Slimy brown hair algae problem

Stephers

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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:

fts_1-16-19.jpg

I know this thread is a little old, but I'm trying the silica approach to get rid of my dinos after other methods have failed. Were you testing your silicate levels? What were you keeping them at? I just started a few days ago.
 

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