Fine filament-like material all over rock

[sgdcover]

Hi,

I'm struggling with a problem in my tank. I've searched high and low and can't seem to find any reference to it. I've got this coating all over my rocks. It comes off easily, but grows very fast. I've brushed areas to see if it returned and it would within a day. Corals are all doing well and parameters are great. Tanks been running for over a year.

Also, my chaeto has stopped growing and green hair algea is growing in my refugium.

It's hard to describe, but the picture shows it pretty well.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

it looks like bacteria growth....

 

[sgdcover]

Yes, that's what I thought too. I've tried water changes and about to run a micron filter to try and to get some out of the water column. Any other suggestions?

 

[Tonyscoots84]

are you carbon dosing? such as vinegar, vodka, or dosing anything other then alk, cal and mag?

 

[sgdcover]

I'm not doing anythin other than ensuring ph/alk are in line, which really hasn't required much intervention. I considered carbon dosing based on what I've found, but that will actually increase the bacterial growth, so I'm not sure it's an option for me.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

if it is an actual bacterial film its usually from that but i without knowing what you do in your tank such as

water changes
filters
skimmer
gfo
carbon
live stock
clean up crew

and other tank maintenance, i don't have an answer for you without knowing the unanswered ...

 

[sgdcover]

Yeah it's a head scratcher. Let's see:

water changes- Normally do 5% per week, but started increasing to 20% per week
filters- No filtration other than refugium and sand bed
skimmer- no skimmer. The chaeto in the refugium had been doing well.
gfo- non
carbon- non. I did have chemipure but I took it out.

and other tank maintenance i don't have an answer for you...

 

[Tonyscoots84]

i would keep doing 10-20% water changes a week while siphoning that stuff out.

get a skimmer

run carbon and gfo not in bags in reactors .

 

[sgdcover]

Ok thanks. I'll consider those. Hopefully I'll get some additional suggestions.

 

[LBC]

whoa if i was strugglin i'd do a massive water change with ro sw

 

[sgdcover]

Actually. Important detail I should have included in the beginning:

I did a full water change and rinsed off the rock 2 weeks ago. Sorry folks, my brain skipped a beat on that one.

 

[Johnnyreef]

Maybe running a uv filter for a couple if days should kill some bacteria

 

[Johnnyreef]

And some filter floss won't hurt either not for the bacteria but just to keep stuff out of the water

 

[sgdcover]

Unfortunately I Don't have a UV, but I agree that that might help. I'm getting a HOT magnum delivered (should be today) and plan to run a micron cartridge. Any suggestion on what else I can run in it that may help?

 

[sgdcover]

Just wondering if anyone had any further suggestions? I've been running the micron filter for two days now. I rinsed it once and a lot of brown stuff was in there, so there is definitely something in the water column. I seemed like brown diatom algae. Is that possible?

 

[PhoenixOne]

Dinoflagellates? Does it have a strong...low tide type of smell?

 

[sgdcover]

Actually yes, that's exactly what it smells like! So dinoflagellates. I'll do research on that specifically. I'd love any thoughts on dealing with that problem. Thank you!

 

[sgdcover]

I did some research. I had come across the possibility that it was dinofllagelates, but discounted because the descriptions and photos did not match the problem I'm having. However, after running the micron filter, I'm going to with this as the root problem. Now to figure out what's causing it!

Surprisingly what I'm reading is that the tank is "too clean". Could be as there are no fish in there. I've avoided adding any because of this problem. Should it be safe for me to add fish while all this gunk is in the water? The water itself doesn't smell, only the filter media once it gets full of it.

 

[PhoenixOne]

Dinofllagelates is an evil S.O.B. Frequent water changes seem to make things worse, sometimes it gets rid of it almost immediately. I'm still currently battling it and I'm starting to get the upper hand. I haven't done a water change in 3 weeks because I threw my back out 2 weeks ago. All I've did recently was switch from ESV Mag to Kent Mag (they were out of ESV) and I noticed that both my UV and GFO pumps were failing so I changed them to new pumps. I have no clue if any of the above had any affect on the Dino's current retreat.

 

[JonnyJ]

Diatoms And Dino's are confused daily. Make sure you diagnose correctly.