Dealing with Diatom and/or Dino

[vidruma]

Hi Folks,
New to reefing here with my 60G tank only 4 months old.

I've been dealing with what looks like to me both Diatom and Dino (likely competing). I've shared some pics here. I have been removing the brown algae (furry texture so likely diatom) from the rocks, and it was manageable for a month or so. But starting couple weeks ago I've been losing some coral frags (monti, acrapora) by brown algae growing on them. Now that brown algae are creeping on chalice, favia and clove frags as well. These pictures are 6hrs after blowing algae off on the corals using a baster.
I am trying to understand if that brown stuff on the corals is diatom or dino? I can deal with the things on the rocks, but I don't want to lose any more corals to this brown thing so want my remediation to target that first. My LFS says it I should treat for Dinos, but I am not sure... She suggested reducing light intensity/duration, Uv sterilizer but no GFO. I was thinking GFO to remove silicates, but I can see how running that would reduce the nutrients, helping dinos. I could also just blow the algae regularly for a week or so and see how things pan out after reducing lighting etc.
Suggestions experts?

 

[blaxsun]

A UV sterilizer could help, yes. If you search a bit on R2R you can find an assortment of dino treatment methods.

 

[vidruma]

Thanks @blaxsun. So just to confirm, you think this is Dino as well?

I've got a UV sterilizer going and might even resort to blackout in few days if needed.

 

[reeftivo]

What are your water parameters? Specifically PO4 and NO2

only way to confirm if Dinos is under microscope.

 

[vidruma]

Thanks.

Nitrate and Phosphates have consistently shown near the lowest levels on my Salifert test kits. So according to them <5ppm for N02 and <.03 for PO4. I've been testing every other day for a while now.

I understand that these might be lower than desired (helping Dinos), so I've been increasing feeding and not dosing phyto.

Yeah, seems like a microscope would be a useful addition to my tools.

 

[Lavey29]

That just looks like normal green rock algae to typical of a 4 month old tank. You will experience a variety of ugly stages the first year. Do you have a diverse cleaner crew? Complete tank parameters? Your SPS most likely died due to unstable parameters in a 4 month tank.

 

[vidruma]

Thanks Lavey. Tank parameters: Salinity (35ppm), Alk/Calc 9dKh/470ppm (dosing via Kaltwasser), Mg = 1400ppm. Ph:8-8.2.

I've been dealing (brushing + using Astrea snails) for hairy brown algae on the rocks for a while; it was much worse earlier. But this "snotty" algae creeping on the corals is new (~2 weeks). Cloves were actually blossoming till just two days ago.

It seems like doing an accurate ID on this from a microscope is the right thing to do.

I ACK some of this is new tank stuff, but still want to mitigate coral loss as much as possible... if nothing esle, for the experience of dealing with such. I agree SPS loss could have been instability of parameters, so a different issue.

 

[Troylee]

The brown strings def look like Dino’s and I’ll lean that way even more because it’s irritating your corals. A tank that new I wanna say diatoms but I’m afraid it’s not and they don’t irritate anything.. A microscope will def help you out!

 

[blaxsun]

Thanks @blaxsun. So just to confirm, you think this is Dino as well?
I've got a UV sterilizer going and might even resort to blackout in few days if needed.

As above, I'm not sure. It could just be regular algae/diatoms or there could be something else in there.

 

[vidruma]

Thanks everyone.

I feel at this point, it is good likelihood what is on my corrals likely is Dinos. It matches what I've read in other articles; brown bubbly/snot-like stuff which appears when the lights come out, and then irritates corals (which this one is doing so rapidly). I've no doubt I have diatoms in the tank as well in other places. I'll get a microscope, but I feel I need to start some mitigation (to help the corrals) assuming this is Dino.

I've started UV sterilizer. My plan is to monitor for next couple days, blowing it off from the corals periodically esp. at night. If no major progress is observed starting 2-day black outs (once every 10days), and even during those blackouts blow off the brown stuff periodically. In parallel increase nutrients (feeding and Phyto). Any suggestions or concerns with this plan?

 

[Nate Chalk]

Target .1-.2 phos and 10-20 nitrate

That's how I beat dinos. Uv was okay. H202 dosing was okay. Bacteria was okay, lights were just a bandaid.

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks Lavey. Tank parameters: Salinity (35ppm), Alk/Calc 9dKh/470ppm (dosing via Kaltwasser), Mg = 1400ppm. Ph:8-8.2.

I've been dealing (brushing + using Astrea snails) for hairy brown algae on the rocks for a while; it was much worse earlier. But this "snotty" algae creeping on the corals is new (~2 weeks). Cloves were actually blossoming till just two days ago.

It seems like doing an accurate ID on this from a microscope is the right thing to do.

I ACK some of this is new tank stuff, but still want to mitigate coral loss as much as possible... if nothing esle, for the experience of dealing with such. I agree SPS loss could have been instability of parameters, so a different issue.

I'm not convinced it's dinos but if it Is then it's minor and you can rectify before it takes hold. Dinos typically hits sand first and disappear overnight. What I would do.is get nutrients levels up. Nitrates at 10 phosphate. 05 to .1. Reduce light to 6 hours a day with blue and uv only no white. Weekly water changes. Siphon remove what you can. Oversize diverse cleaner crew. Dose pods and then phytoplankton daily. Dose good bacteria like PNS probio which is natural heterotrophic bacteria to help with organic waste. One to two months with this and focus on stability.

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks everyone.

I feel at this point, it is good likelihood what is on my corrals likely is Dinos. It matches what I've read in other articles; brown bubbly/snot-like stuff which appears when the lights come out, and then irritates corals (which this one is doing so rapidly). I've no doubt I have diatoms in the tank as well in other places. I'll get a microscope, but I feel I need to start some mitigation (to help the corrals) assuming this is Dino.

I've started UV sterilizer. My plan is to monitor for next couple days, blowing it off from the corals periodically esp. at night. If no major progress is observed starting 2-day black outs (once every 10days), and even during those blackouts blow off the brown stuff periodically. In parallel increase nutrients (feeding and Phyto). Any suggestions or concerns with this plan?

Uv will only work on specific type of dinos that enter the water column overnight.

 

[liddojunior]

What worked for me is
Increase temps to 82
Use a poly filter pad. Change everytime it gets dark.
And scrape of the Dino’s with soft brush.
and it should go away and then you can lower temps back