Is this the "ugly tank" stage or something else?

[Auburn866]

I seem to be losing the battle against this "stuff" in my tank! Tank is a 3 month old LPS/softies tank with 2 clowns and cleanup crew consisting of crabs, turbo, cerith, and nassarius snails. Has Marco dry rock and Caribsea Fiji Pink substrate. Running an HOB protein skimmer for filtration and no direct light from windows. I haven't seen any bubbles in the diatoms/cyano/whatever it is and 80% of it disappears at night only to fully reappear a couple of hours after the lights come on. Its been bad like in the pics for the past 2 months. Only seems to really be affecting my zoas, as they are closing up more often than usual until I blow them off with a turkey baster then they open fully until the stuff comes back. I did a 3 day blackout while running my skimmer wet which seemed to knock it back for a couple of days then it came right back in full force. I have reduced my lights to 7 hours, increased flow with a Nero 5 (which made my corals happier), increased water changes to 10% every 2 weeks vs every 3 weeks, decreased feeding slightly, started running my skimmer more wet, and threw in a UV sterilizer. This has had NO effect on it. At first I tried leaving it alone, figuring I was in the "ugly stage", then I got tired of it and started blowing the rocks and substrate with a turkey baster daily for 3 days straight which filled up the skimmer with brown/dark green waste. When I do this, the rocks and substrate look perfect the rest of the day, then the next day after a couple of hours of lights the stuff comes back in full force! My LFS suggested Chemiclean if "all else fails" but I hate to resort to using chemicals unless I have to. Any ideas?

pH: 8
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Welcome if I have yet to say so.

I hate the word Dino, but sounds like it. They don’t always have bubbles right away. Sounds like you made good steps so far. Check where you are on Po4. The only way to be 100% is with a pic under microscope. I have it for years now. Just started really fighting it recently.

I would try an aggressive cleaning schedule to see if that works along with gfo if needed for Po4.

 

[Taxus812]

Have you tested for silicates ?
What are your phosphates ?

New tanks I have learned should have a nitrate level near 2 and a phosphate level of .03-.07. Try not to run phosphate to 0 or you invite Dino’s. I’m hoping you just have diatoms. Have you changed your carbon?

The reason I ask is I went through something very similar and I am seem to be coming to end if it.

 

[inthesea]

The biggest mistake people do when facing Dino’s is they start doing water changes, which in turn fuels Dino’s.
You can siphon out the Dino’s with a air line into a filter sock and reuse the water. Also remove any carbon or chemi pure.

 

[Zerobytes]

The biggest mistake people do when facing Dino’s is they start doing water changes, which in turn fuels Dino’s.
You can siphon out the Dino’s with a air line into a filter sock and reuse the water. Also remove any carbon or chemi pure.

Fighting the same battle and researching says you can’t reuse the water as it will flow through the sock, unless using a 1 micron one. Sure would be a lot easier for me if I could. What are your thoughts on that aspect?

 

[inthesea]

I had Dino problem with in my biocube and since the tank was at work, I would suck the water with a turkey baster and run it thru a sponge and pour the water back in tank. I was like you and thought changing water would solve the problem, but it only compounded it.
I quit water changes and started siphoning the Dino’s from sand and rocks and got rid of them. I also added microbacter 7, don’t know how much it helped but the Dino’s were gone after I started adding microbacter and quit doing water changes.

 

[Neoalchemist]

This looks like mostly cyano with a possibility of maybe amphidimium dinoflagellates.
I stress "maybe". Need a microscope id. The treatment for both are very different.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Uglies- yes.
Siphon this up and keep an eye on phos and nitrate levels and also reduce your white lighting which seems bright and increase blues. A cleanup crew especially crabs and astrea snails will help disrupt this slime.