Looking for an id...dinos?

[Nap]

I have been dealing with this light brown slime (more like jelly than slime) for over a year and it is driving me insane.

My system is a 120 (4X2X2) mixed reef with a bit of a storied past... It was transferred to this tank about 14 months ago and was previously in a 100g corner tank for about 6 years. Previous to that it started life way back as my first reef system in 1998 as a 90g. A few of the corals date all the way back to 1998 and all of the live rock (about 100 lbs) dates to then as well. My parameters test as...

NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
Mg - 1250
Ca - 430
KH - 10.2
PO4 - 0.03

If I don't swap my GFO monthly I get algae on the glass in a day or two.

The lighting started out as dual 175w MH and then changed to 2 x 400w MH when I switched to the corner system. When I moved into the 120 I decided to try T5's. The T5's were on for a little over a year and I just switched back to MH's two months ago for a comparison.

Here's a couple of pics of the problem...

and

As you can see it is growing on the back wall of my system and on the rocks. It is only found in high light areas and nothing will eat it. I looks a lot like brown jelly disease but it's much firmer and slower growing (and it grows wherever it wants instead of just euphyllia). It is alos MUCH more persistent than anything I have come across. I can clean it off a rock and it immediately starts coming back in a day. Once it starts growing on a rock it returns over and over.

In an effort to combat nutrients I am running GFO and less feeding. My skimmer is a warner marine as200 which hasn't made a dent in this stuff or the cyano which has also been a problem recently. All of my top off water is RODI (cartridges were changed 4 months ago and tds is reading 0 on all topoff water).

Clearly, there are some rogue nutrients in my system but after repeated water changes I see no difference in my system. Most of my corals have paled out over the year as well which is why I tried switching back to MH's but it hasn't stopped the brown goo.

Does anyone have an idea as to what this stuff is or, more importantly, how to combat the stuff?

Thanks.
-Ian

 

[acrylic_300]

I've been battling it for what seems like forever.

I've just made it a regular part of my maintenance. It's not to bad siphoning it off the rocks.

The sand is a pita....I lightly stir the area until the "skin" is free of sand then I suck it up with my mouth through a hose.

I plug the hose with my thumb before it gets to my mouth and then pull it out, dump it, and repeat.

I've actually gained control of a few rocks over the last year or so. The "Mother" spot where it all started is really bad. Like you said...it comes back almost daily.

I'm currently attempting to raise my Ph...I will let you know how it turns out.

I've tried about everything I can think of.

 

[Bryan]

Dino's for sure..keeping the PH at 8.30 24/7 will help. As well trying some GFO to absorb phosphates.

 

[Nap]

Yeah, I figured it was Dinos. Any advice on raising the ph without totally warping my alk ? I have always had a hard time with pH on this system. It's never been badly out of whack but it just refuses to stay above 8.1 with a whole lotta tinkering.

 

[Airwolf75]

There's a treatment of 1ml per 10 gallons of regular old drugstore hydrogen peroxide solution that you should try. Twice per day.

 

[Nap]

Airwolf, do you happen to know any links on that H2O2 treatment? I have heard a little about H2O2 for cyano (nothing concrete though), but nothing about it's use as a dino killer.

 

[Airwolf75]

There's no links really, it started with using it to treat another dinoflagellate oodinium, you can find articles where h2o2 and ozone are used to inactivate the cysts of dinoflagellates.

It's pretty new stuff, I only know 1 person who did it for dino's, and it worked in their case. 1ml per 10 gallons did not adversly affect anything in my tank, I had no algae problems, I was just testing for safety.

You seem like you have tried everything, so I'd like to see how this works for you.

Other uses of H202 in aquariums are briefly covered in the Marine Fish Health and Feeding Handbook

 

[Nap]

Thanks for the info. I am gonna do a little more research but then i might have to try it out.