Ugly Phase. What would you do?????

[Psychedelic Fins]

5 month old tank. 180 gallon with 40 gallon breeder sump. Dry rock, dry sand, parameters stable (Alk: 8.4, Calc: 430, Mag: 1400, Nitrate: 10, Phosphate: .03). Brown, red, purple web on sand. I think it is pretty much your run-of-the-mill ugly phase, but here is my questions. Should I:

• Just let it be and run its course
• Stir it up and release into the water column and let the filter socks do their thing
• Vacuum it out
• Some other option I'm not considering.

I will only consider dosing if it will progress the tank quicker thru the uglies. Not interested if dosing will prolong this phase or create a new issue. Thanks for your opinions. I love this hobby!

 

[Beau_B]

Sounds like cyano. I would vacuum or scoop out as much as you can, increase flow, and potentially dose some bacteria to compete.

It will quite likely clear on it's own as you expect. If you want to go nuclear, chemiclean... but IME, it doesn't solve it long term.

 

[Cell]

Both of these:

• Stir it up and release into the water column and let the filter socks do their thing
• Vacuum it out

 

[rhostam]

As to what you should do:

First thing to do is definitely not panic.

Second, scoop it out (if it is well matted to the sand) or vacuum it out. You want to help your system fight back.

Third, keep an eye out on filtration and change frequently as you do this maintenance.

Fourth, if anything has changed that appears to have accelerated growth, you might want to dial back.

Check out BRSTV 5 minute guides on the subject on YouTube. They provide a quick run down on the topic (and many others) to help you plan for events like these and talk about a few products that may help if you are particularly discouraged even after a few weeks of performing cleanup and mitigation maintenance.

The biggest thing I’ve learned from the veterans and professionals (BRS folk) here:

“It took weeks and months to get to this point, it may take weeks or months to get out.”