Help, this is covering rocks and sand in the tank

[road102]

Hello,

I've been fighting with this brown stuff for two months, you can easily remove it with a soft brush (see attached videos)
water changes (20%/Week) are not helping, this thing grows back after 4-5 days.

The tank is about a year old, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates are near zero, Alkalinity 13-14, Salinity 1.025, and Temperature 79F
My phosphate kit is hard to read (the color palette is so similar, seems to be near zero).

Tried Seachem PhosGuard but didn't work...

Any ideas?, would you recommend MYCOSIDOL or Chemiclean?

 

[Reffetsevla]

If you're PO4 and NO3 are near zero you could be facing dinoflagellates. Do you happen to know exactly what your PO4 and NO3 are? Does it produce little air bubbles during the day and subside overnight?

Bottoming out your PO4 and NO3 isn't ideal, you don't want near zero. Ideally PO4 0.05ish and NO3 about 10ish. Each tank is different. I run mine at about PO4: 0.08-0.10 and NO3 at 8-15. I had to fight dinos and diatoms myself, as I used GFO and the like, completely stripping my tank of nitrates and phosphates. You actually may be suffering from too little of those.

 

[swallace]

From what I’ve read -( take it for what it’s worth) you will end up doing more harm than good trying to fight these kind of outbreaks with chemicals. Chemicals if they work will only be a bandaid because whatever in your tank is causing needs to be solved first. I understand this is a blanket statement but getting a good understanding of your parameters is key will help the smarter people than me reply with helpful advise.

 

[toomanymatts]

I'm dealing with Dinos now. I have them pretty well fought back, but it still might be a while until completely gone. They dont rebound every 24 hours after I scrub them like they used to.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I had success with turning off my green and red lights.

 

[Reffetsevla]

Fighting dinos takes time and they never ever truly go away. They just stay dormant essentially as they are being outcompeted by other bacteria. Once they get a chance to spring back due to a dip in PO4 or NO3, they'll come back. Just have to slowly raise that back up IMO to keep it at bay. It's not a battle, it's a war. lol

 

[Reffetsevla]

I had success with turning off my green and red lights.

When I was battling them I ran blue only at about 50% power for several days while building nutrients back up. Definitely helps.

 

[road102]

If you're PO4 and NO3 are near zero you could be facing dinoflagellates. Do you happen to know exactly what your PO4 and NO3 are? Does it produce little air bubbles during the day and subside overnight?

Bottoming out your PO4 and NO3 isn't ideal, you don't want near zero. Ideally PO4 0.05ish and NO3 about 10ish. Each tank is different. I run mine at about PO4: 0.08-0.10 and NO3 at 8-15. I had to fight dinos and diatoms myself, as I used GFO and the like, completely stripping my tank of nitrates and phosphates. You actually may be suffering from too little of those.

Hello

Ammonia 0.1
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 2.5
Phosphate 0? (see attached, I don't like this kit since I haven't seen any color change to any degree of blue)

I saw bubbles a month ago, but that was in some red spots that are still present but smaller, haven't seen bubbles lately since I brush all the rocks every two days.

What I see is mostly "Brown"

Ty!

 

[Reffetsevla]

I hate those test kits as I am slightly colorblind on blue and purples.....LOL I got myself a Hanna ULR kit and haven't looked back. Turned out my API kit was garbage. Was a purchase of necessity though.

I would really try to get a test kit that's easier, and highly recommend the Hanna. They are pricey but super easy to use and NO COLOR MATCHING lol It measure the color itself with a lens and reads it out within a variance of +/- 0.02 for the ULR and +/- 0.04 for the LR version if I'm not mistaken.

You will want to get your PO4 to at least 0.05 and NO3 to about 7-8 for targets. That should help your "good" bacteria outcompete the dino's or "bad"

This all being said, this is assuming you actually are looking at dinos and not diatoms, only a microscope would confirm that. Diatoms likely will clear on their one, dinos you may have to react a bit more.

Unrelated: Those large green paly's in your tank look like legit Palythoa, ones with the Palytoxin. Be very careful if you decide to frag those and if you start tasting metal while working in your tank, or working on them, go to the ER immediately. The large polyp green and brown ones are the ones you have to really watch for. Most of the super colorful ones are really Zoanthid Giagantea and harmless in that respect.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

If this is brown stuff. My first go to would be $20 worth of turbos. You said it comes right off with a soft brush, sounds like snail food. Good luck!

 

[road102]

I hate those test kits as I am slightly colorblind on blue and purples.....LOL I got myself a Hanna ULR kit and haven't looked back. Turned out my API kit was garbage. Was a purchase of necessity though.

I would really try to get a test kit that's easier, and highly recommend the Hanna. They are pricey but super easy to use and NO COLOR MATCHING lol It measure the color itself with a lens and reads it out within a variance of +/- 0.02 for the ULR and +/- 0.04 for the LR version if I'm not mistaken.

You will want to get your PO4 to at least 0.05 and NO3 to about 7-8 for targets. That should help your "good" bacteria outcompete the dino's or "bad"

This all being said, this is assuming you actually are looking at dinos and not diatoms, only a microscope would confirm that. Diatoms likely will clear on their one, dinos you may have to react a bit more.

Unrelated: Those large green paly's in your tank look like legit Palythoa, ones with the Palytoxin. Be very careful if you decide to frag those and if you start tasting metal while working in your tank, or working on them, go to the ER immediately. The large polyp green and brown ones are the ones you have to really watch for. Most of the super colorful ones are really Zoanthid Giagantea and harmless in that respect.

Thanks

How do I rise PO4 and NO3??

 

[Reffetsevla]

Thanks

How do I rise PO4 and NO3??

Safest method is feed extra, skim less, you want to keep more nutrients in your tank. To combat this though you may have to increase your CUC as it will likely result in an algae bloom of sorts. Once that happens it'll start to out compete the less desirable (brown) stuff and you can work on lowering that again. I used a Fuge with Chaeto to lower mine along with a few more regular water changes over a couple weeks. It was by no means a science. I measured, then either kept feeding extra if I needed to raise it or run my fuge light longer to lower it. Rinse repeat, there is no "exact" way to do it

Another way that could help is to dose live phyto for a bit. The phytoplankton will feed the bacteria, pods, etc that will help out compete that nuisance stuff. It does slightly elevate your PO4 some from what I've read, however I didn't really run into that myself. I just know it helped me eliminate my dinos and establish my LR and tank quickly. Bought from a local grower, worked great. Every tank is different and there are untold various methods to do this. I prefer natural (feeding, dosing live phyto/pods) over chemicals, however I keep them all on hand in case needed. You could dose it you wanted, but there are other ways too. Entirely up to you.