Alright Alright, I give up. Help to ID SandBed Algae

[saltyfilmfolks]

I like to dust the rocks, you'll be able to see the swirls pretty clearly.
Quite often, in my tank anyway, at the bottom of the curl, it can drop the particles there. That's where I get cyano if I get it.
If it looks like it's the bottom of the curl from the return, you could have some funk built up in the sump.

And yes, fighting chonks.

 

[tutmatt3]

I like to dust the rocks, you'll be able to see the swirls pretty clearly.
Quite often, in my tank anyway, at the bottom of the curl, it can drop the particles there. That's where I get cyano if I get it.
If it looks like it's the bottom of the curl from the return, you could have some funk built up in the sump.

And yes, fighting chonks.

Cool ill see if any local lfs has em, but not sure what just 1 can do

And na, sump is clean. Did a full vinegar wash on that when I acquired It 2 weeks ago

 

[TRNANCE]

Thought I could make it go away on my own, but I've come to realize I'll help you guys help me =)
This bed of algae covers my sandbed. I tried to scoop some out so I could test it w/ Hydrogen Peroxide to see if it's Cyanobacteria - I can't get an actual scoop of it. It just dissolves. Same thing when hit w/ a turkey baster. Just an ugly brown / red layer on the bed.

Sometimes I can see bubbles on it, sometimes not. Usually not an issue on rock.

Any input? It never grows hairlike structure. I thought not having a sump was my issue before, so I finally have a sump set-up on the tank w/ HOB overflow. Sump has a beast G2 skimmer, UV, and in the baffle some carbon.

Looking forward to help on ID & rectification!
- Wc weekly 10%
- Feeding 1cube for 7x fish
- Flow for 75g 4' long tank: 2x powerful jebao on else mode opposite sides, opposite corners / 2x weak current usa on surge mode middle back wall / 2x return pumps from a jebao DC in my sump on 7/10 setting - back corners

Lighting Sch - https://media.trillian.im/media/?m=aW1hZ2UvcG5nLDE2MjAsODAyLOLJN9dNp74jH3/KHVOFa3l70iSqcRzzHBgViz2OMkoX
1/2 optics removed, Par ~ 280 middle of tank for acrorocks, 150ish floor

We had a problem that looked just like that and it ended up being Dinoflagellates. We bought a microscope to confirm it and we are now treating for it. Our Dino did not look like the long stringy stuff you see in pictures, ours was a brown/orange mat that covered the sand bed only.

 

[tutmatt3]

We had a problem that looked just like that and it ended up being Dinoflagellates. We bought a microscope to confirm it and we are now treating for it. Our Dino did not look like the long stringy stuff you see in pictures, ours was a brown/orange mat that covered the sand bed only.

How's the treatment going?
Yeah this stuff was hard for me to try n collect when i wanted to test with hydrogen peroxide.

Did yours only grow in the light too?

 

[tsav87]

Looks like dinoflagellates to me.

- 3 days lights out, tank covered, NO light.

- Run a filter sock go catch them. When the lights are out they float around in the current.

- If your copepod population is low, add them. They eat dinos. Don't forget to dose phyto to help boost their population.

- Run carbon, dying dinos release toxins.

- Skim wet.

- Run actinis only for one week after the 3 day black out.

Good luck!

 

[Renelope]

Thought I could make it go away on my own, but I've come to realize I'll help you guys help me =)
This bed of algae covers my sandbed. I tried to scoop some out so I could test it w/ Hydrogen Peroxide to see if it's Cyanobacteria - I can't get an actual scoop of it. It just dissolves. Same thing when hit w/ a turkey baster. Just an ugly brown / red layer on the bed.

Sometimes I can see bubbles on it, sometimes not. Usually not an issue on rock.

Any input? It never grows hairlike structure. I thought not having a sump was my issue before, so I finally have a sump set-up on the tank w/ HOB overflow. Sump has a beast G2 skimmer, UV, and in the baffle some carbon.

Looking forward to help on ID & rectification!
- Wc weekly 10%
- Feeding 1cube for 7x fish
- Flow for 75g 4' long tank: 2x powerful jebao on else mode opposite sides, opposite corners / 2x weak current usa on surge mode middle back wall / 2x return pumps from a jebao DC in my sump on 7/10 setting - back corners

Lighting Sch - https://media.trillian.im/media/?m=aW1hZ2UvcG5nLDE2MjAsODAyLOLJN9dNp74jH3/KHVOFa3l70iSqcRzzHBgViz2OMkoX
1/2 optics removed, Par ~ 280 middle of tank for acrorocks, 150ish floor

Does it seem slimy or dusty?

 

[tutmatt3]

Does it seem slimy or dusty?

slimey for sure

Looks like dinoflagellates to me.

- 3 days lights out, tank covered, NO light.

- Run a filter sock go catch them. When the lights are out they float around in the current.

- If your copepod population is low, add them. They eat dinos. Don't forget to dose phyto to help boost their population.

- Run carbon, dying dinos release toxins.

- Skim wet.

- Run actinis only for one week after the 3 day black out.

Good luck!

Anything i should do to prep the fish or coral for a blackout? And what prevents them from coming back after?

 

[tsav87]

Not really. I have done these before without any ill affects.

To keep it from coming back, the pods will help. The more biodiversity you have the less food the dinos will have. Even common hair algae will compete for the dinos food.

 

[tutmatt3]

Sounds good. I don't have a fuge, and doubt much pods survived the tank transition if any, so probably best to set that up first

 

[chowwil]

8+ months. This used to be an on / off thing, and I THOUGHT when I changed my lights to lower settings that it came, but I've since reverted back and nothing different.
This algae has no bubbles collected on it fwiw.

Even when my tank was .03phos and 0-2 nitrate it would still be there. I don't know if my light temperature could have caused it when I switched things, but idk

I had the same condition you are have. I had a slight leak on my 55gal and had to transfer everything out to a new 75gal. Everything went well for 4 month and then the sand bed start getting patches of algae. I tried every you tried and even treated the tank 3 times with chemi clean (though it might be cyno) and nothing happen. Then I read some post, that tank is still new and needs more time to cycle. So I just wait it off. 2 months later, all cleared.

 

[tutmatt3]

I had the same condition you are have. I had a slight leak on my 55gal and had to transfer everything out to a new 75gal. Everything went well for 4 month and then the sand bed start getting patches of algae. I tried every you tried and even treated the tank 3 times with chemi clean (though it might be cyno) and nothing happen. Then I read some post, that tank is still new and needs more time to cycle. So I just wait it off. 2 months later, all cleared.

Well that was the plan i had in mind, but these patches have been on the old tank when i had a leak as well

 

[tutmatt3]

Updates for all - still so far no luck. Things that have been tried:
• GFO - nada. Pulled when I got down to 1ppb hanna ULR
• Is it Algae? - Hydrogen Peroxide daily for 7x days - Nope. (Def got rid of ANY hair algae that was in the tank though!)
• Are they Diatoms? - Did yeast every other day for 5x days - Nopppe
• Cyano or Spirulina? - Chemiclean - so far 24x hours in, and nothing (I know it takes 48)

All this is done in combination of wet skimming and cleaning socks every other day. UV is turned off for treatments that require so
Carbon pulled for the current chemiclean treatment as well, as recommended

I know some people will recommend lights out for 3x days - but I'm fairly positive it'll just come back after.
I can't even get a sample out to do tests since it just disintegrates in mid water
Hitting it w/ a turkey baster will send it up into the water colum, into tiny little dust particles, but 1x hour later it re-settles on the sand and reconnects to each other.

Crappy part about black Hawaiian sand I'm finding out from the awesome dude @ reefcleaners - snails tend to avoid it because it's sharp for them..

So, not too sure what else I could really do. At this point, I guess I'll just have to suck it up and add a few crabs - who will hopefully walk over this crap and send it up into the water column for filtration to hit it.
Any specific crabs to get (or specific ones to avoid?!)

I thought if Chemiclean worked - then I would just need more beneficial bacteria (not because I don't have enough, but so the bad bacteria doesn't have the same amount of room to grow), and to reseed with bio-spira or one & only to help boost the population.
So far it doesn't look like it, so I'm kinda a bit boggled lol

Last thing from adding hermits would be let time do it's thing, or maybe send in a tritton test.

 

[tutmatt3]

So it looks like there's an algae forum - I'll be continuing my thread over there, for anyone interested in following:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sandbed-algae-id-black-sand.326408

Here are some pics from siphoning today. Doesn't look like its dinos, after I filtered it through a papertowel - that cup stayed clean. So I siphoned more here, and will see what happens w/ peroxide!

 

[tutmatt3]

So far no luck... Even after sand replacement. This crud id still in my tank.
Here is a picture of what it looked like after i turned off all flow, and used an afro pick on the sand, and hit all rocks w/ a baster (So i could get as much freefloating and siphoned into a filter sock in my Sump prior to changing my sock)

Note- it never looks like this unless i turn off all flow and hit the tank w/ baster

Tank also has cheato in addition to carib-sea special grade white since i last updated