Brown algae,cyano or Dino help

F

fastfisher

New member
Hi I have a 120 gallon semi reef with 40 breeder sump 6 t5 lights fixture sca 302 skimmer rated for 180 gallons eheim 1262 return pump 1 korola 7 2500 cfh and 2 korola 1400 cfh wave makers lots of flow in tank all water tests with API kits nitrate 0 phosphate 0 ph 8.3 I use instant ocean reef crystals I run gfo and gac.i just tried chemiclean it did nothing here are some pics I don't feed much and rinse food and do water changes 15 gallon every one to two weeks I just changed 30 gallons swep sand Snow White and next day brown again it likes to grow over hair algae and any other algae it covered my refugium with cheato so much that I took refugium out all together now with no light anymore and it seems to stay out of there it is impossible to clean a fuge with deep sand bed now just bare bottom
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Looks like diatoms. Silica cant set it off, either from the sand, silicone, or somewhere else. It's a pain but after it eats it all up things go back to normal. That is as long as everything else is in check.

How long has your system been running.
 
Your nitrates and phosphates are reading 0 because the algae is using it up. Start doing more frequent water changes start running GFO in a reactor to lower phosphates. When i had the issue i pulled as much algae out as could before i started up the reactor so that the GFO would have catch it before the algae did. Also look into carbon dosing if you have a good skimmer
 
Get some Cyano Solution its made by Precision Solution.....and follow the directions. This stuff works good as long as you follow the directions. YOU MUST FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS.....
 
I had a Dino / diatom problem which looked just like this. I tried everything from clean up crews to carbon to other quick solutions. I also wasted a lot of time and money doing water changes. Your nitrates and phosphates are 0 because the algae is eating it like stated above.

What I did that worked was a blackout . I turned all my lights off in the tank and left the room lights off as much as I could. I left it like this for 3 whole days. After that I vacuumed all that was left and did a 20% water change. This cured almost all of my problem. After a few days it was growing back in places that were not dead or removed. I did another black out the same way. After this I haven't had a problem since

What you do have to do is find the problem why all the nitrates and phosphates are getting there. I figured it was the flake food, the way I was feeding frozen , and a coral I received from Lfs.

For feeding all I do now is frozen. I thaw in a small cup with a fine strainer , once it's thawed. I take the stained and swish it in the tank to release the food, then poor the water used to thaw down my sink drain.

Hope this helps, I'm sure there is other more complicated ways to fix your problem but this seemed simple and easy without having to dose ways that google told me. Good luck,
 
Found memo that is what I am starting today blackout see what happens I started a couple of weeks ago rinseing frozen food and with all the water changes I do I can't see it being nitrate I think I got some coral with this on it I always use zero tds RODI water what brand salt do yous use I'm thinking on changing I will post pics after lights out for three full days I wraped tank in black trash bags so no other light reflects in room thanks for input
 
Well it is definitely dino looked under microscope it was gone with lights out and now it is back twice as bad I think I will just let tank crash and see what happens
 
I'm in the same situation.I've been battling this for a long time with no success.My ro/di system has two ro membranes and two di resins canisters and I use alot of gfo weekly and still have dinos and diatoms.I'm out of options and tired of wasting money.My dt looks worse than it did when I started sw in the early 90's with tap water.So I fell your pain.:headwally:
 
I don't know if I should stay in hobby were can you buy from and not get this stuff from I started out with 150 lbs of Marco rocks just so I wouldn't have these problems and water quality does not matter with this stuff it grows so fast and it must be in my lfs tanks if I got it I did this in the nineties also and never used RODI or gfo or gac just fluidized filters the live rock was also live then to it was full of live sponges and mushrooms I also had tangs in 44 gallon tanks a purple and a powder blue and they were happy fish no ich and they only cost 15 or 20 bucks even petco s fish looked good back then
 
Time and patience is the only way to get rid of dino's. I've been in this battle sense November and just now have started to win it I think. One thing i would recommend is getting a better test kit api is ok, but does not read low levels of phosophate or nitrate. Dino's are mostly photosynthetic so if you cut your lighting way back it will help a lot. Make sure there is nothing dead in the tank to help feed them. Add as much flow as you possably can, because the structure of the dino's is so weak they can't stay together in high flow. Add or change your gfo/gac often. and get you some ro water and take the rocks out and scrub them in it and clean off as much as you can to help get things back under control. This is what ive been doing and it is seaming to work for me. but lighting has been the big factor for me sense ive cut back its been alot better. Also ive started adding vinager as a carbon source the last few weeks. Its a pain and there ugly but they can be beat
 
Currently having this same problem, started about 3 weeks ago.... after testing, my KH read 5. Corrected this about a week ago and seeing slow improvement.

my tank iz about a year old and added my first corals a month ago, just cleaned the rocks and did a 20% water change as well as clean out the algae that got trapped in my filter sock from cleaning the rocks.
Currently Monitoring the tank and hoping for the best.
(no Nitrates or Phosphates)
 
Currently having this same problem, started about 3 weeks ago.... after testing, my KH read 5. Corrected this about a week ago and seeing slow improvement.

my tank iz about a year old and added my first corals a month ago, just cleaned the rocks and did a 20% water change as well as clean out the algae that got trapped in my filter sock from cleaning the rocks.
Currently Monitoring the tank and hoping for the best.
(no Nitrates or Phosphates)

Was told about the Bio Pellets and using ROWAphos... will try if problem continues.
 
Less light on the red end of the spectrum and deeper more established sandbeds have helped me. If you have fish that are preying on sandbed life you might want to rethink keeping those. The animals that would normally eat the diatom growth are not there. As long at you are putting food in an unbalanced system these things will continue. Think about how life evolved on earth. What was there first, etc. When you start with microscopic life and huge fish there is a massive hole in many tropic systems.
 
Any updates? It definitely looks like dinos to me too. I've been fighting them for a year and have tried everything. The 2-3 day lights out definitely works short term, combining that with 4 hour lighting periods during the day, will also help. Limiting the amount of white light helps too. I even did 6 out 7 days with total blackout, yet they came back in a few weeks. IMO, it's not just about excess nutrients with dinos.

I've also seen some success using Dr Tim's Refresh, Waste Away, and Eco Balance - with black out periods. But I haven't found anything that has eliminated them for good. I just installed a UV (25 watt and only ~200 gph) which should wipe out any that are in the water column. I know that it's totally counter intuitive to the Dr Tim's products, but just trying something else.
 
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