Need help to ID brown slimy snot algae

fixedpoint

fixedpoint

New member
For a few months now, I've had a thin layer of brown to translucent slimy snotty algae growing on my live rocks, coral structures, and sometimes on the sand. I also find it nearly free floating in the overflow area and sometimes in the sump. It feels very slimy and breaks apart easily when touched. It is easy to scrub off the top layer with a tooth brush. If left alone, it will form clumpy wavy snotty structures extending upwards a bit (not long and stringy) without any distinguishable air bubbles.

I'm not sure how it entered my system. The first time I noticed it, it was loosely attached to my chaeto which I got from a LFS. So it may have entered that way. I've failed to identify it after consulting a number of resources online as well as some books, so it has been difficult to treat. My CUC seems to ignore the stuff, but it doesn't seem to harm them either.

My best lead is that it may be a form of dinoflagellates. It is brown and slimy, but there are a few potential differences. It doesn't seem to disappear at night and then reappear. I haven't been able to see any free swimming dinoflagellates in night water samples using a microscope. There are no air bubbles and it is not long and stringy.

I don't believe it is diatoms either since it affects the rock more than the sand and I haven't observed diatom structure under a microscope.

After concluding that it wasn't either of those, I started to wonder if it was a fungus or bacteria. That is still possible, but it seems to be photosynethic since it only grows where the overhead lights can reach it. The undersides of rocks or shaded areas do not have the stuff.

It doesn't seem to grow very fast, but it grows a thin layer across everything and so it is hard to keep up with. Although if any particular part gets too much, the wavy motion it produces catches my eye and I suck it out easily.

Of course, I'm doing the standard "controlling nutrients" kind of treatment with a skimmer, fuge, carbon, gfo, filter sock, careful feedings and frequent water changes. I just started elevating my pH through kalk dosing. My parameters look good (0 nitrate, 0 phosphate, 1320 ppm magnesium, 400 ppm calcium, 10 dkh alk, 8.3 pH, 1.025 sg). I would love to treat it, but it is hard when I don't know what it is. Since it is photosynthetic and nutrient control isn't working alone, I'm considering a 5 day blackout and possibly considering hydrogen peroxide dosing but I'm worried about impact on the tank inhabitants.

If anyone can ID it or point me in a helpful direction, it would be very much appreciated.

<b>Brown slime on live rock surrounding a polyp</b>
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/samples/slime/slime4.jpg" width="600" />

<b>Brown slime on live rock</b>
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/samples/slime/slime5.jpg" width="600" />

<b>My CUC recently stripped this clean leaving behind the brown slime</b>
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/samples/slime/slime1.jpg" width="600" />

<b>Some brown slime in the overflow</b>
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/samples/slime/slime2.jpg" width="600" />

<b>Some brown slime in a petri dish</b>
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/samples/slime/slime6.jpg" width="600" />

<b>Brown slime at 50x magnification (small spherical objects are sand grains)</b>
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/samples/slime/slime7.jpg" width="600" />

<b>Brown slime at 250x magnification</b>
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38664265/samples/slime/slime8.jpg" width="600" />
 
Doesn't look like I'm going to get an ID on this one. I am going to proceed with the blackout and see how that helps.
 
I have it in my tank if you blow off the rock it will grow wherever it lands So I would use a turkey baster to remove it. I get a couple of buckets of water one I dip my rock in it pour peroxide on it scrub it with a brush dip in clean water blast with pump put back in tank, be careful with corals. Repeat repeat etc.
 
Update:

I never did ID this stuff. After months of trying to starve it out by judiciously controlling nutrients, I decided to try a five day blackout. It's been three weeks since that blackout and I'm happy to report that it is completely gone. If anyone else runs into this slimy snotty horrible brown stuff, try a five day blackout, I hope your results are as a good as mine have been.
 
fixedpoint said:
Update:

I never did ID this stuff. After months of trying to starve it out by judiciously controlling nutrients, I decided to try a five day blackout. It's been three weeks since that blackout and I'm happy to report that it is completely gone. If anyone else runs into this slimy snotty horrible brown stuff, try a five day blackout, I hope your results are as a good as mine have been.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and update :)
 
Last edited:
Looks like cyano... it's normal. Common in newer tanks. Cyano has been around since the beginning of time and it's everywhere, so it was "introduced" the second you started your aquarium, I'm afraid. Phosphates and nitrates are often causes. Bacterial imbalances also are a cause. Continue WC, don't overfeed. Blackouts help but it will return with a vengeance usually.
 
I've had and dealt with cyano before. This stuff was not long and stringy or red, magenta, or blue-green. It is brown, slimy, and wavy when longer. My nitrates and phosphates after the blackout (when microalgae was dying and nothing was growing) were 1ppm and 0ppm respectively. Do you really think it was cyano?
 
fixedpoint said:
I've had and dealt with cyano before. This stuff was not long and stringy or red, magenta, or blue-green. It is brown, slimy, and wavy when longer. My nitrates and phosphates after the blackout (when microalgae was dying and nothing was growing) were 1ppm and 0ppm respectively. Do you really think it was cyano?
Click to expand...

Doesn't look like cyano. I was sure you had dinos when I saw this post..but you'd see dinos under the microscope. Cyano too for that matter, and diatoms are easy to visualize. Almost had to be bacterial. (Or you need a new scope?)

Regardless, I'm glad you got rid of it! :)

ivy
 
Yeah, I wondered if it was bacterial too. I don't know very much about bacterial growths, but the thing that made me hesitant to call it bacterial was that it was clearly photosynthetic or at least associated with high power lighting (it would grow prolifically on exposed faces but end abruptly where the high power lights couldn't reach).
 
fixedpoint said:
I've had and dealt with cyano before. This stuff was not long and stringy or red, magenta, or blue-green. It is brown, slimy, and wavy when longer. My nitrates and phosphates after the blackout (when microalgae was dying and nothing was growing) were 1ppm and 0ppm respectively. Do you really think it was cyano?
Click to expand...

Hmmm well cyano comes in red, green, purple... It could be like a mix of hair algae and cyano IMO. Sorry if you mentioned this but are you running any carbon or something similar?
 
fixedpoint said:
Update:

I never did ID this stuff. After months of trying to starve it out by judiciously controlling nutrients, I decided to try a five day blackout. It's been three weeks since that blackout and I'm happy to report that it is completely gone. If anyone else runs into this slimy snotty horrible brown stuff, try a five day blackout, I hope your results are as a good as mine have been.
Click to expand...

How did your five day blackout affect your corals? I thought three days was the max you would want to leave your corals in the dark. I have brown algae also. It looks like rust is growing in my tank. I added Marco rock (dry reef rock) to my tank and after three or four days this stuff just took off. 300 gallon water changes in eight days on a 180 reef, changed the GFO twice, added PhozDown three times, scrubbed all the rocks by hand, vacuumed the sand bed and went dark for three days and still this stuff won't go away.
 
@CStrickland - Yes, that is what it looks like when it is allowed to grow unrestrained. The only thing different is that @jwblocal701 said it was crunchy. I don't think my stuff was ever crunchy. Just yucky snotty stuff. Maybe possibly crunchy if it was allowed to dry a bit.

@percula99 - Most of my corals were fine. My hammer coral suffered a bit, but it was already receding from the brown plague anyway so I'm not sure if it was due to the blackout or not. I have a thread that I started on blackout questions. The blackout was an overwhelming success in my experience. I should add that I currently don't have any SPS corals in that tank.
 
You're not carbon (vinegar, vodka, NOPOX) dosing, are you?

IME, effective carbon dosing (which lMO leaves NOPOX out), can produce bacteria snot, which requires additional mechanical filter(s) to remove.

Good luck,

Mike
 
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