Brown Dino/Diatoms...?

[TomBlakee]

Hi All,

Been having an issue with a brown substrate and rocks for a while now. Starting to get out of hand here so needing to solve this ASAP.

The tank is 65Gal, around 7 months old now.

Tank params:
Salinity:35ppt
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8-8.2
Alk: 10
Calc: 395
Mag: 1240
Phos: 0.2~

I am addressing the levels for calcium and magnesium today, getting some additives as I had run out. Nitrate is down at 0 due to the off brand GFO i had in the tank, has now been replaced with RowaPhos.

Small amount of cyano is visible only on one piece of the rock.

Stocking is:
Gold rim tang
2 clowns
2 bangais
Scooter blenny
Diamond goby
Cleaner shrimp
5 hermits
~10 snails

Pictures are attached.

Thanks in advanced.

 

[Brew12]

Hi All,

Been having an issue with a brown substrate and rocks for a while now. Starting to get out of hand here so needing to solve this ASAP.

The tank is 65Gal, around 7 months old now.

Tank params:
Salinity:35ppt
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8-8.2
Alk: 10
Calc: 395
Mag: 1240
Phos: 0.2~

I am addressing the levels for calcium and magnesium today, getting some additives as I had run out. Nitrate is down at 0 due to the off brand GFO i had in the tank, has now been replaced with RowaPhos.

Small amount of cyano is visible only on one piece of the rock.

Stocking is:
Gold rim tang
2 clowns
2 bangais
Scooter blenny
Diamond goby
Cleaner shrimp
5 hermits
~10 snails

Pictures are attached.

Thanks in advanced.

I don't see much in the way of bubbles in it that would be characteristic to dino's and it is definitely not diatoms. I'm guessing you have multiple strains of cyano. It's possible if you get nitrates above 5ppm that it could resolve itself. You will want to break up and vacuum out as much of this stuff as you can. Not sure what you are using to test PO4, but getting that down should help if it is at 0.2ppm.

A cheap microscope would be useful to confirm what you are dealing with.

 

[mcarroll]

Nitrate: 0

Phos: 0.2~

Gold rim tang
2 clowns
2 bangais
Scooter blenny
Diamond goby
Cleaner shrimp
5 hermits
~10 snails

How are all these guys doing? Snails and other CUC members are usually the first to show effects if there's anything toxic growing. Anyone "slow" or lethargic? Seeming sleepy or having trouble staying on the walls?

Nitrate is down at 0 due to the off brand GFO i had in the tank, has now been replaced with RowaPhos.

I'm not sure I follow....nitrates wouldn't be particularly affected.

I would get things balanced so there's available dissolved nitrogen. You want that cyano to replace the dino's/brown stuff....and then exhaust itself so it gets replaced with green algae....or better yet coraline algae. Sometimes you can skip one or more phases.

I'd be surprised if there weren't a lot of dino's in that mix on your sand bed, BTW.

So IMO take the GFO, carbon dosing and any other "nutrient tweaks" offline until things are straightened out.

If you ALSO bottom out phosphates, you'll have a real mess on your hands.

I don't know that there's much downside to leaving your PO4 levels alone evn if they are a little on the high side. It should get used up pretty quickly once nitrogen is no longer a limit. Corals, coraline algae and most other things that you want to grow and spread really need it.

 

[GoPitt88]

I have the same thing. My Phosphates always read zero. I use both GFO and ROX carbon, in media bags placed in my canister filter. Should I stop using both for a while? I have noticed that I don't have much coralline algae, and the brown stuff is mainly on my sand [emoji853]

 

[mcarroll]

Activated carbon is probably fine, but still may or may not be needed.

If your phosphates are below 0.03 ppm, then I'd definitely stop trying to lower it.

 

[Brew12]

My Phosphates always read zero. I use both GFO

If your phosphates are below 0.03 ppm, then I'd definitely stop trying to lower it.

+1 on this.

If you have phosphates below 0.03ppm and don't have a large nutrient source going into the tank then running GFO can open the door to dino's.

 

[André Brasil]

I would also throw in there the thought that adjusting or increasing flow might help with detritus settling on sand and cyano managing to get a foothold.

 

[GoPitt88]

+1 on this.

If you have phosphates below 0.03ppm and don't have a large nutrient source going into the tank then running GFO can open the door to dino's.

Interesting.....I'll try running the tank without it for a while to see what happens. Thanks!

 

[Brew12]

There are so many strains of dino's and cyano that this is only true in general terms but typically, cyano is associated with nitrate deficiency and dino's are associated with phosphate deficiency.

 

[dwest]

Hi All,

Been having an issue with a brown substrate and rocks for a while now. Starting to get out of hand here so needing to solve this ASAP.

The tank is 65Gal, around 7 months old now.

Tank params:
Salinity:35ppt
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8-8.2
Alk: 10
Calc: 395
Mag: 1240
Phos: 0.2~

I am addressing the levels for calcium and magnesium today, getting some additives as I had run out. Nitrate is down at 0 due to the off brand GFO i had in the tank, has now been replaced with RowaPhos.

Small amount of cyano is visible only on one piece of the rock.

Stocking is:
Gold rim tang
2 clowns
2 bangais
Scooter blenny
Diamond goby
Cleaner shrimp
5 hermits
~10 snails

Pictures are attached.

Thanks in advanced.

I bet you would see amphidinium in the sand bed with a microscope.

 

[TomBlakee]

Thanks for all the responses.

The sand bed is now being churned up by the diamond goby which is great obviously, but am needing to set it straight.

Foundation elements are being brought back to normal now, over a couple of days they should be back to correct levels.

Everyone in the tank is doing great currently, all snails and crabs are accounted for, as far as I can tell.

I am just waiting for a nitrate reading and have been for 2 weeks now. Phosphate isn’t dropping rapidly, as I’m using 150grams of rowaphos.

The reason the nitrate was so low (from my understanding) is due to a product here in the UK called phosnitra remover which is clearly better at eliminating nitrate than phosphate.

LFS mentioned it could be bacterial, as its clear in the morning when the lights come on.

 

[TomBlakee]

I don't see much in the way of bubbles in it that would be characteristic to dino's and it is definitely not diatoms. I'm guessing you have multiple strains of cyano. It's possible if you get nitrates above 5ppm that it could resolve itself. You will want to break up and vacuum out as much of this stuff as you can. Not sure what you are using to test PO4, but getting that down should help if it is at 0.2ppm.

A cheap microscope would be useful to confirm what you are dealing with.

The test kit is the Red Sea phosphate Pro,

Getting accurate results on any nano, where all levels are where they should be and I have crystal sand beds on that.

Thanks for the response

 

[TomBlakee]

How are all these guys doing? Snails and other CUC members are usually the first to show effects if there's anything toxic growing. Anyone "slow" or lethargic? Seeming sleepy or having trouble staying on the walls?



I'm not sure I follow....nitrates wouldn't be particularly affected.

I would get things balanced so there's available dissolved nitrogen. You want that cyano to replace the dino's/brown stuff....and then exhaust itself so it gets replaced with green algae....or better yet coraline algae. Sometimes you can skip one or more phases.

I'd be surprised if there weren't a lot of dino's in that mix on your sand bed, BTW.

So IMO take the GFO, carbon dosing and any other "nutrient tweaks" offline until things are straightened out.

If you ALSO bottom out phosphates, you'll have a real mess on your hands.

I don't know that there's much downside to leaving your PO4 levels alone evn if they are a little on the high side. It should get used up pretty quickly once nitrogen is no longer a limit. Corals, coraline algae and most other things that you want to grow and spread really need it.

Thanks again.

Reason I am reducing the phosphates now is because they did reach 0.36 according to the RS Phosphate Pro kit, and I lost 2 frags of SPS due to the imbalance I think? Both now bleached and really struggling.

How long should I expect my nitrates to increase with my current stock?