What is this brown stuff?

[oshanickreef]

Happy thanksgiving reefers!

I have a question regarding my tank.

Tank: 220 gallons with sump, big reef octopus skimmer, a recently installed biopellet reactor (reef octopus bio churn). Tons of flow in the tank. Just added two more tunze 6095s. I change the filter socks every few days and clean the skimmer religiously.

Since installing the biopellet reactor (8 weeks ago) nitrates seem to be doing well I still have to dose lanthanum chloride to keep phosphates from climbing.

My current levels are:
Salinity 1.026
Temp 79.3
Alk 9.3
Cal 440
Nitrate 5
Phosphate .07

I have this brown slime crap growing everywhere killing everything in its path. Also noticed my butterfly fish pale and covered in white spots. Not sure *** is going on in my tank but it's freaking me out. Pics attached. Thanks any advice is greatly appreciated!

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[deaclauderdale]

Could be dinos.


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[truben1010]

Happy thanksgiving reefers!

I have a question regarding my tank.

Tank: 220 gallons with sump, big reef octopus skimmer, a recently installed biopellet reactor (reef octopus bio churn). Tons of flow in the tank. Just added two more tunze 6095s. I change the filter socks every few days and clean the skimmer religiously.

Since installing the biopellet reactor (8 weeks ago) nitrates seem to be doing well I still have to dose lanthanum chloride to keep phosphates from climbing.

My current levels are:
Salinity 1.026
Temp 79.3
Alk 9.3
Cal 440
Nitrate 5
Phosphate .07

I have this brown slime crap growing everywhere killing everything in its path. Also noticed my butterfly fish pale and covered in white spots. Not sure *** is going on in my tank but it's freaking me out. Pics attached. Thanks any advice is greatly appreciated!

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I am barely getting done with Dino's, which yours looks like, but not as severe as mine. I tried three days complete black out and I used Dino X and it's calmed down. Everything died in my tank and I recently added snails and they have been eating the dead Dino's no problem. Here is a before pic of mine, I don't have a recent pic yet.

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[mcgyvr]

Yup...dinos..
Enjoy

 

[oshanickreef]

Yup...dinos..
Enjoy

Thanks for the tip.... not


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[JWClark]

Your nutrients are too low. By the looks of the Dinos I'd expect them to be 0 so suspect your phosphate measure may be off.

If you want to keep the biopellet reactor online I'd stop dosing the lanthanum chloride and let phosphates rise a little. Maybe get a confirmatory test to make sure (what test are you using--Hanna ULR?).

Also, add a UV. If Ostreopsis then this may help knock them down. If another genus it may have no effect. Try to ID them for better advice.

 

[JWClark]

Maybe give dnguyen1 advice on how you are dosing lanthanum chloride as well. Risky business in an established tank.

 

[oshanickreef]

Your nutrients are too low. By the looks of the Dinos I'd expect them to be 0 so suspect your phosphate measure may be off.

If you want to keep the biopellet reactor online I'd stop dosing the lanthanum chloride and let phosphates rise a little. Maybe get a confirmatory test to make sure (what test are you using--Hanna ULR?).

Also, add a UV. If Ostreopsis then this may help knock them down. If another genus it may have no effect. Try to ID them for better advice.

Thanks for the info. I will verify the phosphates. Before dosing lanthanum, phosphates were 200+ on the Hanna ULR. Been battling getting them down so I can put corals in.


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[gareth.hubbarde]

Going to ask a silly question here, what are dinos? Are we talking diatoms, which my tank seems to be going through a stage at the moment?

On a separate note I'm 36 hours into treatment of fluconozole for hair algae.

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[five.five-six]

I have treated Dino’s successfully with UV sterilization during the night while they are motile in the water column. It depends on which brand of Dino’s you have if UV is effective or a waste of time. I have also effectively used O3 to treat Dinos in the same manner.

 

[oshanickreef]

Going to ask a silly question here, what are dinos? Are we talking diatoms, which my tank seems to be going through a stage at the moment?

On a separate note I'm 36 hours into treatment of fluconozole for hair algae.

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Totally off topic.... lol but I actually just finished a fluconozole treatment on a different tank. You can pm me about it but let's stay on topic for this thread. [emoji3]


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[gareth.hubbarde]

Totally off topic.... lol but I actually just finished a fluconozole treatment on a different tank. You can pm me about it but let's stay on topic for this thread. [emoji3]


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Thanks still didn't answer what dinos are though. Lol.
Are they diatoms? I thought they were pretty harmless new tank kind of thing? Like mine, the rock is old and mature but substrate is new as is the tsnk and water etc. Hence I got diatoms on the substrate?

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[Michael Hoaster]

Dinos are dinoflagellates, a particularly nasty algae, that is difficult to defeat, because there are many different kinds. This makes treatment tough because there are many conflicting methods.

 

[mcgyvr]

And dinos are not diatoms..
Diatoms seem to feed off "silicates" which are often present in new substrate,etc.. which is why they are typically seen when a tank is new and pass as the available silicates are consumed and not replenished.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinoflagellate

 

[Herndog]

Dino's just went through this on my RSM Nano after dosing NoPoX for a week

Dino's just went through this on my RSM Nano after dosing NoPoX for a week

My tank jumped down to near zero Nitrates and Phosphates suddenly.(hard to dose a tank this small)

I used cheap 3% hydrogen peroxide but a lot more than I see suggested. I cranked up MP10 to max and skimmer to max and stopped dosing NoPoX for now.

I blew off everything in the tank about 3 times in a day and squirted in about 10 ml of the peroxide each time in front of the MP10. The next day it looked 98% better.

I then did this once a day for 3 days. My Nitrate and Phosphate readings are back up to where the Red Sea Mixed Reef recipe suggests and everything is looking great.(LPS,SPS, frags) Green film algae is returning on back wall and glass.