What Is This?

[cowboy]

@Dom do you have any coral or fish that would result in you feeding the tank with amino acids. How often are you performing a water change on your 5 gallon tank. Now for nutrient control @saltyfilmfolks has utilized a great idea I like it. Now I do agree with @twilliard that you are looking at a large concentration of spirulina. Chemiclean seems to be one of the few things that works on these mats. Manual removal works to a point but it dose have a fast reproduction rate so you would be manually siphoning the mats everyday for a couple of weeks. At least once it's under control you will have a great source of food for your coral. Just remember no amino acids for awhile you will have a huge bloom of spirulina if you do.

 

[twilliard]

@Dom do you have any coral or fish that would result in you feeding the tank with amino acids. How often are you performing a water change on your 5 gallon tank. Now for nutrient control @saltyfilmfolks has utilized a great idea I like it. Now I do agree with @twilliard that you are looking at a large concentration of spirulina. Chemiclean seems to be one of the few things that works on these mats. Manual removal works to a point but it dose have a fast reproduction rate so you would be manually siphoning the mats everyday for a couple of weeks. At least once it's under control you will have a great source of food for your coral. Just remember no amino acids for awhile you will have a huge bloom of spirulina if you do.

On the nose my friend :)

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Spirulina has to be introduced into an enclosed system. Possibly from the rock you think?

yes agreed. but just like the ugly phase during the initial cycle, or a pod bloom once the food source is either gone or controlled. it should go away. IMO anyway.

 

[twilliard]

yes agreed. but just like the ugly phase during the initial cycle, or a pod bloom once the food source is either gone or controlled. it should go away. IMO anyway.

Yes it is possible that it can go away under limited nutrients
I have not studied spirulina in depth yet.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes it is possible that it can go away under limited nutrients
I have not studied spirulina in depth yet.

its one of my new experiments that helps me not pound my head on the desk. Patience and good husbandry.
By slowly making changes to the system (refugium, increased light/spectrum, feeding. add sock remove etc), I observe the problem's to decide witch one is chronic infestation, and witch one is temporary.
IMO Our(human) time perception is much different than our plants and animals, so we rush to fix stuff, So one thing I ask myself is, would I worry this much if this were an orchard, and I dropped some leaves or saw a fungus on a few.
I have had brown planaria, mysis, cyano, GHA etc. I caused myself so much trouble fixing it. I accidentally, because I had NO time, was forced to leave it, and only make those adjustments. It worked a lot better.
I do have some chronic probs, back pain;) and some gha ,apiasia, and higer nutrients in one tank. but im working on those.

 

[Dom]

its a phase. concentrate on good nutrient export.

Which is why I started using chemipure; to reduce the nutrients it feeds on.

I will also have them reduce lighting; right now it is about 10 hours. I'll reduce to 8.

I will also have them manually remove it with a turkey baster. If the problem still exists after the summer, I'll take other action.

 

[cowboy]

I can't lie I'm really bad about letting stuff run its course but I will add if that is an option be careful with the turkey baster as it will lose a lot of free swimmers, And try the breeder box and set you up a little fuge using various types of macro algae. Also try a little protein skimmer on it it will help remove any free swimmers.

 

[Dom]

@Dom do you have any coral or fish that would result in you feeding the tank with amino acids. How often are you performing a water change on your 5 gallon tank. Now for nutrient control @saltyfilmfolks has utilized a great idea I like it. Now I do agree with @twilliard that you are looking at a large concentration of spirulina. Chemiclean seems to be one of the few things that works on these mats. Manual removal works to a point but it dose have a fast reproduction rate so you would be manually siphoning the mats everyday for a couple of weeks. At least once it's under control you will have a great source of food for your coral. Just remember no amino acids for awhile you will have a huge bloom of spirulina if you do.

It is a new tank with live rock, one tomato clown and one damsel. These are good, hearty fish to cycle the tank which is about 3 months old and has cycled.
Water changes (1 gallon/20%) take place weekly using RO/DI water mixed with instant ocean reef crystals.

What are the sourced of amino acids? I know they are using flake food. I was going to suggest switching over to frozen until this issue is resolved.

 

[cowboy]

Frozen would be a good choice also take into account the size of the tank pay close attention to not over feed. And pretty much any food source will have food for spirulina. Just stay away from a lot of the coral foods till you get it under control.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

its one of my new experiments that helps me not pound my head on the desk. Patience and good husbandry.
By slowly making changes to the system (refugium, increased light/spectrum, feeding. add sock remove etc), I observe the problem's to decide witch one is chronic infestation, and witch one is temporary.
IMO Our(human) time perception is much different than our plants and animals, so we rush to fix stuff, So one thing I ask myself is, would I worry this much if this were an orchard, and I dropped some leaves or saw a fungus on a few.
I have had brown planaria, mysis, cyano, GHA etc. I caused myself so much trouble fixing it. I accidentally, because I had NO time, was forced to leave it, and only make those adjustments. It worked a lot better.
I do have some chronic probs, back pain;) and some gha ,apiasia, and higer nutrients in one tank. but im working on those.

It's why we'll soon have the Apocalypse bug and no antibiotic to cure it.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It's why we'll soon have the Apocalypse bug and no antibiotic to cure it.

i know.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I think by amino he means direct dosing. The are several amino supplement products out there.

 

[Dom]

Yes as a refugium. It's a tried and true method of nutrient export. Pretty self regulating too.
The tank lights it mostly and I added little ikea 3200k reading light led. Cheap led strips work too.

HOB box worked great! This stuff usually grows back in a day. It's been two and still nothing.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Glad to hear!
You'll know it's time to clean it when the glass greens up. It does collect stuff on the bottom of the box.