what the heck is this stuff. Dinos?

Palegic · Mar 13, 2023

I few months back I had a cyano issue. I think because I started to introduce more fish and more food. I was running carbon/gfo reactor and my nutrients were basically bottoming out. Cyano went out of control. I used chemiclean and did a 48hr treatment followed by two 20% water changes, and wet skimmed the rest of the medication out. Tank looked great and then diatoms...these cleared up in about a week.

I slowly stopped using gfo, and brought my levels up to acceptable levels. If my phosphate was over .1 I did a water change to bring it down. I tried to keep my nitrates at 5-10ppm.

All was well then I started noticing this fuzz starting to form on my frag racks. As well as the tips of some of my SPS getting this dark substance on it. It actually killed my pink birdsnest totally. And I realized my nitrates bottoming out. I am trying to dose brightwell nitrate but I have to dose almost 40ml for it to get up to 5ppm and then it's back down to 1ppm the next morning.

I am not running UV and I am definitely looking into buying a unit but don't want to buy one if not needed.

blaxsun · Mar 14, 2023

Honestly can't tell (maybe someone else?), but a UV is always a great investment - especially if you've had other nuisance algae outbreaks in the past.

Fish Styx · Mar 14, 2023

Can you provide pics with whites on to help ID, please?

Palegic · Mar 14, 2023

Fish Styx said:
Can you provide pics with whites on to help ID, please?

I can see below. Im extremely frustrated now. With the whites on only there is a hint of green and I am even more confused. I dont understand how it can be algae if I am keeping my nutrient levels controlled.

Troylee · Mar 14, 2023

Be thankful that’s not Dino’s lol… just some typical algae.. you might think your no3 and po4 are down but that’s not the case the algae is using it up…

Fish Styx · Mar 14, 2023

Palegic said:
I can see below. Im extremely frustrated now. With the whites on only there is a hint of green and I am even more confused. I dont understand how it can be algae if I am keeping my nutrient levels controlled.

Your nutrient levels appear controlled via test kit, because the algae is taking it up before it can be tested.

Palegic · Mar 14, 2023

It's not a lot though. Only on the frags/frag racks, glass and some spots on the sand. My rocks are clean. Could that little bit of algae really eat up all the nutrients? Also, what do I do moving forward. I dont want to bottom out the nutrients and don't want to keep feeding the algae. Seems like a catch 22?

Palegic · Mar 15, 2023

Dosed .03 of P04 and 3.2ppm of No3 last night. This morning I was at 0 and 1.7 respectively. Then dosed again. This is exhausting. How do people do this testing and dosing every day and night. Dosing 2-part wasnt this difficult. It was just set it and forget it then do monthly maintenance tests and adjust. For No3 and Po4 I feel like the rates of consumption are erratic.

Troylee · Mar 15, 2023

Palegic said:
Dosed .03 of P04 and 3.2ppm of No3 last night. This morning I was at 0 and 1.7 respectively. Then dosed again. This is exhausting. How do people do this testing and dosing every day and night. Dosing 2-part wasnt this difficult. It was just set it and forget it then do monthly maintenance tests and adjust. For No3 and Po4 I feel like the rates of consumption are erratic.

Feed more or shut your skimmer off for awhile… the tank will do it naturally

Palegic · Mar 22, 2023

I am at a loss. This algae is really starting to become a nuisance. Im not sure what it is still. It doesnt grow long just fuzzy. Looks dark brown/black under blue light and green under white. Its starting to accumulate on the tips of my digitata, and growing on my corals on the frag rack. What can I do?

Po4 is .03 constant. No3 is 5 consistant every day for the past week.

Stupidkitty84 · Mar 27, 2023

Palegic said:
I am at a loss. This algae is really starting to become a nuisance. Im not sure what it is still. It doesnt grow long just fuzzy. Looks dark brown/black under blue light and green under white. Its starting to accumulate on the tips of my digitata, and growing on my corals on the frag rack. What can I do?

Po4 is .03 constant. No3 is 5 consistant every day for the past week.

You need a cleanup crew ASAP. My snails would have that frag rack crispy clean. They love that type of algae. Go to LFS, reefcleaners.org, etc and pick up a variety of snails (a couple Mexican Turbo, a couple Trochus, a few Astrea or Margarites, a few Nerites).