Ive had a 90 gallon aggressive system kicking for almost a year now with no problems at all. Its a fish only tank with just a couple triggers and a puffer. Wanting to do something different, i picked up a small 29 gallon, 20lbs of live rock, and 40lbs of live sand. Had it Kicking for a month and then dropped some mushrooms in it. Mushrooms where doing great, getting real big and it was going real good. Then the problem started. A blackish looking algae. started on the live sand about the size of a quater. I removed it by hand but it came back. Now its a big spot and im getting a little on my live rock. Its kinda hairy looking and now looks more purple then black. I have turbos, a few fighting conch snails, and hermits but they dont eat this crap. I want it out. Please help?!! It almost looks like mat algae
New to Reef tanks and having trouble
- Thread starter Lungs15
- Start date
It is a cycling issue. The only thing you can do, is let it run it's course. In time, the algea/cyanobacter will run out of what ever is causing it to grow. This is a natural process in all reef tanks. Becareful to monitor ALK, Ca, and pH. Make sure these are in the recommended ranges because that helps to control excess nuitrients. Also, how often and how big are your water changes?
Quiet1
Quiet1
yea, i used distilled water because I dont have an RO unit. My lvs are fine but I didnt add a protien skimmer untill about a month into it. Im doing a water change today so im gonna try and suck all the crap up and see how much of it comes back. Im just wondering if anything eats this crap and is this a bad thing. Doesnt seem like it .
yep definately invest in an ro unit. http://www.aquaticreefsystems.com/ sells great RO/DI at by far the best prices i have seen. i bought mine from them for $130 and i love it. plus you can use it for your 90 and your fish will be much happier. about critters eating you said you had hermits. i hear that red legged crabs or very good for eating this. check them out at Garf.org
most importantly you can find things that will eat it but it all comes down to cycling of nutrients. while my tank cycled it was completely covered in stringy green algae rocks, glass, it was all over the place. i changed nothing in my water chemistry and after 2 months it was gone never to be seen again. so just because you found something that will eat cyano it won't route out the problem but only help control it. my final piece is that you need not should, but need to invest in RO. hope i could help
-kyle
most importantly you can find things that will eat it but it all comes down to cycling of nutrients. while my tank cycled it was completely covered in stringy green algae rocks, glass, it was all over the place. i changed nothing in my water chemistry and after 2 months it was gone never to be seen again. so just because you found something that will eat cyano it won't route out the problem but only help control it. my final piece is that you need not should, but need to invest in RO. hope i could help
-kyle
