Need some help please, ID and how to get rid of once and for all

[Poisns1]

I believe that I had this stuff a couple years back. It frustrated me so bad I gave up and sold off that tank all the equipment (60G cube).

Now I've moved to another state, got the itch and decided to give it one more try again after a 3 year hiatus. Keep in mind I've been keeping Saltwater FO and LPS Reef tanks for over 30 years yet never had such an abomination that I couldn't fix like this.

So disappointed in that I seem to have the same thing happening to my brand new tank. I've used all brand new equipment; tank, sump, pumps, skimmers etc. The only thing I've used from the old tank was the bleached sanitized and dried Marco Rocks, a net to added the few fish for cycling, Felt filter socks which I've had for several years (were sanitized with chlorine in the washer and rinsed twice, air dried for a day) and IO salt that I brought with me after the move.

I took everything slow and patient with this new tank startup, soooooo frustrated right now. And I'm not even trying to keep corals, it's a FO tank right now. Utterly disgusting..

Details:
Waterbox Frag 105.4 (30 gallon sump about 70G main DT)
70 pounds of dry Marco Rock
60 pounds of CaribSea Arag Alive Fiji Pink sand
BioSpira for initial seeding with occasional MB7 to increase bio diversity
NO3 and PO4 reading close to 0 as far as I can tell
Salinity 1.023
Temp 76.4
Ammonia 0

Tank is currently 7 months old. I initially had a few white, translucent blobs of something that started on the sand bed. I was able to remove some of it and it really didn't start multiplying until the past week or 2. I've tried several black outs over the last few months as well as no lights or only low blue spectrum; nothing got rid of the initial white blobs and stringy stuff

This past month or so, I noticed that it started to grow on the rocks and now the right side of my tank is completely covered in this mess, both on sand and rocks. It is clear, opaque and sometimes light brown, stringy and blows with the current in the tank (Nero 5 set at 2000gph).

I do not want to rip everything down again and have to take all the equipment apart etc. to sanitize and start all over; especially since I feel it may return like it just did from the other tank.

I only have 3 green chromies and 1 yellowtail damsel in the tank. They are doing fine and eating well, perfectly healthy. I'm contemplating using some kind of bacteria or chemicals to "nuke' this once and for all.

Been reading thread after thread and google searches. I think that it looks like Chrysophytes based on my research? Any opinions on that or any ideas what else it could be?

From what I've read there are various success that people have had, but the cure has varied widely. So, thinking of using one or more of these methods to eradicate or get it under control:

1) Fluconazole
2) Dr Tims Waste Away and/or Refresh
3) Dosing NO3 and PO4?

Please.. advice greatly appreciated

 

[BostonReefer300]

Sorry for your troubles. If that stuff was brown and had bubbles, I'd say for sure you had dinos given the other things you told us about your tank. However, I've never heard of white/clear dinos and I don't see air bubbles. I'm leaning toward bacterial bloom. Do you have a microscope handy by any chance?

 

[Poisns1]

Sorry I don't have a microscope

 

[BostonReefer300]

OK. Are you doing any carbon dosing (vodka, biopellets, etc.)? How frequently are you adding biospira or microbacter7?

 

[Poisns1]

Not doing any dosing or carbon, pellets etc. Bio Spira was just used for the intial start of the cycle. Then I was dosing MB7 every other day for a few weeks and then quit because I had a major tank cloud for for about 10 days. I'm guessing that was a bacterial bloom. It didn't go away until I bought a GKM UV and placed in the sump. It cleared overnight. Decided I'd just let it mature naturally after that.

Odd thing is I just had a 2nd bout with major cloudy tank, once again I believe bacterial bloom. Again fired up the GKM UV and it was cleared overnight. I'm not normally running the UV since the bulb doesn't last long and I didn't want it kill beneficial bacteria in the tank and water column?

Does this sound like normal things that would be occurring in a cylcing/cycled FO tank? Just so confused at this point and completely frustrated. I just want to enjoy my tank and the fish, it's like I'm in permanent jail!

 

[Dolphins18]

Would you consider trying a combination of chemi pure and purigen, or chemi pure blue? (this is just for the cloudiness, unlikely to help with whatever that is)
One suggestion I'd have that would probably help (though I don't know exactly what that is) Is adding some true live rock. Dosing trates and po4 may end up feeding those more, there is nothing to compete with them at this time. Gulfliverock has some very diverse live rock and so does tbsaltwater.com. You don't need a ton, but that is an easy way to add biodiversity. I'd imagine that many things can outcompete whatever that is, if that wasn't the case we would likely see it more often.
I do not think that a microscope is necessary.
I truly believe if you order some live rock your problems will go away. Sure you may have the occasional aiptasia etc to deal with, but all that biodiversity makes it really hard for one thing to "take over"
If you add rock that is not kept in water, use prime to get through the "mini cycle spike"

 

[Arthacker87]

Looks to me like part of the cycle. Of you used dried out rock it takes a bit. Instead of nuking tank with stuff, you can cut lights off for days and starve it put since you don't have coral, and or let it run the cycle. Looks like normal hair algae to me.

 

[Arthacker87]

Also utilitarian fish (wore
Ker fish for algae) can help. They will go around all day picking green off rocks. Tangs, fox face, blennies, crabs etc. It's all part of reefing don't don't discouraged. Briopsis is a b**** lol but that foot fungus medicine stuff works well (fluc something)

 

[Poisns1]

I've cut the lights out for weeks and it didn't go away or recede. Tank is extremely care except for the 2 really bad outbreaks which were cured overnight by firing up the UV.

Why wouldn't the tank be cycled at 6 months? If it's hair algae, wouldn't Vibrant take care of that? If it's actually bacteria I have no clue how to treat or get rid of that? I don't think it's Dinos because there is absolutely no bubbles in any of the strings/patches?

 

[Arthacker87]

Have you tried taking some in a bowl and separating it, if it's bacterial doesn't it find it was to clump back together?

 

[BostonReefer300]

Based on everything you've said and what I've seen, I'm pretty sure that's bacteria. Do you also have this slime in your sump anywhere where there's no regular light? Are your filter socks slimy?
I had a similar problem when I experimented with biopellets. Here, all that bottled bacteria you added earlier may have overloaded your tank.
I'd keep your UV going full time, make sure you're doing a wet skim (needing to empty your skim cup every day or two), and vacuum out as much slime as you can. Don't add any more bacterial products (e.g. vibrant, Dr. Tim's waste away, etc. etc.) or anything that can boost bacterial growth like Nopox (other than regular fish food of course). If you're feeding your corals with anything (reef roids, other coral foods), I'd also stop doing that for a while.
In reef tanks, bacteria are primarily surface bound so using a UV full time won't typically reduce a healthy bacterial population. In your case, you likely have an overabundance of bacteria (previous bouts with cloudy water and now bacterial slime) so running a UV full time should be helpful.

 

[Subsea]

lack of biodiversity at the microbial level is a characteristic of starting with dry sterile substrate & rock. Microbator 7 assist with denitrification bacteria but there are so many more players in the microbial loop. Fish only with live rock is a good low maintenance model. Starting out with dry substrate/rock and seeding with bacteria in a bottle makes for a monoculture microbial system which lacks resilience to enviromental changes.

Several on this thread have suggested getting diver collected live rock to seed your system. You should do this.

Also, your readings of zero nitrate and phosphate is not a good thing. I suggest you add nitrate & phosphate in the form of food to your fish. Get some janitors that can consume algae & detritus when it accumulates.

 

[Poisns1]

Thanks you all so much for the help and advice Guys, I think you're all on to something!

I DO have lots of slime in my filter socks and the stringy stuff has made it to my sump. It was also growing on the outside of my mesh filter sock, that had me baffled but makes sense that it could be bacterial. I've also been pulling out very wet skimmate, light brown with bubbles that don't pop.

I really don't want to add any live rock because I've been down the road with reef pests being introduced. I really want to avoid that whole pitfall with this tank.

1) If I add Nitrate and Phosphate to my tank, will this feed the bacterial problem and if not which products should I order (Brightwell Neophos and Neonitro?)

2) I have some leftover plastic bio-balls from my previous tanks, should I put those in the sump say in a bag or something?

3) Any other way to help get my tank past this bacterial overload?

 

[BostonReefer300]

OK I'm more confident than ever that you've got a nasty bacterial bloom. Definitely don't add anything to your tank except fish food. I'd just suggest following my earlier advice---and be patient. You'll get past this eventually. Good luck!

 

[Poisns1]

OK I'm more confident than ever that you've got a nasty bacterial bloom. Definitely don't add anything to your tank except fish food. I'd just suggest following my earlier advice---and be patient. You'll get past this eventually. Good luck!

So should I dose to bring up my Nitrate and Phosphate? Also, is it best to feed flakes/pellets or frozen mysis?

 

[Poisns1]

Update. The slime has increased exponentially in the past week and is growing at an alarming rate on the sand bed. Oddly it is exploding in the area adjacent to a new floating fish feeder I installed to feed flake food (Two Little Fishies Floating circular feeder/magnet). I installed that to keep food from floating into the DT and overflow. It's been working food as the food is eaten in the feeder before it has a chance to sink and attach to the rockwork and bacteria/slime etc.

Any idea if this is related to the slime explosion?

I need to do something now as both my filter socks fill overnight now with this disgusting slimy stuff. I only have about 3 days of filter left and can't wash my socks as my washing machine just broke and most likely won't be repaired for at least another week.

Isn't there some sort of off the shelf product that can help with this infestation? I need help asap...

 

[BostonReefer300]

Sorry for the delay. I've been jammed all day. I'm sorry things are getting worse. You definitely have a bacterial explosion and I know exactly how stressful and gross that is. The only thing you can do is take out your filter socks for now, do water changes that include sucking out as much goop as possible, and really cut down on feeding. Something is feeding this bloom. Do you have a really old sand bed that recently got stirred up or did you add a big piece of live rock from somewhere (that might have a bunch of detritus in it)? You're not dosing Nopox or adding bacterial products right? Don't add nitrate or phosphate as that could make the problem worse I think. I suppose you could try one of the reef safe antibiotic medications (look on BRS) that might kill off at least a portion of the population causing the bloom. However, I worry that a mass die-off of the bacteria could overload and poison your system. It would be best to do water changes, siphon goop, and figure out how to starve them.

 

[Poisns1]

Sorry for the delay. I've been jammed all day. I'm sorry things are getting worse. You definitely have a bacterial explosion and I know exactly how stressful and gross that is. The only thing you can do is take out your filter socks for now, do water changes that include sucking out as much goop as possible, and really cut down on feeding. Something is feeding this bloom. Do you have a really old sand bed that recently got stirred up or did you add a big piece of live rock from somewhere (that might have a bunch of detritus in it)? You're not dosing Nopox or adding bacterial products right? Don't add nitrate or phosphate as that could make the problem worse I think. I suppose you could try one of the reef safe antibiotic medications (look on BRS) that might kill off at least a portion of the population causing the bloom. However, I worry that a mass die-off of the bacteria could overload and poison your system. It would be best to do water changes, siphon goop, and figure out how to starve them.

Tank and equipment was brand new in January so sand bed etc. new (Carib Sea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink sand).

Nothing has stirred the sand bed, did not add any live rock etc. and I'm not dosing anything. I was dosing Microbacter 7 and a few doses of Vibrant but stopped both of those months ago after the first bloom occurred.

I'm not sure how to siphon off this stuff though? It kind of sticks to the sand and I believe the stuff attached to the rocks will be impossible to remove from all the nooks and crannies on this Marco Rock? One you touch it, it breaks up into pieces and floats across the tank.

I only feed the chromis and damsels a few flakes per day, that's it.

 

[BostonReefer300]

When you do a water change, use your siphon hose to suck up as much of the gunk as possible

 

[Poisns1]

When you do a water change, use your siphon hose to suck up as much of the gunk as possible

I get the siphon part. But how do I keep the siphon hose from clogging as I know it's going to suck up the fine sand when I try to get the stringy mucous mess? Is there a trick? I have a Python but I lost the gravel vac attachement so it's basically just a hose. If I start the siphon on that I'm not sure how effective it will be at getting this tricky stuff out of the tank?