I thought I had diatoms and then......

[carguy4471]

Tank info:

20 gallon IM fusion.

3 month old tank, never really had much of a diatom bloom immediately after cycle. A few fish and a half dozen corals present, as well as a small CUC.

After the cycle I added chemipure and purigen.

Insert, I think I'm a pretty heavy feeder and need to get better.

I thought my diatom bloom finally started, albeit late.... Then is spread like mad. Had some bubbles appearing on the sand bed and around the rocks a bit. Didn't really spot any stringy stuff. Did a weekly water change and vac'd the gravel/changed filter floss.... gravel covered the next day and floss looked horrible in one day. The stuff doesn't seem slimy and breaks up easily if you touch the gravel.

I'm at a loss on what this is. Hoping it's not dino.

A couple of key points, the tank smells horrible and the filter floss is NASTY in one day.

Photos attached (just did a weekly water change and vac'd the gravel so no photos of that). I just picked up a skimmer but now I'm a bit unsure on if to keep it running. I'm prepared with RO/DI and could do daily W/C if needed.

What's the thoughts here? Lights out, skimmer on, daily water changes with gravel vac?? Leave in the chemipure and purigen??

Someone please help with the horrible smell!! lol

 

[Spare time]

Looks like Dino. Are your phosphate and or nitrates 0?

 

[carguy4471]

Negative. Nitrates were in the 2-5 (red sea test) neighborhood yesterday before the water change I did today. I unfortunately haven't picked up a phosphate kit yet.

 

[Spare time]

Negative. Nitrates were in the 2-5 (red sea test) neighborhood yesterday before the water change I did today. I unfortunately haven't picked up a phosphate kit yet.

It could be they are too low. I would pick up a test kit and see what it says. You could in the mean time try dosing competing bacteria. One thing to look into is getting the IM uv sterilizer for your tank and try that out.

 

[carguy4471]

Are there some pretty safe steps to take immediately to get things moving in the right direction? Lights out? More/less water changes? etc...

 

[Spare time]

Are there some pretty safe steps to take immediately to get things moving in the right direction? Lights out? More/less water changes? etc...

Without knowing your phosphates I cant say whether or not raising them would help. Amazon has dr Tim's waste away for pretty cheap right now (but again you need to know your phosphate level to guess if it can be a lack if microorganism divetsity). Live phyto such as some from Mercer of Montana may be helpful but I'm not sure (again same issue with the phosphate) I would high recommend trying the uv that is designed for your tank and blasting them off the rocks when it's on.

 

[carguy4471]

Update:

Last night before I turned in I tried the coffee filter test. Photo of the results attached. Seems pretty clearly dino.

As recommended above, I picked up a PO4 test (red sea pro). Along with that, since I was running to BRS I grabbed the IM UV sterilizer. I also picked up neophos and neonitro.

I left the lights off today when I went to work. Seems like pretty much nothing regrew since yesterdays water change and gravel vac. I install the UV sterilizer as soon as I got home today and tested PO4, results, zero. After the fish have their dinner here in a few minutes I'm also going to remove purigen but leave in chemipure. Also, yesterdays nitrate level after the water change was somewhere above zero and below 2 ppm.

I'm going to hold off on dosing anything until anyone chimes in to let me know I'm heading in the right direction. I'm also mixing up a fresh 30 gallons of salt water in case water changes are on the treatment plan.

Seems a little like dino. Seems like lights out, UV, dosing phos and nitrate, are among the most supported treatments. I'm leaning that way if anyone else concurs.... Seeing as I'm only as good as what I've read the last couple days, lol.