Dino’s or diatoms?

[Chad_P]

Will also add I lost a lot of SPS frags, something I didn’t mentioned in my last post. I went through a period of swings with dkh where my coral quit using as much and I also got a little dangerous with GFO usage. Had some swings with PO4.

Finally let things calm down for a month in January-February and have been adding frags in the past few weeks with no issues. Keeping things stable has helped and I’m seeing growth.

 

[ScottR]

Only way to be sure is microscope

I’ve done this. Used a stereomicroscope a friend has. I found I had diatoms. Diatoms look like clear tube worms with spots.

 

[nano reef]

I have something on sandbed that looks like what you have but it covers walls and wavemakers and came on after first water change after dosing nopox. I had a bad imbalance of nutrients because I always used gfo and when I added my first frags tank was about 5 months old and hant run lights much at all and never did until tank was about 3 months then ran lights here and there. The thing was I added 15 frags at once then 2 weeks later 15 more! Stupid I know. I was so patient then blew it but won half of them or more.

Adding all the frags threw off alk and also uped nitrates to 80 so started nopox for a few weeks. I then had 3 ppm nitrates and 0 phosphates, did water change and within a few days covered all those areas I mentioned plus rock as well, plus little bit of what looked like GHA. I assumed it was diatoms until i read that dinos come on after a waterchange. The thing is it dosnt look like pics of dinos. I dosnt look stringy or snotty or have bubbles attached but later on in photo period bubbles start appearing on the glass on some of the spots that still have whatever it is on it. I was syphoning the tank because I did a water change again after geting it looking almost gone and came back with a venegance. So I started filtering through the sock and putting water back in but I quit doin that to get it to grow to see if it would get stringy with bubbles. It hasnt really but does have what looks like short hairs here and there.

Only time I notice a snotty ness is when I syphon it out. it clumps up and sand all sticking to clumps.

I just did the coffee filter test waitng for results. so If it clumps back up I need to get a microscope?
There are a million ones on amazon and I am not very technically inclined, so do I need a certain type to send in a pic so someone can identify it for me?

I was thinking of trying elegant corals method that was featured on reefdudes but little confused about the air bubbling. He dosnt really expalin it but says You need either co2 scrubbed air or outside air. I hope I can get my hubby to help but my walls are at least 1 ft cinderblock and not really sure how to run an airline to skimmer. I did see Aarons aquarium do bubble scrubbing without using outside air so hope that is okay! Plus I live in Florida with humid how outside air so dont know if that will do much good!

I have been dosing MB7 5 ml per 25 gallons 2 x a week and Vibrant 1 ml per 10 gallons 1 x week. on alternate days. His plan is 2 carbon dose as well which scares me since I am also double dosing neophos for weeks with no results and nirtates already low plus mb7 is a denitrifying bacteria.

sorry this is so long but wanted to give a detailed story of history of tank. Apreciate and help. I havnt added pics since I am not sure how to do that! I could get hubby to but the pics just looked like brownish green diatoms. Hopefully that is all it is! My alk is about to drop below 7 soon. It stared dropping very irregularly since adding all the frags, so irregular I dont know how I am supposed to figure out a daily dose!

 

[nano reef]

Will also add I lost a lot of SPS frags, something I didn’t mentioned in my last post. I went through a period of swings with dkh where my coral quit using as much and I also got a little dangerous with GFO usage. Had some swings with PO4.

Finally let things calm down for a month in January-February and have been adding frags in the past few weeks with no issues. Keeping things stable has helped and I’m seeing growth.

Thats whats happening with my dkh. One day may not drop at all then drop 0.3 the 0-1 then none for days, so so irregular. I have no idea how to dial in a daily dose simce its so irregular! So did you have dinos or diatoms? I have heard some poeple say once they got nutrients in balance dinos went away. Looks like your but all over glass and rocks wavemakers too not just sand bed and only time its seems clumpy is when I vacuum it!

 

[Reef Puncher]

Yes, still no Dino’s. I had a very minor case of diatoms which I’m guessing was due to my dosing silicate.

I’ve also added some additional live rock and completely quit any dosing of NOPOX or running of GFO. Trying to bring down my nutrient levels by manual water changes and lightening my bioload.

The only thing I’ve noticed is on my rocks I’m getting what look like so bubbles on some places on top of the rock. I’ll try and snag some pics but these don’t look like Dino’s and aren’t stringy, they are just right on top of rock. I’m guessing nitrogen bubbles or oxygen due to photosynthesis. No brown stringy stuff just bubbles that float away when blown. They tend to arrive later in the photo period.

Coraline algae is taking over most of my rock and I don’t see any brown stringy stuff or cyano anywhere. Also took my UV offline a couple of months ago.

do you happen to remember how long you ran your UV for? did you run it 24 7? did you turn it off to support diatom growth and bacteria growth?