What can I do to eliminate this?

[ReefRusty]

Is it Diatoms, Dinos, or Cyano? Or something else? I did 1 course of Medi red for red slime but can say it did nothing.. you're advise and help would be greatly appreciated. I dont have a microscope to view in more detail but hope these pictures can help.

Tank is now 8 months old.

Nitrates 10
Phosphate 0.035
Alk 7.5
Mag 1300
Cal 420

 

[fachatga]

Vacuum the sand we maybe

 

[ReefRusty]

Vacuum the sand we maybe

Yeah do this regularly on a weekly bases with every waterchange. Returns back almost instantly. But reduces when lights go down/out.

 

[fachatga]

That was my master plan lol. Not so original. At least it’s not really a terrible problem considering. Your tank looks great. I get that occasionally too. Maybe low phosphates? Who knows. My philosophy is you’ve got a reeef tank you’ll have some algae especially a new one. 8 months isn’t old. Personally I’m okay living with it. Considering you need algae in the tank that lives in the coral I don’t like using chemicals and stuff to kill it. Keep cleaning and it won’t get bad. Maybe over time it stops coming back. I hope you get better advise from somebody else lol. But that’s how I feel about that stuff that’s in my tank too.

 

[socalfishy]

chemiclean, i used it many times on different tanks and it cures the problem every time. read up on chemiclean and cyanobacteria.

 

[ying yang]

Maybe the natural approach of critters that either sift the sand or nassarious snails that keep going under and back up and maybe it be like the old saying " a rolling stone gathers no moss " so if sand keeps getting turned over by something it may help.
My tank is 8 months old and nearly half the tank is like pure white sand with pistol shrimp continually moving sand to make burrows and nassarious snails and few conchs doing a great job and worst i had was a light coating.

 

[ReefRusty]

Maybe the natural approach of critters that either sift the sand or nassarious snails that keep going under and back up and maybe it be like the old saying " a rolling stone gathers no moss " so if sand keeps getting turned over by something it may help.
My tank is 8 months old and nearly half the tank is like pure white sand with pistol shrimp continually moving sand to make burrows and nassarious snails and few conchs doing a great job and worst i had was a light coating.

I have a handfull of snails obviously not doing yo good of a job. Awaiting for my LFS to get some sand sifter gobies in. Is it due to higher nitrates and low phos? Or something additional to the cause..

 

[fachatga]

IME most snails are better for rocks. Even the ones that bury themselves don’t do much for cleaning the sand. Good to have and probably help some but I wouldn’t count on them getting it rrallly clean. Maybe somebody else has better experience with them though. My sand sifting starfish I think is great. I also really miss my sand softing diamond goby. He was awesome. Died of a bowel obstruction. My pistol shrimp churns more sand than anything I have. He rearranged the tank so much sometimes when I get home from work I just can’t believe it.

 

[ReefRusty]

Noticed it more on this rock around my zoas... think its some sort of cyano still?

 

[ReefRusty]

 

[Frostblitz20]

I have a handfull of snails obviously not doing yo good of a job. Awaiting for my LFS to get some sand sifter gobies in. Is it due to higher nitrates and low phos? Or something additional to the cause..

strawberry or Fighter conchs are great sand shifters and wiill actively eat this stuff.

Sand shifting seastar or brittle star.

Get crabs. theirs some breeds of crabs that eat cyano. Zebra/Orange & Black Hermit Crab being ones that will eat Red slime cyano.

depending on size of tank you could go with a sea cucumber. they are great sand cleaners but have strict water requirements.

would advise a Urchin for your rocks, i perfer tuxedo ones myself but others like the larger size ones.

 

[ReefRusty]

strawberry or Fighter conchs are great sand shifters and wiill actively eat this stuff.

Sand shifting seastar or brittle star.

Get crabs. theirs some breeds of crabs that eat cyano. Zebra/Orange & Black Hermit Crab being ones that will eat Red slime cyano.

depending on size of tank you could go with a sea cucumber. they are great sand cleaners but have strict water requirements.

would advise a Urchin for your rocks, i perfer tuxedo ones myself but others like the larger size ones.

Unfortunately everything you mentioned other than a brittle srar fish are not available in my city. Have a couple of strumbous snails. But without a microscope is this dinos or cyano?

 

[Frostblitz20]

Unfortunately everything you mentioned other than a brittle srar fish are not available in my city. Have a couple of strumbous snails. But without a microscope is this dinos or cyano?

oh i didnt see you was out of the US im sorry. i was posting things that you can get from LFS or online here in the states.

 

[DocRose]

Since nobody else actually wants to take a swing at answering your question... ;Dead ...it looks like a mix of diatoms and cyano. Diatoms definitely on the sand; but they don't usually grow in between corals and extend outward. I've only ever seen cyano do that.

 

[ReefRusty]

Since nobody else actually wants to take a swing at answering your question... ;Dead ...it looks like a mix of diatoms and cyano. Diatoms definitely on the sand; but they don't usually grow in between corals and extend outward. I've only ever seen cyano do that.

But not ruling out dinos? Will a 3 day black out help after siphoning the sand bed? Will it affect my corals or fish though? Or is the no point in that?

 

[ReefRusty]

oh i didnt see you was out of the US im sorry. i was posting things that you can get from LFS or online here in the states.

Yeah from down under limited to what is imported. Generally only fish can come in

 

[DocRose]

But not ruling out dinos? Will a 3 day black out help after siphoning the sand bed? Will it affect my corals or fish though? Or is the no point in that?

I don't have any experience with dinos personally, so I won't give any advice on that. What I can say is that a three day blackout will affect your corals. Most will make it through, but be in a drab state at the end of it. Some might not make it at all. Just depends on the type of coral (by my understanding). As far as if there's any point... Some people will say wait it out, you're tank is still young and might be still stabilizing. Some people will say determine exactly what it is and exactly what the cause is, and attack that (otherwise it will just keep coming back). Some will say just jump straight to a chemical solution. Me...? I'd try to get an ID on it as close to 100% certainty as possible. Then figure out what causes it, and attack that.

 

[ReefRusty]

Yeah understandable. Trying the natural solution before using chemicals.

 

[Just John]

I have had diatoms, cyano and dinos. Diatoms are "dusty", not so much slimy. I think you can find a good description of how to ID diatoms on R2R somewhere. As for the slimy stuff, It doesn't look like you have any bubbles in it. As the day progresses do any bubbles form on the sand or in the corals? If they do, it is probably dinos. If not, it is probably cyano. You mentioned a 3 day blackout. I did that at one point and it was a mistake. As DocRose said, most corals will survive but some may not. Some of mine looked on the verge of death. The biggest immediate problem with cyano and dinos was it's getting into the zoas. That was happening so much that I decided to use treatments to end it as soon as possible. Chemiclean worked well for cyano. I will put a link below to the method that I used for removing dinos successfully. For both, it will not immediately stop reproducing, but will reproduce less and less as time goes on. Suck out whatever you can daily from the sand. For the rock and frags use a turkey baster or pipette (link to the pipettes I used below.) Pipettes take out a lot less water from the tank than a turkey baster and can be more targeted. They can also be used for spot feeding. Of course, the more you leave in there, the more there is to reproduce meaning the longer it will take to kill off. Don't worry, It can be beaten!



For dinos:
The amount she says to add essentially calculates to the same as following the directions on the bottle, except dose half of it twice a week instead of all of it once a week.

A way to beat dinos without UV or blackouts. If this works for you please reply to this thread.

I already know ahead of time this will sound like I'm selling snake oil. I realize that this is just based on my own personal experience. But if you've been dealing with dinos for months I think you'd be willing to try something new to get rid of them permanently. If anyone does have success...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ReefRusty]

Thanks i have a feeding tool/ Turkey blaster.. but it doesn't blow off my rocks or around my zoas... need to put it off. Its definitely red in color.. as for bubbles I did notice a couple on the sand but not many at all.