I am stumped

[saltyfins]

I’m going to add some pictures of what I’m dealing with. It’s some sort of hair algae I think but I’m not sure. Doesn’t blow off like Dino’s do, and po4 is 0.08 no3 is 8.5 per Hanna.
If I clean the tank, it’s back within 2 days like this, smells to me… like electricity when I clean it out, water change, scraping, change filters. It’s stuck to rocks like green hair, but it’s brownish, red
Red Sea 56 gallon
Alk:7.5
Ca:400
The 2 others I listed.
Tank is 8 months old, started with live rock from my 350 gallon
Any help would be fantastic

Sorry, I did the best I could figure out, with these goofy lights. Also, I shortened the light cycle to 8 hrs

 

[saltyfins]

Anyone? please?

 

[Reefer Matt]

When I get hair algae, I remove the big parts by hand and add more snails. For byropsis I use flucanozole. Cyano, chemiclean. If you take some of this out of the tank and look at in daylight, it may actually be a different color. Green algae and cyano are often red with blue lights, for example. It may help with your diagnosis. Also, a microscope can help, as many “algae” outbreaks look the same. Seeing the individual cells gives a positive id instead of guessing.

 

[saltyfins]

When I get hair algae, I remove the big parts by hand and add more snails. For byropsis I use flucanozole. Cyano, chemiclean. If you take some of this out of the tank and look at in daylight, it may actually be a different color. Green algae and cyano are often red with blue lights, for example. It may help with your diagnosis. Also, a microscope can help, as many “algae” outbreaks look the same. Seeing the individual cells gives a positive id instead of guessing.

Ok I can do that. I've had dinos before in my large tank, so that's why I am not sure that this is what it is, especially since it's "sticking" to rock/glass...I added some snails and hermits and an emerald, and I havent seen anything that's helping. I am "trying" to not use chemicals, but at this point...I may have to.
so looking at it with a microscope, can you please tell me exactly what it is, that I am looking for, if it's a hair algae? I'm pretty confident with dino's....I think lol

 

[dwest]

My original guess was hair algae covered with cyano and/or dinos. Your corals look good. If your snails are staying alive, I’d do manual removal, add snails, and wait it out.

Like Matt said, a microscope could help. I have a real cheap one that I use to get ID of things every now and then. You can look under the scope, then google what things look like under a scope until you find a match.

I moved about a year ago. My new setup (which was my old setup, just in a new location) has had lots of green cyano. With manual removal, and lots of snails, and lots of frustration, it’s finally slowly receding. But it’s been almost a year.

I haven’t tried chemical eradication either. But I probably should have.

Good luck.

 

[saltyfins]

My original guess was hair algae covered with cyano and/or dinos. Your corals look good. If your snails are staying alive, I’d do manual removal, add snails, and wait it out.

Like Matt said, a microscope could help. I have a real cheap one that I use to get ID of things every now and then. You can look under the scope, then google what things look like under a scope until you find a match.

I moved about a year ago. My new setup (which was my old setup, just in a new location) has had lots of green cyano. With manual removal, and lots of snails, and lots of frustration, it’s finally slowly receding. But it’s been almost a year.

I haven’t tried chemical eradication either. But I probably should have.

Good luck.

Ok thank you. Just a starting point to see what's what. it's odd, I probably should have mentioned...it started with a thick green slime on the glass, that also smelled. I will rip it all apart tomorrow, when I get enough water made. Just so frustrating, as we all know.
I lost my dad suddenly the 28th... and have been traveling 2 hrs to clean up and clean out his house. this started prior, and now I just feel it's out of control. have to get a handle on it.

Thank you both. I really appreciate it

 

[dwest]

Ok thank you. Just a starting point to see what's what. it's odd, I probably should have mentioned...it started with a thick green slime on the glass, that also smelled. I will rip it all apart tomorrow, when I get enough water made. Just so frustrating, as we all know.
I lost my dad suddenly the 28th... and have been traveling 2 hrs to clean up and clean out his house. this started prior, and now I just feel it's out of control. have to get a handle on it.

Thank you both. I really appreciate it

Sorry about your dad.

You could also take this busy period of your life to ”let it ride” and see how the system matures without much interaction. It could work surprisingly well.

Either way. Good luck.

 

[saltyfins]

Sorry about your dad.

You could also take this busy period of your life to ”let it ride” and see how the system matures without much interaction. It could work surprisingly well.

Either way. Good luck.

Thank You. It's been pretty rough.
I considered that, but I have lost 1 coral to this already, it smothered it...and last week when I got home (I spend 2 days there at a time cleaning and sorting) it smelled like electricity in my house. so I went all over trying to figure that out, only to realize it was my tank
which, thank God, for that!

 

[KM Wrasse]

I’m going to add some pictures of what I’m dealing with. It’s some sort of hair algae I think but I’m not sure. Doesn’t blow off like Dino’s do, and po4 is 0.08 no3 is 8.5 per Hanna.
If I clean the tank, it’s back within 2 days like this, smells to me… like electricity when I clean it out, water change, scraping, change filters. It’s stuck to rocks like green hair, but it’s brownish, red
Red Sea 56 gallon
Alk:7.5
Ca:400
The 2 others I listed.
Tank is 8 months old, started with live rock from my 350 gallon
Any help would be fantastic

Sorry, I did the best I could figure out, with these goofy lights. Also, I shortened the light cycle to

I’m going to add some pictures of what I’m dealing with. It’s some sort of hair algae I think but I’m not sure. Doesn’t blow off like Dino’s do, and po4 is 0.08 no3 is 8.5 per Hanna.
If I clean the tank, it’s back within 2 days like this, smells to me… like electricity when I clean it out, water change, scraping, change filters. It’s stuck to rocks like green hair, but it’s brownish, red
Red Sea 56 gallon
Alk:7.5
Ca:400
The 2 others I listed.
Tank is 8 months old, started with live rock from my 350 gallon
Any help would be fantastic

Sorry, I did the best I could figure out, with these goofy lights. Also, I shortened the light cycle to 8 hrs

I beat algae and any other nasty stuff with bacteria. I dose heavily and a variety. I set up a 235g in Jan and it got some stuff that sort of looked like Dino’s but also like algae. I dosed PNS bio and PNS deep cycle, seachem pristine, seachem stability and Aqua forest life source which is live mud from the ocean. It supplies bio diversity. The problem disappeared in about 7-10 days . Make sure your nitrate and phosphate don’t go to 0
Good luck

 

[saltyfins]

I’m going to add some pictures of what I’m dealing with. It’s some sort of hair algae I think but I’m not sure. Doesn’t blow off like Dino’s do, and po4 is 0.08 no3 is 8.5 per Hanna.
If I clean the tank, it’s back within 2 days like this, smells to me… like electricity when I clean it out, water change, scraping, change filters. It’s stuck to rocks like green hair, but it’s brownish, red
Red Sea 56 gallon
Alk:7.5
Ca:400
The 2 others I listed.
Tank is 8 months old, started with live rock from my 350 gallon
Any help would be fantastic

Sorry, I did the best I could figure out, with these goofy lights. Also, I shortened the light cycle to

I’m going to add some pictures of what I’m dealing with. It’s some sort of hair algae I think but I’m not sure. Doesn’t blow off like Dino’s do, and po4 is 0.08 no3 is 8.5 per Hanna.
If I clean the tank, it’s back within 2 days like this, smells to me… like electricity when I clean it out, water change, scraping, change filters. It’s stuck to rocks like green hair, but it’s brownish, red
Red Sea 56 gallon
Alk:7.5
Ca:400
The 2 others I listed.
Tank is 8 months old, started with live rock from my 350 gallon
Any help would be fantastic

Sorry, I did the best I could figure out, with these goofy lights. Also, I shortened the light cycle to 8 hrs

I beat algae and any other nasty stuff with bacteria. I dose heavily and a variety. I set up a 235g in Jan and it got some stuff that sort of looked like Dino’s but also like algae. I dosed PNS bio and PNS deep cycle, seachem pristine, seachem stability and Aqua forest life source which is live mud from the ocean. It supplies bio diversity. The problem disappeared in about 7-10 days . Make sure your nitrate and phosphate don’t go to 0
Good luck

I have the bacteria ordered, and yeah I’m watching the po4/no3. It’s exactly like you described, like a mixture of both. So weird. And the smell… gads

 

[KM Wrasse]

I have the bacteria ordered, and yeah I’m watching the po4/no3. It’s exactly like you described, like a mixture of both. So weird. And the smell… gads

Yep I was freaking out! lol it was starting to climb on all my corals. However Don’t mix bacteria on same day . Do a different one each day. And the aqua forest life source I think helped a lot. The stuff disappeared in about 7-10 days. My maintenance is seachem pristine every 4 days or so . Life source every 10 days and and PNS bio and deep cycle every 4 or 5 days. I have no algae and sand is clean. I also stir my sand frequently about once a week. And blow off the rocks at same time too

 

[Reef Jedi]

I had something very similar to this for months. I couldn’t figure out what it was since it didn’t look like one thing in particular. I eventually figured out it was green hair with Dino’s on top. It looked exactly like your pictures so I wanted to chime in. I did manual removal and what actually worked was dumping in 4 jars of copepods from algaebarn and then heavy dosing live phytoplankton for a month. That literally whipped it all out in about 2-3 weeks. I started seeing results in just a couple days so I kept dosing for a little longer just to be sure. I was amazed at how well it worked.

 

[allof fish]

I’m going to add some pictures of what I’m dealing with. It’s some sort of hair algae I think but I’m not sure. Doesn’t blow off like Dino’s do, and po4 is 0.08 no3 is 8.5 per Hanna.
If I clean the tank, it’s back within 2 days like this, smells to me… like electricity when I clean it out, water change, scraping, change filters. It’s stuck to rocks like green hair, but it’s brownish, red
Red Sea 56 gallon
Alk:7.5
Ca:400
The 2 others I listed.
Tank is 8 months old, started with live rock from my 350 gallon
Any help would be fantastic

Sorry, I did the best I could figure out, with these goofy lights. Also, I shortened the light cycle to 8 hrs

It could be in your water too. Have you check your ro system recently and if any tds are getting in? Silicates can definitely contribute to this

 

[saltyfins]

I just did an MS ICP, it's fine, meaning within limits and if IF that was the case, would'nt the other 2 tanks be doing the same thing? zero issues with the biocube or my 300....so that's also why I'm thinking....what the heck? I think I will do a clean, and then add more CUC to help but one thing I have noticed...is that the star snails I bought, arent moving. They're alive, just still in the same spot, which made me think dino's
I am going to microscope it, and see if I can see anything.

 

[56longroof]

Your phosphate is high. What are you doing to lower it? When my phosphate gets close to .2 I start seeing some algea growth the the powerheads.

 

[saltyfins]

Your phosphate is high. What are you doing to lower it? When my phosphate gets close to .2 I start seeing some algea growth the the powerheads.

I added some GFO to the tank, but seeing this since coming home, I didnt add enough. I get a bit anxious, when using it...but I left my husband to feeding detail, and I think he over did it some, as all 3 tanks are higher now.

 

[saltyfins]

Yep I was freaking out! lol it was starting to climb on all my corals. However Don’t mix bacteria on same day . Do a different one each day. And the aqua forest life source I think helped a lot. The stuff disappeared in about 7-10 days. My maintenance is seachem pristine every 4 days or so . Life source every 10 days and and PNS bio and deep cycle every 4 or 5 days. I have no algae and sand is clean. I also stir my sand frequently about once a week. And blow off the rocks at same time too

your tank is beautiful! Nice work

 

[saltyfins]

Your phosphate is high. What are you doing to lower it? When my phosphate gets close to .2 I start seeing some algea growth the the powerheads.

phosphate is 0.08....that isnt high though....

 

[KM Wrasse]

your tank is beautiful! Nice work

Thank You I would be retired 20 years ago if I didn’t have this hobby!! Lol

 

[saltyfins]

Thank You I would be retired 20 years ago if I didn’t have this hobby!! Lol

Well, a person can certainly tell, that you take a lot of pride in your tank!