diabolical_clownfish
Active Member
Hi all - I'm a beginner with a tank that has been setup since about January.
My tank has been suffering from what I think is cyanobacteria in the past two months or so. Shortly after cycling, I had a brown diatom bloom and went away on its own. About several weeks after, more brown stuff came back and it seemed to be more persistent - mostly on the sand and some on the rocks as well. I've been diligent in cleaning it up and was able to use a turkey baster and toothbrush to very easily brush it off of the rocks (like dust), after which the filtration catches it. I have separately gotten a tiger sand conch and it seems to keep the sand pretty clear (I know that only treats the symptoms and have also tried to reduce feeding / light)
However, in the past two week or so, I'm noticing that my sand has cleared up significantly but the problems on the rocks have gotten worse. There has been an accumulation of very dark brown stuff on the rocks that I cannot even brush off with a toothbrush. Some of my snails (like a white astrea in the photo here) is also covered with it.
Could anyone help me identify and solve this problem? Is this still cyanobacteria and should I try a red slime remover or ChemiClean?
Other relevant facts:
- I'm running a algae turf scrubber, which has minimal growth so far. My nitrate and phosphate also seems pretty low (don't have a very accurate test kit).
- I used to feed reef roid and recently added the Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino. But as soon as the rocks became an issue, I stopped both.
- I added copepods and dosed phytoplankton recently.
My tank has been suffering from what I think is cyanobacteria in the past two months or so. Shortly after cycling, I had a brown diatom bloom and went away on its own. About several weeks after, more brown stuff came back and it seemed to be more persistent - mostly on the sand and some on the rocks as well. I've been diligent in cleaning it up and was able to use a turkey baster and toothbrush to very easily brush it off of the rocks (like dust), after which the filtration catches it. I have separately gotten a tiger sand conch and it seems to keep the sand pretty clear (I know that only treats the symptoms and have also tried to reduce feeding / light)
However, in the past two week or so, I'm noticing that my sand has cleared up significantly but the problems on the rocks have gotten worse. There has been an accumulation of very dark brown stuff on the rocks that I cannot even brush off with a toothbrush. Some of my snails (like a white astrea in the photo here) is also covered with it.
Could anyone help me identify and solve this problem? Is this still cyanobacteria and should I try a red slime remover or ChemiClean?
Other relevant facts:
- I'm running a algae turf scrubber, which has minimal growth so far. My nitrate and phosphate also seems pretty low (don't have a very accurate test kit).
- I used to feed reef roid and recently added the Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino. But as soon as the rocks became an issue, I stopped both.
- I added copepods and dosed phytoplankton recently.
