Algae Identification (Maybe Cyano?)

[Enad]

Hi there,

I've recently transferred a heavily stocked 25g into a WB 3620 60g Peninsula and I have some sort of algae problem that I can't identify. Normally I'd just chalk this up to the regular ugly phase, but I've never actually encountered this type of algae before, and what confuses me is that it seems to go away at night and come back around midday.

I'm thinking it's Cyano but I've never actually dealt with it before so I can't be 100% sure. Essentially, as the white spectrum on my light(Radeon XR15) gets brighter, I notice more of this stuff building up, and it will come back within the hour even if I disrupt it. However, around 5pm(2hrs before lights off), I'll notice it start to go away, and by the time the lights are coming back on at 7am, there's none of it on the sand bed.

I'm going to attach a few pictures. One set is from 8am, you can see there's basically no algae visible, and then another set from 1pm, where you can see the slime like algae covering the sand bed.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

If it's disappearing at night, is guess it's some form of dinos...

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

What are your parameters?

 

[Enad]

All pretty standard. 0.03 Phosphate, 11 Nitrate.

Before I go the chemiclean route, I've grabbed a few other conches to mix up the sandbed and I've completely turned off the white spectrum. Gonna see if this has any effect, otherwise I'll probably resort to Chemiclean.

This definitely doesn't look like Diatoms to me. That's what I've had every other time I've set up a tank and this looks very different. Diatoms look green under white light, this is reddish brown under all light spectrums.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

All pretty standard. 0.03 Phosphate, 11 Nitrate.

Before I go the chemiclean route, I've grabbed a few other conches to mix up the sandbed and I've completely turned off the white spectrum. Gonna see if this has any effect, otherwise I'll probably resort to Chemiclean.

This definitely doesn't look like Diatoms to me. That's what I've had every other time I've set up a tank and this looks very different. Diatoms look green under white light, this is reddish brown under all light spectrums.

I didn't say diatoms, I said (possibly) dinos. (But my diatoms never looked green, they are a rusty brown...)

 

[Enad]

Right, sorry I must've misread.

It's hard to tell honestly. Cyano and Dino's look so similar to me. I still think it looks more like Cyano but hard to tell. I have quite the opposite of a 'sterile' system so that's why I don't believe it's dinos. I'm trying a Chemiclean treatment now and will see how that goes.

If it ends up being Dino's - any recommendations on treatment?

 

[Aquadude1]

If think it may be a type of cyano. Nitrates that high in comparison to that low of phosphates in disturbed systems can really encourage different strains. If it were me I might keep my nitrates steady but let phosphate creep up a bit.

 

[UMALUM]

Right, sorry I must've misread.

It's hard to tell honestly. Cyano and Dino's look so similar to me. I still think it looks more like Cyano but hard to tell. I have quite the opposite of a 'sterile' system so that's why I don't believe it's dinos. I'm trying a Chemiclean treatment now and will see how that goes.

If it ends up being Dino's - any recommendations on treatment?

Did you happen to add a new bag of substrate in the upgrade?

 

[UMALUM]

I have seen bad diatom outbreaks mimic dinos and cyano. Diatom will also retreat into the sand at night for protection.

 

[Enad]

@Aquadude1 - I have some phosphate I can dose if you think that would be beneficial? For nutrient control, right now I'm only doing weekly water change. This was a transfer from a smaller tank where I had similar phosphate levels, but typically much higher nitrates.

@UMALUM - Yes, I replaced the old sand with new Live Sand. I'm sure this played a part but haven't dealt with Cyano before. I dealt with Diatoms in my last tank when it was new, as you typically do. It was never extremely but my sand bed definitely had it for a while. This looks much fuzzier and slime like but ultimately, I am inexperienced with bad algae outbreaks.

 

[Aquadude1]

@Aquadude1 - I have some phosphate I can dose if you think that would be beneficial? For nutrient control, right now I'm only doing weekly water change. This was a transfer from a smaller tank where I had similar phosphate levels, but typically much higher nitrates.

@UMALUM - Yes, I replaced the old sand with new Live Sand. I'm sure this played a part but haven't dealt with Cyano before. I dealt with Diatoms in my last tank when it was new, as you typically do. It was never extremely but my sand bed definitely had it for a while. This looks much fuzzier and slime like but ultimately, I am inexperienced with bad algae outbreaks.

If it was me I would cut back on the water changes for a bit. Especially since you have new sand in there, I would just let things settle for a bit. That's how I normally handle it but there are definitely multiple ways to approach it. I would try and avoid dosing phosphorus for a bit to avoid a swing in a disturbed system unless you start to bottom out.

 

[Aquadude1]

It's hard to tell from the pictures but there could be dinos mixed with cyano which is another reason I would just let it settle for a while.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I would not add antibiotics at this point (meaning chemiclean)

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

@Aquadude1 - I have some phosphate I can dose if you think that would be beneficial? For nutrient control, right now I'm only doing weekly water change. This was a transfer from a smaller tank where I had similar phosphate levels, but typically much higher nitrates.

@UMALUM - Yes, I replaced the old sand with new Live Sand. I'm sure this played a part but haven't dealt with Cyano before. I dealt with Diatoms in my last tank when it was new, as you typically do. It was never extremely but my sand bed definitely had it for a while. This looks much fuzzier and slime like but ultimately, I am inexperienced with bad algae outbreaks.

I don't think this is diatoms, but using new sand can absolutely result in a diatom outbreak even if the rest of the tank (rock, filter media) is seasoned.

 

[Enad]

Just got myself a Hanna ULR checker, as my previous testing kit wasn't really accurate for low range testing. Turns out my Phosphate is actually 0.54, quite high instead of low.

I ended up doing a Chemiclean treatment on Saturday and it seems to have worked a bit. Just need to get the skimmer under control now..

In any case - It seems like my high phosphate could definitely have sometihng to do with algae growth of any kind. Though I'm surprised at the high level considering I JUST did a 15g water change yesterday evening and tested this morning. I'd expect that level to be lower.