I started with a Waterbox 100.3 tank about 4 months ago that now I have some fish and a few coral. I went through a quick diatom bloom after and then things started to look beautiful. Around month 3 I even started to get a few small splotches of pink coralline algae on the glass. I had started with all dry rock and I knew better than to let my nutrients bottom out. As my tank was establishing I was testing everyday. Nitrates were staying around 3-4 ppm and I had a 0.02 phosphate and things seemed really stable. Then i went on vacation and got busy at work and was testing a bit less. I noticed during this time, but did not think much about this brown snotty stuff starting grow on the rocks, glass and sand. As it started to really take over I got a bit more concerned. I tested and my nitrates had gone down to 0.5 ppm and phosphates were 0. Well crud.... This "stuff" was very snotty, stringy and would have a bubble. So i thought i had dinos which i battled for about 6 months on a previous tank years ago. I grabbed a sample and put it under a small scope. I saw a couple few big differences than the last time i had dinos. The cells looked really small and there was no movement at all. My dino outbreak were much bigger and those things were moving everywhere.
Here is what I saw
I started searching the forums and definitely I started to figure out these were probably chrysophytes or some people were calling it golden algae. After reading everything I could find on them the best treatment plan I saw was
1. Manual removal
2. Run GFO for 24 hours after removal - the hypothesis is GFO removes silicates that first 24 hours
3. Get your phosphates and nitrates up
4. repeat
So I have been on this constant schedule for about 3 weeks.
Things I have tried:
Manual removal - A toothbrush does wonders and this stuff comes off really easy. I scrub everything and my filter socks and skimmer seem to really catch it. After a scrub the tank looks so beautiful! I usually do a small water change during one scrub a week so i can siphon what i can off the sandbed.
Nutrients - I am back to testing nitrate and phosphate everyday. I keep nitrates at 2-3 ppm, but I have to dose the neonitro almost everyday as my nitrate go down everyday. I keep phophates at 0.02 when i can, but I am also dosing about every other day with newphos to keep them up or they will bottom out. Phosphates also keep going down.
GFO - I tried this 24 hour thing for about 3 cycles (24 hour of gfo in the tank after a manual scrub every 3-4 days. It did not seem to do anything and so i have now stopped.
UV sterilizer - I have a big one running, but it is not helping. I does not look like these things are mobile and so they don't really go into the water column. I just keep it going so that when i scrub it might kill some of the cells i scrape off.
So this cycle above is just not working. They keep coming back slowly but surely and I keep scrubbing every few days to keep them in check while trying to keep my nitrate and phosphate up. (i do dose all for reef and my alk and calc stay very stable at 8.5 and 450 with tropic marin salt as well).
I then read everything I could about Vibrant from the good to the horror stories. My LFS actually told me to try it for the golden algea and brs has a video about vibrant with some golden algea rocks. I got the "REEF" version even though when we looked in the store they both show the exact same ingredients. I am guessing the reef is more dilute. I decided I am going to try it. I still got scared and and only used 1/2 dose. I figure my waterbox 100.3 has about 60 gallons after the sand/rock and so I just dosed 3 ml of REEF vibrant. Coral are still looking good so are but my nitrates and phosphates are sinking (which they were doing this even before the vibrant). I am still dosing almost daily to keep them up.
We will watch and see what happens. I will try to dose once per week. Not sure if I should go with a 6 ml dose on my second dose or keep the 3 ml for awhile.
The only other thing i can think of is to order about 10 lbs of live rock for gulf live rock?
Anyway I am so tired of battling these stuff. There are surprisingly few threads on chrysophytes, but if anyone has sage advice I am all ears.
Here is what I saw
I started searching the forums and definitely I started to figure out these were probably chrysophytes or some people were calling it golden algae. After reading everything I could find on them the best treatment plan I saw was
1. Manual removal
2. Run GFO for 24 hours after removal - the hypothesis is GFO removes silicates that first 24 hours
3. Get your phosphates and nitrates up
4. repeat
So I have been on this constant schedule for about 3 weeks.
Things I have tried:
Manual removal - A toothbrush does wonders and this stuff comes off really easy. I scrub everything and my filter socks and skimmer seem to really catch it. After a scrub the tank looks so beautiful! I usually do a small water change during one scrub a week so i can siphon what i can off the sandbed.
Nutrients - I am back to testing nitrate and phosphate everyday. I keep nitrates at 2-3 ppm, but I have to dose the neonitro almost everyday as my nitrate go down everyday. I keep phophates at 0.02 when i can, but I am also dosing about every other day with newphos to keep them up or they will bottom out. Phosphates also keep going down.
GFO - I tried this 24 hour thing for about 3 cycles (24 hour of gfo in the tank after a manual scrub every 3-4 days. It did not seem to do anything and so i have now stopped.
UV sterilizer - I have a big one running, but it is not helping. I does not look like these things are mobile and so they don't really go into the water column. I just keep it going so that when i scrub it might kill some of the cells i scrape off.
So this cycle above is just not working. They keep coming back slowly but surely and I keep scrubbing every few days to keep them in check while trying to keep my nitrate and phosphate up. (i do dose all for reef and my alk and calc stay very stable at 8.5 and 450 with tropic marin salt as well).
I then read everything I could about Vibrant from the good to the horror stories. My LFS actually told me to try it for the golden algea and brs has a video about vibrant with some golden algea rocks. I got the "REEF" version even though when we looked in the store they both show the exact same ingredients. I am guessing the reef is more dilute. I decided I am going to try it. I still got scared and and only used 1/2 dose. I figure my waterbox 100.3 has about 60 gallons after the sand/rock and so I just dosed 3 ml of REEF vibrant. Coral are still looking good so are but my nitrates and phosphates are sinking (which they were doing this even before the vibrant). I am still dosing almost daily to keep them up.
We will watch and see what happens. I will try to dose once per week. Not sure if I should go with a 6 ml dose on my second dose or keep the 3 ml for awhile.
The only other thing i can think of is to order about 10 lbs of live rock for gulf live rock?
Anyway I am so tired of battling these stuff. There are surprisingly few threads on chrysophytes, but if anyone has sage advice I am all ears.
