Bubbles on EVERYTHING!!!
 

Hey!
I got home from work today and my entire tank is coated in bubbles!??? the entire back wall and much of the LR has little bubbles attached to it. mostly in the top half of the tank.. what is causing them? is it just algae respring? can i stop it?

hi, do you have a sump, perhaps it is low on water and the return pump is sucking in air, or the pump is drawing in air, can you see anything out of the ordinary. More info may help. regards ken

The sump was a bit low when i came home, but only a powerhead was partially uncovered. the water is still perfectly clear, no bubles suspended, only attached to everything in the tank!

Could be the start of Cyano. Do you notice any red slimy algae covering the substrate? How old is your system?

A nutrient issue leading to bacterial growth? i believe bubbles on the rock are usually from bacteria such as cyano or from dinoflagelates.

there is a brownish hair algea type stuff growing. not forming like previous cyano i've had. my tank is about 2 months old now. but i started it from a previous tank about a year before. upgraded from 30 to 65 with a 30gal sump. anything i can do to curb it? slow feeding a bit? fewer light hours? i have a tang and an angel grazing.. 6 snails and a hermit. good population of brittle stars and bristle worms so i dont think overfeeding could be a problem...

Sounds like dinos.

BTW, are you using RO/DI water? Silicates in tap water can promote the growth of dinos.

i do use RO/DI water but i've never had a TDS to measure exaclty how good it is.. bought the unit used and put in new filters. any good ways to eliminate it? same as all algea? lights or nutrients?

Dinos! Had the same thing. Best way to curb that now is to switch to good RO/DI and make sure that you aren't introducing too much O2 into the water, like an exposed powerhead when the water is low. When my watergets low, just the extra agitation from the water falling farther can bring on a dino flare-up. God... I make it sound like herpes...

just looked up some photos of dinoflagelates.. im pretty sure you're bang on. :-( is it manageable?

It's managable if you get on it ASAP. If you don't you'll have to go to durastic measures light no lights for several days... and your corals aren't going to like that.

Few tips:
-Use super pure water
-do a few big water changes
-reduce water agitation as it results in high dissolved O2 which the dino's thrive on
-Make sure your pH is spot on... they don't like highpH
-For some reason iodine doses kill them off a bit. No idea why, just an observation (do not overdose!!!!!)

ok so this may have come on at the worst possible time.. im going away for the weekend and have the tank in the hands of a fishsitter. im going to leave the lights off all day tomorrow, then go back to 4 hrs grow time for the weekend. first thing when i get back is a big water change and a clump of chaeto in the sump. just ordered a TDS meter to see how my RO filters are doing and i might be purchasing a new unit... put an add up looking for media reactors for carbon or GFO. thoughts on my action plan?