Which algae is this

[chasesng]

Saw earlier thread about algae on sand bed. Having slight problem myself and can't find match for what type it is. Would appreciate identification and then suggestion as to what will limit it.

Algae is stuff growing on sand in far right corner of tank.

Sorry if not visible; best pic we had at the moment.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Looks like cyano as well. Seems as you have two colors of it lol. Unless the purple/red stuff is coralline on the glass that looks like its on the sand.

 

[Deanos]

Looks like cyanobacteria.

 

[crox99]

Looks like cyano as well. Seems as you have two colors of it lol. Unless the purple/red stuff is coralline on the glass that looks like its on the sand.

IMO it's coralline on the glass but cyano on the sand bed

 

[chasesng]

its definitely coraline on the glass, and just some sort of refraction on the sand bed.

it seems to grow like a layer of moss which skims off the substrate pretty easily.

was reading about cyano and there doesnt seem to be much in the way of cleaner crew that will go after it. anybody know otherwise?

 

[nanoreefer22]

IMO it's coralline on the glass but cyano on the sand bed

:lol: I know its coralline on the glass, I thought maybe he/she had some on the front glass that wasnt cleaned and appeared to be on the sandbed.

But its cyano. Water changes and some sort of phosphate removing media will help fight and rid you of the problem. Siphon it out with water changes and try to get a little more flow down to the sand.

 

[chasesng]

i get the joke now. actually my wife likes to start fights by scraping the coraline off the back wall of the tank, so i'm a little sensitive to the topic.

so how do you direct flow to bottom of tank? books/articles always say direct flow to surface.

 

[crox99]

I would use Red Slime remover.

 

[crox99]

It worked great when I had a cyano outbreak in my old 65g.

 

[ReeferGoneMad]

One for surface. And they rest directef at an angle on the back wall of the aquarium. I see one on the right pointed toward surface. Put one more on the left side aimed at the back glass try to get the flow in the tank to swirl around in a circular motion.like a tornado but not as violent. As long as flow and water changes are inceased u should win the battle.I guess u can also redirect ur return to hit off the side the cyano is on

 

[chasesng]

i've got two returns...one heading east and one heading west. then i've got two jets towards front of tank aimed at surface a few inches from center.

kind of thought i had two bands of water movement coming from center back meeting in center front that would then meet and circle into overflow in center back.

or so i thought

 

[ReeferGoneMad]

When powerheads and the such collide with one another it decreases flow and create deadspots.which cyano type algea like low flow areas that also attract a lot of detrius They only powerheads ive seen that work well when flow collides are tunzes. I guess its because of high yet gentle flow they produce. Jets don't the flow they produce sometimes bothers corals. IMO when things like this happen I like to know that I have one direction of strong yet easy on the polyps flow with no deadspots. when I get the flow to swirl in a circular path I find it better than a flow of water crashing creating a lot of high turbulence areas and dead spots.

 

[DevIouS]

I would use Red Slime remover.

Not good advice........

 

[nanoreefer22]

Not good advice........

Was thinking the same thing. I'd definately try every other route before going to a chemical. The Red slime remover would probably act more like a band-aid that a real stop to the cyano. Get to the route of the problem and you won't have to deal with it a few months down the road.

Try the flow, phosban(or other phosphate removing media), and siphon with small water changes. You'll see it goes away on its own.
-Kris

 

[chasesng]

hmmmmmmm. most excellent considerations.

despite late hour and wifes complaints, i have just spend a few moments staring at tank with the following adjustments.

overflow is center left and 2 return pipes exit from center most portion of tank or far rite side of overflow. i didnt touch the return pipe that points slightly to the front left -parallel but just below the surface. i've repositioned the rite pipe to point down a bit in hopes of creating more flow to bottom, hopefully sweeping along glass to join flow from left return.

rite side powerhead now points more into the glass trying to create flow along front of tank, picking up the flow from the same rite side return. and the left powerhead now points to the back of the tank so that it too is pushing in the same direction as the other three sources.

sound okay? or totally confused?

 

[chasesng]

oh...i installed a TLF phosban reactor a couple of weeks ago. maybe thats why problem hasnt been getting any. it just hasnt been getting any better.

do weekly water changes of 10 gals on a 75 gal tank with 30 gal sump. figure total water volume probably around 75-80 gals after considering rock displacement and sump level...therefore around 13% changes.

Parameters ...

SG 1.025
Ni usually less than 3
phosphate.. .1ppm (i find it hard to read salifert accurately)
PH 7.5
cal 350

know cal's on low side and slowly dosing it up, but dont have any real sps so not critical for me

 

[ReeferGoneMad]

Sounds very good there should be less of a chance of dead spots. Use the reactor the phosphate is high.and take devious and nanos advice try every other route u can before adding any red slime remover. If u use the advice given the algea and all other nuisnce types should be gone from ur tank within no time.

 

[crox99]

Not good advice........

Why?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Sand Cyano, glass Coraline.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Red slime remover just treats the cyano and if you look at Daces tank crash thread could possibly kill everything in your tank. If you are going to fix the cyano problem you need to look at the problem and what is causing it then fix that. Red Slime remover and such is just filling the tire with air, finding out what is causing the cyano is patching the leak in the tire then filling it up with air.