White Fuzz...What is it?!

[Marc.The.Shark]

This is going on the 2 week mark right now. Doing nothing was getting me nowhere, gotta throw the sink at it!! On a positive note tho, when it 1st started my filter socks would clog in a few hours, now it's about 12 or so.

 

[reeferfoxx]

This is going on the 2 week mark right now. Doing nothing was getting me nowhere, gotta throw the sink at it!! On a positive note tho, when it 1st started my filter socks would clog in a few hours, now it's about 12 or so.

:(

Have you performed any water changes before using refresh?

 

[masssnapz]

Chrysophytes maybe

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

:(

Have you performed any water changes before using refresh?

No, figured it wouldn't help, so have layed off for the last 2 weeks.

Chrysophytes maybe

IDK, doesn't have any color tho, like yellow or brown, just white.

Just stuffed that big UV in the sump with a quiet one pump I had laying around. Turned it all the way down. We'll see if this helps. Should see some improvement by tomorrow if so.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

Woke up this morning to a significantly clearer tank & skimmer overflowing. Looks like the UV is doing its job! Gonna do a good cleaning today & let it ride.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

3 days? or 1 month(if your method works)?

@reeferfoxx

So my last dose of ReFresh will be going in on Wednesday. Thought the white fuzz is not completely gone, I can say it is slowing down? It still seems to come back after I give a toothbrush scrubbing, but it seems to be coming back slower each day. I've noticed this especially on the glass. Before I was scraping the glass daily, now its every 3 days or so.

I also have read your thread about your battle with this issue multiple times. This is something I believe I will attempt if I do not start to see a reduction of fuzz in the next week or so. Just to make sure I am clear on how your strategy:

1. Reduce water changes (I tried to siphon out the fuzz when scrubbing, and thats been my only water change in over a week. Typically I do 5 gallons weekly)
2. Increase clean up crew (currently I have 5 margarita, 3 nassarius, 2 scarlet hermits. I was thinking to double each.)
3. Toothbrush cleanings (which I have been doing everyday I dose the ReFresh)
4. Dose GFO for 48 hours
5. Do a 3 day black out (I've never did this before and the natural thought is "Won't this hurt the corals?")
6. You also mentioned dosing KNO3, but I was unclear as to why you were doing this. Could you clarify this?

If you could run through this and make sure I am understanding what you did, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[reeferfoxx]

@reeferfoxx

So my last dose of ReFresh will be going in on Wednesday. Thought the white fuzz is not completely gone, I can say it is slowing down? It still seems to come back after I give a toothbrush scrubbing, but it seems to be coming back slower each day. I've noticed this especially on the glass. Before I was scraping the glass daily, now its every 3 days or so.

I also have read your thread about your battle with this issue multiple times. This is something I believe I will attempt if I do not start to see a reduction of fuzz in the next week or so. Just to make sure I am clear on how your strategy:

1. Reduce water changes (I tried to siphon out the fuzz when scrubbing, and thats been my only water change in over a week. Typically I do 5 gallons weekly)
2. Increase clean up crew (currently I have 5 margarita, 3 nassarius, 2 scarlet hermits. I was thinking to double each.)
3. Toothbrush cleanings (which I have been doing everyday I dose the ReFresh)
4. Dose GFO for 48 hours
5. Do a 3 day black out (I've never did this before and the natural thought is "Won't this hurt the corals?")
6. You also mentioned dosing KNO3, but I was unclear as to why you were doing this. Could you clarify this?

If you could run through this and make sure I am understanding what you did, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

Pretty close!

First thing, is to add snails that really like to eat diatoms. Astrea or Trochus snails work best. You need 1 snail per 2 or 3 gallons. Once those are in the tank, proceed..

Second, add GFO for roughly 32 hours and then remove the GFO to perform your last tooth brush cleaning. Add the GFO again until 48 hours is up. Removing the GFO just makes sure nothing gets clogged. Also make sure all glass and back wall are clean.

Third step is to grab a beer and watch your tank come back to life.

The 3 day black out was because of a Cyano outbreak. You could do it also for this purpose without harming anything just as an added precaution.
I dosed KNO3 because of low nutrients. My tank was low on pods and other micro fauna which need nutrients to grow. Hope this helps.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Oh and yes, water changes reduced to bi-weekly 5-10% changes.

I used phosban GFO. I did the recommended 1 gram per gallon.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

Wanted to contribute back to this thread my experiences so far.....

I finished the ReFresh dosing about 4 days ago & stopped UV. Stringy stuff is about 95% better, although a little white fuzz on a few plugs. This was a tank transfer to a new setup with dry rock & dry sand, so I havent mounted anything down yet.

I started Waste Away yesterday at a little less than 1/2 dose & stopped skimmer & pulled UV and put it away. By mid afternoon, I had a little cloudiness going on from the bacterial bloom so last night I started the skimmer back up. It still hadn't cleared by this morning, so back out came the UV to knock it down. No adverse effects, just prob tank being so new, not a lot of organics yet. Maybe I'll go to 1/4 dose next.

I'm definately getting somewhere & there is significant improvement. Is it the Dr. Tims or just time? I don't know. I've read a lot of threads where people have had this issue and a few things I have in common are...

*Had white egg crate in display & sump to hold transfer of frags. I removed all of this as the theory was that some release agent in the manufacturing process was the culprit.

*Tropic Eden sand. There have been some reports of this sand & bacterial issues. IDK, the sand stays.

*My son's bubble blowing machine & bubbles all over the house & I'm sure in the tank. I wasn't home, but this is what I think triggered the issue.

*Dead and/or rotting mushrooms. I found a rock of my iron man shrooms rotting in the sump. Maybe 5 or 6 mushrooms that I dipped before transfer to this tank. They say you cant kill a mushroom, but 50/50 H2O2/Tank Water will do it. I was dipping zoa's & did the mushrooms right along with it. No go. I'm sure this didn't help the situation & maybe even caused it.

Oh, and I have some GFO @reeferfox, just havent stuck it in yet. Running Rox in the reactor for now. Showing 0 Nitrates (Salifert) & 0 PO4 (Hanna ULR). Gonna roll with the waste away for about a week along with a little Acro Power & then maybe try some GFO. Softies are all pretty good, might lose a monti or 2, but overall not too bad. Fish (clown & yellow assessor) have been fine.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

@Marc.The.Shark I'm glad to hear that your tank is cleaning up!

Quick update on my situation. I dosed my third does of Waste Away yesterday. This was my first full dose, and I believe it will be my last dose of Waste Away for now. My water instantly clouded up, so I turned on the skimmer immediately. My fish are ok and my corals are generally ok, except my duncan and frogspawn did not seem to enjoy this and closed up and remained closed the rest of the day. This morning they seemed to be slowly opening back up. The Refresh and Waste Away treatment did not seem to show any drastic reduction in my problem. It does seem to slow it down and it does not grow as rapidly, but it still comes back.

I do believe I have the solution to my problem! @reeferfoxx suggested going with a 3 day blackout, up my cleanup crew, and GFO. Over the weekend I realized that my fuzz is almost non existent first thing in the morning (which I rarely get to see because of my work schedule) when my lights come on and slowly builds up throughout the day. This leads me to believe that my problem could be solved by performing a blackout.

This weekend I beefed up my clean up crew. Tomorrow will be the first day of my blackout. I am giving my duncan and frogspawn a day to recover from yesterday's Waste Away treatment. My only hope is that my Anemone doesn't freak out and start moving around the tank searching for light. I will give updates later this week!

 

[reeferfoxx]

@Marc.The.Shark I'm glad to hear that your tank is cleaning up!

Quick update on my situation. I dosed my third does of Waste Away yesterday. This was my first full dose, and I believe it will be my last dose of Waste Away for now. My water instantly clouded up, so I turned on the skimmer immediately. My fish are ok and my corals are generally ok, except my duncan and frogspawn did not seem to enjoy this and closed up and remained closed the rest of the day. This morning they seemed to be slowly opening back up. The Refresh and Waste Away treatment did not seem to show any drastic reduction in my problem. It does seem to slow it down and it does not grow as rapidly, but it still comes back.

I do believe I have the solution to my problem! @reeferfoxx suggested going with a 3 day blackout, up my cleanup crew, and GFO. Over the weekend I realized that my fuzz is almost non existent first thing in the morning (which I rarely get to see because of my work schedule) when my lights come on and slowly builds up throughout the day. This leads me to believe that my problem could be solved by performing a blackout.

This weekend I beefed up my clean up crew. Tomorrow will be the first day of my blackout. I am giving my duncan and frogspawn a day to recover from yesterday's Waste Away treatment. My only hope is that my Anemone doesn't freak out and start moving around the tank searching for light. I will give updates later this week!

Blackout won't fix all of it. I do believe you still need to run the GFO(temporarily) to remove remaining silicates and up the clean up crew to eat the rest of the diatoms. The blackout will keep the chrysophytes from coming back.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Blackout won't fix all of it. I do believe you still need to run the GFO(temporarily) to remove remaining silicates and up the clean up crew to eat the rest of the diatoms. The blackout will keep the chrysophytes from coming back.

Sorry I left out that I have a bag of GFO as well. This last weekend I ramped up the clean up crew and I got a bag of SeaChem PhosNet.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Update?

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Update!

Yesterday was the first day the lights were turned back on, and the fuzz is gone!

Today is the first day the lights are back to their typical schedule. All of the corals are happy and open, the fish are swimming and eating...overall a huge success! I am going to do a small water change today and then sit back and enjoy my happy, fuzz free aquarium!

Would it be wise to run GFO in my filter 24/7 to keep silcates and phosphates down?

Thank you everyone for the suggestions and the help through this. I hope everyone is as happy with their reefs as I am at this moment!

 

[reeferfoxx]

Update!

Yesterday was the first day the lights were turned back on, and the fuzz is gone!

Today is the first day the lights are back to their typical schedule. All of the corals are happy and open, the fish are swimming and eating...overall a huge success! I am going to do a small water change today and then sit back and enjoy my happy, fuzz free aquarium!

Would it be wise to run GFO in my filter 24/7 to keep silcates and phosphates down?

Thank you everyone for the suggestions and the help through this. I hope everyone is as happy with their reefs as I am at this moment!

I'm an advocate for some PO4. I would remove the GFO for now. Just monitor Alkalinity closely.
And well done!

BTW did you up the clean up crew by any chance?

 

[AwildcatsZ]

I'm an advocate for some PO4. I would remove the GFO for now. Just monitor Alkalinity closely.
And well done!

BTW did you up the clean up crew by any chance?

I did up the clean up crew. My LFS did not have any Trochus, but I did get 6 Astrea and 6 margarita snails. This brings my cleanup crew to around 6 astrea, 12 margarita (approximately), 3 scarlet hermits, and a fire shrimp.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I did up the clean up crew. My LFS did not have any Trochus, but I did get 6 Astrea and 6 margarita snails. This brings my cleanup crew to around 6 astrea, 12 margarita (approximately), 3 scarlet hermits, and a fire shrimp.

Sweet. IF the margaritas die, you might need a few more Astrea. Typically the rule of thumb is 1 Astrea per 2 or 3 gallons and 1 margarita per 15 gallons.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

Wow, glad it's all good for you! I'm still at about 90-95% better & kinda sitting there. Might try the blackout to see if I can eradicate the rest. I gave the sump a good cleaning yesterday & couldn't believe it when I drained it down. Clear slime on all the glass & baffles that I couldn't see with the water in there. I gave it a good cleaning, along with skimmer & reactor & that made a big difference. Just need the final push now. Thanks @reeferfoxx for all the good tips too!

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

I did up the clean up crew. My LFS did not have any Trochus, but I did get 6 Astrea and 6 margarita snails. This brings my cleanup crew to around 6 astrea, 12 margarita (approximately), 3 scarlet hermits, and a fire shrimp.

How's your tank doing?

 

[AwildcatsZ]

How's your tank doing?

So far so good! The fuzz has not seemed to come back on the rocks, but I am noticing a little bit still lingering on one of my pumps. My plan is to take that pump out this weekend and give it a good scrubbing and cleaning.

Also I adjusted my light schedule to more on the blue spectrum, a longer ramp up and down time, and only 2 hours of peak light output (12 hours total of light). Not sure if this has anything to do with it, but just something else I messed with to keep the fuzz at bay.

Only bad thing that happened since the black out is my wrasse jumped...:(. Must've got scared by how clean the tank was.

@Marc.The.Shark have you tried the black out yet?