What is this crap and how do I get rid of it?

deputydog95

New member
It's a relatively new tank (around 5 months) getting prepped for SPS.

8.5 dkh
450 Ca
1400 Mg
.02 Phos
.5 Nitrate
1.026 Salinity

Fritz Salt and Red Sea liquid A&B+Mg. RODI water, of course.

It's rust-colored and bit stringy... I can mix it up into the water column, filter it out, and it's back within hours.

I've been doing the SPS things for year and years and have never experienced anything like this.

I have an active refugium with obviously low nutrients, so none of this makes any sense.

It's on the rocks now too...

Thoughts?

Edited.

See below for pics.
 
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From the description it sounds like dinoflagelletes however if you intended to post a pic, it doesn’t look like it posted
 
That's odd. I did post two pics, and I can see them in the original post.

Let me try and repost them again through a different method. Not sure why I can see them and you can't but clearly something isn't right.

Thanks for the heads up on the photos.
 
Yk8vPeQ.png
 
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Interesting. I've had dino's before, but it was more like dust. I've never seen it get stringy like this.

Unfortunately, my sleeper goby is starving as it won't touch the sand anymore and despite feeding him mysis and brine as a supplement, it's apparently not enough.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
I don't see any bubbling looks more like red cyano to me.
It returns fast after removal, another red flag of cyano.
Try no lights for a day right after removing it and if it does not return strongly then you know that is the issue, if so then the hunt for the cause comes next.
New tanks are prone to this issue, had it myself 2 times until my tank stabilized & matured. I treated with Chemiclean both time amazing stuff did not even bother my pods or snails, totally safe.
It never returned once i rounded the 2 yr. mark.
 
I can see the pics now on your new posts (maybe my adblocker is blocking the originals?) anyway, that does look similar to the beginnings of cyano
 
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