absolutely fuzzled..

[Invigor]

we just moved to a new house and I setup my tank innn july I guess it would be..it was going great, looking awesome, but I'd say for the past month and a half everything has been on a hard decline, and I can't figure out. I've added about 50gallons to my system via a larger sump and since then,I've probably done 50 gallons of water changes. my tank is 105gallons, I figure the sump holds around 50gal, and I just can't get anything to look good...the only thing that appears to be doing good is my clam...go figure. I don't have many corals, some frogspawn a few mushrooms. all of my xenia has gone to mush, leathers look deflated, anemone's are looking -ok-...

I've done the regular tests, Ca, alk, pH, no3, po4, all are within acceptable ranges..

I use IO salt and ro/di water, run a skimmer (wouldn't call it high efficient, but it works..) 110w vho(12hrs), 2-250w hqi MH (4 hrs), dolphin ampmaster 3000 return wide open..I've had this brown cyanolike stuff on the sand for quite some time, goes away during the night, comes back in the daylight..

I'm stumped...only thing I can think of is I used some bathroom silicone (mildew resistent) to tack on 2 pieces of glass for the overflow I drilled in...there's maybe 10 linear ft of it in there. does anyone know how much of a problem this might cause. (i'd prefer responses from others experience, not "oh yea that's gotta be it..cause it's just a bad thing...cuz I read it on the internet sometime ago")

i've been thinking of ripping down the system, resiliconing my overflow and using different salt...please, any suggestions before my head explodes and I waste a $60 pail of salt...

on the flip side, my fish seem to be doing fine, still have appetites of destruction and fat as beavers!

thanks,

[Invigor]

(i'd prefer responses from others experience, not "oh yea that's gotta be it..cause it's just a bad thing...cuz I read it on the internet sometime ago")


that's of course if I'm not the only dummy that's done this..

[reeferaddict]

I haven't done this.... BUT.... I do know that kitchen/bathroom silicone contains anti-mildew chemicals that can and will leech into your water and WILL affect the inhabitants. Regular 100% silicone is available at Canadian Tire, Home Hardware etc... and is clearly marked "Ideal for Aquariums".... available in white or clear... if you want black you have to get industrial stuff... I don't have it in front of me right now, but I did post the product # in another thread asking about this...

I'm not going to say that is your problem... just my two bits on the silicone. One thing I ask if your Xenia is receeding is how are your iodine levels? Another suggestion is the first fix... try doing some water changes... if there are any leeching chemicals, they would be somewhat diluted this way...

I hope you find the problem... :eek:

[christyf5]

Sounds like dinoflagellates to me. Brown snot like bubbly algae?? Welcome to hell :evil:

Decrease your lighting, increase skimming and alkalinity and pray to the reef gods. You can siphon it out but sometimes that makes it worse. My suggestion is to either start over, or give all your SPS to a buddy and leave the lights off for 3-5 days with a blanket over the tank. Then do big water changes.

I'm sorry I can't comment on the silicone, I have no experience with that. Personally I battled these guys for a year with no success, it was only after I took major action, restarting my tank with freshly powerwashed rock and no sandbed that I've actually had success.

Sorry to sound like a downer. Other people have had success against these buggers. I think its fairly easy to combat in the first stages but as they reproduce by fission, the larger population you have, the larger population you have.

some threads:

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2807&highlight=dinoflagellates

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/t_crail.html

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/t_crail2.html

Good luck and for your sake I hope its some other lame algae.

Christy :)

[Bob I]

A few weeks ago I had a small outbreak of the same brown Cyanolike stuff. It confined itself to the sand, but did creep up rocks a bit. It too went away at night and returned in the morning. All I did was siphon it out, and replaced the water I removed with newly mixed. It soon disappeared. :mrgreen:

[Invigor]

thanks for the quick replies! I've turkey basted it off everything, and syphoned it off the sand, only for it to return the next day, i've given up that idea after it doing it 3 days in a row with the same brown guck to appear the next day. here's a pic for comparison to what you've had christy and bob:

http://invigor.sasktelwebsite.net/dinos.jpg

in the pic, I would say it's about 1/3 the density it normally is. at the worst, I can't even see through the brown blanket to the sand..it has similarities to cyano..but seems less "stick togethery".

[christyf5]

Looks like dinos to me. I had it mostly on the glass and sand.

[Invigor]

Thanks!

lights out for the critters!

[Ruth]

I had that crap in one of my old tanks and it was hell. I'm sorry I don't have any fixes to offer you I ended up tearing the system down and restarting cause I just couldn't get rid of it. I agree with Christy to find someone to keep your corals and let the tank lie fallow until they go away and then it stay that way for a while and add everything back in very slowly and be prepared to do it again if it comes back. Sorry. Also I don't know if this would help but I had some of that nasty red cotton candy algea in my sump/fuge. It never did get into my display but I did manage to get rid of it by adding a few very large Pacific Turbo snails and a sea slug. Don't know if it would work on this though.

[Invigor]

I picked up a black knobby cuke too to help out (before I knew it was dinos) so hope he doesn't croak on this stuff.

I'll try the blackout for a few days to see if that helps, if not, I wouldn't mind ripping it all down, cleaning the LR off and re-setting it up...gives me a chance to get rid of this awful sugar sand and go back to CC.

Thanks again for all your help! It's GREATLY appreciated! I love canreef :redface:

[christyf5]

BTW, take your snails out as well. They'll probly croak from eating the stuff and foul your tank.

[Van down by the river]

Hey Invigor,
I'd strip the new silicone out. It is slowly leaching poisons into your tank. Although it may not kill the animals right away, it may eventually weaken them and shorten their lives.

Recently I was asked to assist an aquarist that was having trouble keeping items alive. Everything in the tank tested good. He had changed water, added carbon and polyfilters, etc. Nothing worked long term. When I asked him about some modifications he made to the sump, it turned out he used a non aquarium safe silicone. I removed it all (and replaced with the proper silicone), and changed the water etc. After that, his tank has run good ever since.