Brown stringy stuff

Reef_dachs · Jan 20, 2021

I need some help! I have some odd brown stringy hair stuff in my tank. It seems to be growing more each day.
What is this stuff and how can I help my tank?
It seems to be killing my purple sea whip and aggravating my other corals.
I did treat my tank about a month ago for GHA with FluxRX. After the treatment the GHA died but I had a diatom breakout. Tank looked great until a few days ago.

Tank is fairly new at 7 months old.

current parameters:
Temp 78
Salinity 1.027
Nitrate 2ppm
P04 .03
Nitrite.01
Ammonia <.015 or .25 can’t read the color well
KH 9.4
Calcium 465

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have worked hard on this tank and it has truly become a passion of mine. I’m devastated

anthonygf · Jan 20, 2021

What size tank and how long has it been running?

anthonygf · Jan 20, 2021

Is that a HOB filter?

Reefer1978 · Jan 20, 2021

Read up about Dinos and try to get an exact ID under microscope.

Dkmoo · Jan 20, 2021

looks like a normal reaction to me and part of the maturation process for a tank - your tank is still relatively young so a lot of different organisms are jostling for dominance and competing for nutrients so it's still not stable yet - When you had the GHA, while it was a nuisance algae, you also have to view it as a very "efficient" waste absorber. When you used fluxRX to get rid of it, it left a big vacuum on the "waste processors" - that's why DIatom took over. Then when you got rid of the diatoms, it left the vacuum again and now it looks like you have some kind of either film algae or dinos taking over.

The point is, you have an excess nutrient issue and the 2ppm NO3 isn't giving you a full picture. Keep in mind that the 2ppm is only the waste "left in the water", not what waste is generated by your system - the majority of that is already absorbed by whatever outbreak you had (whether its GHA, diatom, or now). so you tank has been trying to find the equilibrium and only time can fix that as your tank matures with more biodiversity and nutrient saturation.

The excess nutrient generally comes from 2 places:
1) how much you are feeding - this could be remedied by reduce feeding
2) leaching back out from your sand/rocks - all new rock/sand absorb them in the beginning so it's a function of how much you fed in the first 8 months, maybe now it reached saturation so it's leaching back into your system. only time and keeping up with husbandry can fix that.

I would recommend against medicating it more b/c it would just further upset the balance and delay the eventual maturation process. If you confirm under microscope that this is dinos, then you actually want to make the tank "dirtier" so that ur algae and bacteria can outcompete the nutrient and send your tank back onto the path of re-stabilization. Dosing additional bacteria may help too.

If it's a film algae/bacteria bloom, then really just reduced feeding and keeping up with husbandry (ie, vacuuming your sand, cleaning out any mechanical filters, water changes, etc.) is the way to go. it will eventually get better.

if you have a room for a fuge, that could be a long term solution as a efficient nutrient absorption/export - 1 strand of algae grown in the fuge is one strand less that'll grow on your DT.

Reef_dachs · Jan 20, 2021

anthonygf said:
Is that a HOB filter?

Yes. The tank is 7 months. I had a Hydro canister filter that quit working. I am having sump system built.

Reef_dachs · Jan 20, 2021

Dkmoo said:
looks like a normal reaction to me and part of the maturation process for a tank - your tank is still relatively young so a lot of different organisms are jostling for dominance and competing for nutrients so it's still not stable yet - When you had the GHA, while it was a nuisance algae, you also have to view it as a very "efficient" waste absorber. When you used fluxRX to get rid of it, it left a big vacuum on the "waste processors" - that's why DIatom took over. Then when you got rid of the diatoms, it left the vacuum again and now it looks like you have some kind of either film algae or dinos taking over.

The point is, you have an excess nutrient issue and the 2ppm NO3 isn't giving you a full picture. Keep in mind that the 2ppm is only the waste "left in the water", not what waste is generated by your system - the majority of that is already absorbed by whatever outbreak you had (whether its GHA, diatom, or now). so you tank has been trying to find the equilibrium and only time can fix that as your tank matures with more biodiversity and nutrient saturation.

The excess nutrient generally comes from 2 places:
1) how much you are feeding - this could be remedied by reduce feeding
2) leaching back out from your sand/rocks - all new rock/sand absorb them in the beginning so it's a function of how much you fed in the first 8 months, maybe now it reached saturation so it's leaching back into your system. only time and keeping up with husbandry can fix that.

I would recommend against medicating it more b/c it would just further upset the balance and delay the eventual maturation process. If you confirm under microscope that this is dinos, then you actually want to make the tank "dirtier" so that ur algae and bacteria can outcompete the nutrient and send your tank back onto the path of re-stabilization. Dosing additional bacteria may help too.

If it's a film algae/bacteria bloom, then really just reduced feeding and keeping up with husbandry (ie, vacuuming your sand, cleaning out any mechanical filters, water changes, etc.) is the way to go. it will eventually get better.

if you have a room for a fuge, that could be a long term solution as a efficient nutrient absorption/export - 1 strand of algae grown in the fuge is one strand less that'll grow on your DT.