ID please

reeferfoxx · May 11, 2016

This tank has been up and running almost 4 months now. Everything seems okay, except for this on little spot. I'm sure whatever it is, it came from that candy cane frag. I'm torn between red hair algae or cyano?

This tank is 100% BRS reef saver dry rock.

FL_Reefer · May 11, 2016

Looks like it could be cyano to me

reeferfoxx · May 12, 2016

Awesome! Thanks! I think so too. It's the first time I've seen cyano in one of my tanks. I pictured it less stringy? Definitely not hairy like GHA.

RyanCSGO · May 12, 2016

I just got rid of Cyano in my other tank. it would have a slime/velvet look when the lights were on. once they were out throughout the night it would be weirdly stringy in the morning.
i used the chemiclean aquarium treatment and it was all gone within about 36 hours. this stuff did make my skimmer go nuts with micro bubbles and can mess with PH. no harm to fish or corals though IME.

there's multiple threads on how to treat. I'm not sure what others thoughts are on what i used.

reeferfoxx · May 12, 2016

Not to discredit your advice on the chemiclean. However, I would like to get rid of it the "old fashion way"? I would hate to order this and fix the problem just to tackle it again, a few weeks down the road. Unless, it's just that much of a pain in the butt and chemiclean gets rid of it for sure?

tankstudy · May 12, 2016

Chemiclean is an antibiotic. If used properly it'll wipe out the cyanobacteria.

However, I generally prefer not to use antibiotics unless really necessary. The old school methods would be to increase or improve the efficiency of your phosphate exportation methods.

reeferfoxx · May 12, 2016

tankstudy said:
Chemiclean is an antibiotic. If used properly it'll wipe out the cyanobacteria.

However, I generally prefer not to use antibiotics unless really necessary. The old school methods would be to increase or improve the efficiency of your phosphate exportation methods.

Right now i'm just doing 5 gallon water changes per week on a 30 gallon tank. This tank is running a skimmer, chemi-pure elite, seachem matrix and filter floss. According to my hanna phosphate checker, my phosphates are 0.01. It's still a new tank so i'm not sure why i'm having this issue unless its from lack of beneficial bacteria?

RyanCSGO · May 12, 2016

what is your light cycle like?

tankstudy · May 12, 2016

Beneficial bacteria probably or more than likely do consume some amount of phosphate but they aren't going to use or need all of it.

Having excess phosphate is actually pretty common. If you have room add some macro-algae to compete for the phosphate. Or you could get a GFO media reactor. Chemi-pure elite bags are pretty much just GFO+Carbon if I'm not mistaken but compared to reactors, they don't have as much water surface area interaction as a media reactor would when it tumbles/fluidizes GFO. You could even run both if you wanted.

You'll need to pay attention though, over phosphate reduction can be a problem too.

reeferfoxx · May 12, 2016

Running 3 channel LEDs. Royal blues for 14 hours, Blues for 12 hours, whites with blues for 8 hours at 55% blues and 15% whites. Light intensity is low because of not many corals yet.

twilliard · May 12, 2016

To conclude any speculation if it is cyanobacteria just take a turkey baster and suck some up.
Put into a cup and add .1ml of h2o2 to the cup. If it is cyano it will be green the next day or gone.
If it's still red it's not cyanobacteria

reeferfoxx · May 12, 2016

twilliard said:
To conclude any speculation if it is cyanobacteria just take a turkey baster and suck some up.
Put into a cup and add .1ml of h2o2 to the cup. If it is cyano it will be green the next day or gone.
If it's still red it's not cyanobacteria

Wouldn't hurt to try.

twilliard · May 12, 2016

I have been studying cyanobacteria for quite some time now.
From what I see in the video it is filament red algae (can be determined)
Even under 2500 power these guys make small long strands

reeferfoxx · May 12, 2016

That's exactly why I did video and not a picture. I needed to show the 'stringy strands'? lol

FL_Reefer · May 12, 2016

That's cool twilliard, I never knew that it would do that.

FL_Reefer · May 12, 2016

If it is you will need to do something about your phosphates, I run rowaphos in a reactor to combat phosphate. Your right, fix the problem instead of something temporary. It's a fairly new tank you said so you will run into issues like this

reeferfoxx · May 13, 2016

Didn't take but 2 hours and the red stuff turned green! I suspect I failed at my first phosphate test. I'm guessing I got the two vials mixed up. (side not: label glass vials) Anyway did another test this evening and reading showed 0.19!!

That can't be right can it?

I'm upping my skimmate and have new water being made. I'll test water again in the morning. 3 weeks ago my phosphates were 0.00. I am using the Hanna HI 713 Low range checker.

reeferfoxx · May 13, 2016

Okay... Last nights test was off. Lol

Hanna checker showed 0.02.
I definitely have a phosphate issue. It's not terrible yet but i have some concern.

I will be spending a better part of the weekend cleaning this tank. Would it be ok to vaccum the sand at such an early stage?

FL_Reefer · May 13, 2016

I personally don't do anything with my sand except stir little parts of it from time to time. It may cause more phosphates if you mess with it. Your gonna have these cyano issues from time to time with a newer tank.

reeferfoxx · May 20, 2016

So it's day 7 of identifying this unknown growth as cyano. Which yes, it's definitely cyanobacteria. 5 days ago I performed a 10 gallon water change. That's roughly 35% change. Added some bottled bacteria just to be on the safe side. Well today, 5 days later, my po4 reads 0.00 and my nitrates are about 1.0. The growth is slow but it has grown. I'm not seeing a huge spike in phosphates or nitrates and I don't have any other algae growth.

Should I just let it run it's course or can I do something else?