Going thru some sort of cycling I hope. Thought? Water is perfect parameter wise, salinity is good. Tank is 2 months old. Is this just part of a cycle? I'm afraid its Dinoflagellates. I'm completely new to marine setups so any input would be amazing.
Brown Diatoms or Dinoflagellates
- Thread starter CuhRaig
- Start date
ZeeSparrow
New member
Looks like cyano and diatoms to me, in which case, yep! Just part of the cycle.
Welcome to RC!
Welcome to RC!
Bogue Chitto
New member
Agreed, it's not Dino from what I can see.
I believe its cyano bacteria. I've had the same problem and it was going crazy.
What i recommend; well what i did:
I did a blackout (depending on what corals you have hardy or not; this may not be for you)
i turned the lights off for 3 days straight, and transferred some corals in a smaller tank.
After that they didn't appear.
But if that doesn't work,
i know for sure that Chemi-Clean (blue box thats fairly cheap on amazon) works.
My cyano breakout was a bit much so i had to dose twice.
Read the instructions for further actions.
Water changes after.
Lastly, you have to find out whats causing the problem or it will keep coming back.
Things to consider:
-Length of the lights are on; the longer obviously the more cyano will show because they grow from the lights; they are photosynthetic.
-Overfeeding: overfeeding is another cause, they get trapped in the sand and the bacteria has so much to eat thus causing this outbreak.
-Flow: Some parts that are heavily contaminated may be lacking flow, the food drops and settles and doesn't flow around the tank onto the skimmer.
-Sand: you should sift your sand, there are great cleaner crews that sift your sand: i got a LARGE pistol shrimp, he moves sand all the time, i have a sand sifting starfish, nassarius snails.
-parameters maybe aren't fit.
-temps?
hope this helps.
What i recommend; well what i did:
I did a blackout (depending on what corals you have hardy or not; this may not be for you)
i turned the lights off for 3 days straight, and transferred some corals in a smaller tank.
After that they didn't appear.
But if that doesn't work,
i know for sure that Chemi-Clean (blue box thats fairly cheap on amazon) works.
My cyano breakout was a bit much so i had to dose twice.
Read the instructions for further actions.
Water changes after.
Lastly, you have to find out whats causing the problem or it will keep coming back.
Things to consider:
-Length of the lights are on; the longer obviously the more cyano will show because they grow from the lights; they are photosynthetic.
-Overfeeding: overfeeding is another cause, they get trapped in the sand and the bacteria has so much to eat thus causing this outbreak.
-Flow: Some parts that are heavily contaminated may be lacking flow, the food drops and settles and doesn't flow around the tank onto the skimmer.
-Sand: you should sift your sand, there are great cleaner crews that sift your sand: i got a LARGE pistol shrimp, he moves sand all the time, i have a sand sifting starfish, nassarius snails.
-parameters maybe aren't fit.
-temps?
hope this helps.
Quiet_Ivy
New member
The thread like stuff is cyano, the brown dust is much more likely to be diatoms than dinos. You're at the right time for a big old diatom attack, and yes they can have bubbles. I'd ignore it, doing lights out will probably just prolong the annoyance. If you gently run a plastic fork across the sand you'll be able to twirl up the cyano like spaghetti.
Incidentally please don't say your parameters are "perfect", you'd be amazed at what some people thing is perfect water.
Actual numbers are always better.Lotsa dino/cyano panic this week, wonder if it's the decreasing natural light?
ivy
Quiet_Ivy
New member
Just out of curiosity, why were you convinced it was dinos? They're usually much more serious; you'd see side effects like dead snails, 0 nutrients, angry corals, unstable alkalinity, etc.
The blackout will knock cyano and diatoms back but both will return. Diatoms persist until they use up all the available silica, cyano is just annoying but may respond to lowering phosphate.
hth!
ivy
Quiet_Ivy
New member
Oh, ok.. air bubbles can be caused by just about everything, cyano, diatoms, dino, microalgae, pump spasms, etc.
Do you know what your alkalinity is? Alk is very often the cause of cranky looking corals, especially Euphyllia. I can tell what my alk is just by looking at my frogspawn.
All you can really do is keep your water parameters at reef levels and as stable as possible. (Stolen from Sk8r's sig: Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale, not meq/l; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. Alk and Ca won't rise if Mg is low) Write the numbers down whenever you test, you'll want to know.
I'm glad it's gone, hopefully it will stay away. (Don't panic if it does come back, that's common with cyano and diatoms.)
Ivy
