The stages of algae........read this and advise.

[joeyz]

I know that when tanks are new, they go through various stages of algae - correct?
The first being the brown diatom bloom - again----correct? Clean up crew took care of that in one weekend. VERY COOL!
So my tank is like 7 months old now and I really new went through a hair algae stage although I do have one patch of it now.
Not really a problem. Just checking here but is cyano another stage? Does everyone get it at one time or another? I posted about this the other day and it seems like a real pain in the butt. Now that I am aware of it, I am noticing more and more things that just don't look right. I am getting some maroon patches on my sand by the bottom right side of my tank. Can this just be siphoned off with a turkey baster?
I am planning on working my butt off this weekend to get rid of the slime/cyano on one of my rocks, along with doing a complete testing of everything.....and a 10 gallon water change.
Do you have any suggestions for me on this?
Should I be considering some kind of medication or slime remover for this?
Should I run carbon in the tank?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks>
Joe

 

[FOX]

joeyz,

What size tank? What kind of skimmer, if any, do you have? Is it producing well? If your skimmer is properly sized and working well, it should remove the nutrients that are feeding the cyano.

FOX

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[Jeff B]

How long do you keep your lights on? I had similar problems during during the first year of my reef and reducing the photoperiod helped immensely. For example, I initially started with lights on for 13+ hours and scaled back to about 9. As the cyano died back I was able to increase to an 11 hour period.

 

[FOX]

O.K. My bet is the ph & alk. problems had alot to do with this cyano outbreak. Now that you have that fixed, remove as much of the cyano/hair algae as you can by hand and keep the water parameters stable and keep doing everything else you have been doing. I think you'll see that this will subside before to long. If it doesn't, you may want to think about increasing circulation just a little bit. I like the maxijets for their reliability, but they lack a little in the power department, IMO. But with the Sen and 3 maxi's I would think you'd be o.k. You can run some carbon if you want. I use Black Diamond brand on occasion to polish the water. I also used it when I was battling hair algae a couple years ago. It worked very well.

FOX

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[joeyz]

I don't know how much more circulation I can add to the tank. There are certain spots where the rocks pratically move
I probably could use something to hit the back of the rocks too. I was told that young tanks usually have a low ph reading and then as they mature, it stabilizes to 8.3.
Anyway I have been dealing with this calcium/alk problem since November and I finally got a handle on it.

Jeff,
I have a 4 x 96 watt pc set up.
My lights are on for a total of 9 hours per day. I don't see that being too much of a problem.

Thanks for all your feedback and thanks FOX for the quick replies.

 

[joeyz]

BTW - would increasing my sandbed help on this or would it not make a difference?
I am thinking about adding some of that home depot sand to my tank and I figured that the finer grain size would not allow this crap to stick to it.....

Am I TOTALLY off track now?

 

[FOX]

As I said, I think you should probably be o.k. with your circulation. It's kind of hard for me to envision how much circulation you have since I've never had a 90 and never used a Sen 900. I did have a Sen 700, but that doesn't tell me much. Increasing your sand bed may help some by adding more area for anaerobic bacteria to suck up nitrates and other nutrients. It's worth a shot, IMO, and will probably only help in the long run. I don't think it really matters what size grains you have though. I think cyano will grow on just about anything. I've had it grow on glass before. As far as young tanks having a low ph and stabilizing later, well, I think there's way to many variables to make a generalized statement like that. Generally, yes, a more mature tank will have a more stable ph, but if something gets out of wack like in your tank, the same problems can happen in a 10 year old tank. You just have more room for error in a mature tank I guess.

FOX

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[joeyz]

Hey FOX!
It's a 90 gallon tank, w/110 lbs of LR (just in case you needed to know) and I am using a CPR SR4 skimmer in my sump. It is always producing skimate. This week alone I have halfway filled a 2 litre bottle. That's a little more than normal but it is always pullin' something out.

 

[FOX]

O.K. Next set of questions:

1) What is your source of water(ro/di,tap/distilled)?

2) What do you have for circulation?

3) What are your ph, alk. and phophate levels?

4) What/how often do you feed?

FOX

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[joeyz]

Here ya' go FOX!

1) What is your source of water (ro/di,tap/distilled)?
I use a Tap Water Purifier

2) What do you have for circulation?
A Sen900 for my return pump and 3 MaxiJets (250 gph each I think).

3) What are your ph, alk. and phophate levels?
PH normally ran a little low - 7.8 but I have raised it to 8.2 over the past month.
Alk was a big problem due to a calcium overdose in which my calcium was raised to nearly 600-700 and my alk wentdown to 1. I have been adding reef builder each night every other week and have been fighting it a little bit up to 4 and then back to 1, up to 4, etc etc etc. I will check tonight but I know that it is 4 now.

4) What/how often do you feed?
Once a week - 1 cube of formula one and a small pinch of spirulina flake every night.

Thanks>>>

 

[joeyz]

All I have to say is WOW!!!!!
I blasted that cyano with my handy dandy turkey baster and it few off with no effort.
I sucked up what I could and there was lovely purple coralline under it. COOL!!!!

Thanks guys.

BTw- I did a 15 gallon water change too.
I'll do another 5-10 gallons next week and keep up with it.

What do you think about doing a couple of gallons weekly?

 

[Steve Richardson]

joeyz - do you run carbon in your system?

If you do not, and your cyano problem doesnt let up, I would consider it. Not everything is taken out by skimming, and depending on your feeding schedule and bioload, it might help.

-S

 

[joeyz]

Once again Steve...thanks for your feedback.
We gotta stop running in to each other like this

Anyway, I just added two filter cartidges to my emperor filter which was in a closet collecting dust. I ran it for the first month that I had the tank set up and have not done it til today. I figured it would help suck up some of the crap that I blew around today with the baster. Plus I plan on blasting out the rocks a little more like every other day and I figured I would need a little mechanical filtration besides my one prefilter pad in my overflow.

How many days do you think I should keep this running with the carbon?

 

[Steve Richardson]

J -

Well, carbon is probably a good idea, but you also want to avoid having a mechanical filter running that merely acts as a place for garbage to collect and rot. (generates dissolved orcanics)

So... perhaps run it just 2-3 days every few weeks or once a month with a fresh load of carbon. If you chooose to run it all of the time, make sure to keep it clean....clean it weekly at least. If you notice its collecting too much debris, you will have to clean it more frequently, or find a better way to do it.

-S

 

[joeyz]

Thanks Steve!

My tank looks FANTASTIC today!
I did so many things to it this weekend, I don't know what was the thing that helped the most.
First off, I basted the crap out it Friday night. Then I did it again for at least a half hour on Saturday. I scraped my glass, did that 15 gallon water change, added some ph buffer, cleaned my prefilter in my overflow, and added an Emperor hang on filter with some carbon. Oh ya and I also cleaned all the salt off my lights. Not too bad huh? hhahahahaha!!!!!

So what do you think was the key in making my tank look so great?
(All in a days work!)

 

[MIKE]

Hi Joeyz

As is common, you've done so many things, you don't know what helped and what didn't. Here's what we know about cyano:

1. Cyano is a bacteria that grows as a result of excessive DOC in the water.

2. Cyano is not the result of alkalinity or calcium levels.

3. Cyano blooms occur and reoccur as long as there is sufficient organics and light in the system.

4. Removing cyano is a long term issue (if you think you've got licked, you won't really know for a week or more).

5. The biggest cause of a cyano problem is poor/inadequate skimming and overfeeding.

Good luck
Mike

 

[joeyz]

One more question here ----
Now that I have removed whatever cyano I could find, and most people claim that it usually comes back until all the DOC and other food for it is gone, does it usually come back in the same place?
If it does come back, I want to be right on top of it and not let it get too out of control.