This is a bit if a Ripley's believe it or not, but since it happened in my tank I believe it and thought I'd share.
A couple of weeks ago I had a bad outbreak of bubble algae in my frag tank. Manual removal was no longer possible and emerald crabs were sated and couldn't eat another bite.
I decided the only course of action was to pull everything down and clean. I yanked every coral out and took a toothbrush to it. I pulled every snail and hermit out and took a toothbrush to them (yes their shells were decorated with awesome rows of emerald bubbles. )
Then I took some egg crate and made a new frag rack.
Two or three days later an incredible outbreak of dinoflaggeletes erupted. Hundreds of long streamers of dino's from every part of the egg crate. I sucked and sucked them out. I did water changes and back they'd come. I surmised that maybe when I stripped the tank I took out too much good bacteria and that opened the door to the dino's. So off I went to Diablo Corals to get some bacteria in a bottle. Planned a sucking session, water change and new bacteria. Talking to Jess (the owner) I explained what happened and he asked one simple question -- what color egg crate did you use?
I told himn I had white laying around and he said, "that's the problem." Most white isn't HDPE plastic and it leaches phosphates. I scurried home and make a new rack out of black eggcrate and did a 48 hour lights out.
Eureka! Dino's are all gone. Nothing. Nada. Nil.
Black eggcrate matters # BEM
A couple of weeks ago I had a bad outbreak of bubble algae in my frag tank. Manual removal was no longer possible and emerald crabs were sated and couldn't eat another bite.
I decided the only course of action was to pull everything down and clean. I yanked every coral out and took a toothbrush to it. I pulled every snail and hermit out and took a toothbrush to them (yes their shells were decorated with awesome rows of emerald bubbles. )
Then I took some egg crate and made a new frag rack.
Two or three days later an incredible outbreak of dinoflaggeletes erupted. Hundreds of long streamers of dino's from every part of the egg crate. I sucked and sucked them out. I did water changes and back they'd come. I surmised that maybe when I stripped the tank I took out too much good bacteria and that opened the door to the dino's. So off I went to Diablo Corals to get some bacteria in a bottle. Planned a sucking session, water change and new bacteria. Talking to Jess (the owner) I explained what happened and he asked one simple question -- what color egg crate did you use?
I told himn I had white laying around and he said, "that's the problem." Most white isn't HDPE plastic and it leaches phosphates. I scurried home and make a new rack out of black eggcrate and did a 48 hour lights out.
Eureka! Dino's are all gone. Nothing. Nada. Nil.
Black eggcrate matters # BEM