MayoBoy
Movin' on Up
I've had something wrong with my tank for the last couple of months. At first I thougt it was cyano. After trying all the usuals and not getting anyplace I tried Chemiclean. The first treatment of Chemiclean seemed to beat it but it was back a few days later. The second treatment didn't do anything. After more research I decided that it must be dinoflagellates.
I was cleaning the glass twice a day and siphoning the stuff off almost every day. Major water changes, vacuuming, but it was still coming back. I tried all the other recommended treatments:
dripping kalk to raise the pH, no lights, abbreviated lights, etc.
Here's what the tank looked like. I had cleaned the rocks and glass about 6 hours previous to taking the picture. (yes, the stuff grows that fast)
I was getting completely demoralized and was seriously considering giving things up. The only things I lost were my xenias and a red mushroom but I had to blow the corals off twice a day becuase they were covered in brown bubbly snot. As a last step, I decided to bomb the tank with Maracyn. 1 tablet per 20 gallons. On Monday, I dropped in 4 tablets, turned off the lights and walked away.
On Wednesday evening, I turned the lights back on and the tank was clean!!!! I vacuumed everything up and did a 20 gallon water change. The skimmer was going nuts, and the sump was full of foam but all the stuff was gone!
I ran the actinics on a regular schedule but have only been running the MH for 3 or 4 hours a day. Today, it's still clean and I added another 30 lbs of live rock.
Here's the tank now - there's still some bubble algae but that will be easy to deal with after the brown snot.
Finally, all the corals are opened up and extending. I haven't seen some of the zoas in weeks and it's seems like a month or more since the leathers were extended. I'm going to change another 20 or 30 gallons tomorrow and slowly lengthen the lighting schedule. The skimmer's still going nuts but I'm hoping tomorrow's water change and another change of carbon will take care of that.
I don't think that Maracyn is a recommended treatment but it sure worked for me. If you have a dino-snot problem, don't give up - it is beatable.
I was cleaning the glass twice a day and siphoning the stuff off almost every day. Major water changes, vacuuming, but it was still coming back. I tried all the other recommended treatments:
dripping kalk to raise the pH, no lights, abbreviated lights, etc.
Here's what the tank looked like. I had cleaned the rocks and glass about 6 hours previous to taking the picture. (yes, the stuff grows that fast)
I was getting completely demoralized and was seriously considering giving things up. The only things I lost were my xenias and a red mushroom but I had to blow the corals off twice a day becuase they were covered in brown bubbly snot. As a last step, I decided to bomb the tank with Maracyn. 1 tablet per 20 gallons. On Monday, I dropped in 4 tablets, turned off the lights and walked away.
On Wednesday evening, I turned the lights back on and the tank was clean!!!! I vacuumed everything up and did a 20 gallon water change. The skimmer was going nuts, and the sump was full of foam but all the stuff was gone!
I ran the actinics on a regular schedule but have only been running the MH for 3 or 4 hours a day. Today, it's still clean and I added another 30 lbs of live rock.
Here's the tank now - there's still some bubble algae but that will be easy to deal with after the brown snot.
Finally, all the corals are opened up and extending. I haven't seen some of the zoas in weeks and it's seems like a month or more since the leathers were extended. I'm going to change another 20 or 30 gallons tomorrow and slowly lengthen the lighting schedule. The skimmer's still going nuts but I'm hoping tomorrow's water change and another change of carbon will take care of that.
I don't think that Maracyn is a recommended treatment but it sure worked for me. If you have a dino-snot problem, don't give up - it is beatable.
