Very annoying brown gunk

[jacobcoral]

This tank has been cycled and running for about two months now. Coral was super healthy and I had a major issue with green hair algae and dosed flux RX ever since my Goni has been 1/3 opened up. After green hair algae, I have been dealing with dinos, I don’t exactly know what type I have, but I’ve been dosing silicate, bacteria, and phytoplankton to help get rid of the bad dinos. I have tried chemical clean numerous times because it looks like cyano. Anyways, long story short here is my current tank and I need a new approach because I cannot get rid of this algae and it is stressing Coral out like crazy. Please help me.

 

[jacobcoral]

This tank has been cycled and running for about two months now. Coral was super healthy and I had a major issue with green hair algae and dosed flux RX ever since my Goni has been 1/3 opened up. After green hair algae, I have been dealing with dinos, I don’t exactly know what type I have, but I’ve been dosing silicate, bacteria, and phytoplankton to help get rid of the bad dinos. I have tried chemical clean numerous times because it looks like cyano. Anyways, long story short here is my current tank and I need a new approach because I cannot get rid of this algae and it is stressing Coral out like crazy. Please help me.

Here’s some more information if this helps anybody. I have a big cleanup crew. Consist of hermit, crabs, snails, and a conch.

My lights are all blue for the last month to help get rid of algae.

Here are my tank water chemistry
1/13

Alk 10.3

Phos .07

Nitrate .4

 

[jacobcoral]

Here’s some more information if this helps anybody. I have a big cleanup crew. Consist of hermit, crabs, snails, and a conch.

My lights are all blue for the last month to help get rid of algae.

Here are my tank water chemistry
1/13

Alk 10.3

Phos .07

Nitrate .4

I’ve also done weekly water changes.

 

[Jamie9]

Mine is not quite as bad off yet, but I've done quite a lot of research and been trying a lot of things, I listed everything here if you want some ideas. Sounds like you've done some of them already:

Jamie's Dinoflagellate Journey

Ok, so, like many folks on this board, I've got myself some dinoflagellates. What I find a bit frustrating, is that while there's many people discussing a plan of action out there, there's very few cases where people follow up with regular updates as to what worked and what didn't. Nor are...

www.reef2reef.com

I would consider doing something to get your nitrates up for sure.

 

[Isaac Alves]

The age of the tank could be part of it if it’s only 2 months old. My current tank took over a year to settle down from uglies, including Dinoflagellates.

 

[jacobcoral]

The age of the tank could be part of it if it’s only 2 months old. My current tank took over a year to settle down from uglies, including Dinoflagellates.

I had a tank before this, and it was cycled in a month. I’m not sure why I’m having such significant issues.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Definitely time to borrow or by a microscope.

 

[Isaac Alves]

I had a tank before this, and it was cycled in a month. I’m not sure why I’m having such significant issues.

I almost feel there are two phases to a tanks journey...the initial one is the main "nitrogen" cycle. Get's everything running. But then there's the next phase...the one where things in the sand, rock and surfaces are just battling it out for supremacy in your tank --- i think this takes time.

When you used Chemi-clean you knocked back bacterial populations that were competing with whatever type of dinoflagellate is prevalent in your system (this is where you'll need the microscope and let others verify which type of dino you're dealing with).

Dinos are the worst. They have no predator. And they are like super adaptable to all kinds of situations in our tanks. The algae was probably out competing them before you used FluxRx. So they just took the opportunity.

At 2 months old your tank is most likely still in that battle phase. You need to find something to out compete the dinos. Look up silica dosing here on R2R. It'll get your diatom population booming and that along with bacterial dosing might be the start. I'd also hold back on the water changes unless your doing it to siphon them out to help diatoms and other organisms take hold.