Ostreopsys dinos!!

[Willis19]

I think this is what I have... long, stringy brown algae growths that seem to be growing at an insane rate.

I have a blue legged hermit, two scarlet hermits and two astrea snails, none of which seem too interested in eating this stuff.

I'm going to black out the tank as this stuff is photosynthetic but is there anything else I can do to beat it down?

I was going to suck out the larger patches of it using a pipette but I'm not sure how effective that would be.

This tank is 3 weeks into it's cycle with dry rock and aragonite so I don't think hitting it with UV would be a good idea.

Is there anything I can add in terms of hardy CUC members that would like to snack on this, or some other product to outcompete these dinos for resources?

Thanks in advance.

Add more fish (that worked for me, there isa an explanation about this process somewhere in reef2reef) and enjoy the ugly phase. No need of blackout (did not work for me), they will come back, just decrease your whites. Can you get a live rock from a stablished tank? If so, get one and add it to your tank that will help to balance the algae in your tank. Do not dose h2o2 (did not work for me, hurt the corals very bad), UV could help a bit. Water changes do not made major changes (in my case). There is a product call RED X from fauna marin, you may find it useful.

 

[KeMiKiLL]

Add more fish (that worked for me, there isa an explanation about this process somewhere in reef2reef) and enjoy the ugly phase. No need of blackout (did not work for me), they will come back, just decrease your whites. Can you get a live rock from a stablished tank? If so, get one and add it to your tank that will help to balance the algae in your tank. Do not dose h2o2 (did not work for me, hurt the corals very bad), UV could help a bit. Water changes do not made major changes (in my case). There is a product call RED X from fauna marin, you may find it useful.

Tomorrow I am actually picking up a small established pico tank from a hobbyist who is moving to Europe. It has some good mature rock included so I'll be tending to that tank while this one continues to mature. The diatom issue should sort itself out over time and I think being distracted by this pico will be best because I feel like I'm doing more harm than good by obsessively messing with this tank.