The never ending algae fight. Help

Alarsen77 · Dec 29, 2011

So I went through a phase where I had some nasty hair algae growing all over my tank. I bought a brs dual reactor and started running rowaphos and carbon in it. That has helped with the hair algae it seems to be gone.

But my sand bed is still black, I will vacuum the sand bed and within a few days it starts appearing again. I cut my lights back to 7 hours a day from 10 and that seemed to help a little but not much. I was told that my hair algae is gone and these are Dino's I'm fighting in my sand bed. The sand looks almost black a bit fuzzy and small air bubbles in it. Nothing on the rock anymore and I don't have a good picture right now.

I use RO/DI water aquavitro salt do 10 gallon water changes weekly. My skimmer is actually a bit small for my tank it's a CPR BakPak hang on which is being replaced with a super reef octopus either today or tomorrow. It's ordered just depends on when the lfs gets it in.

Any help you guys might have would be greatly appreciated.

Only other addition to the tank is the led light I added about 4 months ago now. I had it running 10 hours a day which I was told was too much and caused my problem.

redtop03 · Dec 29, 2011

not sure but fuzzy black sand doesn't sound good,I think I'd vacuum out all the sand and replace it...how old is your tank ?

Alarsen77 · Dec 29, 2011

It's been running for a year now but got it from a guy who had it about 8 months before that and i apologize it's actually and aragonite bed not sand, and he broke the tank down and I didn't get it set back up till a couple months later

Dowtish · Dec 29, 2011

Is the stuff slimey? does it easily siphon off the gravel bed?

Alarsen77 · Dec 29, 2011

It siphons out pretty easily but there are some black pieces left in the gravel after siphoning.

Dowtish · Dec 29, 2011

It kinda sounds like some sort of cyano. Do you feed heavy? what kind of bio-load do you have?

fraggingfish · Dec 29, 2011

Sounds like cyano to me, unless the black is under the sand, that means the bacteria in the sand is dead.
Try a water change, 10-20 percent weekly to counter the excess nutrients it seems like you're having.

Alarsen77 · Dec 29, 2011

I feed once a day food is gone in about a minute or so. I have a Niger trigger, foxface, scopas tang, cleaner wrasse, percula clown, mandarin goby. Scoly, Christmas favia, frogspawn, toadstool leather, finger leather, devils hand leather, a few zoa frags, war favia frag, blastos frag. So I'd say I have a decent bio load.

The foxface is about 3-4" and is the biggest fish in the tank.

Alarsen77 · Dec 29, 2011

I have been doing 10 gallon water changes weekly

Alarsen77 · Dec 29, 2011

Could flow have anything to do with it? I have a koralia evolution 1050 powerhead and then my return from the sump which is only a mag 2 but I also haw the aquaclear 110 running as a refuge which is pushing about 400 gph.

Paul B · Dec 29, 2011

It is cyanobacteria. Sometimes it is very hard to eradicate.
It came because you used that stuff to eliminate your hair algae, but what it did was kill it and leave it in the water which of course is a carbon source.
You can eliminate the cyano completely in a day with "Chemi Clean" but I am not sure you can get it there.
It is not an antibiotic but an oxidizer. Some people will have a problem with me suggesting it because it is a chemical but so is Rowaphos, ASW and everything else you put in there. After the Chemi Clean eliminates the cyano, you need to do a large water change, at least 30% then feed much less because you are adding too much DOCs to the water. I use the stuff occasionally and have been using it for decades with no problem. I sometimes use it just for the heck of it.
If you just have a little cyano, just keep syphoning it out and forget about it, it does not hurt anything unless it covers the corals.

Alarsen77 · Dec 29, 2011

Hmm I can get chemi clean. I have a feeling that it's coming about not cause I feed too much but cause my slimmer isn't big enough to keep up with the feelings. It's a CPR BakPak rated for about a 60 gallon tank and I have a 70 gallon cube but total water volume is about 90 gallons and that skimner has never really worked that well for me. I have a super reef octopus 1000 ordered.

Paul B · Dec 29, 2011

I have a feeling that it's coming about not cause I feed too much but cause my slimmer isn't big enough to keep up with the feelings.

That may be true but all that hair algae that you "got rid" of is still in there, just now it is not hair algae any more but Cyano.
Chemi Clean will oxidize it similar to how bleach oxidizes organics. Then you need to change the water to "remove" it.
Not just change it into something else.