ID: gooey snotty brown/clear stuff. Bacteria? Dying algae? Pics inside...

[DavidinGA]

Been fighting some green algae issues (hair algae I believe) and now have been battling some unknown gooey stuff. I don't know if it's green hair all that's dying off or some bacteria issue or other algae or what... It has a bacteria look on the rocks where it hasn't grown out much, but the bigger clumps look like it could be algae die-off...

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[DavidinGA]

Anyone?

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[Rybren]

Are you carbon dosing? Maybe it's bacteria.

 

[DavidinGA]

I'm vodka dosing 18ml on 250gal total volume. I don't have any cyano fwiw.

I guess I could taper down the vodka and see if things change though...

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[DavidinGA]

Anyone else?

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[mathman7728]

bubbles make me think of dinos, which is scary but what you have isnt brown. you might want to search the forums for dinoflagtes (cant spell it correctly) there are several VERY long threads on this horrible curse.

 

[Ron Reefman]

David, I have a growth that is even 'snottier' than what pictured and my is tan/brown and lives under the egg crate in my frag tank and then stringy lines of it reach up onto the corals and even top to the water surface. But it's very soft and has almost no consistancy at all. I can scoop most of it up with a very fine fish net and blow the rest off with a pump in the sump and a hose into the frag tank. It blows off and goes down and gets caught in the filter socks.

But in just a few days it comes back. I tore down the tank and washed the tank and egg crate with vinegar, but a week or so later and it's starting to come back again! So I flushed the tank today, changed the filter sock as usual and then started a lights out for 3 days. We'll see if it works.

I'm pretty sure what I have is dinoflagellates, but yours doesn't look as 'snotty' and isn't tan/brown. But the bubbles in the growth looks the same.

Good luck.

 

[DavidinGA]

David, I have a growth that is even 'snottier' than what pictured and my is tan/brown and lives under the egg crate in my frag tank and then stringy lines of it reach up onto the corals and even top to the water surface. But it's very soft and has almost no consistancy at all. I can scoop most of it up with a very fine fish net and blow the rest off with a pump in the sump and a hose into the frag tank. It blows off and goes down and gets caught in the filter socks.

But in just a few days it comes back. I tore down the tank and washed the tank and egg crate with vinegar, but a week or so later and it's starting to come back again! So I flushed the tank today, changed the filter sock as usual and then started a lights out for 3 days. We'll see if it works.

I'm pretty sure what I have is dinoflagellates, but yours doesn't look as 'snotty' and isn't tan/brown. But the bubbles in the growth looks the same.

Good luck.

Ok.

Yeah mine has zero consistency if I touch it or blow it off the rocks; it disintegrates and blows everywhere.

It's nasty looking stuff. It doesn't seem to grow super fast (thankfully) so it makes me think it must be a bacteria mass of some sort... I've been dialing down my vodka over the weeks to see if that helps (although I never was running a really high vodka dose anyway).

*if it's bacteria related and isn't beat by lowering my vodka doses would adding a UV sterilizer help? I've beat bacteria blooms with a sterilizer before so that's my reasoning there...

Thanks

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[Kurt03]

How long has the tank been setup? I have something that looks similar in a QT thats been setup ~4 months. I think (hope) it seems be diminishing for me. I feel like its just new tank algae but that will change if it doesn't go away in another month or so. Seems like a good test is increase water changes, if it seems to get worse then it may be dino's.

 

[DavidinGA]

How long has the tank been setup? I have something that looks similar in a QT thats been setup ~4 months. I think (hope) it seems be diminishing for me. I feel like its just new tank algae but that will change if it doesn't go away in another month or so. Seems like a good test is increase water changes, if it seems to get worse then it may be dino's.

I'm going on 3 years now. It only showed up a few months ago

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[mathman7728]

i still say Dinos......

 

[Kurt03]

Try to increase the bio diversity in the tank. I've been reading the Dino thread and it seems like this is a common trend. What is your nitrate and phosphate at? Try dosing phyto, bacteria, create safe haven for pods, etc. Do you have a sand bed?

I've had something similar to you several times and each time it's in my coral qt. Which usually consists of a rock or two from an established tank, bare bottom, skimming, min food input. This lines up with Ron's frag tank as well, just no where for diversity in the empty frag tank. When I think about it, kinda setting it up from beginning for long term diversity issues. (Minimal rock, nutrient input, etc) I think I starve out the bottom food chain maybe.... Then this snot algae (maybe Dino's) takes hold. Idk, just rambling, there's tons to read in the Dino thread.

 

[DavidinGA]

i still say Dinos......

Wouldn't dinos be more invasive and grow larger though?

Most of the growth is only around 1/16" tall that is covering the rockwork.

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[DavidinGA]

Pull a piece off the glass...

Very little substance to it. Slimy and gooey texture.

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[mathman7728]

Try to increase the bio diversity in the tank. I've been reading the Dino thread and it seems like this is a common trend. What is your nitrate and phosphate at? Try dosing phyto, bacteria, create safe haven for pods, etc. Do you have a sand bed?

I've had something similar to you several times and each time it's in my coral qt. Which usually consists of a rock or two from an established tank, bare bottom, skimming, min food input. This lines up with Ron's frag tank as well, just no where for diversity in the empty frag tank. When I think about it, kinda setting it up from beginning for long term diversity issues. (Minimal rock, nutrient input, etc) I think I starve out the bottom food chain maybe.... Then this snot algae (maybe Dino's) takes hold. Idk, just rambling, there's tons to read in the Dino thread.

completely agree with adding biodiversity. i think that is the key. i added phyto, pods, different types of snails, creepy crawlers, etc. anything i could find on the web, i added. it worked for me. i think we tend to make the water TOO clean and that gets things out of balance...biodiversity brings things back into balance...at least that is what i personally think helped my tank.

 

[DavidinGA]

Thoughts on dosing MB7...?

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[Kurt03]

On my 20 gal frag/qt I'm dosing mb7, phyto (1 capful per day, sometimes 2 on the phyto), running UV and skimmer only at night. Also feeding the one fish that's in there a little more.
I am noticing a decline in the Dino's.

I think the phyto/mb7 is making the biggest difference but I had the UV anyways so put it on there.

Nitrate tested 0 on red sea low range kit.

 

[Kurt03]

Fyi, I've moved my efforts on this over to this thread. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2307000