Diatoms or Dino’s?

[ReefAddict16]

My tank is about 4-5 months old and this problem seems to never go away.

 

[Peng]

looks like green hair algae not dino or diatom. Green hair algae usually appear when the tank is young. Eventually they phase out after several months.

 

[LBReefer]

I’ve had the same issue around frags when they aren’t flourishing.

 

[mcarroll]

My tank is about 4-5 months old and this problem seems to never go away.

At 4-5 months old, you're early with the "never" stuff. Patience!!

It does look like green hair – at least underneath what's growing on top of it.

Tell us more about the tank.

Dead rock?
Carbon dosing?
GFO?
Extra bio-media?
CUC?
Fish load?
All test results?
If you shake a sample up in a vial really well and then leave it under the lights, does any of it re-form into a snotty mass vs just settling to the bottom?

I’ve had the same issue around frags when they aren’t flourishing.

Same cause probably....N or P starvation is likely.

 

[ReefAddict16]

At 4-5 months old, you're early with the "never" stuff. Patience!!

It does look like green hair – at least underneath what's growing on top of it.

Tell us more about the tank.

Dead rock?
Carbon dosing?
GFO?
Extra bio-media?
CUC?
Fish load?
All test results?
If you shake a sample up in a vial really well and then leave it under the lights, does any of it re-form into a snotty mass vs just settling to the bottom?



Same cause probably....N or P starvation is likely.

50g total w/ 5 fish. Fed once a day.
Started with live rock. Also have live rock from a mature tank in the sump about 20lbs.
No carbon dosing.
Dosed nitrates to get rid of my dinos.
Nitrates at 10ppm.
Currently running GFO and phosphates are ~.07.
I have a lot of hermits, no snails at the moment as they died from a fenbendazole treatment.
Ill have to try the sample. How long do I leave it under lights?

 

[ReefAddict16]

I’ve had the same issue around frags when they aren’t flourishing.

Mine seems to not flourish from the algae.

 

[ReefAddict16]

If you shake a sample up in a vial really well and then leave it under the lights, does any of it re-form into a snotty mass vs just settling to the bottom?

It stays floating.

 

[mcarroll]

50g total w/ 5 fish. Fed once a day.
Started with live rock. Also have live rock from a mature tank in the sump about 20lbs.
No carbon dosing.
Dosed nitrates to get rid of my dinos.
Nitrates at 10ppm.
Currently running GFO and phosphates are ~.07.
I have a lot of hermits, no snails at the moment as they died from a fenbendazole treatment.
Ill have to try the sample. How long do I leave it under lights?

5 is a lot in a brand new tank, so that's part of the issue....too many nutrients, too quickly for an immature tank.
Excellent that you started with live rock.
Strange that this has to be asked, but hey "modern times" so: was it live from the ocean, or "live" as in someone bought dead rock and cured it for a while?
Did you mean to say nitrates for dino's? (It's ok, just confirming.)
Speaking of confirming, how did you know it was dino's before?
You should take down the GFO if there's been any presence of dino's.
Hermits are opportunists, not herbivores, so keep that in mind when you start rebuilding the CUC.
Whaaaaat the heck is fenbenda-whatever? That sounds like it nuked your tank...definitely not great for your live rock – what happened?????

Not long...hours or less.

 

[mcarroll]

If nothing regroups, then no dino's. Dino's can swim – nothing else really does.

It would be ideal to confirm with a microscope if possible, but that's a pretty good sign!

 

[ReefAddict16]

5 is a lot in a brand new tank, so that's part of the issue....too many nutrients, too quickly for an immature tank.
Excellent that you started with live rock.
Strange that this has to be asked, but hey "modern times" so: was it live from the ocean, or "live" as in someone bought dead rock and cured it for a while?
Did you mean to say nitrates for dino's? (It's ok, just confirming.)
Speaking of confirming, how did you know it was dino's before?
You should take down the GFO if there's been any presence of dino's.
Hermits are opportunists, not herbivores, so keep that in mind when you start rebuilding the CUC.
Whaaaaat the heck is fenbenda-whatever? That sounds like it nuked your tank...definitely not great for your live rock – what happened?????

Not long...hours or less.

It was cured “real reef rock” (man made) from my LFS. The sump rock was from a mature tank (2+ years)
Yeah nitrates for dinos. I had 0 nutrients and ran into dinos. Now have this brown algae.
It was dark brown and had long strands about 4” long.
Fenbendazole was for hydroids. Could’ve possibly nuked it. My tank was doing fine before.

 

[mcarroll]

Crazy!! Def. stay away from any further chemical/medicinal treatments for any reason. Out of curiosity, where'd you get the recommendation for that?

I think for our purposes (politics and marketing aside) I would not consider your "real reef" rock to be live.

If the sump rock was not "live from the ocean" then I'd probably consider it the same way.

Plus, I'd consider it all nuked at this point.

It's great/no harm-no foul for the tank if we're wrong, of course, but it could be a little dangerous (at least to livestock) for you to assume things are fine if they aren't.

I think I'd stick with the basics/natural method on your recovery. Could take a while.

Don't remove nutrients anymore....if there's an imbalance where either N or P are trending to zero or where one of them but not the other is building up, then add nutrients to keep the balance rather than trying to establish a balance by removing "excess".

Maintain the tank by hand along with help from your CUC. Pulling, siphoning and plucking should be your only tools to keep the long algae down. The CUC should then keep it down. If they can't, then you need more or different members on the crew.

Make sure you slow down livestocking and all other activities to all way more time for the tank to mature in between changes. E.g. if you add a fish, wait at least 1 month before adding the next. 2-3 months wouldn't be too long.

 

[Peng]

Have you tried running your tank without GFO? For many a skimmer plus a small mesh bag of carbon is enough for a lot of people. GFO is a problem solver not a tank starter.

 

[ReefAddict16]

Crazy!! Def. stay away from any further chemical/medicinal treatments for any reason. Out of curiosity, where'd you get the recommendation for that?

I think for our purposes (politics and marketing aside) I would not consider your "real reef" rock to be live.

If the sump rock was not "live from the ocean" then I'd probably consider it the same way.

Plus, I'd consider it all nuked at this point.

It's great/no harm-no foul for the tank if we're wrong, of course, but it could be a little dangerous (at least to livestock) for you to assume things are fine if they aren't.

I think I'd stick with the basics/natural method on your recovery. Could take a while.

Don't remove nutrients anymore....if there's an imbalance where either N or P are trending to zero or where one of them but not the other is building up, then add nutrients to keep the balance rather than trying to establish a balance by removing "excess".

Maintain the tank by hand along with help from your CUC. Pulling, siphoning and plucking should be your only tools to keep the long algae down. The CUC should then keep it down. If they can't, then you need more or different members on the crew.

Make sure you slow down livestocking and all other activities to all way more time for the tank to mature in between changes. E.g. if you add a fish, wait at least 1 month before adding the next. 2-3 months wouldn't be too long.

Im pretty sure I got the recommendation from Reef2reef. It did solve my hydroid problem.
Would you reccomend still running my skimmer? I wasn’t running GFO while I had the dino’s. Just recently started using it because of this algae outbreak.

 

[ReefAddict16]

Have you tried running your tank without GFO? For many a skimmer plus a small mesh bag of carbon is enough for a lot of people. GFO is a problem solver not a tank starter.

Yes for the first three months I wasn’t using anything but a skimmer.
Was planning on removing the gfo once this outbreak clears up. Just wasn’t sure if it’s algae or dino’s.

 

[Peng]

Yes for the first three months I wasn’t using anything but a skimmer.
Was planning on removing the gfo once this outbreak clears up. Just wasn’t sure if it’s algae or dino’s.

You can remove it and watch what happens. Once an outbreak is gone, there’s usually an imbalance of some kind. Before the algae came out dino was dominant in your tank and sucking all the nutrients. Slowly though I would expect hair algae to be controlled once everything dials in and your pods reproduce to consume them

 

[mcarroll]

Im pretty sure I got the recommendation from Reef2reef. It did solve my hydroid problem.

Ew...I'm not proud of that. (There's a ton of threads out there...I see you're not alone.)

I'm always stunned whenI find out what folks will put in their tanks...and recommend for others.

But I'm glad it at least worked as advertised on the hydroids.

Sadly, miracle cures are never miracles even when they do seem to cure something. Fenbendazole is a de-wormer with major side-effects (works on e.g. sheep....but deaths have been reported on e.g. sheep), so you probably nuked every wormy critter in your tank and maybe more – a lot of your unseen CUC and critters which bring stability to a tank in the long run.

See if you can at least order or beg some bristleworms online (vendor or person...that outfit in Hawaii that came up a few posts back had briostleworms and more) or from someone local. Maybe even better, or at least a good addition, would be some detritus from a healthy tank – to restore at least a little of what was lost.

yes on the skimmer – they aren't very good at removing waste, but they are crucial for aeration. A very underestimated function.

I'd take down the GFO.

 

[ReefAddict16]

Yeah probably wasn’t the best idea especially for a new tank.
So I’ll just stick with the simple method and wait it out.
Thanks for guys reccomemdations!

 

[SGREEFER310]

Have you tried a sea hare ? They love algae.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

My tank is about 4-5 months old and this problem seems to never go away.

I'm going to drop in my most referenced article here, which might help...

Read #15: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/

The nitrogen cycle is only the startup of a SW tank cycle. The next 6-12 months is a maturing phase, and it's typically in this time frame where algae outbreaks occur and things can sort of roller-coaster, and if you stock the tank up too quickly, you might see corals randomly dying & fish getting sick, etc...one can very easily fall into the trap of chasing problems = making more problems => giving up and selling everything off.

Long-term stability and balance are the keys, and you just can't shortcut the process significantly. That's always the #1 thing to keep in mind!

But as far as fighting off the problem, that can be tricky because you first have to identify the root cause of the issue, which can be one or several of a plethora of reasons.

Before the algae came out dino was dominant in your tank and sucking all the nutrients. Slowly though I would expect hair algae to be controlled once everything dials in and your pods reproduce to consume them

^^ good advice

 

[ReefAddict16]

Have you tried a sea hare ? They love algae.

No I don’t. I have a long spine urchin but he doesn’t seem to do much.