What is this brown junk? Diatoms?

[LesPoissons]

Hi guys,
What is this brown stuff all over my tank and how do I get rid of it? Is it diatoms? I’ve been dosing vibrant twice a week due to turf algae But it doesn’t seem to help whatever this brown stringy stuff is.
Tank 4years old 220g
Cal: 450
Alk: 10
Mag: 1500
Nitrates: 10
Phos: was 0.03 now 0 according to Hanna so some slight degree of phos in there.
Water changes are bi weekly, everything else has been running smoothly until turf algae randomly showed up and what I thought was cyano and now this mess. It’s getting on my corals, one of my nem has wandered off from his spot since yesterday and the other one looks very unhappy. But all my levels are as you see them. Thoughts? What am I doing wrong here?

 

[Qasimja]

those are most likely dinos

 

[piranhaman00]

Dinos!

 

[SeaSickness]

Yeah, it looks to be an outbreak of Dinoflagellates. It's typically caused by excess nutrients, such as overfeeding.

 

[piranhaman00]

Yeah, it looks to be an outbreak of Dinoflagellates. It's typically caused by excess nutrients, such as overfeeding.

That is incorrect.

It is literally caused by the exact opposite, nutrients hitting zero possibly from underfeeding.

 

[AZMSGT]

Typically:
Nitrates +5 = Diatoms
Nitrates @ 0 = dinos
Hows the filters in the RODI system? Add nay new items to the tank, rock or sand?

 

[VKP01]

You can figure out of its dinos by collecting some in a container and shaking it up. If it groups back together it’s dinos.

 

[LesPoissons]

You can figure out of its dinos by collecting some in a container and shaking it up. If it groups back together it’s dinos.

Ok I’ll try a shake test. Is there anything else that would clump back up?

 

[Lithoman]

You might want to checkout this thread.. treatment depends on what type Dinos you have.

Another Dino or Cyan ID Please

Help... what am I fighting? Dino X coming in a few day ..got Chemiclean if needed.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[LesPoissons]

Does anyone have any tried-and-true method for removing Dino’s?

 

[VKP01]

Ok I’ll try a shake test. Is there anything else that would clump back up?

Some people say cyano will clump back together too, personally I haven’t had that. Here’s a tutorial that will avoid confusion with cyano

 

[JoshO]

If they are autotrophic it would be down to the low nutrients and high lighting.
There are products out there to help combat Dino's by adding bacteria that outcompetes it. You could also benefit by turning off a skimmer if you have one and reducing flow to prevent the spread around the whole aquarium.
Removing as much as possible will obviously help too, but make sure you have something on hand like carbon to absorb anything that's dying off

 

[JR55]

If your nitrates are at 0 and they go up from additional feeding, does that help to get rid of the dinos?

 

[piranhaman00]

Does anyone have any tried-and-true method for removing Dino’s?

Increase nutrients by dosing, add UV sterilizer, blow off rocks at night.

 

[LesPoissons]

My shake sample is curing.
My nitrates are at 10. I was just trying to read the sticky on Dinos in R2R. Honestly, Im confused. I do run UV but I will check the bulb and replace my carbon. So the idea is to increase Phos and Nitrates? (I dont understand how this works) but to what levels do I increase them and for how long? Permanently or reduce them down after? Should I discontinue vibrant?
I may repost this on the dino chain too.

 

[VKP01]

UV will only work if the dinos go through it. Some will become “water-borne” if you turn the flow off, some will have to be stirred up.

Not entirely sure on the nutrient questions, going through the same thing myself. You don’t ever want to let NO3/PO4 get to zero though, as thats when dinos will show up (and it’s not good for coral).

 

[piranhaman00]

My shake sample is curing.
My nitrates are at 10. I was just trying to read the sticky on Dinos in R2R. Honestly, Im confused. I do run UV but I will check the bulb and replace my carbon. So the idea is to increase Phos and Nitrates? (I dont understand how this works) but to what levels do I increase them and for how long? Permanently or reduce them down after? Should I discontinue vibrant?
I may repost this on the dino chain too.

Vibrant is probably what caused the dinos. Some people report vibrant working on dinos but in my case and many others, when you kill off all competing algae the dinos can bloom. I would increase PO4 and NO3 by dosing, 10ppm/0.1ppm, and keep them there until they go away, or permanently. Discontinue vibrant , yes.

 

[Waynerock]

Does anyone have any tried-and-true method for removing Dino’s?

Check out Travis at fish of hex.com. You can send him a sample and he will tell you how to get rid of that particular strain. He purposely gave his tanks Dino’s to get rid of them and was 100% successful.

 

[Lithoman]

My shake sample is curing.
My nitrates are at 10. I was just trying to read the sticky on Dinos in R2R. Honestly, Im confused. I do run UV but I will check the bulb and replace my carbon. So the idea is to increase Phos and Nitrates? (I dont understand how this works) but to what levels do I increase them and for how long? Permanently or reduce them down after? Should I discontinue vibrant?
I may repost this on the dino chain too.

if I was you I would calm down take a deep breath.. Yes you can spend $50 bucks and have Travis tell you what you can learn here.. There will be 50 different ways to work on eliminating Dinos .. ones that work for certain people don't always work for others.. You need to get a cheap microscope and first identify which dino strain you have, as there are different treatments for the different strains.. I had Ostreopsis dinos.. UV worked on that strain but i needed to run it in the display at night..
If you haven't checked out my thread i recommend you do.. As I was panicking too. in two days i saw major results..

Another Dino or Cyan ID Please

Help... what am I fighting? Dino X coming in a few day ..got Chemiclean if needed.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MACHO]

Hi guys,
What is this brown stuff all over my tank and how do I get rid of it? Is it diatoms? I’ve been dosing vibrant twice a week due to turf algae But it doesn’t seem to help whatever this brown stringy stuff is.
Tank 4years old 220g
Cal: 450
Alk: 10
Mag: 1500
Nitrates: 10
Phos: was 0.03 now 0 according to Hanna so some slight degree of phos in there.
Water changes are bi weekly, everything else has been running smoothly until turf algae randomly showed up and what I thought was cyano and now this mess. It’s getting on my corals, one of my nem has wandered off from his spot since yesterday and the other one looks very unhappy. But all my levels are as you see them. Thoughts? What am I doing wrong here?

those are indeed diatoms if you vacuum them out they shouldn't come back