Diatoms or cyano

[ADAM]

My PO4 was .0-.25 and no3 was 10 last night

I feed food cubes every other day currently

PO4 and NO3 should be fine if they remain there when the “brown goo” is gone since they are likely feeding on these nutrients. I would vacuum what I could during water changes and see if you can get an evaluation using a microscope.
I would get an ICP also, the ATI Lab Kit will test your RODI (distilled in this case) also. Sending a sample of the distilled brand you normally use may shed some light on what could be causing the issue.
I used distilled water for years and looking back I was always dealing with something, getting a proper RODI saved me a lot of headache.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Well the start to the process was no water changes. I tried 2 48hr blackouts to no avail. I built a cheato reactor to help compete with the dinos. It helped tame them but they kept coming back. Then I got a uv sterilizer which did absolutely nothing. 8 months into the fight and work out I bought a bottle of Dino x and dosed the tank. By the end of the treatment, the dinos were gone.

 

[Cbones1979]

Well the start to the process was no water changes. I tried 2 48hr blackouts to no avail. I built a cheato reactor to help compete with the dinos. It helped tame them but they kept coming back. Then I got a uv sterilizer which did absolutely nothing. 8 months into the fight and work out I bought a bottle of Dino x and dosed the tank. By the end of the treatment, the dinos were gone.

Tank mates were unfazed?

 

[Cbones1979]

Feel like they get worse each day

Going to water change and test

 

[Cbones1979]

May be Dino’s. Non existent in the morning and gets worse as day goes on. Also, looks like flowing hair if you look close.

 

[Cbones1979]

Little bubbles coming off the tops

 

[Cbones1979]

Phosphates- 0- .25 using API
Nitrates- 5 ppm

May have gone down since yesterday

 

[saltyhog]

0 to 0.25 is a huge range for PO4. API is pretty much useless for that test. I would recommend getting a better test kit or a Hanna ULR phosphate. Starting to sound more like dinos. If so, very important to identify what type of dinos. Judging by it being mainly on the sand it might be amphidinium (which does not go in the water column and is therefore not responsive to UV). A microscopic picture or better yet video would confirm what it is and help with recommendations on how to fight it.

 

[Cbones1979]

0 to 0.25 is a huge range for PO4. API is pretty much useless for that test. I would recommend getting a better test kit or a Hanna ULR phosphate. Starting to sound more like dinos. If so, very important to identify what type of dinos. Judging by it being mainly on the sand it might be amphidinium (which does not go in the water column and is therefore not responsive to UV). A microscopic picture or better yet video would confirm what it is and help with recommendations on how to fight it.

Yeah. I’m in on getting a hanna for phosphates.

Don’t have microscope haha

 

[Cbones1979]

Just did 10% water change and siphon. Pulled Seachem bags out of filters to leave nitrates.

 

[Cbones1979]

Now thinking about it. How did this happen? Everything was looking good. I added a bunch of corals, tried chaeto in fuge, pods too. Feed every other day. Now daily this outbreak. Maybe nutrients got so low they popped up?

Chaeto died so I tossed it. Pulled purogen bags from filter. Going to feed daily. Will reduce light cycle. What else can I do???

 

[45ZoaGarden]

nope! Some of the zoas skirts shrunk during treatment but that’s it!

Tank mates were unfazed?

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Now thinking about it. How did this happen? Everything was looking good. I added a bunch of corals, tried chaeto in fuge, pods too. Feed every other day. Now daily this outbreak. Maybe nutrients got so low they popped up?

Chaeto died so I tossed it. Pulled purogen bags from filter. Going to feed daily. Will reduce light cycle. What else can I do???

Light cycle has nothing to do with them. They are single celled dinoflagellates not photosynthetic Protozoa like algae.

 

[NanoDJS]

Now thinking about it. How did this happen? Everything was looking good. I added a bunch of corals, tried chaeto in fuge, pods too. Feed every other day. Now daily this outbreak. Maybe nutrients got so low they popped up?

Chaeto died so I tossed it. Pulled purogen bags from filter. Going to feed daily. Will reduce light cycle. What else can I do???

You do water changes , and got silicates into your WC , they will consume them and po4 ,no3 , put like 1 /60th of a pintch of bakers yeast up in that badboi , and go berlin method Nice tank BTW ! My 2c

 

[45ZoaGarden]

They aren’t diatoms. They are dinos. The diatoms wouldn’t get worse as the day progresses. Diatoms wouldn’t get stringy and wouldn’t get bubbles. 100% sure they are dinos.

You do water changes , and got silicates into your WC , they will consume them and po4 ,no3 , put like 1 /60th of a pintch of bakers yeast up in that badboi , and go berlin method Nice tank BTW ! My 2c

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Also stop doing wc’s! That just fuels the dinos!

 

[Cbones1979]

Also stop doing wc’s! That just fuels the dinos!

Yes. I realized I should be siphoning them with a filter sock and replacing the water back into the tank daily. Not changing the water.

 

[Cbones1979]

They aren’t diatoms. They are dinos. The diatoms wouldn’t get worse as the day progresses. Diatoms wouldn’t get stringy and wouldn’t get bubbles. 100% sure they are dinos.

And come to think of it, it’s been awhile since I’ve had to clean the glass of any algae. Also there is nothing in my rocks.

corals are all the extending and my nem is happy

 

[45ZoaGarden]

The Duncan looks a bit upset imho

 

[Cbones1979]

The Duncan looks a bit upset imho

I changed flow last night. Before that he was huge! Fully spread and like double the size.
I think the flow change made him uneasy.