I've never cleaned my substrate!

[RussC]

Now that I've got your attention, I'm guilty as charged. This was one of those things I just didn't realize was as common a practice as it is. And I'm guilty. I'm one year in and now knowing what I do, feel like this was the cause of my cyano and now the cause of my algae. And this algae is a brute.

This tank is one year old this month. I've never really been completely without algae, but that should be expected knowing what I know now about cleaning substrate. So I started this past week cleaning substrate. I also started running GFO and plan to have that running regularly moving forward.

This algae is healthy and shows no sign of backing down. Any suggestions in the meantime as I fight this. its just ugly. I want it gone. Corals are healthy. tank is running steady on parameters. I"m just reaching for ideas...

What is this algae? can you tell? I've got small puffs of it on the rocks that look like small shrubs. Some that looks like hair. Some that is matted. All seems to be same color.

 

[Jeff000]

Going on 6 years, never taken water out of my display tank, never touched my sandbed.
No algae.

 

[homer1475]

Cyanobacteria on your sandbed. While we classify it as an algae, it really is a bacteria. They feed off of the silica in the new sand. They will typically die out on their own as the silica in the sand is consumed.



Every time I've ever had them, suck out what I can, and increasing flow over the sandbed cleared them up.


FYI, cleaning your sandbed is one of those things that you either do on a regular basis, or you leave it be. My tank is going on 3 years old and I have never cleaned my sandbed. It's still as white as the first time I put it in the tank. Admittingly I do stir it up once a week during maintenance day and have several nassarius snails turning it over for me.

 

[Uncle99]

There's a ton of micro life in your sand.
I have vacuumed my sand when I do my water changes every week, but I don't go deep.
Been doing this more than 25 years.

Just be patient with the Cyno, mop it up, keep your water on point, you will find it disappear.

Make sure your source water is TDS 0-1.

BTW.....nice looking tank!

 

[Cliving1]

Agreed with above, manual removal works well

 

[Joe0813]

I never touch my sand. I just manually just remove and cyano that I may get

 

[caliMako]

so i see that you opened 2 threads with the same pics. but the other thread is titled dino outbreak, and this thread ppl are thinking it is a cyano outbreak. to me, the pics are leaning towards cyano but then you have a shot of holding bubbles like dinos.
curious to what the verdict is because addressing the two different outbreaks can vary.

 

[RioReefr]

Admittingly I do stir it up once a week during maintenance day.

YES!

I used to vacuum my SB, I don't anymore because there a ton of spaghetti worms and other critters in it. HOWEVER, one a week I just stir some parts to release the nitrogen gas trapped down in there. I also have a bunch of hermit crabs and this crazy damsel that likes to stir up the sand with its tail.

IMO, I think it is healthy to at least give it a stir now and again just to put the detritus build-up into the water column and have it pass through the filtration.

 

[RussC]

so i see that you opened 2 threads with the same pics. but the other thread is titled dino outbreak, and this thread ppl are thinking it is a cyano outbreak. to me, the pics are leaning towards cyano but then you have a shot of holding bubbles like dinos.
curious to what the verdict is because addressing the two different outbreaks can vary.

Yea, I got worried when someone told me it was DINO. Still am worried because I'm not completely convinced it isn't. Working on finding a microscope to make sure. But do feel reassured in the confidence of this particular thread with everyone discussing cyano. I can do cyano!

 

[Sk8r]

Cleaning it is risky unless you have done it weekly from the start. And I don't.

 

[RussC]

Thinking back, I seem to recall reading something about 'do or do not'. That is the only real reason I can think of as to why I was not cleaning my substrate. Its hard for me to think why I would not be doing something because I 'forgot' or was lazy. Just not my style in this hobby. I'm pretty anal about that.

When this algae got cranked up, I kinda panicked because I thought it was DINO. My LFS swore up and down I should have been vacuuming my substrate. And I think I got all swept up in the hysteria.

 

[homer1475]

To me it looks like cyano. Cyano can resemble dinos when nitrogen gas from the sand bed gets trapped in the cyano. Dinos usually have a more fuzzy and bubbly appearance.

Dinos usually are not as red as cyano either. It's usually more brown with a tint of red.

 

[RussC]

I am proceeding as if it is cyano. I just sucked off the top layer of my substrate and will be treating with chemiclean.