brown sand and glass...

tautog83 · Jul 30, 2016

well my tank is over a year old now , ive had a battle with cyano about 6 months ago it wasn't crazy and i got it under control. However now i do see a little cyano coming back on the rocks here and there but my major problem seems to be the "diatom" looking stuff on my sand and glass that takes over in like a day! it has same characteristics as cyano, goes away overnight, well at least the sand stuff. Some patches can peel off from the sand others not so much . At first i attacked it like an algae thinking my phosphates were out of wack( i ran out of reagents so i havent tested really

.. but i put some gfo in the sump, nothing really changed after a month .. I also run all in one biopellets and do a 13 gallon water change every month or so and it keeps coming back. I dont really dose anything and only feed pellets twice a day .. maybe some ME polyp extender once every 2 weeks at night . So my question is is this a form of cyano as well? As i said before i do see some of the typical looking cyano thats very spotty on a rock here and there and i blow it off and suck it up via siphon . Its just frustrating to see my sand and front glass brown after 1 day. Im currently running some seagel in my sump to see if that will help but after 2 weeks nothing . My gut feeling is that it is just a different form of cyano since im not seeing any results with the phosphate reducing media ( i know actually testing it would probably make more sense

) . current is provided by 2 wp 25 at 90% and i have changed out all my ro filters . Thoughts? i will try and get a pic when i get home from work later tonight

twilliard · Jul 30, 2016

It's not cyanobacteria
I will wait for a picture

brandon429 · Jul 30, 2016

I'll tell you what works always, but zero will do it, so the dusting will persist until a lucky doser works (more experimenting)

if you wanted it stopped then doing what people do who are immune to reef invasions always works

No partial action, that's it.

Being free of cyano and diatoms is documented in threads going back sixteen years, not much more proof could exist. When you force a sandbed to stop fueling an invasion, you win
it's too well covered already in searchable threads to be variable.

How many persistent cyano and diatom threads are bare bottom in these searches?

A linking factor exists in all of them, or at least 99%

All actions currently taken in tank have been partial, the organism is left in the tank and likely fed well by a sandbed never rinsed so it comes back, but can be easily stopped. A simple test verifies that

rip clean the tank, enjoyment skyrockets

We have rip cleaning threads, for people immune to takeovers

We watch in wonder as 99% farm their invasion on purpose

tautog83 · Jul 30, 2016

alright i will try and get a picture as soon as i get home tonight, lights out right now . ^ this guy ..lol

brandon429 · Jul 30, 2016

The immune tank is much more enjoyment lol

Does your sandbed pass a drop test
http://reef2reef.com/threads/the-of...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

There are threads here of your exact described condition persisting well past cycling for three years, tank cleaning in that link above shows stopping it

Seeing how your sandbed does in a drop test to me is most critical vs id... the three invaders that follow unrinsed sandbeds repeat among tanks... cyano diatoms and T's spirulina. All very easily controlled in tanks that can pass a drop test.

In that thread above, John. M.Cole has an immune tank, clean from the start

tautog83 · Jul 30, 2016

well i see where you are going ...last 2-3 or watcher changes ive used a powerhead to blast my rockwork in hopes to get settled detritus out of crevices and what not. I also vaccuum my sand and i take out about -4 cups everytime . To me the sand isnt even something i want anymore but i dont want to take it out all at once . So ive been slowly taking it out and hopes eventually just leavign a patch in the back of my rockwork so my melanarus can sleep . it makes sense that it can be a nutrient problem in the sand i just wanted to be sure.

brandon429 · Jul 30, 2016

I use sand due to looks it's quite the cleaning liability imo

The hands off method for sand built our hobby for sure, but nobody helped the outliers where compliance couldn't be had. Nobody told me early it was OK to force a clean bed, only a few tank losses ( the kind you take down due to looks and too much work not that corals wouldn't live) taught me

tautog83 · Jul 30, 2016

this is what i come home to about everyday for last month and its the same on glass..like i said when i do my water changes i try and vacuum some sand out and really turn over the sand but it doesnt help.

brandon429 · Jul 30, 2016

That's the kind of fare that snails in correct balance, conchs included and cucumbers, eat in the wild

It's low level production in your tank could just as well be the high white balance lighting vs any nutrient issue

To not have a little cyano and diatoms is unnatural we just lack grazers I see no big eutrophication indication here looking at other details. Coralline spotting w no white edges is nice calc/alk consistency

My cleaning way always works because it overdoes every action within rules of skip cycling, but that doesn't mean it's the only way for you. Animals can be arranged to control that level of growth. Even though it's a cheat, UV can and will arrest that if oversized

Not remove it for you, arrest the reassembly after a good cleaning. I see a few easy ways to manage that so glad you do not have dinos

tautog83 · Jul 30, 2016

well i have a conch and about 10-12 big ceriths .. i did increase my white lighting about a month ago but then i did decrease it back a little because i thought the same thing ..maybe my settings didnt save ..lol but maybe i will just cut back on the white channels even more .

Nano sapiens · Jul 30, 2016

Brandon's comments regarding cleaning are spot on and a big part of battling this unsightly plague. For this sand bed organism, which occurs in established tanks and one that I had the 'pleasure' of dealing with for around 9 months, I also found that slowly lowering my 'white' and 'red' LED channel intensity helped greatly to the point that I very rarely see this now (went from~50% white/30% red to ~30 white/15% red).

Hope that helps...