Nasty brown stringy slime destroying my newish tank

[indigoze]

Hi all, I'm new here and just wanted to ask if anyone knows what this disgusting mess is. It's been growing for about 3 weeks. I've looked at other posts and haven't seen anything that looks exactly like this. I assume it's some kind of algae, it looks furry in moving water but becomes a slightly stringy brown slime when removed with no real substance to it.

The tank is a fluval evo 13.5, up and running since 10/31. I started it with live sand and dry caribsea reef rock, the purple kind. It cycled in two weeks so I added a fire shrimp and one zoa. They did well so I added three more zoas and a gsp, which are all doing fine, despite the brown yuck encroaching on them. There are multiple varieties of macroalgae in the tank, which were growing nicely but the yuck is now growing on them as well. I have resorted to rubbing it off of the macros as much as I can by hand. Also have a firefish and a goby, as well as 4 turbo snails. The snails do eat this yuck but they can't keep up with it. All the livestock seem healthy and not bothered by the whatever it is.

I added pods to this tank when I first started it, but I don't think any survived so I added more a few days ago.
I had high phosphate to begin with but that was due to me using tap water initially, I corrected that with seachem phosguard; now using distilled water for water changes. I change 4 gallons a week and all water tests come back ok.
I'm using the filtration system that the tank came with, plus some of the fluval biomax ceramic things as well as filter floss and a bag of purigen. Also added a cheap powerhead with a foam filter from Amazon, but I wrap the foam with a sheet of 100 micron filter material, and that runs for 6 hours a day, and gets changed every few days.
There is also a small 6watt uv sterilizer in the pump sump area in the tank There is no skimmer bc the tank is in the bedroom and I cannot take the noise they make.

I have tried seachem pristine as well as another bacteria product who's name I can't recall at the moment to combat this but I'm getting nowhere, it just continues to grow. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[ReefSauce]

You have entered the ugly stage of the tank. Lots of organics from the new rocks and the lights are fueling the algae. You can try manual removal, a black out period, or add beneficial bacteria to out compete the algae. Keep up on those water changes (weekly) with fresh salt mix with RODI water only. Should clear out with time. Everyone goes through this when a tank is starting out so don't worry. I would not add anymore corals as this stage can be harmful for them.

 

[dwest]

Yep, suck it out when you want. Give it time (think months not days). Do 10% weekly water changes. Don’t add any chemical cures. Good luck.

 

[indigoze]

Thanks I feel a bit better now I cleaned a lot of it off today and then turned the flow back on and cleaned out all the gunk that was caught in the filters.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Welcome to reefing, this is your first hurdle, master your patience, and you will come out the other end. As stated before, it won't be days, but months. And some day you will be reassuring a new reefer it normal.

Best Regards

 

[indigoze]

So just an update. Things have improved since my original post. The nasty brown slime has ceased its growth in new areas and the ones I removed it from and it has stopped appearing on the macros. The diatoms are also apparently dying out. The have stopped appearing on the gravel and their other favorite area growing on my caulerpa. Still a bit on the glass but nothing like it was. Now if I could stop the goby from spitting sand all over the caulerpa patch every day I would be in good shape lol.