Can you provide pics under brighter light?I have been having a brown algae issue, I believe it is diatoms. I will attach pictures. How I am attempting to solve the issue right now is with the addition of a bristletooth tang a peppermint shrimp and several snails and crabs.
This is both hair algae and slime algae.
Tanks in a basement far away from any sunlight. I am not sure of the phosphates the hanna checker has not arrived yet and I don’t have a good phos test until then. to further describe what’s happening here the algae that’s on the rocks was all over my tank rocks coral etc, so I bought a new tank cleaned equipment moved rocks/fish/coral/inverts over after running the tank for three days with cycled media in it with the two black clowns. this is about a week into the rocks being moved over to the new tank. I started that tank with rodi water mixed into instant ocean. it is a 20 long tank currently housing a 3 inch kole tang a 2 inch fox face and a 2 inch coral beauty with the two clowns and a bangaii. The kole tang eats the algae and brown powder off the bottom glass pane but the coral beauty and the foxface don’t so I’m moving them back out since they are of no use. The rocks are covered in coral so I can’t soak the rocks in anything harsh they are just all closed up and or halfway dead as of now though but I’d rather not for sure kill any of them. The only thing I’ve dosed right now is 400 mg of fluconazole 48 hours ago, that was my last ditch effort before that I attempted GFO media water changes manual removal everyday sometimes several times a day when my GF was around to help me do it. This stuff grows back in 24 hours it feels like I’ll clean the rock really good and then it’s covered again next time I see the tank. I can take my water to the LFS and get it tested today at some point and get back to you with actual numbers.
I went back and looked at pics on a larger screen. I see what may be derbesia which is similar to bryopsis mixed in. Yes, those will keep coming back unless you properly remove it. Removal is best accomplished by taking the rock out of tank and placing in a container of tank water. Then you will want to pull as much as you can by hand and discard. With a dental pick or small crochet needle, pull the roots off the rock. YOU MUST GET EVERY ROOT OR IT WILL SIMPLY RETURN !!
After I scrape the rocks should I keep the fluconazal dosed?I went back and looked at pics on a larger screen. I see what may be derbesia which is similar to bryopsis mixed in. Yes, those will keep coming back unless you properly remove it. Removal is best accomplished by taking the rock out of tank and placing in a container of tank water. Then you will want to pull as much as you can by hand and discard. With a dental pick or small crochet needle, pull the roots off the rock. YOU MUST GET EVERY ROOT OR IT WILL SIMPLY RETURN !!
After you are done return rock to tank and reduce white light intensity and even hours of white light and add the following cleaners which will help with control. These guys will consume bryopsis but not as fast as bryopsis can grow - They will never keep up.
Pin cushion urchin, Chiton snails, pitho crabs, and larger astrea snails
This procedure is not as bad or time consuming as it seems. Assure phosphate levels do not become elevated which helps feed this algae
harbor Freight:
I dont favor flux in the tank as its often an alternative and not a solution
okay i will probably leave it in the tank then and run some carbon in two weeks or so just so i can really knock this stuff out, this is my last shot before i toss everything but the fish and equipment and start over. ill scrape the rocks aswell. i have not noticed anything from it good or bad yet so it might not even have a impact at all here. what would you advise as far as water changes for this combination of algaes? could it fuel more growth since instant ocean can contain silicates or would lowering nutrients make it grow slower?
More nutrients and light will enhance its growth. Once roots are gone, this algae is gone
So I left the flucanozole in the tank since we last spoke and I woke up today to all of my euphyllia just gone. They all were just naked skeletons with euphyllia tenticle cobwebs. Over 30 heads just slimed over night all my other corals are fine still though. I can get my photometer out after work and get some exact numbers to confirm if anything is off with my parameters before I say for sure it was the flucanozole. I’ve also had two fish die, both blennys. Algae growth has not changed and I know for sure I dosed correctly as I used a mg scale. would the fish transfer this algae to a new tank? I’m just about to break this tank down and move on with my life at this point lol seems less stressful/depressing to just throw away a year of coral growth/collection rather than deal with this a second longer. I’ve also tried scrapping and it just seems to come back literally exactly how it was the day prior in under 24 hours.
Again, reason I do not suggest flux. Ive seen too many of these cases and very sorry to hear.
