Brown stringy stuff growing over all my softies

[taylorn13]

Hi, I’m relatively new to reefing, my tank is a little over 2 months old. I added some softies a fre weeks ago that were doing great and even growing. Today I noticed this brown stringy stuff covering my xenia and gap and have no clue where to even begin. My corals dont look the happiest either. Xenia stopped pulsing. If anyone know what this is and what I should do, please help!

 

[CrayHawk]

Like all other emergency posts, please post your parameters, lighting, etc. Do you use RO water?

 

[taylorn13]

Like all other emergency posts, please post your parameters, lighting, etc. Do you use RO water?

So sorry. I forgot to include. Nothing drastically changed in my water params except temp went up a whole degree probably because it was nice outside yesterday so I opened the window and forgot to close it this morning (which was very hot) It’s currently going down. As for RO water, I believe thats what got me into this mess. I bought RO/DI water from a lfs (a little sketchy) for a little while until i decided it’d be much cheeper to just make my own. I recently ordered my own RO/DI system, but it hasn’t come in. I say sketchy because the RO/DI water was supposedly put into distilled water gallon jugs, but was told it was rodi water. I did read that distilled water was alright for an aquarium, so I didn’t question it too much. I even tested the tds and it read 0. I use a Current Orbit USA marine lighting for 10hrs/day. My calcium, phosphate and KH tests aren’t the most trustworthy so take those with a grain of rice. I’m sorry I’m new and I’m currently looking i to getting better testing kits!

 

[Reefer1978]

Read up on Dinoflagellates. Welcome to the struggle.

 

[taylorn13]

:

Read up on Dinoflagellates. Welcome to the struggle.

I was afraid what I thought were diatoms were dino, I did a microscope test and found no dino, but I might not have done a good sample of it. Ill re examine, but what do you recommend doing with the corals. I have an extra tank used for QT if necessary. Would it benefit me moving the corals and trying to get as much of the “brown stringy” stuff off as possible?

 

[Reefer1978]

Get the goey stuff under a micro-scope and try to get some good quality pictures. Diatoms sometimes is stringy - but it's rare and usually it's on the sandbed / glass, not coral.

 

[Reefer1978]

Takes a steady hand, but you should be able to take a pic with a cell phone over the eye peace. Try to capture individual cells.

 

[taylorn13]

Get the goey stuff under a micro-scope and try to get some good quality pictures. Diatoms sometimes is stringy - but it's rare and usually it's on the sandbed / glass, not coral.

Can you ID? Im pretty sure its dinos

 

[taylorn13]

Takes a steady hand, but you should be able to take a pic with a cell phone over the eye peace. Try to capture individual cells.

It is very hard to take the pic and I also have a crappy microscope lol

 

[najer]

Can you re test your nitrates and phos please. 0 is not good?

 

[taylorn13]

Can you re test your nitrates and phos please. 0 is not good?

I retested them twice when I heard dino. 10ppm nitrates and 0ppm phosphates which would make sense it could be dinos. I did use an api test kit for phosphates which im going to get a better test kit for. There could be very little phosphates, but my test wont even say. The color marker goes feom 0ppm to 0.25 ppm so there could be 0.1ppm phosphates but I wouldn’t even know. Not getting a good testing kit is a beginner mistake that will haunt me...

 

[Katrina71]

Go lights out for a few days. My son just did 5 days and Dinos are gone.

 

[Reefer1978]

Need to be able to zoom in much more on that pic to identify anything.

 

[taylorn13]

Go lights out for a few days.

Will the corals be okay with that? I only have softies and they’re pretty hardy.

 

[Reefer1978]

Will the corals be okay with that? I only have softies and they’re pretty hardy.

Coral should be ok, but lights out doesn't work on every Dino species. I would continue the path of identifying first.

 

[Katrina71]

Will the corals be okay with that? I only have softies and they’re pretty hardy.

Yep. Dinos will kill a lot. Get a handle on it now.

 

[Katrina71]

Imo, lights out is a pretty harmless start. If it doesn't rid your issue, then obviously other measures can be taken.

 

[Katrina71]

Did you by chance recently have a cyano issue?

 

[taylorn13]

Yep. Dinos will kill a lot. Get a handle on it now.

Currently I have it all on the sandbed, but I believe it creeping up on the rockwork. That’s probably why I saw it on the corals. Hopfully not too late. Thanks for all the help!

 

[Reefer1978]

Imo, lights out is a pretty harmless start. If it doesn't rid your issue, then obviously other measures can be taken.

Agreed. It didn't work for me, so I saw it as a "wasted time method" thus I am biased LOL. But you are totally right it's a good trial and error method with 0 investment.