What Is This Stuff?!?

DavetheReef · Feb 21, 2020

Hi

4 months old Reefer 170. For the past few weeks my rockwork and back wall is covered in fluffy white/green 'something' (please see pics) that:

- Does not appear to grow in shaded areas
- Does not appear to latch on to live rock, just my Caribsea rock (and has also grown on the sand)
- Blows off easily with a turkey baster (as if not really attached) in a 'dust storm' but then just comes back a few days later

Main params:
Nitrate - doesn't register on RS Pro test, so assuming around nil
Phosphate - Hanna Phosphorus test indicating around 0.05
Alkalinity Around 8.0 to 8.5
Calcium 410
Mag 1440
PH 7.9 (seems low, not sure why)

I am using a reactor with DD Nutri-Fix pellets - my suspicion initially was this was to blame. I installed this after using Nopox for several weeks to get the nitrates right down - but this left it's own different type of mess.

Any help to identify and get rid very much welcomed!

Thanks

lapin · Feb 21, 2020

Could be cyano if it blows of easy and does not grow in the light.

DavetheReef · Feb 22, 2020

lapin said:
Could be cyano if it blows of easy and does not grow in the light.

Thanks for the reply. It only grows in the light (is that what you mean) but it is white/green and not slimy - more like little fluffs of cotton, but still blows off easy. I looked up pics of green cyano but nothing matches what I have.

ScottR · Feb 22, 2020

From the pics, I can’t tell. Could be some type of bacterial bloom. Do you have a UV connected to your tank?

Wes10C · Feb 22, 2020

chrysophytes maybe?

DavetheReef · Feb 23, 2020

ScottR said:
From the pics, I can’t tell. Could be some type of bacterial bloom. Do you have a UV connected to your tank?

I don't - but I have a hunch it is bacteria-like and possibly something to do with the Nopox-then-pellets I used to get the nitrates down. I may give the UV a go and see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the tip

DavetheReef · Feb 23, 2020

Wes10C said:
chrysophytes maybe?

I'm working on this possibility too - when I have read up about them it seems to be in tanks with zero nitrates and struggling to raise them, which is what I might try to do if I can figure out how safely. Thanks

ReGinn · Feb 23, 2020

If you're struggling with nitrates, and needing to raise them safely and efficiently, I personally use sodium nitrate to do it up to where I need it.

Sodium Nitrate 4 Ounces 1 Bottle

The item for sale is 4 Ounces (113 Grams) of Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3). Sodium Nitrate, also known as Chile Salt Petr, is a white powder which is very soluble in water. For Potassium Nitrate, check out our other listing. Our bottles are made of durable Polyp

www.loudwolf.com

This is the one I use. Just be sure to get the sodium nitrate, and not the sodium nitrite when checking out. Pretty cheap too, which is always a plus

lol

There are threads on here advising how to dose any everything. I'll see if I can hunt them down in a bit. Goof thing (and bad) with this stuff, is the byproduct is sodium (salt) which is good in that it won't hurt anything, but bad in that it can slowly raise your salinity over time, so you just have to keep an eye out on that when using.

ReGinn · Feb 23, 2020

Sodium Nitrate Dosing...Help!!

Need help with preparing a stock solution to get my Nitrate to 5 ppm, currently it is reading close to 0 ppm. Tank volume & sump volume combined with be 135 gallon after discounting rock displacement. I have laboratory grade Sodium nitrate but need help on calculating how much grams to add to 1...

www.reef2reef.com

This is a very helpful thread on that topic, and the options used to do it. I just recently had the same problem and had to do a little research lol

DavetheReef · Mar 6, 2020

Thanks to all the replies here.

In case anyone with a similar problem looks through this thread, my particular "fluffy" algae problem has mostly gone away in a week and may be either due to:
- Time (i.e. part of tank maturing) or
- UV sterlizer that I added as advised and the fluff has mostly gone - whether because of the UV or not, I do not know

I now have to battle with green/brown cyano / diatoms - but at least that is "normal"

I am also going to try sodium nitrate, as I can't seem to raise nitrates at all (which is crazy considering nitrates was what I was originally worried about!)

Wes10C · Mar 6, 2020

DavetheReef said:
Thanks to all the replies here.

In case anyone with a similar problem looks through this thread, my particular "fluffy" algae problem has mostly gone away in a week and may be either due to:
- Time (i.e. part of tank maturing) or
- UV sterlizer that I added as advised and the fluff has mostly gone - whether because of the UV or not, I do not know

I now have to battle with green/brown cyano / diatoms - but at least that is "normal"

I am also going to try sodium nitrate, as I can't seem to raise nitrates at all (which is crazy considering nitrates was what I was originally worried about!)

Glad you found something that works.