What to do?

[rackyrane]

Hey guys, I need a little help please.

I have a 12 gallon nano tank in my office at work. I went on vacation for two weeks and asked someone to make sure they topped off the tank with FW for me. You probably guessed it already, but she forgot to do it and when I got back my tank had crashed big time---probably because of the ultra high salinity.

This happened about four or five months ago. I completely cleaned out the tank, tossed the sand, rinsed the LR well, put in new sand and had the tank cycle again. I used the same rock.

After the cycle, the parameters looked good. I put a few snails in and was just about to start populating the tank with corals again when I had the most awful algae bloom you ever saw. I can't seem to get rid of the stuff. It's not your normal cyano or hair. It's some thick brown green goop. I have changed the water and it keeps coming back. The tank has been back up and running for about 3 months and I don't have ANY coralline growing in there, just this gunk.

Should I toss out the rock and sand and start over again? I am about ready to shut the whole thing down, scrub it out and start over.

I have a 3 gallon tank in the office as well that is doing ok. What do you all think?

 

[mattmike]

Sounds like it could be a bacteria still on the rock or inside the sand that is evolving once your cycling again. I would prob get some new rock and sand since were not dealing with so much here and cycle it for about 4-6 weeks. Hope this helps.

 

[wicked demon]

I would try to work thru it, get some cuc, and a cheap grazing fish, harvest manually, do productive water changes, etc....

 

[rock_lobster]

Sounds like cyano long stringy it varies in form, just make sure your nitrates/phosphates are zero and you have a fresh bulb in your light system and it will go away shortly. You could get some scarlet crabs to pick away at it too.

 

[Lytehouse]

The cuc might tackle it, the scarlets I don't believe will with it that long.

If it's not the bulb, then starting over with new rock and sand beats the frustration.

Does anyone local sell live rock? You shouldn't even have a cycle that way....

 

[rackyrane]

Thanks for the replies.
The MH bulb is only about 4 months old. I will recheck the phos and nitrates again.

We only have one SWF store in the whole Albuquerque area. No one locally is selling rock that I know of. We don't have a Reef/SW club here anymore.

Have never had a cuc. Are they tough to keep? I've read that they can nuke the tank when they die.

 

[nater]

might be dyno bacteria. Do you have a picture? Does it seam do get stringy and gloopy when the lights are turned on and go back down after they are off? If so it could be dinoflagellates. i used coralife marine clarifier and it helped me clean it right up.

 

[FuzzyStickCollector]

I think by cuc, they mean clean-up-crew, not Cucumber. But I could be wrong. You know like snails, hermit crabs and such to clean the glass and eat left over food. I'm thinking it may be Dino's (dinoflagellates), which can be a pain to get rid of.

 

[Makbarracuda]

While there are no corals in the tank just leave the lights out. the animals in the tank dont need it. i have used this technique to get rid of red slime without changing a thing.

 

[rackyrane]

I will try and get a picture.
I do have a few crabs in there, but no snails. I didn't think there was enough in there for the snail and didn't want it to starve.
I will keep the lights out and see what happens. I will try and see if I can get some marine clarifier too.
Thanks everyone!

 

[rackyrane]

Well, I did a bit more research and I think the green stuff is Bryopsis. How do I get rid of this stuff? The only live thing in there are the snails. Can't imagine how this stuff got in there.

 

[Psychographic]

If it's Bryopsis, pull as much out by hand and then either get a Lettuce Nudibranch or use Kent Tech-M to raise the mag to 1600-1800.

 

[rackyrane]

Kent Tech M. I have not used it before. Have you done this before? Will a mag that high kill my crabs?

 

[Psychographic]

I personally have not used the Tech M, but know people that have used it successfully, it seems there is something in the TM that is not in other Mag supplements and this is what kills off the Bryopsis when used at the elevated levels. If you do a search, I'm sure you will find plenty of info on it. I have never heard of any negative reactions from this procedure, other than Tech M is expensive.

I have used Lettuce Nudi's on several occasions and they have always worked for me.

 

[rackyrane]

Ok, I will try and hunt down some Tech M. May have to check out the good Drs and see if they have it.
Will keep you all posted and thanks again.

 

[xraided199]

MOST def tech-m. i literally JUST dealt wit this issue wit one of my best boys...he keeps a 75g reef, had a bloom that we first thought was hair algae, then i even started gettin some here and there in my reef, and because i had constantly had small hair algae blooms, thats what i thought it was

well, the hair looked more like little ferns growin out the rock, not straight grass like hair algae is. so my boy did research and found out it def was Bryopsis. in my case, i jus threw in a few sea hares (not blue spot--they are more dangerous if they die in tank) and it took care of problem. i love them to death, no matter how ugly they are.

my boy on the other hand, needed to raise his Mag anyway, and just kept goin and goin til he reached about 1800 if im not wrong. and voila! all the Bryopsis was gone. and the high mag didn't really cause any adverse effects on his many sps and chalices. so i would say try the Tech-M first, only cause the sea hare could REALLY do damage if he dies in a smaller tank, and once he runs out of algae, you gonna have to keep feedin him. hope this helps, and good luck

p.s. after readin first few posts, i DEF thought it was dino, and in that case, i was gonna say good luck, and maybe better start over since you dont have many things in there. but if what you sayin is that it does look like Bryopsis, then there is much hope. any questions, jus post. good luck