Brown rust coloured algae?

[DerekL]

I have a brown rust coloured algae I believe that only seems to grow on my sps corals and it eventually seems to smother then to death. When it first starts it is easily blown off. It grows on healthy parts of coral and I have lost quite a few frags to this shit! My last few stag colonies now started to have this as well. It grows well in very high flow areas too. My voodoo blue stag is not all that far away from my MP40. Please help with identifying and rectifying this problem. My nitrates are 5ppm my phosphates are .02ppm. I don't have any other real algae problem and this stuff doesn't seem to be growing anywhere else. Any other questions please ask as I will happily as I want to solve this issue before I loose all my sps coral.

 

[jroovers]

Sounds/looks like diatoms.  Looks like it is growing on parts of coral that are already dead/dying.  If the tissue were alive, it probably wouldn't grow on it.  Usually they are more like a new tank issue and then once they consume whatever they are thriving off of, they disappear.

 

[Darryl_V]

They do look like diatoms.  Diatoms will grow on any new surface in the aquarium and eventually get out competed by other algae/bacteria.  If they are growing on your acros its because some of the acro has died (different issue) and the diatoms are starting on a "new" surface of the aquarium.

 

[DerekL]

I really don't think that they are diatoms. I have been through diatoms. There was no dead or dying tissue on any of the coral this stuff gets on it dies after being smothered by it though. And if it where diatoms wouldn't I also see it on my sandbed and rocks as well?  This tank has been up an running 6 months now. I know it's no where near mature but I really don't think diatoms.

 

[Duke]

i agree with darryl, that coral doesnt look good, the tips are dying and the algae is growing on the dead tissue

 

[Darryl_V]

I really don't think that they are diatoms. I have been through diatoms. There was no dead or dying tissue on any of the coral this stuff gets on it dies after being smothered by it though. And if it where diatoms wouldn't I also see it on my sandbed and rocks as well?  This tank has been up an running 6 months now. I know it's no where near mature but I really don't think diatoms.

Like I said, diatoms will grow on any NEW surface area.  Even with an established tank if I put a new piece of rock in or even a power head or eggcrate I will get diatom growth on it for a period.

No algae can grow, smother and kill an acropora from the tips.

Just curious but is a power head directly pointing at it? 

 

[DerekL]

If they are indeed diatoms then how long are they going to keep coming and going. This will be the fourth diatom break out I have had then. Everyother one tho they coated rock and everything. I do use RO/DI water too.  Just I had seen my sunset milli frag that looked great encrusting and full polyp extention then come home from work to this stuff starting to cover it? The last time I did get diatoms I made sure I stirred my ssb up really well everyday for a week to help get any silicates out that may of still been trapped underneath. I also rinsed the sand pretty damn good when setting up this tank.

 

[DerekL]

[quote author=DerekL link=topic=7630.msg79156#msg79156 date=1391267517]
I really don't think that they are diatoms. I have been through diatoms. There was no dead or dying tissue on any of the coral this stuff gets on it dies after being smothered by it though. And if it where diatoms wouldn't I also see it on my sandbed and rocks as well?  This tank has been up an running 6 months now. I know it's no where near mature but I really don't think diatoms.

Like I said, diatoms will grow on any NEW surface area.  Even with an established tank if I put a new piece of rock in or even a power head or eggcrate I will get diatom growth on it for a period.

No algae can grow, smother and kill an acropora from the tips.

Just curious but is a power head directly pointing at it? 
[/quote]

My MP40 is about 10" away from my voodoo blue stag on reef crest mode and it too has this stuff starting on it.

 

[Duke]

i think in this case the underlying issues is the coral was either damaged from shipping(the tips rubbed on the bag maybe?) or something is causing the tips to STN away and then your getting diatoms growing on the dead flesh.(they are probably feeding on it). Could be something like an ALK swing that caused the coral tips to die also

 

[DerekL]

These affected stags are colonies an have been in my tank for months. As for Alk I use to use Red Sea coral pro salt but when I started bio pellets I changed to aquavitro salinity as the alk in te Red Sea coral pro was too high for bio pellets. From my understanding with bio pellets you should keep you alk around 7 or 8 dHK. Is this correct ? My alk was around 10 dhK when I switched salts but I got it down over a couple of weeks and water changes. I guess if diatoms what can I do to save these corals? I know that I haven't added anything in over a month and have no plans what so ever to add anything new for at least a few more months.

 

[DerekL]

Sorry my alk has been at 8dhk for about 4 weeks bio pellets have been running maybe 10 weeks.

 

[jroovers]

I've roasted some tips from flow - moving corals in front of a power head or upping the powerhead flow rate.  I've got diatoms currently all over my sand bed, just replaced it recently and they are all over it.  I should add that I rinsed the heck of the substrate too with RO/DI before adding, still have diatoms.

 

[DerekL]

I've roasted some tips from flow - moving corals in front of a power head or upping the powerhead flow rate.  I've got diatoms currently all over my sand bed, just replaced it recently and they are all over it.  I should add that I rinsed the heck of the substrate too with RO/DI before adding, still have diatoms.

So there really isn't anything I can do? I guess I am going to loose these corals as well. It just kinda funny I start chasing these magical numbers to have a low nutrient system and thing start going to shite in my tank. Not saying in the long run it won't be better and I know that maturity and lack of in my tank hasn't helped. I will just stick to strict husbandry routine and allow my tank to mature more before adding any new sps corals to it. At least my clams and Lps are doing really well.

 

[spyd]

You can break off the tips that are covered in diatoms and allow for new tips to grow.

 

[AdInfinitum]

You can break off the tips that are covered in diatoms and allow for new tips to grow.

+1  Anything that is healthy and growing will quickly grow over any part you break off.

...However one of the illusions that we chased for years back in the "Bad Old Days" of poor lighting, poor nutrient control and home-made skimmers, was that we would get some inverts and see them doing great.  Expanding, stretching out...what we didn't realize was they were desperately expanding to absorb more light and increase their surface area to improve ion and nutrient exchange until, after a few weeks or months, their reserves of energy were exhausted and they "suddenly" shrivelled up and died.  When in fact they had been gradually dying from the moment they were in our tanks.

Not saying this is necessarily the case here but IMO I see the same thing happening to lots of people in this game now, the current equipment just buys us a bit more time to get things right or delude ourselves further and we can get away with it with much more sensitive creatures. 

Back in the earliest days we used to buy Curly-Q anemones (now better known as Aiptasia) and were thrilled if we got them to reproduce.

 

[DerekL]

Lol I remember the curly q nems. I had my first saltwater tank back in high school. The hobby has come along way though. As for lighting I don't think that is an issue if anything I would have to worry about bleaching. I run an Orphek Atlantik I haven't tested par on my tank but have seen par values of close to 400 on the sandbed under one of these. And it was almost 48" from the sandbed. Mine is 34" to the sandbed. Anyways I will try trimming off affected areas and hope that this round of diatoms ends soon.