please help...dont know what to do anymore

C

cmgsr916

New member
first of all i dont post much but always browse through the site like everyday and just search for info i need. im pretty new to sw and have my 12gal nano set up for 4 months now.

well my problem is that for a month now ive been getting some hair like feathery dark maroon(almost black) kinda of algae on my sand bed. i dont know what it is and ive been searching on this site and cant seem to find info on it. it grows like a thick layer over my sand and peels off when you remove it. it looks almost like feathers waving everywhere almost 1in long, not slimy. it grows within two three days after i remove it and covers most of my sand bed. anyone have an idea of what it is?

i tried just about everything and still it keeps on growing. im thinking about replacing the sand and see if it still grows, thats my last resort. water params are good and everything in the tank is healthy. it makes the tank look very nasty so please help me out guys. i dont have a picture rite now because i just removed it earlier but ill try to get one when it grows again. thanks ahead.
 
I had the exact thing in my tank when I first started up. I found it easy to get rid of.

What cleanup crew do you have? (List everything)

What is your light cycle? (Hours per day)

How often do you feed and what do you feed?

Basically it is common with new setups. Have you had this from day 1 or has it just happened?

Also how often do you do water changes and how much do you replace?
 
i had a black hair like film in my 10g. the stuff would peel off the glass like plastic wrap. grew on the sand , glass, rocks... none of my crabs or snails would eat it.

my lfs guy told me it was cyano and gave me some powder anti-biotic and no more black stuff.

it turned green and went away.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7762212#post7762212 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by colinadam
I had the exact thing in my tank when I first started up. I found it easy to get rid of.

What cleanup crew do you have? (List everything)

What is your light cycle? (Hours per day)

How often do you feed and what do you feed?

Basically it is common with new setups. Have you had this from day 1 or has it just happened?

Also how often do you do water changes and how much do you replace?
Click to expand...

my clean up crew consist of two crabs, 2 turbo snails, 2 nassarius snails. they do not eat the stuff im talking about. they cleaned up the tank really good though after the cycle and this stuff just showed up like a month ago. my light is on like 10 hours a day rite now. i change out three gallons every 10 days or so. i barely even feed the tank at all. i probably feed frozen shrimp like once every 10-15 days to my clown and anenome. i only have one fish, the percula clown, because i dont want to get anymore until i get the problem solved.

i basically tried everything though to try to rid the stuff. tried not feeding the tank for awhile and the stuff still didnt go away, i know im not overfeeding rite now. tried changing the water more frequently. then i thought maybe there wasnt enough flow so i upgraded the stock pump with a mj1200 w/ hydorflo and left the stock pump in the tank. it still didnt get rid of the stuff, i think it actually help it grow faster. my current is so strong its stirring up the sand. then i changed my bulbs and still no luck. cut down the lighting period to 6 hours or so, it slowed the growth of the stuff after i remove it but its still coming back. i dont want my corals to die from not getting enough light.

i have chemipure, purigen, and have phosban in the back chambers. the only other things i have in the filtration is a sponge which i clean out whenever i do water changes. chemicals i add are kent ph plus, reef complete raises calcium, use stress zyme and stress coat at times. i buy my water from the local fish store.
 
It sounds like cyanobacteria and you have done just about everything to get rid of it.

The main difference between your cleanup crew and mine is I have cernith snails instead of Turbo's. Not sure if that makes a difference.


Have you ever thought of buying distilled water from the store and a bag of Tropic Marin salt and doing your own saltwater.

If you go with Tropic Marin you should stop dosing the tank with those chemicals.
I would try that for a month, I would be shocked if that didn't clear it up.
 
I thought I saw an article talking about chemipure and its potentially causing the growth of certain algae. I have some brown growing in a new set up but its should go away. Let us know how it works out. I can't see a connection between chemi and algae myself. I am using chemi in my 24 nano.
 
it sounds like cyano bacteria to me and it is cause from to mush feeing which cause rotting waste which turns into PO4 and NO3
which i think they feed on
 
if you dose remember to add carbon within a day to pull that crap back out or you could stress things out and if anything eats the cyano it will almost always die just a little FYI
 
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