Chrysophytes? GHA?

Gold1

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Hey everybody - adding my pictures and question to a long line of others trying to figure out what's going on in their tank. I've been battling whatever this is for weeks. It doesn't look as stringy as GHA or BHA but there are some stringy parts. I'll toothbrush it off, clean it from my overflow vents and back wall, etc. and it's back the next day. My clowns love sleeping in it, and it doesn't seem to bother any of the other fish (Tomini tang and Coral beauty angel pick at it once in a while) but it just looks ugly and clogs up my filters. It's also hard to tell if my CUC - 4 turbo snails, 6 trochus snails, 12 bumblebee snails, 4 hermit crabs, 2 emerald crabs care about it at all (but none appear to be starving).

20240111_111354.jpg


20240111_111324.jpg


20240111_111307.jpg


Tank is a red sea max S500 and has been running for 6 months. Running Red Sea skimmer that drains back to the sump. I have an extra wave maker in there to move water from side to side. Refugium with chaeto and (what I believe is) codium. 78F, 8.0-8.1 ph 1.025 Salinity, 8 dkH alkalinity. I have 0 phosphates (Hanna ULR) and 0 Nitrates (API). I run my day lights on a 10 hour cycle, refugium at night for 9 hours. I feel quite lost reading up on ways to fix things. A lot says overfeeding leads to algae growth but then I see 0 phosphates and nitrates need more food and dosing. I purchased trisodium phosphate to try dosing to get any sign to show up on the meter which will arrive over the weekend since I heard that could cause issues to have 0 phosphate but I also do want to make the situation worse.

Would appreciate a more experienced hand weighing in on possible fixes.
 

Dan_P

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Hey everybody - adding my pictures and question to a long line of others trying to figure out what's going on in their tank. I've been battling whatever this is for weeks. It doesn't look as stringy as GHA or BHA but there are some stringy parts. I'll toothbrush it off, clean it from my overflow vents and back wall, etc. and it's back the next day. My clowns love sleeping in it, and it doesn't seem to bother any of the other fish (Tomini tang and Coral beauty angel pick at it once in a while) but it just looks ugly and clogs up my filters. It's also hard to tell if my CUC - 4 turbo snails, 6 trochus snails, 12 bumblebee snails, 4 hermit crabs, 2 emerald crabs care about it at all (but none appear to be starving).

20240111_111354.jpg


20240111_111324.jpg


20240111_111307.jpg


Tank is a red sea max S500 and has been running for 6 months. Running Red Sea skimmer that drains back to the sump. I have an extra wave maker in there to move water from side to side. Refugium with chaeto and (what I believe is) codium. 78F, 8.0-8.1 ph 1.025 Salinity, 8 dkH alkalinity. I have 0 phosphates (Hanna ULR) and 0 Nitrates (API). I run my day lights on a 10 hour cycle, refugium at night for 9 hours. I feel quite lost reading up on ways to fix things. A lot says overfeeding leads to algae growth but then I see 0 phosphates and nitrates need more food and dosing. I purchased trisodium phosphate to try dosing to get any sign to show up on the meter which will arrive over the weekend since I heard that could cause issues to have 0 phosphate but I also do want to make the situation worse.

Would appreciate a more experienced hand weighing in on possible fixes.
Looks like a massive cyanobacteria bloom
 
OP
OP
G

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Looks like a massive cyanobacteria bloom
Thanks - I wondered that as well but didn't seem to get many of the same hits as I saw for other folks with cyano. Mine is stringy, no air bubbles, and golden-brownish. It is on rocks and the sand bed so I could see that being a +1 to cyano. The water is clear though and there's no red or blue-green in the growth. But I'm also not opposed to treating it as if it were cyano and seeing what happens.
 

Ethan789987

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Thanks - I wondered that as well but didn't seem to get many of the same hits as I saw for other folks with cyano. Mine is stringy, no air bubbles, and golden-brownish. It is on rocks and the sand bed so I could see that being a +1 to cyano. The water is clear though and there's no red or blue-green in the growth. But I'm also not opposed to treating it as if it were cyano and seeing what happens.
Did you ever figure out what this is or get rid of it? I have been dealing with the same issue.
 

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