Diatoms??

rob safron · Mar 23, 2018

so this is a 10 y/o tank. Decided to covert 100% to SPS last year. This year I re-scaped the other half and due to GSP and other softies, I replaced a lot of rock with BRS dry rock. I am dealing with what started as diatoms as I know it (brown dust that blows off easy). Now it’s turned more into these small, rice size but flat brown/copper colored flakes. Goes somewhat away with dark, comes back with light. I assume still Diatoms but this stuff has not gone away for months now. Yes 6 stage RODI unit all filters changed and always 0 TDS. Thoughts on if this is still diatom or is there some other thing I’m not aware of.

Tahoe61 · Mar 23, 2018

Looks like Red Planaria, no? If not than I would say type of Foraminiferan that you rarely see in the hobby.

rob safron · Mar 23, 2018

Well I’ll be. Looked like some sort of alge, gone at night, not back full till lights are at their highest and you can watch and they never seem to move. Got one out with a tweezer and it crawled. Guess I’m off to LFS for Med.

Tahoe61 · Mar 24, 2018

Feel I should add that you have to remove the vast majority of the FW pre treatment as they release a toxin upon death. Since they appear during the photo-period you might consider a lights out as some flatworms are photosynthetic.

rob safron · Mar 24, 2018

Yep been doing some research. Would prefer going a different route but there is so much at this point any hope that fish could eat them is low. I am prepping as much water as I can hold right now for water change. Tried siphoning the gravel but not sure if many are getting sucked up verses just pushed deeper into the crushed coral. And they don’t easily siphon off rocks and they are all over a lot of rock. Using a small diameter tube would take 2 months. Out of options, took to long to identify them, was batteling diatoms followed by cyno and these got missed.

rob safron · Mar 25, 2018

Update to my red flatworm situation. So I picked up a box. Made up 40 gallons of water for my 125. Siphoned as much as I could. Dosed the directed amount, 1 drop per gallon, taking out rocks I dosed 100 drops. They started dying immediately, some hanging on stings others just floating up. I hooked up an external filter full of carbon within 10 min of dose. Siphoned out around 30 gallons, replaced and turned my sump back on. It has now been several hours. Most of my fish are hiding and looking a little lethargic. Only a few really interested in eating. No one looks panic yet or breathing hard. Just not their normal busy selves. Hoping for the best, maybe a few more hours they will improve.