Brown Algae, Diatom Algae?

[kevin]

Bringing this thread back from the dead.
I'm having an algae outbreak.. it's brownish/red in color(also have hair algae). I just did a two day black out. Turned the lights back on tonight & the algae came back within 20mins. Not as bad, but I'm sure I'll probably be back to the same tomorrow. I also just did a 15g water change & changed the gfo & carbon out.
reef octopus nwb200 250g rated on my 75g w/ 40g sump w/ chaeto.

ONE: reason I have phosphates is because of my harlequin shrimp. Depending on the size chocolate star I feed them either once or twice a month. I feed the WHOLE thing, so I know that is bad.

TWO: I had a barnacle blenny(which i've had for months) go missing. & recently a new purchased randel's goby has gone missing. 100% sure the blenny is dead. 98% sure the goby is dead.

Three: I purchased a mated pair of sleepy sand sifting gobies & longnose hawkfish last week(hawkfish because my wife has been eying it for few months now)

Four: I run radions. The light cycle is probably on wayyy too long. It's most intense white from 12pm to 5pm. It runs it's course from 9am-9pm(the inbetween is just blue's until ramps to 12pm.

Hopefully I'll get this under control


Fish list:
Melenarus wrasse
ora black and white clown
extreme snowflake clown
midas blenny
barnacle blenny
tankbred neon dottyback
(2) sleeper gobies
longnose hawkfish
ora spotted mandarin (eats pellets/mysis)
(2) harelquins
(1) scarlet shrimp
(1) emerald crab
tons of snails etc. (5 large scarlet hermits which i just purchased)
2 bta's/few rock nems/ + other corals.

 

[SlingingBuddha]

I'm not nearly as experienced as the other guys on here but what really helped me with the diatom algae was cheato, Chris gave me a clump and the diatom algae was gone in just a few days. I don't know if you have any or not but if you don't I can give you some it grows fairly quickly. Just my two cents on what worked for me, but like I said, just about everyone has more experience than me

 

[kevin]

I'm not nearly as experienced as the other guys on here but what really helped me with the diatom algae was cheato, Chris gave me a clump and the diatom algae was gone in just a few days. I don't know if you have any or not but if you don't I can give you some it grows fairly quickly. Just my two cents on what worked for me, but like I said, just about everyone has more experience than me

Thanks! I've got about a football sized chunk in my fuge, lol.

 

[SlingingBuddha]

Yeah mine was about that size but I only have a 55g, have you tried anything for the phos levels? These are all things you probably know already lol. But hey at least it's not hair algae that took forever for me to get rid of

 

[jgraz]

Kevin, any idea what's happening to the fish? You have tops on the tank right? Is it at all possible you have a rouge crab in the tank? I know it's a bit off topic but figured I'd ask.

 

[kevin]

Kevin, any idea what's happening to the fish? You have tops on the tank right? Is it at all possible you have a rouge crab in the tank? I know it's a bit off topic but figured I'd ask.

No idea about the barnacle. I check on them everyday.. and one day I got home from work and one was gone. Still have one left

The goby I only had for a few weeks. It would only eat mysis.. and only eat it sometimes. It hid in the rock work behind my tank. I highly doubt its hiding.. but you never know. My emerald crab doesn't bother anyone. He gets mysis from time to time & picks all day. I dont have a pistol anymore, so cant be him!

 

[jgraz]

Oh well I guess it's just one of those things. As for the diatoms they pop up every now and then for me too. I tend to over do feeding sometimes. I cut back a bit and they go away until I overdo it again.

 

[kevin]

Oh well I guess it's just one of those things. As for the diatoms they pop up every now and then for me too. I tend to over do feeding sometimes. I cut back a bit and they go away until I overdo it again.

yeah, I only feed once a day. They get 95% of the food & the rest gets picked up. I've been reading another thread where the feed much more then I do.. but I guess just depends on the system. I looked this morning and no algae since the lights are off.

 

[jimroth]

I want to chime in here with a couple things. (1) I have driven myself nuts feeding PE Mysis, which all fish love, but I think PE stands for "Phosphate Explosion!" When I get another copperband, I am going to use an actual thimble to does the stuff, I got my tank in trouble before. (2) I now believe my diatom nightmare started when I let the DI cartridge on my RO expire. That's when it took off. it got better when I did a big water change and replaced it with water that had been through the new DI. I think my water has a lot of SOMETHING in it that the DI removes.

 

[kevin]

here it is today! lots of algae, lol. After taking the pictures I put all my acans on my rockwork. I'm going to try to run sockless. I looked into my sock and found a ton of amphipods and a snail, hah

 

[kevin]

okay, stupid question.

How do I remove the cyano from the sand bed without sucking up a ton of sand?(I assume to use a small diameter hose)
I bought chemiclean but hesitant to use it... it's so disgusting to look at.

reading some articles downbeach posted right now

 

[mnat]

Are you sure that is cyano and not diatoms? What is your CUC and I see the vortech, but what is the flow like?

 

[kevin]

Are you sure that is cyano and not diatoms? What is your CUC and I see the vortech, but what is the flow like?

how can you tell exactly what it is?
it doesn't have any bubbles and i can blow it off my rocks. It's more of an orange color..
I have a mp40 at 60%-70% ramping up all day.. and a mp10 on the other side at 70%

CUC: cleaner package from reef cleaners..

recently added:
5 large scarlet hermits
5 turbo snails(few days ago)

 

[mnat]

Do you have any sand sifting snails (nassarius, ceriths) or blue leggs?

Diatoms are a brown type thing that you will get when you setup a tank or add new sand or rocks (basically it feeds off of silicates so eventually it goes away unless you add them through tap water). I tend to get it in areas of low flow and when my clean up crew starts to die off (as it always does).

Cyano is red or green, velvety texture, and comes off easily.

Diatoms:
http://anters.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/diatoms_03.jpg

Cyano
http://0.tqn.com/w/experts/Saltwater-Aquarium-3215/2008/11/maroon-red-algae.jpg
http://melevsreef.biz/sites/default/files/cyano.jpg

 

[magic]

That's Cyano, that's why it looked like it was gone until you turned the lights back on. The chemiclean will work with no side effects just make sure you add a airstone. You will probably have to dose several times.

Bob

 

[spotter]

caution with the chemiclean....a guy on rc just used it and crashed his tank. lost just about everything. not sure if it was chemicleans fault but it happened the day after adding it.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[kevin]

i have a bunch of nassarius, ceriths, and quite a few blue legged hermits + others.
I get it everywhere & my mp40 is blasting it like all hell, lol.

from the pictures the color is exactly like the diatoms picture


http://fish.is-lost.org:1024/
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pw: guest

 

[kevin]

I have been finding nerite snails upside down lately.. but they're not dead. I think it might be my wrasse

 

[jgraz]

Good call on the wrasse. My Melanarus is a snail eating machine.

 

[iTzJu]

I am currently battling cyano myself on my sand bed, it's actually the reason I havent made a tale of the tank yet. lol I was running bio-pellets for awhile and I think that is what caused the outbreak and I don't think my skimmer is powerful enough to keep up with the demand. I am going to start dosing MB7 to battle it out with the cyano and keep a good balance of bacteria is the water column. I took my bio-pellets offline and went back to GFO for the last 2 weeks to see if that would help but i dont see a change. I've been using my algae mower vac on a daily to remove what I can. I plan on setting the bio-pellets back online once I settle this battle and dosing MB7 along with the pellets to keep good bacteria. Fortunately, the cyano has been just a problem on the sand bed and hasn't move to my rock work.