Dino's or something else??

Marinne13

New member
so I am new to his forum but been in the hobby for over a year, I recently had to take down a 75G last summer because of a move and now I have setup a 30G which has been going for a little over a month...I am now having this thing stringy web like algae that is growing mostly on my coral and a few rocks

everything was fine, got the normal little diatom bloom and after the tank cycled I started added livestock slowly

I have 2 Picasso clowns, 1 cardinal and a super small sailfin blenny...CUC consists of 8 Astrea, 15 nassirus, 8 hermits, emerald crab, 10 ceriths and a cleaner shrimp

I run a single BRS reactor with their carbon/GFO (change every 2 weeks), Reef Octopus BH-1000 HOB skimmer, 900GPH flow, ATO, Apex controller, ReefBreeders LED fixture (runs for only 6 hours a day), 4 stage RODI with 2 month old filters and weekly 10% WC's

this stuff literally shows up instantly after you siphon it out, here is a link to some pictures on a thread...won't let me upload here

http://www.livingreefs.com/threads/dinos-or-something-else.48559/#post-646193
 
anything, I am desperate and need help

I am blowing them off my zoas about 10 times a day and it keeps coming back, part of me thinks it is diatoms but not sure as I don't have a microscope
 
Doubt it's dinosaurs, 'cause I'm pretty sure they're extinct :lolspin:

OK, that wasn't helpful ...... perhaps you can share a bit more about your tank, age, bioload, equipment, etc. FWIW, I've had diatoms many times, but never growing on my corals.
 
I just don't get it, I feed very lightly every other day and change my GFO/carbon religiously along with have a skimmer rated almost 3 times over my tank size, use RODI only and do weekly WC's

this is BS
 
You should be able to post the pictures somewhere on RC. I just clicked on the link, though. I'd guess that's dinoflagellates or cyanbacteria, mostly, although there could be some diatoms. Diatoms by themselves don't form stringy structures like those in the pictures, though.
 
I'm not sure about the substrate, but it seems rather coarse. It might be accumulating a lot of organic debris. My first tank had that problem, and had to replace my substrate to fix it.
 
I added some new LR this past weekend, maybe it had some die off?? might be releasing silicates but I don't know ( I did not have this before the LR)

my 10G nano has the same type of algae and I put the same LR in it but it is mostly not slimy goo but very thin and not many bubbles in it
 
Last edited:
I added some new LR this past weekend, maybe it had some die off?? might be releasing silicates but I don't know ( I did not have this before the LR)

This new live rock could be the issue. Maybe it was not cured properly. What are your parameters? Phosphates, nitrates, etc.

Alex
 
The tank is still new, so a microbial bloom is fairly normal. I'd take the easy (or is that lazy) way, and stop feeding for a few days, while adding fresh carbon and GFO. If the growth doesn't at least slow down, I'd try a few days of darkness, along with GFO and water changes to remove any nutrients released by die-back.
 
Back
Top