Brown slime outbreak.

I work out of town so it's hard for me to stay on top of the aquarium every day.

Anyway. I came home to a brown slime outbreak this week.
Pretty sure it was Dinos. It was not Diatoms.
Many of my dwarf cerif snails died which lends to the notion of Dinos.
I cleaned skimmer and sock and this morning most slime is gone. Only a small trace on sand. Some hairy brown algae on rocks. Usually when I'm home I clean the sock every other day and skimmer cup about twice a week.
Reading about dinos they are very hard to get rid of. I was fully prepared this morning to go through the lights out for 3 days plus additional Dino treatment but they gone this morning. (mostly)

I am reducing feeding since we are overfeeding lately . I have a CopperBBfly that is eating so I just wanted to fatten her up a little and trying different foods. (I only have two fish in 230 Gallons) She does harass the snails so could be killing them.
Instructed the wife to reduce feeding and clean felt sock every couple of days.


Also my ball of chaeto is inadequate. Fellow reefer gave me another baggie(and some flame algae) yesterday so trying to get that up to speed. I probably have a half gallon of Chaeto. My new refugium LED light arrives today so I hope that gets it growing better than my CFL light.
Anyway.. this is just a rambling post since I'm a little bored.. Any comments additional ideas?
Params are good.
NO3 0-5 API
PO4 .03-.05 Hanna Low range
ALk 7 steady dosing trying to get a little higher.. shooting for 9. Use BRS Soda ash.
PH Usually 8.15 morn 8.3 by 8PM (fuge light revers sked.)
Using GFO and ROX carbon.

One weird thing since I added the extra chaeto and flame algae the PH this morning is down to 8.05 which is the lowest I've seen in the morning. kinda weird but the addition of macro is the only thing I can figure would do that. ??(update found alk tube dosing floor of aquarium, need a holder.)

 

I feel your pain. Discovered green Dino in my sump this weekend. I also feed a little heavy. I had about 10 Watt LED going in the sump for 6 hours. There was just a small spot of Dino in the display but the new emerald crabs got that. In the mean time, the Dino in the sump has receded a bit, but still there. I'm gonna keep things real clean and see what happens. Good luck.

 

I found a good article here:
How I beat dinoflagellates, and the lessons I learned — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

After main lights came on today I see there is still a good bit there but not as much as yesterday.
My PO4 was .01 today which is the lowest I've ever seen. So I'm confused. Only did one test so will check again.

 

Here's my slime:

 

So sorry about the yuck.......it sounds like you have a good plan in terms of keeping an eye on it and intervention if it gets worse. Positive karma that it goes away

 

That's not Dino's. Sure looks like diatoms to me. Dino's are stringy. This just looks like a coating over rocks and sand, which would be diatoms. Can you post a closer shot just to be sure?

 

Thanks!

Here's ya go.
It seems to be receeding somewhat.
I changed Carbon , GFO , Filter sock and cleaned skimmer. I did put a couple capfuls of Hydrogen peroxide . Which was far less than what someone used in a reefkeeping article about how they beat it. Also did not feed yesterday but kept my lights on normal.
This is the closest I can get with my point and shoot.

You can see some bubbles in it. The stringyness is there it's just very short and hard to see in photos.

 

Update.
Got a little lazy and let my PO4 creep back up to .05. Some dinos came back on one corner and some of that clear brown filamentas algae. Dosed some Prodibio digest and biotim. Water change and Put in a couple new cups of PO4 and the Dino part is gone in two days with PO4 down to .03. I didn't do any of that light black out stuff..just concentrated hard on nutrients. Haven't seen a Nitrate card with anything other than zero yet. I use the API kit so not sure about low range nitrates. My chaeto almost died during the dino thing.. it seems to be making a recovery but I still don't have enough to really make a big impact. Wish that stuff would grow faster. ehehe.
Guess in the future I'll change the GFO a little more often until I get a biopellet reactor and refugium matures.

 

FWIW, I don't think it's dinos. It really looks like cyano to me. Either way, glad you got a handle on it!

 

It is dinos.. It strings upwards with the gas bubbles. You just can't see it in my bad pic. I did have a separate touch of red cyano and pink cotton candy. It never got bigger than a quarter. I guess I'm making the bad stuff in the tank rounds.
Haven't had to clean the glass in a few days now so things are looking up. Thinking the prodibio really does a good job. Just expensive to keep using.
Corals are doing fine just lost a little color in the pinks. Fighting to get that back.