Curiosity before panic

[BIGBIRD123]

I have strands of stuffy all m corals. It looks like when they slime-up but is reddish brown. I am curious because I have never had anything like it...anyone? Parameters are Nit>0, Nitri>0, Phos...0, Ca 460, DKH 14 (high), Mag 880 (low)and Ph 8.1 . The stuff blows off but a few minutes and it's back.

[hobogato]

sounds like diatoms or dinoflagellates.

does it look like this?
http://www.aquacon.com/images/DinoAlgae11.jpg

[fishypets]

Dude get your KH and MG inline!

[BIGBIRD123]

I sent an email to Instant Ocean today because I'm getting 850 on new mix right out of the bucket. I should be about 1300.

Yea Ace, that's it. ....water changes?

[justahobby]

A person that has never met the brown slime before.... I need to buy a lottery ticket

[kkiel02]

If you kill all your flow for 5-10 minutes they should release and can be taken out as they float to the top of the tank. I had them when I started my 180 and they got pretty bad but died off on their own. They survive off of silicates so if you can find where the silicates are coming from you can stop this and kill them off. They will eventually starve themselves out unless the silicates are coming from your water source, which then every water change you will be giving them more and more... Alot of times the silicate leaches from the sand bed though and they will eventually starve themselves out. Hope this helps.

[Bill S]

I sent an email to Instant Ocean today because I'm getting 850 on new mix right out of the bucket. I should be about 1300.

Yea Ace, that's it. ....water changes?

Steve, have you checked your test kit? While not unknown, it would be surprising if IO was THAT low.

What is the TDS of your water?

[Neptune@gabesfish]

what is salt level if it is not at least 1.026 your mag will be low..

[los.tejanos83]

sounds like diatoms or dinoflagellates.

does it look like this?
http://www.aquacon.com/images/DinoAlgae11.jpg

I've been fighting this stuff for an extended period (too embarassed to mention) and should have posted awhile ago. I didnt test this past weekend but the weekend before my DKH-14 and Mg-1300 (approx). How do i bring these parameters in order? I use RO water for top off and water changes...how do i control the Silicates?

I've been doing weekly water changes trying to bring my Nitrates down...still hovering at 50 to 100 (approx...yes, i know, needs to be much much lower). My UV sterilizer on the fritz...my skimmer waste collector has a drain...i have macroalgae in the sump...do not overfeed my fish to keep nitrates down.

Ready for your recommendations.

[justahobby]

IO has a history of spurring cyano, diatoms, etc. It was the first salt I used and switched after reading about it while having silicate issues. I wish I had saved the article. I will try to find references, but that was several years ago. I never mention it since there are so many IO advocates on the board who would discredit the above statement. I wouldn't be surprised if most salts contained unwanted amounts of silicate that could build up over time.Randy Holmes Farley ran some silicate tests on play sand and showed that it would release a noticeable amount of silicate .... if you use that. Low salinity will cause most parameters to be low including calcium, mag, alk, ........

[justahobby]

Angelo, you should start a new thread regarding your problems. That will allow us to go more in depth in helping out youe issue and not dilute Bigbird's orignal post.

[ErikH]

Angelo, water changes should bring down your high levels.

[sharkboy]

check your tds steve...maybe its time for new ro membrane or di filters???

[ReefCube]

change your salt to seachem salinity! I have had bad batches of salt from those guys

[corruption]

Steve, have you checked your test kit? While not unknown, it would be surprising if IO was THAT low.

What is the TDS of your water?

This is actually, at least according to the reports that have filtered into WWM for the last 2.5 years, not very uncommon.. There's been many bad batches (possibly large batches with sedimentation/mixing/settling issues) that have had excessively low magnesium levels recently -- the common sticking number that I've seen is in the 850 range... Though a lower dKH is usually associated with these same bad batches. I wouldn't rule it out -- but there could be other factors at play too.

-Justin

[Bill S]

Call around and see if anyone has a Salifert Silicate kit. Any chance you have some playsand or silica-based sand in the tank?

[BIGBIRD123]

I really don't know, I got the sand with the tank. I'll make a call to the original owner.

[BIGBIRD123]

Man, thought I'd seen it all but the big "B" and I'm not referring to Bill but he knows what I mean...

[corruption]

Steve -- scoop a little sand out of the tank, shake it dry and put it in a cup... add some vinegar -- if it fizzes, its calcium based and likely aragonite. If its inert (no reaction), chances are its silica-based..

-Justin

[BIGBIRD123]

well it's not the sand...but it looks more like this, so I'm thinking red slime...

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j20/onebrickstrait/algae.jpg

So I started a chemi-clean treatment tonight, will keep posted...

[FireWater]

Phosphate reading Steve? I am battling something that appears the same and my phosphates were through the roof. This is the fairly new tank right? Maybe it is trying to "catch up" and you are going through serious mini cycles.

[chark]

Looks like dinoflagellets to me.

[ErikH]

Looks like dinoflagellets to me.

+1