Dinoflagellates or Calothrix

or could be hair algae too, but mine looks brown hairy, also has air bubbles on them. My nerite snail seems to lawn mower that thing, I would sometiems place nerite on the rock that im having the most problem with, i have so many algae on that rock, I can see the trail where the snail ran off to withought not even needing to look closly, suprisingly its trail is crystal clear lol

Anyway pictures coming soon, and any advice on what I can do to get rid of them?

edit: also i have diatom problems on sand too

 

They look like this


on rock


on sand bed, sands look bumpy and messy because I ordered bunch of cerith snails from reefcleaners, and they been digging around here and there

Yeah, looks disgusting lol ugh

Nitrate 0.25 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.025
Salt: Instant Ocean
Alk: 6.8
Mag: 1500
Cal:420

Lighting 150w metal Halide
Tank: Biocube 29
Fish: 3 fish

 

Looks more like dinoflagellates to me, but could be cyano. What happens when you turn off all of your pumps?

 

Yeah, looks like you have some dino in there. It usually comes around when the tank has been set up for less than 6 months, most of the time around a 3 month old tank but it can happen at any time when stuff is added too fast. Here are a few steps to help but time is the best cure.

1) Try turning the lights off for a day or possibly two. After that, reduce the photoperiod in half.

2) Run fresh carbon and gfo (just use normal caution on the gfo) to reduce the phosphates and organic build up.

3) Skim well, very important in the long run.

4) Increase your water changes. You need to do a lot of water changes for the next few week. I would suggest 25% once a week.

Try not to add anything for the next month or so. Once you see the algae start turning green, you know that you have gotten past the dino outbreak.

HTH

 

I have had an ongoing problem with dinos. They are always in remission unless I let my pH go a bit too low. If i dont keep it up near 8.3 they show back up.

I drip kalk through a dosing pump throughout the day and night. keeps my pH stable and high and thus the dinos from growing.

 

I agree with Dingo, get the pH up, but I also raised my magnesium and keep it above 1500.

I fought dino for 3 months, what worked for me was

1. Raising and maintaining a higher pH and mag
2. Complete black out for 4 days.
3. Using a turkey baster to blow off the dino from the rockwork, substrate and corals daily, letting the water clear and then rinsing all mechanical filters like sponge or floss.
4. Water changes were of no assistance to me, I was told by a Marine biologist that they may even feed the dino. So I did not do any during the total black out.


After the total black out I was very slow to increase the lighting period, starting out at 3-4 hours each day.

I also ran chempure elite and purigen, initially it did not seem to make a difference.

Good luck and keep us informed.

 

i ll try to win this war lol, my tank is crazy right now from dino's
I will keep you guys posted here.

First step: buff up the PH and alk, and lights out for 4 days.
Check back in 4 days

 

picture will come tomorrow, its like 80% gone, 4 days black out. Alk still at 7.3 ish trying to raise.

I still have some on sand, and rocks but has cleaned up big time. However the backwall of the tank still looks the same. What should I do now?

 

Corailline, Dingo and MSA Corals have given good advice. You also may need to use a toothbrush to get some off the rocks. There is some conflicting info on water changes. The idea is that they can be limited by trace elements and a water change will replenish them. There may be truth to this, but I still prefer water changes, as it helps remove toxins and other chemicals released by the Dinos and keeps the rest of the tank healthy in the process. I have done water changes when fighting Dinos and they were still all gone within a few weeks.

 

okay will try to do water change, after leaving the light on full time for the past 2 days, they are slowly growing ahhhh! must get the ph up!