Can anyone please help me ID this growth on my sand. It is not stringy like hair algae. Photos are with the light, with a flashlight, and with blue light. Also you can see some kind of green algae on the rocks. Any help with getting rid of these?
Help with Micro algae ID
- Thread starter Kmel
- Start date
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I took some more pictures last night, but decided to wait and get better pictures to post.
The system is a 90 gallon DT with a 29 gallon sump.
I have a SCA-302 skimmer (the 180 gallon one).
The system was approximately 3 years old when we bought it in January 2016. We moved the system keeping all live rock and livestock. When we moved it, I redid the plumbing and installed the new sump. We also replaced the sand in the DT with live sand to make a deep sand bed. We ran cheato in the sump for a while, but took it out a few months ago to make room for some live rock for my other tank that was cured. (The sand had the diatoms before this point).
Other than that, there are four filter pads the water flows through before it is pumped back into the tank.
We had two ocean stream OS-1 in the tank for water movement. One just recently had to be taken out. (It broke off the magnet piece.) I temporarily installed a small (nano size) powerhead to help with movement until we can replace the OS-1 that broke.
For lights we have a Current Orbit marine 48" LED
For top-off and water changes, we have a RODI filter. The TDS meter read 0.001 after the filter.
As far as parameters, We checked last night and they were as follows:
Phosphates: 0.25
Ammonia and Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 20-40 ( I know this is high, but I just fed a high volume feeding, and it takes a few days to come down a little. I also plan to do a water change this weekend.)
Calcium : Around 360-380 (Never can get the calcium to get above 400)
KH: 7 °dKH (125 ppm)
PH: 8
I couldn't test the Mg last night.
Temp runs around 76-78
Livestock:
When we bought the tank, it came with
1 Sailfin Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Black and white Ocellaris Clown
1 regular Ocellaris
2 Rose bubble tip anemones
1 hammer coral
1 fighting conch
2 Dwarf red leg crabs.
1 Camel shrimp
We have added:
2 blue leg crabs
9 Nassarius Snails
3 trochus snails
3 astrea snails.
1 Violet Cespitularia Coral
1 Kenya Tree
3 Mushroom coral
1 Sun coral
1 fire cleaner shrimp
The hammer coral died off just a few weeks after the move. A couple months ago we noticed the astrea snails dying off, and also lost 1 trochus. We have not seen the camel shrimp in a month.
We lost our Sailfin tang last week. We found him sucked against the powerhead. He did not look sick, had no spots (except from powerhead). We do not know what happened to him. Additionally, the fighting conch just recently died.
The two Rose bubble tip anemones have split. We now have four very healthy (bigger than the original two) anemones, and one small one that we are hoping will make it.
The Kenya tree has just started shedding limbs which have attached in several places on the tank. The mushrooms are popping up all over the place. The violet cespitularia has grown 3xs its size when we bought him in about 4 months. The sun coral has had some die off from diatoms covering it. I moved it to the sump and take it out to feed it most of the time. (The recent heavy feeding was partially his fault).
The system is a 90 gallon DT with a 29 gallon sump.
I have a SCA-302 skimmer (the 180 gallon one).
The system was approximately 3 years old when we bought it in January 2016. We moved the system keeping all live rock and livestock. When we moved it, I redid the plumbing and installed the new sump. We also replaced the sand in the DT with live sand to make a deep sand bed. We ran cheato in the sump for a while, but took it out a few months ago to make room for some live rock for my other tank that was cured. (The sand had the diatoms before this point).
Other than that, there are four filter pads the water flows through before it is pumped back into the tank.
We had two ocean stream OS-1 in the tank for water movement. One just recently had to be taken out. (It broke off the magnet piece.) I temporarily installed a small (nano size) powerhead to help with movement until we can replace the OS-1 that broke.
For lights we have a Current Orbit marine 48" LED
For top-off and water changes, we have a RODI filter. The TDS meter read 0.001 after the filter.
As far as parameters, We checked last night and they were as follows:
Phosphates: 0.25
Ammonia and Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 20-40 ( I know this is high, but I just fed a high volume feeding, and it takes a few days to come down a little. I also plan to do a water change this weekend.)
Calcium : Around 360-380 (Never can get the calcium to get above 400)
KH: 7 °dKH (125 ppm)
PH: 8
I couldn't test the Mg last night.
Temp runs around 76-78
Livestock:
When we bought the tank, it came with
1 Sailfin Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Black and white Ocellaris Clown
1 regular Ocellaris
2 Rose bubble tip anemones
1 hammer coral
1 fighting conch
2 Dwarf red leg crabs.
1 Camel shrimp
We have added:
2 blue leg crabs
9 Nassarius Snails
3 trochus snails
3 astrea snails.
1 Violet Cespitularia Coral
1 Kenya Tree
3 Mushroom coral
1 Sun coral
1 fire cleaner shrimp
The hammer coral died off just a few weeks after the move. A couple months ago we noticed the astrea snails dying off, and also lost 1 trochus. We have not seen the camel shrimp in a month.
We lost our Sailfin tang last week. We found him sucked against the powerhead. He did not look sick, had no spots (except from powerhead). We do not know what happened to him. Additionally, the fighting conch just recently died.
The two Rose bubble tip anemones have split. We now have four very healthy (bigger than the original two) anemones, and one small one that we are hoping will make it.
The Kenya tree has just started shedding limbs which have attached in several places on the tank. The mushrooms are popping up all over the place. The violet cespitularia has grown 3xs its size when we bought him in about 4 months. The sun coral has had some die off from diatoms covering it. I moved it to the sump and take it out to feed it most of the time. (The recent heavy feeding was partially his fault).
