Brown slime in my sps tank...Help!

[marine_freak]

Well I got rid of the red slime by using chemi-clean and the tank was doing well for 3wks then I started seeing brown slime strings attached to the rocks... it has progressively worsened over the week now on glass, powerheads, starting to get on acros etc....... Is this a ameba infection??? or just another cyno outbreak????? My tank peramiters are good..PH-8.0-8.1, Alk-8.5-9.3, Calcium-500, Nitrates-0, Phosphates-0, RO water tds:0, barebottom reef with approx 125lbs in a 75 gallon tank, water change 20% every 2wks. Only in display tank not in fuge. Lighting 2 400 watt Radiums 10wks old on 9hrs a day. Running UV sterilizer...Huge 6ft dual beckette skimmer...... 2 inches of meracle mud in my sump with some live rock and a big ball of cheato..... Any suggestions??? I have now retreated the tank with chemi-clean, and have kept the lights out for 2 days....will do a large water change when the treatment is done....run some carbon. How do you treat a ameba infection if it is one??? Any suggestions would be appreciated.....

 

[marine_freak]

still lookin for some help....

still lookin for some help....

Bump!!!!!!!!

 

[-=DieselDave=-]

Is it worse at the end of your lighting period or at the beginning?
Diatoms get worse at the end of the photo period they are usually brown and will form bubbles on the brown streaming strings. I think that diatoms are typical in a new tank, 2-6 months old. I freaked out the first time I had them. I sucked them out with a turkey baster nightly. I did the no light thing for 3 days. I did daily 10% water changes. I lowered the Photo period to 5 hours a day. They slowly went away. The next tank I setup had them for a month or two and they also slowly when away, but I did nothing more than my weekly 10% water changes.
Good Luck,
David

 

[MIKE NY]

I did battle with something simular to that....long stringy brown threads with some bubbles attached. I beat it by siphoning it out and water changes. I also run carbon, phosban and purigen 24/7 which seemed to help also.

 

[SunnyX]

If it is brown and stringy with bubbles caught in it you have Dinoflaggelates, or "Dino's".

Very few people get Dino's so you may not have it. A pic would really help.

I am one of the unfortunate few who had Dino's, back in my old 120. It is a total nightmare to deal with. It will kill every coral in your tank if you don't handle it quickly.

Please answer a few questions for me please:

1. Is the brown algae present and hour before any lighting turns on? I ask this because in my case the tank would look great when the lights were off, an hour after the lights came on the Dino's would invade.

2. Have you had any clams die in you tank recently?

Answer these questions so that I may figure out a plan of action for your tank.

 

[MIKE NY]

I'll answer in my case
1...yes
2...no

 

[tybox]

I am having the same kinda thing going on in my tank. Looks like cyno but it is brown. Bubbles stick to the rocks, some places it is stringy and some places it just forms a mat over the rocks and sand. I have tested the water for nitrate phos, and every thing is ok which is throwing me off. I had this problem about a year and half ago and dosed macryn(sp) which took care of it pretty quickly. This is when I had only a hand full of frags starting to grow. Now I have a fully stocked tank which is making me more reluctant to use any kind of chemical. The only change to the tank is a recent adition of a calcium reactor. It does seem to get worse as the day goes on, But I have 3 clams and all seem to be doing fine. Any advice on how to beat without dosing anything.

 

[marcrothschild]

Siphon daily, WC twice a week, 100 micron filter socks rinsed out daily, raising ph with kalk drips to 8.5 day &night, super wet skimming, cutting back MH to 4 hrs a day.
After about 2 months of this routine I was able to defeat the dreaded dinos. I hope I never get them again, because its a PITA to get rid of them.

 

[marine_freak]

Well let me see When the lights come on the tank looks great but a couple hours after they have been on...... I start to notice the brown slime...... looks like snot strings extending from the rock...... I have no clams in my tank so no clams have died..... I will heed the advice of my fellow reefers and cut my light cycle to 4 hours a day..... will do 15-20% water changes every week. Will blow off my rocks and suck out detritus daily...... will drip kalkwasser day and night but I have no aspirations of ever getting my PH to 8.5 Hard time keeping it at 8.1 due to calc reactor....will skim very wet........ I would appreciate any further suggestions that people have I really hope it is not dyno's I have heard horror stories about the pests....... Oh I will try to get pics for you by Friday.....