I need help, what is this?

Badnade · Nov 18, 2020

I've had this in my tank for about 2 months now. Nothing seems to help to get rid of it. It's stringy and dark brown, doesn't appear to have air bubbles in it.

I thought it was dinos so I've been treating as such. I've tried a 3 day blackout, it never fully went away and fully appeared again 2 days later. I've increased nutrients, raised temperature of the tank to around 82.5 degrees, I've also been using dino x and decreased photo period.

Nothing seems to set them back and they cover my coral and they appear to be effect pretty badly from it.

Can anyone point me in the right direction and tell me what this is?

Garf · Nov 18, 2020

Try “ cyanobacteria “ in your searches

tnw50cal · Nov 18, 2020

If you have less in the morning(right when the lights come on) than the night before then during the day even more grows only to again have less the next morning than the day before only to have even more grow during the day it's Dinos---#1 way to fight it--UV sterilizer.
If there's just as much in the morning as the night before then it's cyanobacteria--chemiclean will kill it dead in 3 days. Most times you can ride it out and it will go away,just takes time. Depends on how bad it is(how much you have and how fast it's growing) on whether to treat with chemiclean or ride it out.

This is a simplified answer. A saltwater aquarium is like a chemical reaction--for every action there is a equal and opposite reaction- or at least sometimes it feels that way.

Badnade · Nov 18, 2020

tnw50cal said:
If you have less in the morning(right when the lights come on) than the night before then during the day even more grows only to again have less the next morning than the day before only to have even more grow during the day it's Dinos---#1 way to fight it--UV sterilizer.
If there's just as much in the morning as the night before then it's cyanobacteria--chemiclean will kill it dead in 3 days. Most times you can ride it out and it will go away,just takes time. Depends on how bad it is(how much you have and how fast it's growing) on whether to treat with chemiclean or ride it out.

This is a simplified answer. A saltwater aquarium is like a chemical reaction--for every action there is a equal and opposite reaction- or at least sometimes it feels that way.

There is less in the morning compared to at the end of the day.

I've tried just about everything. I don't really have the space in my tank to put a uv sterilizer.

tnw50cal · Nov 18, 2020

Badnade said:
There is less in the morning compared to at the end of the day.

I've tried just about everything. I don't really have the space in my tank to put a uv sterilizer.

Then it's Dinos-- and no you didn't try everything. You need to try a UV sterilizer. There are small ones that go right in the tank(think it's called green machine or something like that- they're like $50.00). It's not a forever thing- it's only got to be in there for a few days.