Is this cyano? Driving me nuts and pestering corals...

[everpresentnoob]

Can someone smarter than me look at this crud that keeps growing on everything in my tank and tell me what it is and how to get rid of it? I'm using a toothbrush on all my rocks pretty much every day and then the next day it's back. Kinda a greenish look, slightly hairy and apparently it creates bubbles of air or gas as it grows. It's starting to annoy some corals that I have and is really ticking me off ..

Currently have pretty low nitrates under 5, and apparently slightly high phosphates. At .1.

 

[Ryan Souza]

I'm thinking dinos, I know the consensus is to get an id under a microscope to confirm. There's a dino article with a million pages to help.

 

[everpresentnoob]

This is the best pic I can get through my microscope....

 

[Sento]

Can someone smarter than me look at this crud that keeps growing on everything in my tank and tell me what it is and how to get rid of it? I'm using a toothbrush on all my rocks pretty much every day and then the next day it's back. Kinda a greenish look, slightly hairy and apparently it creates bubbles of air or gas as it grows. It's starting to annoy some corals that I have and is really ticking me off ..

Currently have pretty low nitrates under 5, and apparently slightly high phosphates. At .1.

The pictures look like the dino i battled a few weeks ago had the same string bouble stuff that annoyed my corals
I dont know if that can help you how i got rid off them in a week

I reduced the light time to 6 hours / stopped dosing Oceamo regulator A+O / used a turkey baster to suck out as much of the hairy stuff as possible and not just blow it into the current / added microlift bactoshot / stopped cleaning the glass / feed heavy / no water change for that time

Thats how i got rid of it

My tank looked like some hairy boubly snot too

 

[Ryan Souza]

I am not experienced enough to id what type you have, what worked for me was nutrients off 0, uv sterilizer and coral snow. Here is the link for dinos and everything you need to know along with identification. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/page-122

 

[everpresentnoob]

well 24 hours after Shutting off the lights, dosing NeoNitro and NeoPhos and MB7 and putting a 24 watt "Green Killing Machine" on the display and I can say it looks a heck of a lot better!! no stringy stuff, no snotty looking bubbles.

I didn't cover the tank for a full blackout, but during the day while everyone is at work the living room is pretty dim. So far I'm happy with the progress. My anemone decided to move from the side of a rock to the front of it so its actually easier to see now, so I'm pretty stoked about that, but i think one of the heads on my Torch died... its just the hard skeleton now, not pretty swaying bits, no flesh band. last night i brushed a considerable amount of the snotty dino stuff off of it and out of it where the wavy bits should be. but the other two heads on it seem to still be wavy. yea, I'm all into the technical terms here.

 

[ieatbugman]

Ive had something similar and water changes have always fixed it

 

[ieatbugman]

But it only looked similar, i do not know if it is the same

 

[everpresentnoob]

its a 75 gallon DT with 25 gallons in the sump. I have religiously changed 40 gallons every week since I set up the tank and unfortunately the water changes haven't touched this stuff. I always thought it was normal GHA type algae growing, and that I just had a lazy CUC until the other day i was talking about it in my LFS and mentioned that neither of my urchins or any of my snails really touch it. Guy there mentioned Dinos and it was like a little lightbulb went off. Got out my microscope and confirmed it was in fact dinos. Honestly, right now after the lights being off and the UV running for 24 hours my tank looks better than it has in months. Guess i just didn't want to face reality until the dinos started messing with (and possibly killing some) my corals.

 

[everpresentnoob]

Well, two days with uv running and lifts off. Tank hasn't looked this good in a long time. I clipped a sheet of filter floss on the front glass of the tank over night and got a little crap around the edges, but not much. I really don't see anymore dinos on my rocks. How do I check if they are really gone? Not that I think I'm done now, just honestly don't know. Do I pull a water sample and put it under a microscope? There's no algae to scrape into a slide now like I did originally....

 

[Aquadude1]

Well, two days with uv running and lifts off. Tank hasn't looked this good in a long time. I clipped a sheet of filter floss on the front glass of the tank over night and got a little crap around the edges, but not much. I really don't see anymore dinos on my rocks. How do I check if they are really gone? Not that I think I'm done now, just honestly don't know. Do I pull a water sample and put it under a microscope? There's no algae to scrape into a slide now like I did originally....

Congrats on beating them back! They can be a pain.

If the tank looks good you don't have to check if they are gone. Dinos are necessary, they are only a problem when their population gets out of hand. There should always be some forms present.

 

[majority_rules]

Keep us posted if it stays clean. I have it come back a week later after blackouts. It's depressing.

 

[everpresentnoob]

Well after reading tons of horror stories about people having major wars for weeks and months, I am leaving the GKM in the display for a while. I'm keeping nitrates up right now (tested last night at 15-20) and waiting for my Hanna Phosphate ULR tester to come in... But so far it seems good. I hang a piece of floss in the tank at night and the past couple mornings there has been hardly anything on it in the morning. Tank is looking better than it has in months and everything in it seems happy. Im also starting to slowly ramp my lights back up to where they were.