ReelRednekReefer
Active Member
I've had this algae, whatever it is, my last tank 45gbare bottom in Florida and this tank 90g shallow sand bed in Texas. It's slimy light brown and fluffy looking in the water. It gets air bubbles in it after several day but doesn't really get stringy. The longer I go without scrubbing it off the darker brown it will get. It grows on glass, rocks and sand. When I siphon it up it comes up like carpet bringing sand with it. Stirring daily only slows progression slightly. Even heavy scrubbing with stiff nylon brush only reduces it down to what looks like a tan velvet coating on the rocks. It's inside caves and in direct light. Best I can tell from pictures on the web it is brown cyano but it's hard to tell the difference between that and dinos.
I was feeding a homemade frozen food every three days. now I feed pellets daily and nori so I can make sure it's all eaten.
Water changes have been inconsistent but about every 6-8 weeks I siphon sand , scrub rocks and glass, clean out sump and change 30gallons of water. Algea returns within a week of water change and cleaning. I use an RODI which makes 0tds water that shows 0 PO4 on an API kit. Since cycle completed I have never had nitrates or phosphates that register on the API kit.
Skimmer is checked every other day and neck and cup cleaned if it has a thick buildup. RO NWB-110 skims well after I feed, stir sand or clean rocks but then seems to deflate like there isn't anything to skim.
I added 10 small nassarius snails a month ago to add to the existing 5 small blue leg hermits and 4 large turbo snails, brittle star and sand sifting star. Nothing touches this stuff.
I've been running gfo and carbon in a dual reactor since October. Not much change. Service medias at 4-6week intervals
On Tuesday I completely drained sump and found a ton of detritus under the skimmer stand. Sump is nearly sterile since then. I have used filter socks since cleaning and checked/changed daily I also added a clump of cheato in the refugium area of the sump as my PO4 kit goes from 0 to 0.25 and I figured the cheato would take up some of that and hopefully out compete but that has yet to be seen.
Have been using Reef crystals but just switched to sea hem reef salt ( for unrelated reasons) and will change 30 gallons tommorrow along with siphoning sand.
Lighting is 2 165w Chinese LEDs on 10hrs a day @ 50%. On Tuesday I pulled down one light and centered the other. Also raised it to about twelve inches above the water but had to increase level to 75%.
All corals, fish and inverts look good. Nothing dead that I can find. Stock includes
Monti,
frogspawn
Duncan
Zoas
GSP
Condy anemone
Yellow tang
Clownfish
Royal gramma
Snails and hermits
Parameters all show 0
Salinity is 1.025
Temp 78
Ph 7.8 which I have been unsuccessful at increasing
What is this stuff?
So what am I doing right?
What wrong?
What can I do to get rid of this stuff?
Would chemiclean work if it is cyano?
Here's what am dealing with:
I was feeding a homemade frozen food every three days. now I feed pellets daily and nori so I can make sure it's all eaten.
Water changes have been inconsistent but about every 6-8 weeks I siphon sand , scrub rocks and glass, clean out sump and change 30gallons of water. Algea returns within a week of water change and cleaning. I use an RODI which makes 0tds water that shows 0 PO4 on an API kit. Since cycle completed I have never had nitrates or phosphates that register on the API kit.
Skimmer is checked every other day and neck and cup cleaned if it has a thick buildup. RO NWB-110 skims well after I feed, stir sand or clean rocks but then seems to deflate like there isn't anything to skim.
I added 10 small nassarius snails a month ago to add to the existing 5 small blue leg hermits and 4 large turbo snails, brittle star and sand sifting star. Nothing touches this stuff.
I've been running gfo and carbon in a dual reactor since October. Not much change. Service medias at 4-6week intervals
On Tuesday I completely drained sump and found a ton of detritus under the skimmer stand. Sump is nearly sterile since then. I have used filter socks since cleaning and checked/changed daily I also added a clump of cheato in the refugium area of the sump as my PO4 kit goes from 0 to 0.25 and I figured the cheato would take up some of that and hopefully out compete but that has yet to be seen.
Have been using Reef crystals but just switched to sea hem reef salt ( for unrelated reasons) and will change 30 gallons tommorrow along with siphoning sand.
Lighting is 2 165w Chinese LEDs on 10hrs a day @ 50%. On Tuesday I pulled down one light and centered the other. Also raised it to about twelve inches above the water but had to increase level to 75%.
All corals, fish and inverts look good. Nothing dead that I can find. Stock includes
Monti,
frogspawn
Duncan
Zoas
GSP
Condy anemone
Yellow tang
Clownfish
Royal gramma
Snails and hermits
Parameters all show 0
Salinity is 1.025
Temp 78
Ph 7.8 which I have been unsuccessful at increasing
What is this stuff?
So what am I doing right?
What wrong?
What can I do to get rid of this stuff?
Would chemiclean work if it is cyano?
Here's what am dealing with:
