2 weeks ago my itch killed off all three of my fish. 2 clown and a Kole tang. I was told to use Herbtana for 10 days. It also says turn off skimmer, I didn’t at first, now I know why. Now I have all this algae growing. What is going on.
Brown Hair Algae outbreak!!!
- Thread starter Ghauck81
- Start date
- Tagged users None
2 weeks ago my itch killed off all three of my fish. 2 clown and a Kole tang. I was told to use Herbtana for 10 days. It also says turn off skimmer, I didn’t at first, now I know why. Now I have all this algae growing. What is going on.
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2018
- Messages
- 9,265
- Reaction score
- 12,822
He meant ich
That looks like the ugly stage algae, I would suggest a fallow period with no fish
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2018
- Messages
- 9,265
- Reaction score
- 12,822
Anemones shouldn’t be added to a tank that’s not mature , meaning the tank should be 6 months or orlder . Mature tanks parameters aren’t fluctuating, like newer systems . What are your parameters?
I don't mean to sound the alarm here, but that's exactly what my sand bed looked like 7+ months ago just before a major dinoflagellate outbreak occurred and covered virtually all of the live rock in my 3 1/2 year old 25 gallon nano reef. (Does Dhauck81's picture look like dinoflagellates to anyone else? I'm certainly not an expert). My NO3 was @ 0 ppt (Red Sea Test Kit), PO4 @ 0 ppt (Hanna Ultra Low Phosphorous Checker), Silicate @ 0 ppt (Salifert test kit). Alkalinity maintained @ 8.0 - 8.3 dKH (Hanna Checker), Ca @ 400 - 450 ppm (Hanna Checker) and Mg @ 1280 - 1340 (Red Sea Test Kit).
After battling diatoms and dinoflagellates for 6 1/2 months, trying everything I could think of and based on everything I was reading on the forum, there were no tangible results to show for it; the problem continued to become worse with each passing week.
In desperation I decided to perform a 20% water change daily (syphoning sand & rock), set skimmer to wet skim, removed activated carbon, Purigen and Phosphat-R resin from rear sump, began changing filter sock every-other day, changing disposable layered filter pad everyday, wiped glass everyday with disposable layered filter pad to trap and export anything it removed, reducing carbon dosing (NOPOX) slowly from .5ml / day to zero ml / day, reduced photo period from 12 hrs. to 10 hrs. per day, reduced Kessil A360 Tuna Blue light from 30% intensity to 20% and color is set to 20% (meaning almost blue spectrum only), and began dosing 2ml of Vibrant every 7 days.
I know that's extreme and I'm expecting to get blasted for it on this forum, but I was fed-up with tweaking 'this-that-and the next thing' while achieving absolutely no positive result. I was discouraged and getting close to tearing the tank down and starting over (what a depressing prospect!). So I decided to pull out the stops and use a sledge hammer as described above to either knock it out or otherwise reboot the tank.
Thankfully, the sledge hammer worked!!! The change in my tank over the ensuing 3 - 4 weeks has been stunning. The sand is clean and white, the live rock is virtually free of dinoflagellates and clearing more each day, water is clear as can be, corals (SPS, LPS and Softies) are looking much happier. I'm now doing a 20% water change every-other day (instead of daily) and wiping glass every-other day (white pad is spotless after the wipe). I'm also adding extra food (frozen LRS Reef Frenzy Nano) at feeding time to intentionally increase my NO3 and PO4 slowly to higher levels (I'm targeting NO3 @ 5-10 ppm and PO4 @ .02 ppm).
After reading about diatoms and dinoflagellates on Reef2Reef I've learned that it is now believed that dinoflagellates do very well in ultra low nutrient systems - where NO3 & PO4 are at or near zero ppt. Since my tanks previous parameters fit that description I'm inclined to believe it's true. In addition, I expect the LPS (especially Euphyllia - Frogspawn and Hammer) will like the new targeted parameters much better than the parameters I was maintaining before.
My plan now is to slowly transition back to a normal 20% water change weekly along with the other typical tank cleaning tasks that most of us do.
Good luck with your tank Ghauck81. I'm going to keep watching to see what others think you've got going on in the picture.
After battling diatoms and dinoflagellates for 6 1/2 months, trying everything I could think of and based on everything I was reading on the forum, there were no tangible results to show for it; the problem continued to become worse with each passing week.
In desperation I decided to perform a 20% water change daily (syphoning sand & rock), set skimmer to wet skim, removed activated carbon, Purigen and Phosphat-R resin from rear sump, began changing filter sock every-other day, changing disposable layered filter pad everyday, wiped glass everyday with disposable layered filter pad to trap and export anything it removed, reducing carbon dosing (NOPOX) slowly from .5ml / day to zero ml / day, reduced photo period from 12 hrs. to 10 hrs. per day, reduced Kessil A360 Tuna Blue light from 30% intensity to 20% and color is set to 20% (meaning almost blue spectrum only), and began dosing 2ml of Vibrant every 7 days.
I know that's extreme and I'm expecting to get blasted for it on this forum, but I was fed-up with tweaking 'this-that-and the next thing' while achieving absolutely no positive result. I was discouraged and getting close to tearing the tank down and starting over (what a depressing prospect!). So I decided to pull out the stops and use a sledge hammer as described above to either knock it out or otherwise reboot the tank.
Thankfully, the sledge hammer worked!!! The change in my tank over the ensuing 3 - 4 weeks has been stunning. The sand is clean and white, the live rock is virtually free of dinoflagellates and clearing more each day, water is clear as can be, corals (SPS, LPS and Softies) are looking much happier. I'm now doing a 20% water change every-other day (instead of daily) and wiping glass every-other day (white pad is spotless after the wipe). I'm also adding extra food (frozen LRS Reef Frenzy Nano) at feeding time to intentionally increase my NO3 and PO4 slowly to higher levels (I'm targeting NO3 @ 5-10 ppm and PO4 @ .02 ppm).
After reading about diatoms and dinoflagellates on Reef2Reef I've learned that it is now believed that dinoflagellates do very well in ultra low nutrient systems - where NO3 & PO4 are at or near zero ppt. Since my tanks previous parameters fit that description I'm inclined to believe it's true. In addition, I expect the LPS (especially Euphyllia - Frogspawn and Hammer) will like the new targeted parameters much better than the parameters I was maintaining before.
My plan now is to slowly transition back to a normal 20% water change weekly along with the other typical tank cleaning tasks that most of us do.
Good luck with your tank Ghauck81. I'm going to keep watching to see what others think you've got going on in the picture.
Ghauck81
Community Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2018
- Messages
- 42
- Reaction score
- 20
All my parameters were fine except phosphates were a little high. I went and bought phosphate remover and carbon to put in filter. The carbon is to get the medication for the ich out of the water so I can run the skimmer. See what happens.
Ghauck81
Community Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2018
- Messages
- 42
- Reaction score
- 20
Ok, close to a week later
It got REALLY out of hand Saturday. I decided to increase the flow and do a complete black-out . Here it is Tuesday and it cleared most of it up. So I took a turkey baster around and cleaned the rock and substrate off a little more. I then turned on my lights (cloud setting) and now you can slowly see it all coming back. So frustrating!!!
It got REALLY out of hand Saturday. I decided to increase the flow and do a complete black-out . Here it is Tuesday and it cleared most of it up. So I took a turkey baster around and cleaned the rock and substrate off a little more. I then turned on my lights (cloud setting) and now you can slowly see it all coming back. So frustrating!!!
Ghauck81
Community Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2018
- Messages
- 42
- Reaction score
- 20
ok, two weeks later. I was told to be patient. My Phosphates are down and not much change. I keep moving my wave pumps around to get a different flow, but all that does is move the algae around to different places. Any other ideas?
Ghauck81
Community Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2018
- Messages
- 42
- Reaction score
- 20
Ok, after close to 5 months of fighting what I found out was in fact Dino’s. Here is what I did.
1. Buy a good UV sterilizer
2. Turn light back 50%
3. Blow your sand and rock at least 3 times a day.
4. Change or clean your sock once a day.
After a week it was all but gone. Now after month I have a little on side but I am back enjoying my tank again!!!
I forgot, no water changes. For some reason it always got worse when I did them.
1. Buy a good UV sterilizer
2. Turn light back 50%
3. Blow your sand and rock at least 3 times a day.
4. Change or clean your sock once a day.
After a week it was all but gone. Now after month I have a little on side but I am back enjoying my tank again!!!
I forgot, no water changes. For some reason it always got worse when I did them.
Last edited:
Niels Verstappen
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2019
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 1
Do you remember if it was amphidinium?
