Algae/Bacteria I.D.

[Dale Carlisle]

Hi everyone,
Can anyone tell me if this is a form of coraline algae or cyanobacteria? It is on the rear glass, right of centre.
Thanks.

 

[billsreef]

Growth pattern is suggestive of cyano. Does it wipe of easy with your fingers? If so it is probably cyano.

 

[ri]

Yea, looks like Cyno to me also. If it is Cyno, do your best to remove it all.

ri

 

[Dale Carlisle]

Thanks Bill and ri .
Yes it comes off easy.
Some further Q's if I could.
I've just done a 5G. waterchange (scraped and syphoned) and am thinking of adding seachem phosguard to get things under control (I don't want it to spread to my L.R.). Do you think this will help?
My 33G. hasn't a skimmer (currently setting up a 75G. with a 45G. sump into which I will transfer all) and I am currently relying on P.W.C.'s and a weekly cleaned H.O.B. filter to transport nutrients.
I suspect the source of my problem may be over feeding of phytoplankton. I have 3 main filter feeders (coco and Hawiian featherdusters) soft zoo's and mushrooms and am trying to drive my mysis/cope/amphripod pop's to maintain a banded pipefish. The only other inhabitants are an emerald crab (hitchhiker) 1 skunk cleaner shrimp and a small anenome, both of which I target feed (the crabs on his own). Everything is booming but I have no way of knowing how much is too much for the phyto?
I use vividreef live phytoplankton 4-6 teaspoons a day. Any insights. The bottle says add till the water turns a greenish tinge but I could probably dump half the bottle in before that happens.

 

[rick rottet]

it's been a long time since I used phyto (I just rely on snails and scraping the glass now), but I thought what I used was more like 1 tsp per 50 gallons 2 - 3 times per week.

 

[ri]

Cyno is a form of bacteria. Other than time and manual removal, I'm not sure what the best treatment is... I'm battling a minor case of the stuff myself.

ri

 

[ri]

I should mention, I have the stuff growing on a few rocks... a few thick patches. It siphones off easy and stays clean for several days at a time.

ri

 

[billsreef]

With how your system is currently set up, I'd suggest running hight quality carbon and changing it out weekly. For phosphate removal you'll be better off with one of the iron based phosphate removers if you have any soft corals such as toadstools, colts, etc. Next, and probably most beneficial of all, large water changes. I'm talking almost 100% changes Use well mixed and aged water for the replacement water of course. That should really do a good job at knocking back the cyano and still allow you to feed heavy.

 

[Dale Carlisle]

Thanks all!