OK, so I picked up a yellow headed sleeper goby for a customer. Great fish for keeping the sand sifted and oxygenated. Problem though, I put it in my frag tank, and it sifted the sand that i cant reach with my vacuum and stirred up a HUGE mess in the tank. Ever since, theres been this brown slimy algae growing all over the eggcrate. I have tried nearly everything to rid the tank of it, but nothing seems to work. I have almost 10 turbo snails, 10 astreas, 10 blue legs, 3 emerald crabs, and over 100 nassarius obsoleta snails in there, but this stuff grows so fast they cant even keep up with it. I've run polyfilters continously, replaced the seagel, added nitrate sponge, turned up the skimmer to create a wetter foam, done at least 3- 15 gallon water changes with RO, vacuumed the sand that i could reach twice, rinsed my overflow sponges daily, and used a turkey baster to blow it off the eggcrate to keep it off the corals, used Chemi-clean thinking it was a type of cyanobacteria to no avail, and added a powerhead to up the flow rates in the tank, but nothing works! Every day it comes back. Anyone got any ideas? Any help would be appreciated. I'll give a toadstool frag to the person who solves this for me. Thanks, Lee
brown slime algae
- Thread starter Claeth
- Start date
chadscamaro
Active member
Lee, try feeding less, and reduce photo period for a while and keep blasting the flow along with a good size 20-25% water change.
I havent fed the tank in 3 days, and ive done 3 water changes this week of at least 15 gallons each. it's getting some better, but its still coming back every day. I think I will cut back the photoperiod a bit for a while. I might even turn off the MH's completely and let the vho's take over for a few days. thanks. If that works, the toadstool's yours. Lee
i go tsome brown algea, but its more leafy then slimy, altho it only comes off in leafs, it grows on the rock like slime. i tried all that stuff and my photoperiod is only 6 hrs main lite with an hour on either side of actinics. also did 20% water changes for over 2 months now. i slowed it down but it sure isnt going away. i would recommend if some comes off to not leave int in the tank. i think thats how mine really started to spread. nothing has worked for me so far, sop i hope you find some answer.
Im sure its caused by phosphate issues, but after repetitive water changes, and constantly running polyfilters, I dont believe it is the main issue. I think its probably more a lack of biological bacteria since the yellow head sg stirred it up so bad. Im also thinking of trying some bacteria booster like SAT or TLC, we'll see if that helps. Until it does, its a major PITA to turkey baste the stuff.
I havent noticed any of them dying off, theyre still very much alive, maybe a few died, but not many. as a matter of fact, I can't find any empty shells. and i do grow chaeto in the tank, so whatever the fuel, it happened fast enough to out-compete the chaeto. No fish deaths either. I did notice a brittle starfish had lost a leg, but upon further research, it just shed a leg, it didn't die. Im still certain it was caused by the yellow headed sleeper goby stirring up the sand that hadnt been vacuumed for at least a year, since it was under the egg-crate shelf. The big question is, how do i stop it?
chadfarmer
Premium Member
how old is the lights ?
is this the only place that has algea?
what is photoperiod?
what is nitrates?
maybe the sand bed is releasing phosephate back to the tank fueling the algea
the problem is there is to many variables
is this the only place that has algea?
what is photoperiod?
what is nitrates?
maybe the sand bed is releasing phosephate back to the tank fueling the algea
the problem is there is to many variables
The lights are less than 4 months old, 1-400 watt 10k Ushio and 2 110 watt VHO 50/50s. The algae grows everywhere in the tank. Even on the side that doesnt have the MH on it. Photoperiod is 12:00A to 10:00P regularly, I cut it back to 2:00p to 10:00p since wed. with no effect. Nitrates are 0 or very near (unreadable). I believe its the sandbed releasing PO4 as well, question is, how to fix the problem. I have already removed the yellow head, so the sandbed is only bieng stirred by the nassarius snails, which cant be doing anything but making things better. Its only a 1/2" sand bed, so it cant be holding THAT much waste,and theres only a 1 foot square area that cant be reached by the vacuum hose. This problems been ongoing for a few weeks now since the problem starter fish has been gone. I think its just a really tough strain of algae/bacteria/goo, luckily its easily removed with a turkey baster, or Id be taking all of my corals out in fear of them dying. it doesnt seem to grow on coral flesh, which is good, but it has grown on recently fragged corals exposed skeletons, which cant be good for regrowth on those spots. I guess ill have to have someone come and identify the algae/goo, since ive never dealt with it before. It has near the same consistency as cyanobacteria, very slimy, very gel like. in the areas that get the most flow it kind of grows out into stringlike projections, which seems to be how it spreads by breaking off, and it has a brown color to it. My snails and crabs do seem to feed on it, since i can see trails through it on the glass, but they can't keep up with its growth rate. I tried using Chemi-clean in the hope that it was cyano that just wasnt turning red due to the absence of silicates, to no avail. Almost simultaneously, I had a bloom of valonia algae, most definitely due to the same phosphate issue caused from the yhsg stirring the sand. I have left them undesturbed in the hope that they would outcompete the slime for phosphates, and solve the problem, but I have noticed that the slime even grows on the surface of them, blocking them from light and slowly starving them out. I have half a mind to just vacuum out all of the sand, remove all of my coral frags to my spare 29 gal tank, do a 100% water change, bleach the eggcrate, and start over from scratch with the tank, but my luck, it would just come back because some of it survived in the filter. its really getting frustrating since it requires daily maintenance to keep it from becoming a slime-only tank instead of a coral frag tank. This is an extremely strange outbreak. I have been in the hobby for almost 15 years now, and have been doing professional tank maintenance for almost 5 years, I run my own aquarium maintenance business, and I have never had this problem with any tank before. As a matter of fact, I've never even seen this stuff before. That is why im asking for all of your ideas, in the meantime, all of the frags from that tank are under quarantine until this problem is solved, putting a damper on my coral sales profits. The last thing I need is to introduce this to another tank. Don't worry folks, the frags I sold at the fragfest were NOT in that tank!!! They were grown in my showtank.
MayoBoy
Movin' on Up
Dinoflagellates (ticexpialidocious). There are a couple of treatments that may or may not work.
A dark tank (no lights at all) for 3 days or so.
Kalk drip to raise the pH to around 8.7 for 4-7 days straight.
or both at the same time.
I tried both but neither worked. I finally used Maracyn and kept the tank dark for 2 days. That took care of it and it's been gone for about 6 weeks now.
The Maracyn made the skimmer go nuts even after it was all over and I did a water change. It probably took 2 or 3 more days for the skimmer to calm down.
A dark tank (no lights at all) for 3 days or so.
Kalk drip to raise the pH to around 8.7 for 4-7 days straight.
or both at the same time.
I tried both but neither worked. I finally used Maracyn and kept the tank dark for 2 days. That took care of it and it's been gone for about 6 weeks now.
The Maracyn made the skimmer go nuts even after it was all over and I did a water change. It probably took 2 or 3 more days for the skimmer to calm down.
chadfarmer
Premium Member
does he corals from clayton
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