I need serious help. SO FRUSTRATED!

[Hurley009]

Ok, I've hade my tank for about 7 months. I can get my tank to look pretty.. my sand states covered in this stuff I thought were part of the tank cycling... but every place i go to and ask about what i can do.. they are shocked my 45 gallon tank hasn't cycled.

It is almost like a slime that is brown in color. I will share photos. I move the sand around, try and keep it from settling on rocks... it's just back every day and I've about had it. I love my tank but I've done everything.

I got little crabs that were suppose to a handle it... nothing.. turbos... nothing.. a sand sifting fish... stays hidden and hasn't even done a difference.. a blend who doesn't do crap.. i have a skimmer and even added a filter... nothing!!

I cut my lighting from 8 hrs a day.. to 4... got plenty of circulation.. don't over feed.. and i went from weekly water changes to big weekly incase I was just resetting my cycle.

PLEASE HELP ME! I'M STARTING TO LOSE MY MIND AND LOVE FOR THIS HOBBY

Also the photos are after moving it and stuff so it's not like thick or anything.

 

[Diesel]

Cyano!!
Keep up what you doing but when do a WC siphon the Cyano of the sand and rocks and replace with new water.
You can do this almost on a daily basis, 5 up to 10 gallon WC.

 

[bfam4t6]

It's hard to ID exactly what that is from the photos. I'd start by running carbon. Change the carbon two to three times a week. I would also try chemiclean to see if it helps. Be sure to follow the instructions when dosing it. If push comes to shove, you can also try dosing 1cc of hydrogen peroxide per 1gal of water twice daily. It sounds brutal, but as long as you do not overdose, your livestock should be fine.

 

[Hurley009]

Thank you! I was actually JUST looking at chemiclean

 

[fishroomlady]

it is hard to tell from the photos but I'm guessing it's cyano as well. I know many people have had success with chemi clean, I've not personally used it.

 

[Mike in CT]

Hmmm hard to tell exactly what it is. Can be drastically different solutions to algae problems that look alike. What are you using for your water?

 

[Hurley009]

I brightened the light. Hope this helps

 

[bfam4t6]

Great pictures. Now that I can see the brown coloring better, it honestly does not look like any cyano that I'm personally familiar with. The cyano I. Used to seeing is more purple/dark red. I really can't definitively ID it. It looks a lot like diatoms.

I would still add carbon and try chemiclean. Hydrogen peroxide dosing would be your last bet. None of those should cause any problems if used correctly.

As someone asked, I'm assuming your water is good RODI? If it's not, make sure you ONLY use RODI water with a TDS reading of 0ppm. Under 10ppm should actually be "okay," but for your diagnostic purposes, you need to be shooting for a perfect 0. Also, make sure your local water does not contain chloramines. If it does, you need to either buy a chloramines filter for your RODI unit, or make sure you pretreat your water with something like Prime.

 

[gemini9]

Wow. Sorry for your frustrations. I know how you feel. I'm new to the hobby as well and my tank has been up for 7 months, just like you. I had a very frustrating struggle with nitrates. My nitrates were always at 160 plus. I would do a 50% water change, bring them down to 80 and 1-2 days later they would be back up to 160. My ph was low as well. I was unable to add anything to my tank for about 6 months because I couldn't get my parameters right. Was soooo tired of starring at bare rocks. I almost gave up on the tank. Fortunately, things finally started to fall into place and have recently been introducing fish and things to my tank.

It can be frustrating, but hang in there. It's worth it ya know? What you are feeling right now and the algae you are seeing is all part of the hobby. Even experienced reefers face problems with their tanks. Makes it interesting. You'll figure it out. And when you do, you can pass your knowledge on to someone else who is new and having the same problem as you.

 

[tcarter1936]

My experience with chemiclean was excellent but skimmer will go crazy for a while.but follow directions exactly . Good luck with it.dont let it turn you away from the hobby. It'll be worth it.

 

[Wiinberg]

First of, cutting your light won't help you. The problem is still in your tank, and it needs light. Go back to 10-11 hours of light a day. You have to do that some day anyway. And secondly, what is your parameters? No3, Po4? Cyano is a bacteria and comes in many colors, also brown. Usually it's because of too much Po4 or too little No3, causing an unbalance between the two. Don't use chemicals before you check those two, otherwise your fumbling in blind.
Cyano is rather easy to get rid of, it just takes time and you have to know whats causing it.

 

[Hurley009]

Is there a kit for me to check for that?

 

[Damon]

It does look like a cyano I had long ago. Stubborn stuff.

First, contrast to what others said, I wouldn't do a massive water change off the top. You can actually do more damage of the source is stemming from that water. Better to treat the problem and then do a water change. And as a side note, I generally only run my lights for 8 hours. I probably could run them longer, but I personally haven't seen a benefit to running longer.

I have used a few things to rid the cyano. First, I used myacin but it's a bit harsh to the system(bacterial). I also used chemi clean and it worked well but I don't like doing massive water changes and then it required me to burp the skimmer, lots of carbon, on top of the required water changes to get the skimmer .

The one thing that worked extremely well without negatives was the Dr tims products. I used refresh, waste away and eco balance. If I ran into it again, I would use the tims again without a doubt. It all depends on how fast you want to rid it and how aggressive you want to be.

And any nitrate or phosphate kit(besides api) will work for the low level testing..

 

[NanaReefer]

Looks a lot like Dinoflagellates to me.

 

[Hurley009]

THANK YOU SO MUCH NANAREEFER! I IS EXACTLY WHAT IS WAS!!!! I have been blacking out my tank the past 4 days and gah!!!!!!! Thank you so so so so much!

 

[Hurley009]

!!!

 

[saltyphish]

Progress! That always puts a smile on your face. Bet your one happy reefer now. Glad everything worked out for you. What did you end up doing to rid your problem?

 

[Hurley009]

I didn't do a water change, and covered the tank so no light hit it at all. Blacked out the tank. Since this crap relies on nutrients in the water and light... i starved it. My corals hate me right now but it'll be okay. I've been feeding the fish with pellet food instead of meat food so I'm not giving the dinoflagellates anything to feed on!