What kind of algae is this?

Wonderful news.

Many, many thanks for the update. We don't often hear back from people about what worked for them.

Aloha,

Mark 

You need time for the biological milleu to establish itself and no amount of doing anything on your part other than waiting is going to amount to much.

But since you must do something go ahead and add more snails. 2 per gallon at least (you dont have an algea problem you have a snail problem). They might not eat that particular algea but the constant grazing won't leave it anywhere to attach.

Add a poly filter, as Mark suggested.

A focus on growing macro algea is also critical in the first year. Prolifera or racemosa outperform cheato.

Sorry...that does not look like dino's to me, and I've seen more than my fair share (microscope confirmation).

The photo looks like cyano in a new tank with a weird light spectrum or photoperiod. Cyano can easily get whispy, bubbly, and a variety of colors. Dinos are more snot-like masses in most cases. Yours looks more slimy (very technical terms I know). Basically, dinos have more of a massive structure while cyano lacks structure...in most cases.

Then there's statistics. This is a newer tank with immature rock. The cases of getting dinos in that short of time are incredibly small. It's more likely cyano just statistically speaking.

Regular doses of a good bacteria will help the tank cycle along if you used immature rock. Good lighting, good water, proper food, and good flow will help prevent it.

If it was dinos, boosting the pH above 8.4 and holding steady for weeks usually knocks it out. However, this is not recommended unless you are absolutely sure. Bacteria or algae won't outcompete dinos, and low nutrients won't starve it. Lots of studies exist on this.

I’m not convinced this problem is going to go away any time soon.  I think I did not cure the rocks properly before introduced to the tank.  I rinsed them off with a hose, high pressure nozzle and ran RO water through them for a few days.  I think I could have cured them more thoroughly before adding to the tank.  I’m considering a reboot but I’m not sure the best way to go about it.

What is the best way to reboot this tank?

Should I wait this out or start over?  I’m only 3 months in.  I think it would be better to figure this out now before it is harder to fix later.

 

Thoughts? 

 

And thanks for your input Mark, you have always been helpful.  It has been a long time since I started a tank and just getting back into it, doing a lot of reading, I am convinced I did it wrong.

I added a whole cleaner pack from reefcleaners.org but most of them died during shipping.  I picked up some hermits and astrea's from birdworld.  Right now without counting I have 10 Astrea, 10 Hermit, a few cerith and a few nerites.  I keep reading dino is toxic and kills snails, so i decided to wait before adding more.

No more stringy dino but the back wall still has brown.  The algae on the rocks is looking more green i'm thinking hair algae.  I know I can add some more snails and crabs to get that under control but not sure I want too yet until the dino on the back wall goes away.  It is thinning out.  

Some updated pics for reference.  

Here is a top down pic of the halimeda.  I trimmed it out and put some in my other tank.  It was about double that size.  It seems like the dino is gone but is being replaced by green hair algae.  While the green hair is not desirable I think it is more manageable.  I want to post some new pics of the tank and get your opinion.  Does dino go green?  I also have some coraline algae showing up, small specs of it on all the rocks.  I hope this is a good sign?  I had a water main break in my front yard.  I have been extremely busy trying to get it all back together.  The tank has just sat and haven't done anything.

I haven't done anything special here.  The dino problem is going away, almost gone.  I was going to start trying some things but I got busy working on my house the last couple weeks.  I blame the temporary use of tap water and excessive water changes.  Hopefully it doesn't come back.

Stay with me here. I am going to throw out a number of possible solutions.