Algae identification needed
- Thread starter GiannisK
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Bear Claw
Active Member
Looks to me like cyanobacteria or red slime as some might call it. It should be fairly easy to get rid of. Plenty of methods out there. Start by just trying to suck it off the sandbed with a siphon or gravel vac. How old is your tank?
Good luck!
Good luck!
Bear Claw
Active Member
Same for me. If that doesn't help then chemical dosing or light and parameter changes might be needed
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GiannisK
Active Member
Thank you for your responses. My tank is about 2 months old. I’ve gone through an initial diatom bloom. Does this make it any more likely that it’s cyano over diatoms, or could it just as likely be other diatoms?
I also have a light amount of green algae on the rock here and there but my snails have been handling it. I have a bunch of cerith and nassarius snails, and a few astreas. Will they consume it if it’s cyano?
I also have a light amount of green algae on the rock here and there but my snails have been handling it. I have a bunch of cerith and nassarius snails, and a few astreas. Will they consume it if it’s cyano?
Jekyl
GSP is the devil and clowns are bad pets
At 2 months you're barely scratching the surface of the uglies to come. Cyano is usually a representative of change happening or swings in parameters. Both are highly likely in a developing system.
My bouts with cyano were managed by manual removal during water changes, stabilizing my parameters and dosing live phyto.
What size tank is this?
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GiannisK
Active Member
It’s a 20 gallon. I think the growth did start to show up after I did a 25% water change (I had missed a week due to being away), and this video is from three days past that.
I’m still trying to get my hands on the Hanna checker for nitrate and phosphate but with the API kit my nitrates rose up to 10 ppm before the water change, and are now less than 5. Phosphate has been consistently showing up as 0, I’m guessing either the test kit sucks or it’s below the next level of detection which is 0.25 ppm.
Jekyl
GSP is the devil and clowns are bad pets
What's the extent of your CuC? If lacking check out this link. Best place I've found. Link is for a 25g tank but will give you an idea of what you'll need, probably too much for your tank though.
All Algae Crew (25 Gallon)
Shipped for free with UPS Overnight you will receive: 25 Dwarf Ceriths - these smaller Cerith snails range in size from a half and inch to almost 1'', but are slender. Their tiny size allows them...
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GiannisK
Active Member
I did get most of my cuc from reef cleaners. I have an emerald crab, 3 astreas, one large cortez cerith, about 10 dwarf ceriths, and 4 nassarius snails.What's the extent of your CuC? If lacking check out this link. Best place I've found. Link is for a 25g tank but will give you an idea of what you'll need, probably too much for your tank though.
All Algae Crew (25 Gallon)
Shipped for free with UPS Overnight you will receive: 25 Dwarf Ceriths - these smaller Cerith snails range in size from a half and inch to almost 1'', but are slender. Their tiny size allows them...www.reefcleaners.org
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GiannisK
Active Member
UPDATE: I left for about a week for Thanksgiving. Tank got a lot worse (at least visually) while I was gone. Brown and green film algae covered my glass and rocks, but that’s not what I’m worried about.
I’m concerned about the red/orange/brown slime that covered my entire sandbed and brown stringy stuff that was on some of my rocks and coral:
Any updated thoughts on what this might be? I basted all the slime off the sandbed (though a bunch definitely is now under/mixed into the sand as a result), and the hairy/stringy brown stuff off my rocks and coral. The strings were fairly easy to remove outright from the aquarium so I did that as well.
I also attached an in-tank UV sterilizer made by aqua shine that I got on sale. Its normal price is 44 dollars. I’m not naive enough to think this will cure my algae problem, but I am most concerned about dinoflagellates and from my research here and elsewhere, a UV sterilizer has often helped. I know it’s probably far weaker than the larger expensive sterilizers which you plumb, but due to this being a 20 gallon that has no sump or plumbing of any kind, I don’t think it’s worth the cost and trouble. I figured worst case scenario, this UV does nothing, in which case I can return it for a refund. Don’t see how it could hurt. It’s got a decent 7 inch bulb, which is pretty large compared to other sterilizers like the popular green killing machine.
@Jekyl @Bear Claw Id appreciate any thoughts you may have on what algae I’m facing and what I could do!
I’m concerned about the red/orange/brown slime that covered my entire sandbed and brown stringy stuff that was on some of my rocks and coral:
Any updated thoughts on what this might be? I basted all the slime off the sandbed (though a bunch definitely is now under/mixed into the sand as a result), and the hairy/stringy brown stuff off my rocks and coral. The strings were fairly easy to remove outright from the aquarium so I did that as well.
I also attached an in-tank UV sterilizer made by aqua shine that I got on sale. Its normal price is 44 dollars. I’m not naive enough to think this will cure my algae problem, but I am most concerned about dinoflagellates and from my research here and elsewhere, a UV sterilizer has often helped. I know it’s probably far weaker than the larger expensive sterilizers which you plumb, but due to this being a 20 gallon that has no sump or plumbing of any kind, I don’t think it’s worth the cost and trouble. I figured worst case scenario, this UV does nothing, in which case I can return it for a refund. Don’t see how it could hurt. It’s got a decent 7 inch bulb, which is pretty large compared to other sterilizers like the popular green killing machine.
@Jekyl @Bear Claw Id appreciate any thoughts you may have on what algae I’m facing and what I could do!
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GiannisK
Active Member
Another update: most of the sand got a thin covering of the brown/red slime within 24 hours. My water conditions are near 0 for phosphate and nitrate both (test kit says 0 for both). It seems my nitrates actually went down over the week I was gone. Maybe because of the explosion of algae which consumed them? They were not quite at 5 ppm but seemed a closer tint last week.
