Red/Brown hairs on sand - ID/Action?

[vetteguy53081]

I have the same so I’d like to find out as well. Was diatoms until yesterday I noticed brown long hairs instead of the brown dusting on the sand of diatoms that was persistent the couple of weeks prior.

150G+ system volume about 2 months old now.

My parameters:
Salinity 34.5ppm
Alk 8.1 dKh
Cal 500
Mag 1350
Temp 77.5F
PH 8.3
No3 3.0ppm
Po4 0.03ppm

Yes - Cyano.
Cyano blooms typically start when water nutrient concentrations of phosphate, nitrate and other organic compounds are too high.
Some of the most common causes include:
- Protein skimmer which fills water with tiny air bubbles. As bubbles form from the reaction chamber, dissolved organic compound molecules stick to them. Foam forms at the surface of the water and is then transferred to a collection cup, where it rests as skimmate. When the protein skimmer does not output the best efficiency or you do not have the suitable protein skimmer to cover the tank, the air bubbles created by the skimmer might be insufficient. And this insufficiency of air bubbles can trigger the cyano to thrive.
- Overstocking / overfeeding, your aquarium with nutrients is often the culprit of a cyano bloom
- Adding live rock that isn’t completely cured which acts like a breeding ground for red slime algae
- If you don’t change your water with enough frequency, you’ll soon have a brightly colored red slime algae bloom. Regular water changes dilute nutrients that feed cyanobacteria and keeps your tank clear
- Using a water source with nitrates or phosphates is like rolling out the welcome mat for cyano. Tap water is an example
- Inadequate water flow, or movement, is a leading cause of cyano blooms. Slow moving water combined with excess dissolved nutrients is a recipe for pervasive red slime algae development.
A few things to check

 

[buruskeee]

Yes - Cyano.
Cyano blooms typically start when water nutrient concentrations of phosphate, nitrate and other organic compounds are too high.
Some of the most common causes include:
- Protein skimmer which fills water with tiny air bubbles. As bubbles form from the reaction chamber, dissolved organic compound molecules stick to them. Foam forms at the surface of the water and is then transferred to a collection cup, where it rests as skimmate. When the protein skimmer does not output the best efficiency or you do not have the suitable protein skimmer to cover the tank, the air bubbles created by the skimmer might be insufficient. And this insufficiency of air bubbles can trigger the cyano to thrive.
- Overstocking / overfeeding, your aquarium with nutrients is often the culprit of a cyano bloom
- Adding live rock that isn’t completely cured which acts like a breeding ground for red slime algae
- If you don’t change your water with enough frequency, you’ll soon have a brightly colored red slime algae bloom. Regular water changes dilute nutrients that feed cyanobacteria and keeps your tank clear
- Using a water source with nitrates or phosphates is like rolling out the welcome mat for cyano. Tap water is an example
- Inadequate water flow, or movement, is a leading cause of cyano blooms. Slow moving water combined with excess dissolved nutrients is a recipe for pervasive red slime algae development.
A few things to check

Thank you for helping ID!

What’s weird is these hair looking things most show where my water flow is higher and my lower flow areas are pretty clean (or have regular diatoms).

What should my range for nutrients be? I’m currently at 3.0ppm for nitrates and 0.03ppm for phosphates. I’ve actually been concerned to bottom out nutrients so I have only been running fleece roller without a skimmer, while over feeding slightly to try to keep nutrients up without having to resort to dosing.

I currently run UV 9pm-9am at lowest flow (90k surface area coverage). Should I switch to 24/7 for the time being?

 

[buruskeee]

Follow up - this algae has really taken off. Have a bunch of astraea snails going in this weekend, then off to get more CUC.

Checking in on ID + action now there’s more of the stuff.

OP - if you have some coffee filters on hand, can you test this? I don’t have any to use right now.

“
Each of the 5 species has a slightly different look in the tank. They can also look very different and meld into any of the other competitors mentioned above. They all form some kind of mucus. Some have long strands with bubbles while others do not. The mucus could be reddish, brown, gold, or in between. They can take over rock, sand, glass, plastics, even a refugium. They can be confused with diatoms, cyanobacteria, bacterial film and chrysophytes to name a common few. Good news: you don't need a microscope to find out if the gunk is dinoflagellates.

The coffee filter test:
a) Syphon out a good sample of the gunk along with some tank water.
b) Place in a container with a lid and shake very hard for 30 seconds or so. The gunk should be dissolved now.
c) Pour the solution through a coffee filter into a clear glass. The water should be largely clear now.
d) Place the jar under a light source for roughly an hour.
e) If the gunk coagulates back into a glob, well, welcome to the club nobody really wants to be in.
“

 

[buruskeee]

Also this post has some similarities here and there in description to what we’re seeing. Something to put on the radar.

How I beat Dinoflagellates in 3 different ways

I used this forum a lot for help on how to deal with a few different dino outbreaks over the past year and some months after starting up my reef tank. I wanted to document some of that for myself and in case anyone else finds anything useful here. The Setup * 20 Gallon Waterbox Cube, Mixed Reef...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[buruskeee]

I have the same so I’d like to find out as well. Was diatoms until yesterday I noticed brown long hairs instead of the brown dusting on the sand of diatoms that was persistent the couple of weeks prior.

150G+ system volume about 2 months old now.

My parameters:
Salinity 34.5ppm
Alk 8.1 dKh
Cal 500
Mag 1350
Temp 77.5F
PH 8.3
No3 3.0ppm
Po4 0.03ppm

@taricha I see you usually look for microscope shots, but are you familiar with how they appear to the eye? Can you help us ID is this is a type of Dino so we can rule them out or not?

Thanks

 

[taricha]

@taricha I see you usually look for microscope shots, but are you familiar with how they appear to the eye? Can you help us ID is this is a type of Dino so we can rule them out or not?

Thanks

That could be dinos. The color looks closer to dinos than cyano to my eye.
Agree that coffee filter could be useful test here. If, after shaking almost none goes through the coffee filter then it's long stands off cyano, but if good amounts make it through the filter, then it's dinos.
You could also take a sample of that stuff and put it in a little distilled water, and put it in the freezer. If it turns the water pink after it freezes and thaws, then it's cyano but if it leaves the water colorless or copper colored, then it's diatoms or dinos.

 

[PotatoPig]

That could be dinos. The color looks closer to dinos than cyano to my eye.
Agree that coffee filter could be useful test here. If, after shaking almost none goes through the coffee filter then it's long stands off cyano, but if good amounts make it through the filter, then it's dinos.
You could also take a sample of that stuff and put it in a little distilled water, and put it in the freezer. If it turns the water pink after it freezes and thaws, then it's cyano but if it leaves the water colorless or copper colored, then it's diatoms or dinos.

For the freezer test do you shake it up before putting in the freezer?

 

[Rijodan]

Looks very similar to how cyano starts out for me.
If its only sand it may be a glow issue at bottom of tank. Fix with something thats gonna churn that sand and/or higher flow.

I refuse to run anytank without a diamond goby just for sand cleaning ablity.

 

[taricha]

For the freezer test do you shake it up before putting in the freezer?

doesn't matter, get a little bit of that brown-red stuff into some freshwater and freeze it.
when it thaws it should put some color into the water which will tell us something about what family it's from.

 

[buruskeee]

For the freezer test do you shake it up before putting in the freezer?

did it change into a color?

 

[PotatoPig]

doesn't matter, get a little bit of that brown-red stuff into some freshwater and freeze it.
when it thaws it should put some color into the water which will tell us something about what family it's from.

results are in - my read is “pink so likely cyano”, is that right?

 

[taricha]

results are in - my read is “pink so likely cyano”, is that right?

For sure!
That pink means that there's a bunch of phycoerythrin (pink photosynthetic pigment that makes red cyano look red) in that nuisance stuff.

So yeah, confident there's a bunch of cyano.

 

[PotatoPig]

For sure!
That pink means that there's a bunch of phycoerythrin (pink photosynthetic pigment that makes red cyano look red) in that nuisance stuff.

So yeah, confident there's a bunch of cyano.

Thank you!

It’s been a neat revelation finding out how much science there is in keeping these tanks, from water chemistry to diagnostic methods like this, and also an eye opener to how much there is to know about the topic. Really appreciate your time and the time of all the others who contribute to this question and to these types of posts in general.

 

[buruskeee]

So it’s basically Cyano forming over diatoms. So relieved! @PotatoPig we have avoided the Dinos! lol. I’m going to take a more natural approach and help other bacteria and algae outcompete the cyano.

 

[buruskeee]

OP, wondering if you’re getting what I’m seeing now. I have brown bubbly (like bubble coral polyp like) algae stuff on my sand, walls, and rocks.

@vetteguy53081 @taricha any ideas on this ID? I’ve tried searching around. These don’t pop but like deflate. And they’re brown and have the consistency of like a clump of diatoms.

 

[PotatoPig]

It will be very helpful to rip clean threads to track out the selected cure methods for this tank, using opposite means, to see how long it takes

killing each succession in the tank vs export has a maximum hold value breakpoint, this was an issue back in September too per posts

so we are a month or so into clear advancement, not retraction. That sets the stage for sure to see how long it takes to attain this

from this

that was a recent cyano/dinos job we did in chat

it took four hours to change the tank.

curious to see what a doser or animal or param change w do

your lighting intensity is too bright for the setup for sure.

Hi Brandon,

Following up with an update on this:

In the end I elected to go with a low intervention approach.

1. Added about a dozen Astrea snails (to six existing ones) that kept this stuff down on the rocks, aided by blowing it off with a Turkey blaster until the snails had it under control on the rocks (took about 5 days). These critters were absolute machines at mowing it down, they just don’t go on the sand. Also added four hermits (to five existing ones), but never saw these guys on the sand so don’t know if they deserve any credit.

2. Two days lights down to 5%, ramp back up over the course of four days. This gave temporary relief, but the stuff grew so fast it came right back. Not sure I would do this again.

3. Daily filter sock changes. I use mesh socks so easy to clog but easy to clean.

4. Slight cutback to feeding.

I was going to add sand centric CUC (and still will) but before I got to it noticed the extents on the sand were receding, so just observed. In the evening it seemed a small army of amphipods was emerging and tackling the stuff on the sand and had grown in numbers enough to eat more during the night than grew during the day. Over the course of about a week growth of this stuff stalled, started to recede, then dramatically receded.

As of this morning it seems completely gone from the rocks and only traces remain on the sand.

/in the meantime - next on my algae journey - a few areas of rock and sand have now grown a green mat of what appears to be a different type of cyano, though growth extents of this have stalled, so waiting and seeing what happens for now.

 

[brandon429]

thats really good, larger tank owners need patterned logs of actions that dont require chemical alteration of params/guessing at new level changes etc. that's really helpful for invasion battle patterning.

 

[buruskeee]

OP, mine has not been eradicated yet, but has stalled and started receding since getting nutrients up to ideal ranges.

I do now have chrysophytes which are annoying but I don’t believe they hurt anything. Since raising nutrients from bottoming out, it has helped and my pod population has started exploding again so hopefully I start seeing things balance out and the good guys winning the competition battle.