ID and help out?

[swbeginner]

Hi, I am having a bit of a problem with this algae like stuff that is all over my sand. I overfeed a bit, and that has caused my phates to be .5, but I've since changed foods and got a phophate reactor, so my phosphates should be lower soon. Anyway, I have a feather duster, 4 turbo snails, and 2 ocellaris clowns right now, so what is this stuff and what should I do to get rid of it? thanks.

 

[harsh12ka4]

many types of algae are very common in new tanks. feed less frequently in nature fish do not get food every day, if you let your tank mature enough and keep up with water changes (R/O water) you will see that nuisance algae wont be able to survive.

 

[swbeginner]

Okay, well then it should go away soon, I guess. Any ideas what this is exactly?

 

[crvz]

I'm not too well versed in IDs, but it kind of looks like cyano or maybe even dinoflagellates?

 

[D to the P]

Looks like either cyano or dinoflagellates. Water quality issues are the cause. It is normal for them to show up in new tanks.
Follow the advice above and keep up water changes with RO/DI water.
If its not RO/DI, then it's not really going to be helping with much of anything. Do 20% changes every week. Test for nitrates, phosphates. They might come up at zero or really low right now because the algae is using it, but you'll still want to monitor it.
Feel free to remove as much as you can manually.

 

[swbeginner]

I have only attempted to remove a bit of it, and it was easy to remove. I didn't want to remove all of it because I didn't know what it was and I was afraid that if I messed with it it would go S.exual and I would just end up with more or something. All my params are excellent, except phosphates.

 

[D to the P]

Well phosphates would be the cause of it then.

Get RO/DI water and do water changes, 20% weekly.

If you don't have your own RO/DI system, then check grocery stores and wal-marts in your area. Generally you can go to a grocery store or wal-mart and fill up a bucket at 30cents a gallon.

RO/DI water will be the ONLY water that has absolutely no phosphates, silicates, or nitrates in it.

If there are any fish in the tank, make sure you're not feeding too much.

Again, it is usual for new tanks to get this. So there's no need to go crazy. It just means your tank is still cycling.

 

[swbeginner]

Well, my tank isn't cycling persay. My tank is maturing. When my phosphates get down to zip I am going to get the rest of my cuc and then I am going to get a shimp goby. Once I get all of that and my tank remains stable, I am going to go coral crazy.

 

[swbeginner]

By the way, since it is such a small tank, I am just using ro from walmart.

 

[D to the P]

If the parameters are still unstable, and there is nuisance algae, and the tank isn't at least half a year old, the tank is still cycling. It's just not the aerobic part of the nitrogen cycle that is generally illustrated everywhere.

Make sure you are testing the water from wal mart too. Sometimes places don't keep up on changing their membranes or cartridges.
Check to make sure it's RO/DI and not just RO. The DI makes all the difference when it comes to things like phosphates and silicates.

Make sure you keep us updated with your tank so we can be there when you go coral crazy. It's always nice to see RC members' tanks grow. Just make sure you take your time. Everything needs to remain balanced. If you add too much at one time things can go haywire quickly.

Good luck!

 

[swbeginner]

I've got nothing but time, there is no rush.