Help!! Advice? Help ID this stuff growing in my tank!

How are your phosphates?

 

I can't tell from the pic but could it be dinoflagellates?

 

Any Chance your dosing with a denatured alcohol? Air freshners? Any aerosol sprays? Anything other than raw organic ethanol in spirits (vodka, moonshine)

 

Eesh I wouldn't think so. I would have expected a total loss from the poisons added into denatured alcohol. Which doesn't seem to be the case with the nem and stylophora peaking into the picture.

 

Bacteria would break the methanol down. I was just suspecting as it's a bacteria bloom I've never seen per chance it was an odd source feeding it.
I have a source to get ethanol free but it's denatured so I turned it down.

On a different note, dose half cup per 150 gallons water of over the counter strength hydrogen peroxide. Dose for 3 days and see if it hits it. If it does continue dosing for 2 months. Special notes. This prevents algae growth so you will build up nutrients and will need to do 20% a week to keep from building up in water column. It will miss off starfish, urchins, anemones, and similar inverts for about an hour after dosing. To minimize this add half to disk away from direct hit with those guys and other half down overflow.

 

I agree with blackx-runner that it could be a bacterial bloom however I wouldn't think it would last this long unless it was continually being fed(dosing something). I've not ever had a lot of luck with a black out but you could sure try a 3-5 day black out to see if that knocked it down since you say it is only in the light.

 

What about any treatments lately? You may not dose anything regularly but by chance did you treat your tank with anything prior to this occurrence?

 

Does it come right off the rock when you suction it out or does it seem as though it's attached to some degree(growing)? You say you have done some water changes. Pretty significant? If it were my tank I would do some major ones. Like 50-60% to see if I could shock it out of there.

 

Is it on other things in the tank as well and not just the live rock? Such as pumps, sides of the glass, any kind of equipment, etc?

 

Maybe give a UV Sterilizer a shot. I would be interested to see if it is in fact a bacterial bloom as they can usually be spotted by a cloudiness suspended in your water column.