Tank Is Now Poop Brown???

[ajremington68]

Sooo My tank looks like this... The The Rundown is I have had cyano or what I believe it is. I bought chemi clean and did 18 scoops on my 180, cut UV and no skimmer on yet, added airators and waited 48hrs. Surprise no change... So I did a 20g water change (siphoned sand with the 20g) and put the rest of chemi clean in (12 scoops) same process but this time I turned the lights off. I am at about 25-26hr mark and it looks like this, but the sand and rocks are almost completely clean... So I believe all the poop to be cyano that lifted from the rock and sand and is now in the water column. I am heating roughly 35-40g of water but we will say 35g to play safe to do of a water change tomorrow on the 48hr mark. My question is would you turn back on your lights after the water change or wait a few hours after and see what the tank looks like? I do have some corals in there that I rather not lose so I don't know how long I can go without lights. Or could I turn my light cycle down? (I have already turned all whites off and I am running a 10hr pierod with no ramp because viper spectre...)

Any thoughts or comments I would love to hear. Also if you have dealt with this I would pay for your intel on tips...

 

[ajremington68]

Here is the poopyyy photos tbag will load better. Also a video of the tank before to see how bad this dang alage has been.

@vetteguy53081 wondering your thoughts on this because you led my 55g in the past to success once I was dealing with GHA

 

[vetteguy53081]

Here is the poopyyy photos tbag will load better. Also a video of the tank before to see how bad this dang alage has been.

@vetteguy53081 wondering your thoughts on this because you led my 55g in the past to success once I was dealing with GHA

Hard to tell much with lights off but preliminarily looks to be a bacterial bloom along with combination of hair algae and diatoms. In part may be due to a flow issue and overfeeding. You will want to siphon and assure filters are clean and running optimally. If you are using NoPox, it can trigger blooms but mainly . . . . . When the bacterial colonies suddenly increase in number, they become suspended in the water and grow quickly and become more visible causing the water to be milky and hazy in appearance due to nutrient increases in the water with nitrates and phosphates, so check those two. Can also be poor filtration, not movement, overfeeding and even your water source especially if RODI filters are nearing end of useful life.
If the bacteria does not get enough oxygen, this issue begins

 

[ajremington68]

Hard to tell much with lights off but preliminarily looks to be a bacterial bloom along with combination of hair algae and diatoms. In part may be due to a flow issue and overfeeding. You will want to siphon and assure filters are clean and running optimally. If you are using NoPox, it can trigger blooms but mainly . . . . . When the bacterial colonies suddenly increase in number, they become suspended in the water and grow quickly and become more visible causing the water to be milky and hazy in appearance due to nutrient increases in the water with nitrates and phosphates, so check those two. Can also be poor filtration, not movement, overfeeding and even your water source especially if RODI filters are nearing end of useful life.
If the bacteria does not get enough oxygen, this issue begins

So Previously I got my fish and hadn't gotten my skimmer so my nutrients where out of wack. I got a skimmer and have been slowly correcting my problem which is phosphates and they don't even detect on my Hanna ULR reader. I have a reading now, but still high being 0.86. I am dosing Brightwell Phosphate-E but slowly pulling it out. But the color of the water only appeared after I cut the lights and dosed the chemi clean. Also I had alage covering sand and rocks, cut the lights and added chemi clean, now tank is brown and sand is clean. So my thought is that it released and is now free floating.

My main question is what is best practice to get it out so once I turn back on the lights it doesn't immedtly start growing on rocks and sand bed again.
- Water Changes?
- Change filter floss daily?
- Run reactor with carbon (Will have to borrow from friend)?
- Change UV from 300gph to a larger GPH for alage? I have 40w pentair and its set for ich?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So Previously I got my fish and hadn't gotten my skimmer so my nutrients where out of wack. I got a skimmer and have been slowly correcting my problem which is phosphates and they don't even detect on my Hanna ULR reader. I have a reading now, but still high being 0.86. I am dosing Brightwell Phosphate-E but slowly pulling it out. But the color of the water only appeared after I cut the lights and dosed the chemi clean. Also I had alage covering sand and rocks, cut the lights and added chemi clean, now tank is brown and sand is clean. So my thought is that it released and is now free floating.

My main question is what is best practice to get it out so once I turn back on the lights it doesn't immedtly start growing on rocks and sand bed again.
- Water Changes?
- Change filter floss daily?
- Run reactor with carbon (Will have to borrow from friend)?
- Change UV from 300gph to a larger GPH for alage? I have 40w pentair and its set for ich?

Water changes, clean filters as needed and stop with the Phos- E which can promote dinoflagellates. Consider a 3 day blackout and scrub rocks and siphon as needed.
ChemiClean often an alternative and not a solution and best for cyano and yes will release substance within the tank

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Im seeing the stringy bubbles in your sand bed and with the lights out helping it very well could be Dino’s. There are tons of threads to combat those. No matter what it is don’t give up. I started reefing about 20 years ago and every tank I have started have been hard for the first year then becomes stable and really starts looking great.

Are you using your own RO water or store bought?

 

[ajremington68]

Im seeing the stringy bubbles in your sand bed and with the lights out helping it very well could be Dino’s. There are tons of threads to combat those. No matter what it is don’t give up. I started reefing about 20 years ago and every tank I have started have been hard for the first year then becomes stable and really starts looking great.

Are you using your own RO water or store bought?

home, but once I first started the tank up I am ashamed to say I should've changed the filters and didn't till after I filled it and I believe I started a race on a broken foot. Also I have 4 tangs and most are decent size and I am a sucker and would feed them 1/4 sheet of nori a day. So all of that has resulted in sky high phosphates...

I shall NEVER give up . My 55g first tank was a losing battle for the first 6mo and then one day I got it and it cleared and now I am at 1yr and maybe 4mo and I have sps actually growing sooo I know its a process just so hard to consistently battle the alage. Example I have had this since month 2 of the tank and was working and manually removing it then one day gave up and just allowed it to grow, then couple weeks ago I decided enough was enough and I have been doing big water changes, changing light intensity and spectrum, chemi-clean, blackouts, anything to get it down.

Also got a monster octo 200int elite skimmer so It should help my nutrient problem and I plan once I get rid of this alage to get my phosphates down under 0.3. Which is high yes but an achievement for me, then dial it in to under 0.1.

Just need most proficient way to pull whatever type of algae it is from my tank before I turn on the lights so it doesn't rear its head again. Also its all suspended right now and not gripping onto my rock so if there is a time to get it all its now!

Biggest hurdle I have is this is my first LARGE tank being 180g and doing big water changes on it is a pain and nearly impossible. Becuase for the 55g I can mix my trash can that holds 45g with 40g of water and do a 80% water change and with this big tank most I can do is 40g which is only a 23%.

 

[ajremington68]

Im seeing the stringy bubbles in your sand bed and with the lights out helping it very well could be Dino’s. There are tons of threads to combat those. No matter what it is don’t give up. I started reefing about 20 years ago and every tank I have started have been hard for the first year then becomes stable and really starts looking great.

Are you using your own RO water or store bought?

So sand was spotless and rock was like 90-95 percent clean and I turned back on the lights for maybe 1.5hours and the sand is covered again, not as bad but still not spotless. Would you suspect Dino’s then?

Turned them off again to hope it lifts again then I am going to do my 40g water change and hopefully pull most of it out

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

So sand was spotless and rock was like 90-95 percent clean and I turned back on the lights for maybe 1.5hours and the sand is covered again, not as bad but still not spotless. Would you suspect Dino’s then?

Turned them off again to hope it lifts again then I am going to do my 40g water change and hopefully pull most of it out

I would lean towards Dino’s for sure. To be 100% you need a microscope I think they are $20 on Amazon and see what you have. Dino’s will grow back extremely fast. I had a tank with Dino’s and would clean at noon and by 5:00 it was growing everywhere again. Definitely check out the Dino threads

 

[MrGisonni]

I think it's dinos.

 

[ajremington68]

I would lean towards Dino’s for sure. To be 100% you need a microscope I think they are $20 on Amazon and see what you have. Dino’s will grow back extremely fast. I had a tank with Dino’s and would clean at noon and by 5:00 it was growing everywhere again. Definitely check out the Dino threads

maybe noob question but how do I find myself to the dinos thread? Or do you have a link to a good one?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So sand was spotless and rock was like 90-95 percent clean and I turned back on the lights for maybe 1.5hours and the sand is covered again, not as bad but still not spotless. Would you suspect Dino’s then?

Turned them off again to hope it lifts again then I am going to do my 40g water change and hopefully pull most of it out

Dino and cyano respond this way. Submit a pic under bright white light but microsope image is most accurate with ID.

 

[vetteguy53081]

maybe noob question but how do I find myself to the dinos thread? Or do you have a link to a good one?

There are several. Type DINO under search box in upper right of page although you will get mixed answers

 

[ajremington68]

Dino and cyano respond this way. Submit a pic under bright white light but microsope image is most accurate with ID.

There are several. Type DINO under search box in upper right of page although you will get mixed answers

I found my way thru forums, was doing read on @Troylee Post about how he combated with H202. Then I thought back to when I employed this on my 55g back in the day and it worked great. BUT I did it couple months back in a smaller tank and I lost a lot of my clean up crew, in specific a urchin just lost all its needles and died within a day. AND I just bought 30 Astrela snails and 3 urchins and 5 turbos for my tank so debating the H2O2 route because of them.

But let me go crank up my lights with white only and ill send a photo. After doing my last 48hr blackout it was spotless and then I turned on the lights and it has came back but not as bad.

 

[ajremington68]

@vetteguy53081

 

[ajremington68]

@vetteguy53081

Hopefully this video and the photos come out good. My dang fish will not stop photo bombing… they will do anything for a piece of nori…

 

[Kapachuka3]

Lol, poop.

 

[ajremington68]

I have done more reading @Troylee thread and people have commented on how it did not effect there inverts at all including starfish, shrimp, snails, and hermits. Nothing about urchins tho herm...

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081

What I see id dead hair algae, wall, maybe flagellates or Lyngbya opposed to dino, but do below and you get results with this as well as dino, should any be present:
Pull as much susbstance as you can by hand, siphon and blow areas loose with a turkey baster
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 3 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081

Hopefully this video and the photos come out good. My dang fish will not stop photo bombing… they will do anything for a piece of nori…

Much much clearer and leaning to dinos. Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and go to 5 days blackout instead of 3 days