Help with brown slime/hair?

[gdubs97]

It seems to be spreading..mostly on and near the sandbed but I've noticed some higher up on rocks as well. Weird because I cut my feedings way down for over a month now and my phosphates highest reading in a month has been 0.06.

I run GFO in a canister and was advised to run carbon as well so far in another thread. Any ideas? I think it's Dinoflagellates from my research on reefcentral. I don't want to take out rock and boil them as I've read that on here. Any other ideas? Thanks

 

[Wheel of Time]

Not a bad case by the looks of it. But you are on the right track with gfo/carbon. Going to have to swap them out more frequently and additional water chages -- but I also HIGHLY recommend increasing the water flow over the substrate.

 

[gdubs97]

THanks Seth. I was thinking about the flow issue...2' deep tank....I guess I will point the returns down more. Nice meeting you Saturday as well. -George

Not a bad case by the looks of it. But you are on the right track with gfo/carbon. Going to have to swap them out more frequently and additional water chages -- but I also HIGHLY recommend increasing the water flow over the substrate.

 

[thefuz]

It's possible this is dinos - I had them about 2 months ago just prior to Irene and tried a few different things as suggested on the forums. Maintain a higher PH, reduce photoperiod, run carbon, etc. When Irene hit my tank was dark for about 2 days and then T5 only for another 2. On the other side of that they were gone. I noticed signs of them again the other day and have gone dark once again. SPS seems OK but my plate corals appear as they did when I had the first outbreak. They seem the most sensitive to whatever chemicals are released as the dinos break down (carbon seems to help on this front). I think it's also helpful to manually suck them out with a baster and such. Most folks have said to avoid w/c's but this seemed to not matter for me. Flow is also a good suggestion as this keeps the gunk suspended vs. attaching and accumulating (though when it's attached it is easier to remove manually ).

Anyway, my guess is reduced light - especially reduced HO light - might be the ticket, in addition to nutrient management. I run an algae scrubber and PO4 is effectively zero at all times. I'm starting to think it might be the DIY food I put together but I'm not sure on that either.

I hope you have good luck!!

 

[gdubs97]

Thanks Fuz. I currently run 6 T5s for 10 hours per day. How long do you suggest I run them? or just turn them off for a couple of days entirely? Would that damage corals? stress fish, etc?

I'm going to get the carbon and carbon reactor as soon as we get this BRS group buy.

It's possible this is dinos - I had them about 2 months ago just prior to Irene and tried a few different things as suggested on the forums. Maintain a higher PH, reduce photoperiod, run carbon, etc. When Irene hit my tank was dark for about 2 days and then T5 only for another 2. On the other side of that they were gone. I noticed signs of them again the other day and have gone dark once again. SPS seems OK but my plate corals appear as they did when I had the first outbreak. They seem the most sensitive to whatever chemicals are released as the dinos break down (carbon seems to help on this front). I think it's also helpful to manually suck them out with a baster and such. Most folks have said to avoid w/c's but this seemed to not matter for me. Flow is also a good suggestion as this keeps the gunk suspended vs. attaching and accumulating (though when it's attached it is easier to remove manually ).

Anyway, my guess is reduced light - especially reduced HO light - might be the ticket, in addition to nutrient management. I run an algae scrubber and PO4 is effectively zero at all times. I'm starting to think it might be the DIY food I put together but I'm not sure on that either.

I hope you have good luck!!

 

[thefuz]

First I would try to suck out as much of the brown stuff as you can. Then I'd go completely dark for a day. Come back on with just actinics the next day and then ease back into full spectrum. See how that works. I can't recall the thread I was looking through where someone performed a similar pattern, but that's the gist of it. He had to repeat it about a month or so later which seems to be the case with me and my recent outbreak. We'll see what happens with the lights back on full today.

Regarding harming corals and fish, I didn't notice anything bad in either department. In fact, corals seem to extend further when the lights are back on as if they've missed it. Perhaps this is something that occurs after an overcast/rainy day in the wild, but I don't know.

 

[mike33]

Dino

Dino

I have been dealing with this for months thinking it was cyano. I have learned that shortening the lights (4 hrs for me with no sps) with only actinics, increasing the buffer/ph, and manual removal has helped. I increased the flow dramitically and actually bought a vortech and it didn't help. I also just learned that the product "ick attack" also treats dino and have dosed for 3 days so far and crossing my fingers.

 

[scolley]

I'd be REALLY careful with any additive that fights Dino. I've got zero experience with this in reef tanks, but I can tell you that fighting similar organisms involves antibiotics, and very often destroys beneficial (or essential) bacteria. Same could apply for reefs.

IMO with all such problems you should be fighting the root cause, and not the symptom. And Dino is a symptom.

And FWIW - low phosphates does not necessarily mean you are not over feeding. I can just mean that your algae is consuming it until there's little left.

 

[dvetran]

I'm starting to see the some small patches of black slime. Wonder if it's the same thing. Gonna take everyone's advice and jack up flow, reduce feeding, and set the skimmer to skim on the wet side. When in doubt water changes always help. Dealing with pollution by way of dilution.

 

[scolley]

Apologies for being less than clear on my prior post- using a phone. The point I was making was that while the vast majority of my knowledge is in the freshwater planted world, its a real bad idea to fight such bacteria (that are confused with algae) with antibiotics. I cannot help but believe its just as important to not resort to such in a reef tank, if not more so.

 

[scolley]

Also - Dave's (dvetran) is right on target. Your problem is a common new tank problem, best addresses by attacking the problem... Not the symptom.

 

[gdubs97]

one full day of no light and today I came home with the blue lights on only (thefuz's recommendation) and (knock on wood) already I notice a huge difference.