Need help with an I'd!

saltyaquatic · Nov 23, 2013

If anyone can help me with a recourse for eradication on this, It woulkd be highly appreciated. I have been battling this for some time and am about to pull my hair out.

Any info will be appreciated.

ReeferMan420 · Nov 26, 2013

It's kinda hard to tell by the photo/lighting what exactly is it? The discoloration of the substrate?

saltyaquatic · Nov 26, 2013

Yes. The substrate has become a dark grey to brown coloration on the outer ring of the tank. This seems to come and go with the extremity of the coloration. What confuses me is that around all my rocks it is white sand. I have tried turning my circulating pumps directly to the affected areas and it makes no difference. I run 2 Evergrow 120 watt bridgelux systems over my tank and have them 12" off the water. I have recently cut my light schedule back to 7 hrs a day and have cut back on size of feedings and seems to have got worse.

I'm at a loss.

ReeferMan420 · Nov 26, 2013

More likely than not it is a diatom bloom or cyanobacteria. Best way to get rid of that is to siphon most of it up with pumps off to deter spore spread. Also when I had this is one of my friends tank I actually just removed the sand since like you, it never seemed to get better. Good luck and see if those may work for you.

ReeferMan420 · Nov 26, 2013

Also what substrate are you using? Is the spread mushy and stringy? Or is it calcareous? Maybe it is plating coralline?

saltyaquatic · Nov 26, 2013

Using dry aragonite for substrare. It's not stringy or calcerous. It seems like almost a dusting of dirt across the bottom. If I move the sand it's just along the top. I have cerith and nerite snails in abundance, but they seem to do nothing to it. I hate to remove sand for the tank is fully stocked, but I guess if I can't find the culprit soon i'll move everything and start anew.

saltyaquatic · Nov 26, 2013

ReeferMan420 said:
More likely than not it is a diatom bloom or cyanobacteria. Best way to get rid of that is to siphon most of it up with pumps off to deter spore spread. Also when I had this is one of my friends tank I actually just removed the sand since like you, it never seemed to get better. Good luck and see if those may work for you.

Appreciate the responses Reefer! It's nice to know people are willing to help

ReeferMan420 · Nov 26, 2013

saltyaquatic said:
Appreciate the responses Reefer! It's nice to know people are willing to help

Absolutely! Hope I can help. Hopefully its just a diatom bloom and will clear itself up without removal of anything large in your system.

saltyaquatic · Nov 27, 2013

Gonna keep the lights off for a couple days and see what happens. Will keep progress posted. Again thanks for the response.

Dylan J. · Nov 27, 2013

Its diatoms, might want to invest in a sandsifting starfish or some sort of goby/sea cucumber to eat the stuff

saltyaquatic · Nov 27, 2013

Already went there Dylan. The cucumber started to clean some of the sand and ended up on the rocks. been there for the past week. Thinking about looking for a blue spotted goby to join him.

ReeferMan420 · Nov 29, 2013

Instead of stirring up the sandbed, see if the light schedule helps. Also what are you using for feeding?

saltyaquatic · Dec 2, 2013

I feed lrs and cyclops which i rinse with ro. Only feed once a day. Have used the brightwell bacter7 and it seems to have lightened the growth of it. Still not gone but gonna see what happens with the lightened light schedule and normal 10% weekly water changes do.