Red/Brown hairs on sand - ID/Action?

[PotatoPig]

New to having lights on a tank, and my algae journey started out with Calothrix, which frankly was a very effective means to bring nutrients way down and then easy to remove afterwards. So that seems under control.

Then this morning I noticed a new algae is growing - small reddish/brown hairs on the sand in a number of areas. So far it doesn’t appear to show up on the rock.

Is this “red GHA” or something else? Any serious cause for concern or action I should take?

Apologies for the blue light, can take one under whites this evening if needed for ID.

 

[therootcause]

Easily remedied with clean up crew and time. It does look hair like. Nothing to worry about, blue leg hermit crabs, a fighting conch, and/or a sea cucumber can make short work of it.

 

[Pickle_soup]

I leaning toward cyano.

 

[PotatoPig]

Follow up - this algae has really taken off. Have a bunch of astraea snails going in this weekend, then off to get more CUC.

Checking in on ID + action now there’s more of the stuff.

 

[buruskeee]

I have the same so I’d like to find out as well. Was diatoms until yesterday I noticed brown long hairs instead of the brown dusting on the sand of diatoms that was persistent the couple of weeks prior.

150G+ system volume about 2 months old now.

My parameters:
Salinity 34.5ppm
Alk 8.1 dKh
Cal 500
Mag 1350
Temp 77.5F
PH 8.3
No3 3.0ppm
Po4 0.03ppm

 

[PotatoPig]

I have the same so I’d like to find out as well. Was diatoms until yesterday I noticed brown long hairs instead of the brown dusting on the sand of diatoms that was persistent the couple of weeks prior.

Looks remarkably similar to mine starting out.

Update on mine now it’s spread like wildfire:

• Pulls away from substrate easily
• Has very little substance- you can barely feel it
• Grows on almost anything - old rock, brand new dry rock, plastic, live snail shells, and macroalgae.
• Have not seen it grow on most corals I have (clove, GSP) directly, or a ricordia, but does seem to grow on zoa encrustment.
• Seems to prefer higher flow areas
• Strands get several inches long, then twist together to look like they have “tufts” but these seem to be multiple strands combined rather than growths from a single strand
• Out of water it looks like red slimy blood

/Just added a new batch of snails, have another batch of snails and hermits getting ready, about to place an order for a bulk mix lot from reefcleaners…

 

[buruskeee]

I’m guessing we could have cyano. But the pics of cyano I usually see is like a slime and more like a blanket than hairy.

Wish someone here could chime in for us.

 

[buruskeee]

Anyone?

 

[PotatoPig]

I’m guessing we could have cyano. But the pics of cyano I usually see is like a slime and more like a blanket than hairy.

Wish someone here could chime in for us.

This is where I’m scratching my head (also I’m new at this so seeing these things for the first time) - all the pictures and descriptions of cyano are that it’s more of a goo, and prefers low flow. Which isn’t this stuff.

The very soft and insubstantial nature of it though does make me think it might be cyano/bacteria of some sort, just expressing weirdly.

 

[buruskeee]

Yeah, from my understanding though, cyano is a bacteria. I just don’t understand the long strands of hair this stuff is. If it’s just brown algae, then I’m cool with waiting it out. I just want to know what we have to plan a course of action.

 

[buruskeee]

Maybe @vetteguy53081 can help us with this ID?

 

[Troylee]

Looks remarkably similar to mine starting out.

Update on mine now it’s spread like wildfire:

• Pulls away from substrate easily
• Has very little substance- you can barely feel it
• Grows on almost anything - old rock, brand new dry rock, plastic, live snail shells, and macroalgae.
• Have not seen it grow on most corals I have (clove, GSP) directly, or a ricordia, but does seem to grow on zoa encrustment.
• Seems to prefer higher flow areas
• Strands get several inches long, then twist together to look like they have “tufts” but these seem to be multiple strands combined rather than growths from a single strand
• Out of water it looks like red slimy blood

/Just added a new batch of snails, have another batch of snails and hermits getting ready, about to place an order for a bulk mix lot from reefcleaners…

Looks like byropsis with cyano…

 

[PotatoPig]

Looks like byropsis with cyano…

The “tufts” do look like the leaves of byropsis, but I’m fairly sure they’re from the strands twisting together. From the photos of bryopsis it looks like a plant/macroalgae with structure - that you’d feel it when you pull on it, but this stuff is almost intangible to touch under water.

 

[brandon429]

Rip clean the tank


then, when clean vs invaded, install a powerful uv sterilizer

hands off invasion control only goes so far

you’ve surpassed how far it goes

dinos invasion underway

from the clean condition, with uv in place, then you make changes

the number one thing you wouldnt do is dose something to the water and hope to kill that. A rip clean and uv is polar opposite of that behavior. You can’t let the mass spread this unchecked

it’s time to check

ID doesn’t factor in your issue, action does. It doesn’t matter what the genus is, the first step is a rip clean if you want to fix that tank. If you want to do opposite, I track those threads too to see which method works best.

 

[Troylee]

The “tufts” do look like the leaves of byropsis, but I’m fairly sure they’re from the strands twisting together. From the photos of bryopsis it looks like a plant/macroalgae with structure - that you’d feel it when you pull on it, but this stuff is almost intangible to touch under water.

Very well could just be cyano.. hopefully not Dino’s… ugh… can you just blow the sand with a turkey baster and they go away?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Appears to be mainly cyano but hard to confirm on a phone screen
Reducing white intensity and adding liquid bacteria at 1.5ml per 10 gallons daily for 2 weeks will help
Some snails that will consume this are:
Margarita
Cerith
Trochus
Nerite

A few carribean blue leg hermits

 

[PotatoPig]

Rip clean the tank


then, when clean vs invaded, install a powerful uv sterilizer

hands off invasion control only goes so far

you’ve surpassed how far it goes

dinos invasion underway

from the clean condition, with uv in place, then you make changes

the number one thing you wouldnt do is dose something to the water and hope to kill that. A rip clean and uv is polar opposite of that behavior. You can’t let the mass spread this unchecked

it’s time to check

So I’ve not seen this stuff in person before, but don’t dinos typically come with bubbles at the end and are less present in the morning before lights come on? This stuff doesn’t have any bubbles at all and looks the same at all times. You might see bubbles on other stuff in there as have some calothrix on rocks that’s being managed by snails and the occasional scrub.

Not planning on dosing anything.

A little reluctant to rip the tank down to the bones as this is only ~6 days in from this first appearing.

Very well could just be cyano.. hopefully not Dino’s… ugh… can you just blow the sand with a turkey baster and they go away?

Just checked - it blasts off rock/etc with a turkey blaster fairly easily.

 

[buruskeee]

Appears to be mainly cyano but hard to confirm on a phone screen
Reducing white intensity and adding liquid bacteria at 1.5ml per 10 gallons daily for 2 weeks will help
Some snails that will consume this are:
Margarita
Cerith
Trochus
Nerite

A few carribean blue leg hermits

Please see my pics in this thread I’ll quote below as they might be a little easier to see.

I have the same so I’d like to find out as well. Was diatoms until yesterday I noticed brown long hairs instead of the brown dusting on the sand of diatoms that was persistent the couple of weeks prior.

150G+ system volume about 2 months old now.

My parameters:
Salinity 34.5ppm
Alk 8.1 dKh
Cal 500
Mag 1350
Temp 77.5F
PH 8.3
No3 3.0ppm
Po4 0.03ppm

In addition, I’m running an Aqua UV at 90k exposure flow rate (for preventative fish parasites) in conjunction with my fuge light timer (9pm-9am). I can run 24/7 if needed.

Also have tons of pods in my system that always end up on my glass.

 

[brandon429]

It will be very helpful to rip clean threads to track out the selected cure methods for this tank, using opposite means, to see how long it takes

killing each succession in the tank vs export has a maximum hold value breakpoint, this was an issue back in September too per posts

so we are a month or so into clear advancement, not retraction. That sets the stage for sure to see how long it takes to attain this

from this

that was a recent cyano/dinos job we did in chat

it took four hours to change the tank.

curious to see what a doser or animal or param change w do

your lighting intensity is too bright for the setup for sure.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m not able to access computer until later and will look