Slimy brown hair algae problem

[Aquatic Bobs]

So I've been a 25% water change for the last 3 days on my 4 month old mixed reef tank. I keep getting this brown slimy hair looking algae that grows during the day. Ammonia is 0, nitrite 0, nitrates 0.3, phosphates 0.1, calcium 440, alkalinity 11, pH of 8.0, temperature 76.5. Hang on back protein skimmer, Cascade canister filter 1000, 60 lb live rock, 30 lbs live sand. Yellow tang, two ocellaris clowns, one damsel, one Firefish, One Flame Angel, one dottyback. Please let me know how to get rid of this or what changes I can make or even if it's just part of the natural long-term cycling of the tank. Thanks everyone

By the way it's not nearly as bad cuz I just finished doing another water change.

 

[brandon429]

How many system gallons

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

Haha sorry totally forgot to put that in there, 75 gallon tank, about 63 gallons of water with all the rock and sand

 

[brandon429]

We make big threads collecting tank uninvasion work and the outcomes of those threads show that when you take a tank apart and clean it, bottom to top, you export such a complete mass of invader that leftover cells missed in the cleaning will have a hard time re aggregating. They find strength, insulation and feed access in a group form

Starting off by physically interrupting them with two brute cans of saltwater isn't that hard in a 75 I've seen a friend here do this exact procedure in his living room with one.

After clean reassembly, losing nothing but the most invader and invader fuel you can all at once, anything you choose as your dinoflagellates prevention has a quadruple chance of working.


If that was my tank I would rip clean it and install a 55 watt Pond sterilizer off Amazon on it and turn it on only when needed. I would do that specifically because it makes the conditions least likely for me to have to rip clean it again

Can you drum up 75 gallons of new water for a thorough cleaning

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

I guess I kind of get what you're saying but can you simplify that and put it in English please!?

 

[brandon429]

take your tank apart and clean it. Literally apart, sand rinsed clean of its current clouding and rocks cleared, then you do a full water change and reacclimate fish back in. Being this thorough is how to get that under control
We have threads of it being done already... cleaning is better than letting the mass build and trying to dose it away

Currently, if you made a cell phone video of reaching into the tank and grabbing +dropping sand, a cloud we can see would result, a mix of invader + detritus. After the tank rework, the sand grains would fall cleanly back to the bottom, causing the clean condition will restore balance.


After the invader has been cleared, you can apply any number of common anti-dino methods while running a clean tank.

Many people lose tanks to dinoflagellates, my offer was the strongest possible initial move to give the best chance outcome.

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

Okay and if I don't have the time to do that soon? I appreciate the advice I just have a really busy schedule for the next two weeks and wouldn't that create a new cycle on the tank? I have 26 mixed Corals in the tank already

 

[brandon429]

No prob it is a big job. The corals being there are factored, in our work threads showing tank cleaning they were full on reefs. We expected the corals.

The next most effective way to work while still leaving full mass in place is to begin adjusting nitrate and phosphate, a sticky thread up top shows the technique.

If it works, the benefit is low manual work to attain an uninvaded condition.

Some reasons not to use it is because corals like N and P set to what they like, this begins the direction of parameter chasing which in terms of tedious time and $ possibly spent, threads show, makes a weekend cleaning run seem worth it in hindsight.

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

Okay thanks for the help, if I was to switch it all out where would I put the rock with the corals which are glued to the rocks during the process?

 

[biophilia]

If you want a simpler solution that doesn't require ripping a 75 gallon tank apart, hosing off the sand and scaring the bejesus out of your fish, you could always just try raising your nitrate a bit, dosing a little silica, and adding some more herbivores. Dinoflagellates like you likely have thrive in decreasing nutrient environments so dumping out the water and hosing things down is possibly going to do way more harm than good down the line.

When my tank was young and I was carbon dosing a bit too much I struggled with slimy dinoflagellates and the nitrate/silica route worked great for me as it causes a tiny little dusting of diatom algae which can really easily out-compete the dinoflagellate and cyano problems so many deal with when chasing this idea of stripping all nutrients from the water or sandbed. Diatoms in turn are great food for your snails.


Here's an example of my nano tank which at one point had lots of stringy dinos all over the place which were mitigated without ripping everything apart or dosing powerful antibiotics, turning out lights, or other drastic measures people will suggest:

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

Okay so what are you actually recommending me getting and doing exactly?

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

Okay so what are you actually recommending me getting and doing exactly?

What products and what herbivores?

 

[brandon429]

Here's nineteen pages of works

scared fish vs happy aquarists formerly invaded ratio looks good

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/page-19

consider the months-after updates offered by those who ran the option.

Handy years of work for something to fall back on in case the others don't work, even if you dislike the option what harm is seeing cures repeated in others tanks/

we have an order for dealing with fish and have lost none. Ace card handy that's all.

 

[biophilia]

What products and what herbivores?

I'm not sure if your nitrate naturally sits that low or if it's just because of big successive water changes, but the easiest thing to do would be to cut out big water changes and keep testing your nitrate until it rises a bit. The actual number doesn't really matter, just as long as it's "some" (say 5ppm-15ppm range to start with). While doing that, keep an eye on your phosphate to make sure it doesn't get too much higher. While there are lots of successful tanks that have higher or lower levels than you have, there's no reason to make your situation complicated by adding in another variable of phosphate spiking. If you're more comfortable simply dosing a little nitrate directly rather than waiting for it to rise, you can use something like Seachem Flourish Nitrogen.

As for dosing a little silica (this is assuming your tank is more than a couple months old and that you're not using tap water at the moment) Brightwell Aqutics makes a product called SpongExcel which is basically just sodium silica. You can follow the directions to add a number of drops a few times per week and I'm betting that will clear up your issue.

By herbivores, I mean add more snails, hermits, and other small animals to clean the rock and sand.

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

I'm not sure if your nitrate naturally sits that low or if it's just because of big successive water changes, but the easiest thing to do would be to cut out big water changes and keep testing your nitrate until it rises a bit. The actual number doesn't really matter, just as long as it's "some" (say 5ppm-15ppm range to start with). While doing that, keep an eye on your phosphate to make sure it doesn't get too much higher. While there are lots of successful tanks that have higher or lower levels than you have, there's no reason to make your situation complicated by adding in another variable of phosphate spiking. If you're more comfortable simply dosing a little nitrate directly rather than waiting for it to rise, you can use something like Seachem Flourish Nitrogen.

As for dosing a little silica (this is assuming your tank is more than a couple months old and that you're not using tap water at the moment) Brightwell Aqutics makes a product called SpongExcel which is basically just sodium silica. You can follow the directions to add a number of drops a few times per week and I'm betting that will clear up your issue.

By herbivores, I mean add more snails, hermits, and other small animals to clean the rock and sand.

Cool thanks for your help that actually makes a lot of sense

 

[biophilia]

Not saying doing a whole sand rinse/won't help btw. Just that there may be simpler options to start with given how big your tank is! It's often a lot easier to try to work within natural systems rather than fight relentlessly against them.

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

However, I'm still curious if I was to do an entire tank clean out where would I put all my Coral and fish in the meantime that I'm rinsing and cleaning the sand and rocks?

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

Let me ask this question hopefully someone will view this thread and have an intelligent answer because this algae or diatoms are driving me nuts. My tank is about 4 months old and my nitrates are five in my phosphates are 0.2, I feed Reef roids and the blend of mices brine shrimp once every 3 days. Is this just a normal part of a new tank and something that could naturally go away given a little time? Is there anything to speed up the process or is there anything I should be adding or removing or doing that's different than doing an entire system cleaning...? As I've been cleaning some of the stuff out with a filter sponge as it comes to the top of the water after blasting it off my rocks it's really slimy and smells a lot like rotten plankton.

 

[Oshengems]

I stared dosin Vibrant on Saturday for bubble algae but also was getting the same type of Dino’s you have, I did blast them of the rocks Sunday but usually the next day strings start to form, not this time. It came back but not as aggressive and even this morning not sure if it’s my eyes deceiving me but it’s taking longer to grow the way it was that’s a pic of the slime and bubble algae I took a few to compare weekly the progress

 

[Aquatic Bobs]

Cool thanks for the help, how long do you have your lights on for each day? And how intense are they?