Clumpy sand and hair strands

[k3nnyp]

Recently my sand is starting to clump up. Have always had some brown spots on the sand, assuming detritus from over feeding, and have been working on reducing that. Now I am seeing my sand clump up and and tiny black hairs popping up. I vacuumed some of it up and did a small water change a couple days ago, plus 15% this past weekend, although it appears to be coming back quicker now.

Any thoughts.

Recently added light in sump and macro algae (1 week).

 

[qasimja]

can you post pictures that will really help people identify it

 

[sts04c]

If it is a red color, sounds like Cyano, but pictures would help as stated above.

 

[k3nnyp]

Appears more brown. Attempt #1 of uploading a picture.

Edit: Here is another photo

 

[k3nnyp]

Any thoughts on the photos? If you look close you can see the little black hairs sticking up.

 

[silver surfer]

Looks like the start of red slime.

For the clumps, check you kh levels vs you ca levels. Something is out of whack.

Kh should be below 12, your probably 14+

 

[k3nnyp]

That might make sense, I recently started making my own water (salinity) and increased my specific gravity to 1.025 from around 1.023. Corals seemed to have perked up.

I guess its time for a reef test kit. I did lower the temp to 76 and cleaned a bit off, it seems to not be growing like crazy right now. I don't have anything to test the ca or kh yet.

My LFS was going to do a complete water test for me last week but my wife delivered our second child a week ago Thursday. I've been 24x7 diaper changes and entertaining my 3 yr old daughter ever since.

Maybe ill make it today to get a test kit. Any recommendations?

 

[k3nnyp]

Red slime might be the culprit. I recently saw some growing on a dead part of my small plate, I brushed it off with a toothbrush and removed what I could from the tank in the process. It was clearly red slime.

 

[rjrgroup]

Probably cyano but it's difficult to tell. What lights are you running and what's your light cycle? I don't remember also if you had powerheads or not...What are you feeding and how often? The fuge and macro are going to help but leave the light on the fuge 24/7. I battled a brief cyano problem and defeated it with some good advice. I was feeding pe mysis twice a day and pellet occasionally. Now it's pellet twice a day and pe mysis occasionally.

 

[k3nnyp]

T5 lights (2 white + 2 actnic) 54w each
75 gallon long tank
2 power heads (Sicce 3)

6000K LED light in sump with macro algae(1 week so far)

T5 are on noon to 9pm with the first and last hours bookending with just the actnic's
sump light is on 10pm to 10am

Water changes 20% every other week (Salinity).

Feeding fish every other day alternating between Marine Cuisine cubes and Spirulina Flakes. Trying to feed slower to minimize the amount of food that hits the sand.

What I find disappointing is I have about 10 hermits (red and blue) that hardly ever hit my sand bed and when they do they're normally just passing through. Wish they would spend more time churning the sand. Considering getting some Nassiruis(sp) snails but I'm going to wait and see how this works out.

Last week the temperature of my tank climbed up while I was not paying attention for a couple days (at the hospital with my new little boy) and algae started to bloom. I thought most of it cleared after I got the temp back down and did a water change although this on the sand started showing up ( not yet horrible but trying to avoid a larger problem).

Today when the lights came on I noticed the hairs had grown and started to clump together. After seeing some red slime algae at my LFS it definitely appears to be the same. Advice from my LFS was to add a carbon block, start 10% water changes weekly and stir the sand daily to allow my skimmer to pick up some of the algae until it improves. Keeping the temperature down will certainly help. I got Sea Gel from Seachem and placed it in my sump to pull some of the nutrients out.

The LFS said this is common in the summer heat and the temperature spike probably started the cycle.

Now, wait and see.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to get all of the facts in.

 

[k3nnyp]

Things seem to be improving. Stirred up the sand again today and performed a 10% water change.