Green cyano type algae!

revhtree · Dec 18, 2018

Hey gang need a little help here!

I’ve got patches of this really green algae popping up and I’m trying to figure out what it is! It’s not hair algae. It blows right off with a turkey baster and dissolved into little pieces that get blown around in the water.

Thoughts?

KJ · Dec 18, 2018

Look like a green Cyano but am suggesting read this.
http://reefinabox.com/cyanobacteria-spirulina-algae/

sternicus · Dec 18, 2018

Could be green slime algae. Maybe more flow? I’ve had green slime and it’s characteristics closely resembled cyano

revhtree · Jan 3, 2019

It’s not a flow issue and it just blows off the rocks in tiny pieces very easily.

Amps Reef Life · Jan 3, 2019

It's hard to say. Do any of your fish eat it as in pick at it? It's only on the rock?

Crabs McJones · Jan 3, 2019

Rev, what are your nutrient levels, i'm dealing with the same thing, cant seem to beat it! ;Punch;Punch I tried switching foods as the food I was feeding was vitamin C rich which can be a carbon source for the bacteria. But that was almost a month ago and it died down a little bit, but still struggling.

revhtree · Jan 3, 2019

Amps Reef Life said:
It's hard to say. Do any of your fish eat it as in pick at it? It's only on the rock?

No they won’t eat it and it’s on the sand as well. Getting worse. I may try to nuke it with Chemi Clean!

revhtree · Jan 3, 2019

Crabs Mcjones said:
Rev, what are your nutrient levels, i'm dealing with the same thing, cant seem to beat it! ;Punch;Punch I tried switching foods as the food I was feeding was vitamin C rich which can be a carbon source for the bacteria. But that was almost a month ago and it died down a little bit, but still struggling.

TBH I’m not sure! My sps are colored up and look great. Great polyp extension as well.

Crabs McJones · Jan 3, 2019

revhtree said:
TBH I’m not sure! My sps are colored up and look great. Great polyp extension as well.

I'm having the exact opposite. I have no nitrate but high phosphate, and i'm unsure if its from pruning my chaeto, but my sps (while they're growing like crazy) don't seem to be coloring up like i'd like them to

JDowns · Jan 3, 2019

Do any of your fish have a cold? I just got over what was probably walking pneumonia and that looks familiar.

Potatohead · Jan 3, 2019

Whenever I get this it is because my phosphate is too low. I can get rid of the green pretty easily but the red is a PITA.

Amps Reef Life · Jan 3, 2019

revhtree said:
No they won’t eat it and it’s on the sand as well. Getting worse. I may try to nuke it with Chemi Clean!

I am no expert but I would start there myself. Sometimes manual removal with water changes will take care of it but it takes a lot of work and many WC's. I have handled red cyano like this without dosing chemi clean. With this being green it could be a totally different experience though.

revhtree · Jan 5, 2019

Just dosed and will report back!

IxTCxI · Jan 7, 2019

Same here keep getting those green stuff on
the rocks and sand but my SPS is doing fine.

reeferfoxx · Jan 7, 2019

I have the same stuff in my tank. Tried a three day black out and it didnt budge....

vetteguy53081 · Jan 7, 2019

Im thinking something that can be conquered by an algae scrubber, but I would reduce light, use Red Sea NoPoX and siphon gently. Margarita, astrea and turbo snails should mow this down as would a couple of conchs

choss · Jan 7, 2019

I had something similar in my cube - it eventually went away but is now many months later replaced by red cyano. That said, my cube could use more flow. One thing I'm curious about - I've never had either the green or red cyano in my main DS, which is seeded with a good amount of live rock. Just in the tank I started with 100% dry. Did those of you seeing the green stuff start with dry rock only?

rcmike · Jan 7, 2019

I'm battling the same thing right now. I have a 110, 40, and 75 plumbed together and it is only in the 110 reef. I neglected the tanks for quite a while and the nutrients got out of control. I now have nitrate at 8 and phosphate at 10 and both are dropping. They were much higher. Corals are doing well but I have to use a turkey baster to keep this stuff off of them. Flow is definitely not the problem. I have 2 MP40s in the tank and they are up to 100% part of the day. The other tanks with much less flow aren't affected.

MabuyaQ · Jan 8, 2019

Green cyano, like a always an unbalance between nitrate and phosphate (high phosphate). In the case of green cyano with zero or near zero nitrates. I just to get this when running zeo and not monitoring nitrates. With low enough phosphates dosing nitrate is the simplest solution (will also improving colors). With high phosphates you also need to find a way to increase export of those but monitor this closely because adding nitrate will also increase bacterial export of phosphates (besides carbon deficient for phosphate export you have also become nitrate deficient). Additional nitrates and a carbon source or a little gfo would do the trick. Just take it slow bringing down phosphates further after making nitrates measurable and stable once again because with already faded sps colors they are prone to rtn/stn. Once colors have returned you could speed the process up.

JasPR · Jan 8, 2019

weekly 20% water changes with RO/DI base water and a quality mix.. nothing better than fresh clean new mix. This trend of adding and then subtracting elements and compound is so wrong headed as it misses the big picture of the realities of a closed system. IMHO.