Help ID This Brown Algae

[grimreefer]

I have some kind of brown looking slime algae that has taking over my sand bed. I have a 120gal with two 400watt 20K lights. My water perimeters are good, my bulbs are less than three months old, my lights are on for 8 hrs, (I cut them back to 5 hrs today), I have good water circulation and I do 25% water changes every week. Tank temp is between 77 and 80 deg. I have a good clean up crew consisting of different kinds of crabs, snails and shrimps.

I guess my question is, does someone know what this is and how can I kill it? What can I do to prevent getting it again?

Thanks for the help.
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[casper75]

CYNO
I am fighting it myself

 

[coolsurf]

Cyano...! I've never had it nor want it.

This is from another person who had the problem....Whether or not it works, I really have no idea but maybe it will point you in the right direction....

I just had the exact same algae/cyano problems you had. Following the advice of my local fish store, which was to just let it run it's course was a disaster. It got the point of have moving clouds (like fog) in my tank. There was bubbles and brown slime everywhere. After that I starting trying all kinds of methods to beat it (new lights, water changes etc)... NOTHING WORKED. Then I talked to a very experienced fish fish dealer who helped me beat it. My tank is now perfect, all signs of algae/cyano are gone, and my water quality has never been better and more clear. Here is what worked great for me.</em>

1.Purchased Chemi-clean and dosed my tank exactly as it says. I turned off my skimmer and removed my chemi-pure elite. Chemiclean oxidizes organic sediment and sludge. It's labeled fully reef safe on the box. I believe it's made by the company that makes chemi-pure.</em>

2. After 48 hours I did a 10% water change. I used a baster and blasted all the rock clean. I then vacuumed the all the organic matter and waste off of the sand.</em>

3. I immediatley redosed the tank again. Left the skimmer off, and kept out the chemi-pure. </em>

4. 48 hours later I did another 10% water change (cleaning the rock with a baster again). I then turned my skimmer back on (I had to turn the air down a bit) and put the chemi-pure elite back in. </em>

5. Two days later my rock was polished clean, my glass was clean and the sand was perfect. I then installed an eco-aqualizer and my tank still has no algae/cyano issues to this day. A quick note, I truly believe in the eco-aqualizer. I understand what it does cannot be tested for, however, I know my tank and the issues I had before are gone. All of them. Everything seems healthier, my water is very clear and I've gradually cut back on water changes. Even my nitrate and phosphate levels are a lot always lower. I didn't change anthing, except for the addition of the eco-aqualizer.</em>

Last I had several snails in there at the same time to help clean. I would recommend this to anyone fighting the endless battle. I believe my problem was that there was to way to much organic matter in the tank. </em>
Hope this helps...</em>

 

[grimreefer]

Affectedhalf;325453 wrote: Cyano. I'm sorry. :/

I wouldn't bother with lights out for 3 days.

You're right, I turned out the lights and covered the tank with blankets for complete darkness for 72hrs, no change. :boo: But it did take about 3hrs before all my fish can back out.

 

[lilrobb]

I had great success with Phosban - some said it doesn't work for cyano - well, it did for me.

 

[coolsurf]

Running Phosban or Phosguard IMO is a good thing. I truly believe it helps.

 

[skriz]

You'll want to syphon up as much of the cyano as you can. The best time to do so is right before lights out. During the lights on period, the cyano will be sucking up nutrients, for the water AND air. During lights out, it will release those nutrients into the water. So, you want to syphon it when it has the highest amount of nutrients.

Next you'll need to combat the cause: excessive nutrients. A very good skimmer and water changes will handle it. The reason why your water changes aren't doing much to fight it is because cyano can pull the nutrients from the air!

If you buy an eco-aqualizer, be prepared to wear the dunce cap and get laughed at everytime I see you.

 

[zdaytonaroadster]

Ugh, i just got it, after a year of of getting the red cyano when i started, lights out doesnt help, i might try chemi-clean again, but if it doesnt work i dunno what else to do. Running heavy carbon and phosban isnt helping..sigh

 

[grimreefer]

Thanks for the advise, I currently run phosban and change it every month, I also use carbon and change it every month.

Another thing I forgot to mention, I feed about every two to three days.

This just started about a month ago. Nothing changed, no new methods of doing anything, I didn't change flow, feeding, bulbs, lighting times water changes or anything. It just happened. I did add about 100lbs of live sand I got from a experienced hobbyist in this club, but that's it. What can cause this?

 

[grimreefer]

Skriz;325471 wrote: be prepared to wear the dunce cap and get laughed at everytime I see you.

What's new. LOL :doh: Thanks for being there for me. :tongue2:

 

[coolsurf]

I'm wondering if the new live sand added the nutrients to feed the cyano?

 

[lilrobb]

I might guess that was my sand - it bloomed very slightly for me when I added it to my setup.
I doubled my chaetomorpha algae and waterchanges and was fine within 3 weeks.

Tracy,
you got any sandsifters? My Nassarius kept turning the sandbed and even though it might not cure the cause - it helped the look during the 3 weeks.

 

[zdaytonaroadster]

tell you what seemed to work for me, (and believe me i was suprised) was a UV light. I jammed my UV light right into my spraybar down from my sump and it seems to have nuked 95% of it the first night, i'll be checking through out the day to see if it comes back

 

[oil_fan]

I sooo hate this stuff. It keeps coming back on me too. The chemi-clean thing worked for a bit but it's starting to come back on me. I last dosed about 2 months ago.

I haven't tried the Eco Aqualizer so I can't speak about that. I have been thinking about doing the UV thing and getting a proper phosphate reactor.

Ha ha...I just took a look at what the Eco Aqualizer is. Magnets. The actual website that took a look at the thing is no longer around but the Way Back Machine has the page cached. Take a look at the pictures:

 

[zdaytonaroadster]

wow, 24 hours after UQ was started its all gone, thank god

 

[smoothie]

I exhausted everything. Shorter photo period, ceriths, cyphoning, scrubbing, skipping feedings, phosban and it kept coming back after a week starting between zoa's and getting crazy from there. High flow, low doesn't matter. Finally went the chemical route which I hate to do and used Red Slime Remover. Wiped it out, made my skimmer crazy and I had to do a few extra water changes over 2 weeks from the extra waste, but it never came back. I was really happy with the stuff

 

[zdaytonaroadster]

^^yeah i did that the first time and it worked

 

[grimreefer]

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I will have to go the chemical route which I don't like, but I like it better than having all this algae.

Robb, I don't think it came from the sand, it might have, but I put that sand in my fuge and frag tank which doesn't seem to have any of this algae on it yet. It's only in my display.

Does anyone know what causing it so I can avoid another outbreak?

 

[zdaytonaroadster]

^^decompsing food/animals putting organic material in your tank will get it started, or it did for me anyway

Try a UV light, srsly, it worked for me

 

[oil_fan]

This thread got me thinking. I bought a UV light a while back and didn't have any success with it. But I now know that the water flow was too high. So after a trip to Home Depot and $14 in parts, it's now up and running in my 20 gallon and the water flow is far lower than what I had it at before. We'll see how that works.