinos and then what type. There are some that are more toxic than others...some that are minimally toxic.

Elevate your nitrates to around 5-10ppm and phosphates around 0.06-0.10ppm. The GFO is not your friend right now...I'd stop it immediately. There are more threads on dino infestations after people use GFO and reducing Po4 too quickly. Do not let either of these nutrients bottom out...that's a recipe for dinos and cyano!

If a UV didn't work, then there's a good chance you are dealing with small cell amphidinium dinos. If that is the case...they are not very toxic and shouldn't have any effect on sand sifting fish, such as gobies. But, they are also one of the most difficult to clear out of a tank. There probably won't be a quick fix for this situation...best to expect a longer treatment for many months and learn to get excited by small improvements. I battled small cell amphidinium dinos for probably over a year until I won the fight...and i still get them to show up occasionally but in small manageable groupings.

Many will tell you to do a 3 day blackout...this won't work if it is small cell amphidinium. It took me about 9.5 days of blackout in a quarantine tank to clear this species out. And then they always seem to make a comeback somehow. This smaller blackout does works for some other types, though.

As you can see, you really need to know the type of dino you are dealing with in order to create an attack plan. One of my best reef purchases was an Amscope M150C microscope for around $75. I use if often.

Look up the Elegant Corals Dino/Cyano treatment recipe on R2R. This is actually the only treatment that worked for me to get control of my dino infestation...and I tried many, many things! But, you have to run it exactly as prescribed.

Good luck!
Good advice I agree
 
Thank you both for the quick reply and info. I will look into a microscope and elevate the PO4 and NO3
 

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