Normal algae bloom or problem?

[Killer bunny]

I have read and heard from many more experienced reefers that in a new tank, an algae bloom, especially, but not limited to, diatom algae, is normal. The general advice is also that new tank owners need to just maintain their tanks and be patient. I also know that red slime is not really algae, it's cyanobacteria. It is getting pretty bad in my approximately 3 month old 32 gal biocube. The tank houses 1 ocellaris clownfish, 1 purple firefish, 1 Banggai cardinal, 3 blue leg hermit crabs, 1 nassarius snail, and just over the past week, a small/medium sized green bubble tip anenome. All animals are thriving, and the fish get fed once a day, and I try to be conservative. I have fed the anenome 3x in his first week in the tank, but this cyano problem started before he arrived. Lights are on for 7 hours & I do weekly 10% water changes, using Red Sea Coral Pro salt. I change the filter floss 2x/week. There is about 30# of live rock, & chemi-pure carbon that gets changed about every three weeks. The one filtration component I haven't purchased yet is a protein skimmer (which is planned), and currently I have only one wave pump for circulation ( a second is also planned). Last water test: T - 78 F, Salinity - 1.025, Nitrate - 2.0, Phosphate 0.025. (I haven't detected ammonia or nitrite in so long, I didn't test for them before yesterday's water change.) I think a skimmer will be help but I am wondering if I should be taking more drastic measures to get the cyano growth (assuming that's what it is) under control, like carbon dosing. In these pictures, some of the hairs growing from the cyano would almost reach the surface if I hadn't brushed them off the rock a week ago. It really is starting to cover the rock and the sand. I can brush it off the rock but it comes right back. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. -- OK, I have tried to upload photos of the mess and for some reason, they are not uploading, which has not been a problem in the past. All I can say for now is that pretty much any surface exposed to light has what I believe to be cyano on it. I will try to upload photos in another post.

 

[LeJeune981]

Carbon dosing is ment to feed benificial bacterial growth.. the ones that feed on Nitrate and phosphate..
There numbers grow and they consume the Nitrate an Phos... and then get skimmed out by the protein skimmer to be removed from the system..

My cyano outbreak occurred recently.. I was already carbon dosing the tank for a phosphate issue when the bloom occured.. so I then stopped with the dosing because the carbon will feed all bacteria.. including the cyano... from what I have read about carbon dosing a tank..
( I blame my outbreak on a combo of carbon dosing and closing up the house and kicking on the furnace due to fall weather) my outbreak started the same week it got cold outside...

I've been fighting it for a month now.. and have tried all the recommended cures... even got a bigger skimmer..running both at this time..along with gfo (added because of advice to fight cyano)

Anyways... I've given up and have resorted to ordering some chemiclean red slime remover... it will be here tomorrow... and I will nuke that cyano!!


I'll post a pic of mine.. because it sounds the same as yours

Long strings and all... I syphon it out every other day.. and you can't tell..even the morning after I syphon it all

I'm not sure why my photos are uploading sideways..

I upload pictures through the "tapatalk" phone app

Sent from my SM-S907VL using Tapatalk

 

[Uncle99]

Cyno and Algae to me are not related problems, they are separate so we agree on this.
Cyno seems to come and go.....to remove just use a thing called Red Slime remover and it should be mostly gone in a week....but follow directions carefully.

Red Sea No pox I had used for years as a daily carbon dies, took a month but all my green Algae is gone!

 

[Killer bunny]

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks for your responses; I think I will take a look at the red slime remover - still can't upload photos.