GHA, Dinos, or something else?

[JCrowe86]

Tank is breaking out with some type of algae. Both on rocks and in the sand bed. In the sand it forms mats that I can pull up. On the rocks it does not easily blow or brush off.

Currently have high nitrates around 25-30ppm and undetectable phosphate. Working on balancing them out. Everything else is within acceptable range.

 

[Travis Alderman]

It seems to be a mix of diatoms and gha. I say this because it looks more like a dusting with occasional hair like growths.

How new is your tank?

 

[jurgenph]

looks like hair algae


J.

 

[JCrowe86]

It seems to be a mix of diatoms and gha. I say this because it looks more like a dusting with occasional hair like growths.

How new is your tank?

3 months old

 

[Idoc]

Parameters so imbalanced is going to cause cyano as well. Some of those sand pics looks like green cyano mixed with gha.

 

[JCrowe86]

Parameters so imbalanced is going to cause cyano as well. Some of those sand pics looks like green cyano mixed with gha.

I did have some bright red cyano previously and used chemiclean to get rid of it. Should I try another treatment to see if it helps with this?

I have been dosing phosphate and diy nopox to try and balance nitrates and phosphates

 

[Travis Alderman]

3 months old

Well 3 months is still very new. So im definitely guessing its a diatom dusting. Its the ugly part of a reef cycle. Eventually it will go away.

I would still try to rein in the nitrates with a series of large waterchanges. Wait a day in between each change so it doesnt shock your system.

I would also think about getting a bacteria product like prodibio or vibrant or both. Prodibio helps with nitrates and phosphates while vibrant is a bacteria that devours algae of all types.

 

[JCrowe86]

Well 3 months is still very new. So im definitely guessing its a diatom dusting. Its the ugly part of a reef cycle. Eventually it will go away.

I would still try to rein in the nitrates with a series of large waterchanges. Wait a day in between each change so it doesnt shock your system.

I would also think about getting a bacteria product like prodibio or vibrant or both. Prodibio helps with nitrates and phosphates while vibrant is a bacteria that devours algae of all types.

But do diatoms mat up? I can literally grab this and pull it up like carpet in some places leaving perfectly clean sand underneath. I had diatoms early on but it was more brown looking.

 

[Travis Alderman]

But do diatoms mat up? I can literally grab this and pull it up like carpet in some places leaving perfectly clean sand underneath. I had diatoms early on but it was more brown looking.

In general not usually. But there are all different types and colors of algae.

If you want to do chemiclean again go for it.

 

[Idoc]

I did have some bright red cyano previously and used chemiclean to get rid of it. Should I try another treatment to see if it helps with this?

I have been dosing phosphate and diy nopox to try and balance nitrates and phosphates

Im not a big fan of throwing chemicals at a system, especially when it's so young in maturity. I personally would just get the nitrates around 5-10ppm and phosphates around 0.03-0.05ppm whether this takes water changes to occur or dosing each to keep these levels stable.

It really sounds like green cyano... definitely forms a mat with clean sans underneath. This is just telling you that the nutrients are fluctuating too much a and not stable. Get some bottled bacteria and dose some in every couple of days... but turn off the skimmer for several hours after doing this. Also maybe get some pods and introduce into the main tank and refugium... turn off the pumps while doing this for 30-60 min to let the pods settle down to the rocks (best done at lights out so fish don't immediately attack them) as well as removing your filter sock and turning off the skimmer for the night. This will increase the biodiversity.

Then, let the algae form... its needed to mature the system! Get specific cuc members to handle the algae...nerite, astraea, cerith, and trochus snails.

Using chemicals may make large changes to the system which opens the door to some really bad things... specifically dinos!!

Just my 2 cents...