I know about the “ugly” stage of cycling but this is ridiculous.

[Matt Carden]

I keep screwing up these replies!
I tried to reply that I looked for Fiji Mud and it seems discontinued!

 

[Brew12]

I keep screwing up these replies!
I tried to reply that I looked for Fiji Mud and it seems discontinued!

Fiji export ban.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I keep screwing up these replies!
I tried to reply that I looked for Fiji Mud and it seems discontinued!

Indo Pacific Sea Farms sells some good diversity packs. I know there are sources from Florida but i'm not sure how thats going with the recent toxic cyano blooms.

 

[glb]

Right now I have two Nassarius snails in the sand, two turbo snails and one hermit. None of them are touching it. I know I need more cuc. What does everyone recommend?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Right now I have two Nassarius snails in the sand, two turbo snails and one hermit. None of them are touching it. I know I need more cuc. What does everyone recommend?

I personally don't recommend CUC for growths like this. Snails won't touch chrysophytes or mystery algae. Snails won't even touch GHA unless it's trimmed. I've suggested two ways to eradicate, it's your choice to pick one. If in fact this is a form a chrysos.(which I dont think it is without a microscope verification), I've yet to fail at eradication on many tanks by simply using nutrients. Brandon has outlined another chemical route which is perfectly fine too.

 

[brandon429]

agreed
I never use CUC to remove, only to prevent growback yep.
once I make the tank uninvaded, if the added CUC doesn't do anything to prevent growback, then the tiny sprigs that grow back I can take care of until another preventative is found. I don't use a cuc if the test rock doesn't have any growback. in this order of ops, the keeper ensures the tank isn't invaded and we rely on the animals to hopefully work on the redo but if they don't, its easy to spot regrowth on clean rocks way ahead of time for the 2nd round. this invasion is going to last a while, full coverage.

 

[Brew12]

I personally don't recommend CUC for growths like this.

I wouldn't recommend a CuC for this particular growth. I do feel a good CuC will help recycle nutrients back into the water to help deal with these problem algaes and bacteria. I've seen people struggle to raise nutrients without a solid CuC.

I would look for a nice package designed for a tank about 1/3 of your actual tank size. I think most packages are too large. I do try to keep over 100 snails and 30 blue legged hermits in my 187g.

 

[ReefguyEric]

Couple turbos, Snails, hermits, emerald crabs and make sure you have enough water movement in the tank

 

[KJAG]

I keep screwing up these replies!
I tried to reply that I looked for Fiji Mud and it seems discontinued!

I have a bucket unopened that I never used. Not sure how much you need though.

 

[Panky]

Ok so I’ll feed like crazy and buy some Dr. Tim’s. I tried removing it with a toothbrush but it’s pesky stuff.

I can give you some of my high PO4 water! My PO4’s at 1.46.

 

[MetaKnight101]

My 40g got T5 lights last month after being up a year without lights. I knew I’d get algae and diatoms but not this much. Parameters are fine. Nitrates slightly above 0 and Phosphates 0. When is this going to end??? The hair algae on the rocks is light brown and some on the sand is green. Tank inhabitants are all fine but boy is the tank ugly! Any thoughts?

Just wait more, this happens for about 2 weeks when I cycled my tank for me, then it went away. I rather leave the algae alone then intervene for now.

 

[Dennis Begley]

Don't panic. Your tank will go through a series of events as it reaches it's homeostasis. The worse thing you can do is over react. I'd let it ride. At worse this is a visual issue not a tank survival issue. My 90 gal is approaching it's two year anniversary. That first year I had a long hair algae issue. As the tank matured it all went away. I added some grape caulerpa algae at the beginning. Thought is was cool and would add some stability to the environment. That stuff grows like a weed to the point I was harvesting handfuls weekly. Thought it was going to take over my tank. And now I see that it has stopped the crazy growth. Your tank will go through phases as it matures and finds a balance.
Just be aware of what you add to the tank, not too much and not too little. Make changes slowly. And don't panic over something like this.
There are reasons things like this happen, it is a symptom of something and not the problem. It is your tanks way of dealing with what is going on right now. Do the right things and keep track of what you are doing so you can refer back if you need to.
One fish says to another, "There must be a God, someone changes the water."

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Back to the basics!?
Do not add supplements and additives of which one does not know what they contain. What is in the bottle exactly?
A new established aquarium must be cycled. It is a long term project which may take a few months, a full year, or more. Installing the carrying capacity based on the ability to reduce ammonia by photoautothropic assimilation ( weed,,algae, cyano), heterothropic assimilitation, autothropic nitrification. A balance between producers, consumers, reducers. During the installation of the carying capacity to support the bio-load a lot of nutrients and building materials must be available. Using GFO, Nopox ( carbohydrates) in an early stage will have an impact on the unbalance because all will become competitors before they have the change to settle.
Removing most phosphate will effect all and promote those who are able to use it first when it becomes available after each feeding.
Adding carbohydrates may prevent the installation of a sufficient nitrification capacity as nitrifiers will be outcompeted for ammonia by heterothropic growth. Bacteria prefer ammonia as a nitrogen source! It is very important to know how much and what kind of carbohydrates are added and even more important to know how much is needed to prevent a high C:N ratio . Adding carbohydrates and promoting heterothropic growth ( fast protein production) may outcompete most other competitors for the same nutrients and building materials and may influence the biological balance leaving only space for the opportunists. Why nature recycles most organic carbon to CO2?
Just give the system time to find its balance and produce some nitrate.

 

[glb]

Thanks everyone. The funny thing is this isn’t a new tank. It’s been up for over a year. The lights are what’s new. I guess that part of the cycle waited.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thanks everyone. The funny thing is this isn’t a new tank. It’s been up for over a year. The lights are what’s new. I guess that part of the cycle waited.

When I had chrysophytes, it stalled my tanks ability to mature. No coralline, never went through a gha or cyano phase. Getting rid of chrysos was the best decision I made to allow my tank to mature.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Just give the system time to find its balance and produce some nitrate.

I agree and disagree with this. A growth like this restrics photoautotrophic assimilation. It's difficult to say the exact form of what is growing but chrysophytes can linger for months, a year, maybe longer not allowing homeostasis.

 

[glb]

So here’s my plan. I’ll get some reef flux or flucon and see if that helps. I’ll feed like crazy. There’s a small rock I can remove and use hydrogen peroxide to scrub down. After things calm down I’ll get more CUC’s. I’m wondering if I should turn off the skimmer for a bit.

 

[glb]

Update. Here’s my latest numbers:
Alk: 10.5
Ca: 490
Mg: 1365
NO3: 0
pH: 7.94
PO4: 0
Temp: 76.5
SG: 1.025

I think this stuff is eating all my NO3 and PO4 despite me feeding like crazy. I cleaned off one rock and am keeping an eye on it.

I can’t find Reef Flux locally. Can I use regular flucan (is that the name of the fish antibiotic?) instead? My acan is not happy. I dipped it in Revive so we’ll see. The torch is fine and so are the fish. How am I going to get rid of this stuff if I can’t seem to raise nutrients except to try the products recommended. Here’s a pic of the cleaned rock:

Here’s what the rest of the rocks look like:

They’re not better at all. What do you suggest as my next step?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Update. Here’s my latest numbers:
Alk: 10.5
Ca: 490
Mg: 1365
NO3: 0
pH: 7.94
PO4: 0
Temp: 76.5
SG: 1.025

I think this stuff is eating all my NO3 and PO4 despite me feeding like crazy. I cleaned off one rock and am keeping an eye on it.

I can’t find Reef Flux locally. Can I use regular flucan (is that the name of the fish antibiotic?) instead? My acan is not happy. I dipped it in Revive so we’ll see. The torch is fine and so are the fish. How am I going to get rid of this stuff if I can’t seem to raise nutrients except to try the products recommended. Here’s a pic of the cleaned rock:

Here’s what the rest of the rocks look like:

They’re not better at all. What do you suggest as my next step?

You can get Reef Flux from BRS. I wouldn't use fish food for nutrients. Takes too long and increases ammonia as well as dissolved organics that we can't test for. I would go for seachems phosphorus and some form of sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate or even brightwells neonitro.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You can get Reef Flux from BRS. I wouldn't use fish food for nutrients. Takes too long and increases ammonia as well as dissolved organics that we can't test for. I would go for seachems phosphorus and some form of sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate or even brightwells neonitro.

Yup.