• Help identify the nastiness.

  • Jessica5016

About a month ago, the sand and stones were covered with this stuff. There is a little of it on the stones, in small patches. The sand looks velvety. In the photo, it's the same area taken with different cameras. The color is almost accurately represented in the second photo. According to the tests, everything is normal. There was also a red coating, which disappeared after using the red slim remover, but this remains. Photos (each about 1MB):

Zachary

It looks very much like diatoms, not like dinoflagellates, and thank goodness for that!

Brent7831

How to fight it? Diatoms are supposed to be like mucus, but these are like very fine velvet. Where there are many, they shine like gel in the light at the bottom. And diatoms are supposed to be easily brushed off and removed with a siphon, but these are firmly attached.

Sarah7284

Like mucus... this is exactly dinoflagellates, while what you have looks more like diatoms. I sent you a link to the discussion on the forum, read it... there's no point in removing them with medication, they'll come back... you need to find the cause and eliminate it. Usually, diatoms appear when starting up the aquarium, specifically during maturation... on the rocks and substrate. I also have a little bit now, they appeared after my struggles with the substrate... I'm waiting for things to settle down. You have a lot of them; maybe the source water has silicates? Should you change the filters or resin? I don't even know... we need to search...

Sydney

Here is a photo of the old aquarium, 4-5 months after it was set up; there wasn't any sand, but all the stones looked like that.

Darrell5975

Ich is diatoms, very difficult to breed. Check the topic of SANI Homer; he managed to breed them with the help of Ultra Min S, Ultra Bak, and Ultra Life from Fauna Marin, but it was hard. I tried, but it didn't work.

Joseph8592

Odessa, I won't try.

Teresa

I have the same thing - I also have them in places on the rocks and on the sand. So...

Melinda

Does it help or are you just pouring for now?

Mike

By the way, I photographed the acanthurus for - the film shows the coating on the sand well. Red Slime does not affect it, it's the same as with ? Zi-photo 1.3 MB

Craig7302

The article is quite good about the reasons for the appearance of these algae.

Brandy

A similar occurrence appeared after treating the aquarium with Red Slim Remover. A pattern seems to be emerging. It appears that it (Red Slim Remover) disrupts some kind of biocycle. This is a hypothesis.

Christina9947

The link is off-topic! Although it is informative, it has no relation to what is in my photos. I repeat: the brush marks cannot be swept away, and it is impossible to remove them with a siphon. The article describes different algae. As a possible reason for their appearance, I can suggest the frequent change of salt brands: Aquavitro, Tropic Marin BA, Tropic Marin PRO...

Alyssa6727

This is not a guess, it is already a fact. We treat one thing, and cripple another, that's the law.

Natasha

Off-topic, I had the same problem when I soldered the chemi-pure. I once told Anatoly about it - he is aware. However, after adding chemi-pure, all the small creatures, brittle stars, and worms (except for the asterinas and stomatellas) said goodbye to me forever...

Ricky9405

Peridines are not derived from chemistry.

Leonard

What causes them and how can they be overcome? I really don't want to do a restart... Could very fine aragonite sand (like dust, in the sense that it has clumped and "spoiled") be the reason?

Jade

Ah, so that's what the remover was about that you were arguing about in the topic "Phosphates and Reef Aquarium"... Chemipur, from the series of "magical" powders/jars. How to treat such a mess? I think the only way is to introduce additional aquaculture with water/sand/rocks from other tanks, or better from the sea, that is, buy some fresh live rock and wait, don't make sudden movements with feeding/charcoal/vodka/removers, and it also makes sense to wait with acquiring new animals.

Tammy2040

Indirectly, I already asked this question - no one responded. I'll ask directly: is it worth considering a restart and replacing the existing sand (Sich) with a less dense type like Bora Bora Sand or CaribSea Aragamax?

Diana7891

may have, after all, you are "playing" with your own, dust from Sichev has the right to exist if you are shaping DSB, if that task is not set, then there is no point in playing with it because we end up with a sub-DSB with all the problems. In general, it's hard to say what the problem is, as you need to look at the sand for transparency, check for stagnant zones - but that's already like "surgery," plus evaluate in terms of feeding/filtration/substitutions/adding possible supplements.

Laura9093

I would replace it with Aragalive Bahamas Oolite.

Jesse3979

By the way, this stuff has also appeared in the 100-micron sand. And although I replaced the sand with a coarser fraction, I couldn't vacuum out all the dust - now there are remnants of the old sand between the coarse fraction, so everything is clumping together.

Susan1358

It's not for sale in Kyiv. And what I listed is also not available. There's a shortage. Only the Sichevsky one is available, like mine - it's crap, not sand.

Michelle13

Offtopic I have sand from Vitalik from Energodar in one aquarium, I am very satisfied with it, you haven't tried anything like it, it was in Arowana and TuM, Igor sells it.

Courtney4094

Alex, I've seen this sand. I don't like it (I took it for a test). Purely visually. Aragalive (I have it buried in my mini tanks) and similar ones look better.

Spencer7805

I saw the sand from and I didn't like it either; it looks unnatural somehow, and it differs from the sand that Vitalik, Igor, and A. have. Here are the review photos: Photo #1, Caribbean Sea from 100 microns - 1 mm. Photo #2 and 2a, from Vitalik (third year in the aquarium) from 0.5 mm to 1 mm. Photo #3 at the bottom, Caribbean Sea, and on top, sand from A.A. Photo #3a, a view of it from a distance. I apologize for posting in someone else's thread.

Michael5242

Ayrif seems to be trading it, clarify.

Joseph6461

Odessa, I clarified, there isn't any. None of the importers have it. Since when are we on a formal basis?

Michelle9986

In general, the method chosen to combat the biofilm is biological, using bacteria from the Bio Clean kit by Prodibio (advice from Rомы iReef). Additionally, a cartridge with ion exchange resin has been added to the osmosis system (previously, the TDS at the output of the osmosis was 15-17 ppm) - which has removed silicates from the water. Let's see what comes of this. If there are no results in a month, a restart will be done.

Gregory

I'm also curious about what will happen... they appeared after adding even a small amount of S.R.K. (dry reef rocks) + intensive feeding of Helmon, the rocks became like this... now I'm trying not to feed too much, but last time it worked when the sponge changed...

Wendy

I'm afraid to jinx it, but the aquarium has started to clear up. And quite quickly too. The substrate has turned from brown to white-brown. I blew the stones with a pump, and all the deposits were blown off them, while just a couple of days ago it was impossible to scrub it off even with a brush. Let's keep watching to see what happens next.

Randall7906

It's bad that now it's unclear what caused the improvement... if the resin had been added a week or two earlier than the additives, and it didn't help... Now it's hard to understand what exactly led to the result. But one thing is clear: a TDS of 15-17 is unacceptable! What does the TDS show now?

Susan

Well, you seem to be no beginner, so how did you manage without resin before? If my TDS is 5ppm, I already change the resin.

Rick

Fish used to be... - you can't go into the water without shorts. According to observations, cyanobacteria starts to shoot up at 20-30 pp, and even then not immediately, and these figures are not even a dogma. Either you introduced something bad or just disrupted the balance of the aquarium.

Samuel6138

Max, I don't allow 5 TDS in my aquarium... I change everything once a year, despite the zero TDS.

Ricardo7341

Once again, words to confirm that each system is unique... it had cyan at zero TDS!

Joshua8425

I was immediately advised that the pressure through the resin should be weak; otherwise, it doesn't have any effect, as it can't clean everything in time... Besides the daily water changes, another portion of muck was coming into the aquarium from the auto top-off, which might have already been enough given the situation... it's like a snowball... Well, of course... your own mistakes are more familiar... and I naively thought that after a little correspondence, you would draw conclusions regarding the high TDS.

Lindsey3362

Tanya, I made the conclusions, but I kept postponing the implementation because I didn't have time to run around buying components. Then I found a thread on the forum where a complete "turnkey" set was being sold, so I went and bought it. We'll see how the change of salt affects things. I used Sichim salt for more than six months. To be honest, I don't really like it; it takes 3-4 hours of stirring for the water to become completely clear. Now that Tropic Marin PR has finally appeared, I will return to it (once the Sichim runs out) - I bought some as a reserve.

Martin3206

The saga doesn't seem to be over, and the continuation is yet to come... Again, the same leap. I troubled Alex with my phone... In general, I won't do anything. Let the aquarium fight for its life on its own. I might gradually change the T5 lamps; they've already turned a year old, so it's probably time.

Charles894

I would like to know the continuation of the saga in the fight against this nuisance. Has everything improved, and if so, what do you think helped the most?

William1830

A complete restart helped.

Brooke3987

Hmm, not a pleasant prospect... I hope this unpleasantness will pass after maturation...