What is this, and how do I control it.

[Neil S.]

I have a grainy green algae growing on my sand and rocks. I can't find any information about this, nor what can be done to get rid of it. I've heard opinions ranging from it looks like a green diatom (which I can't find any info on), to it is a silicate based algae. The tank is running the Triton method and is about 8 months old. It has a total of 58 gallons of water in the system. A healthy ball of chaeto is growing in the refugium. There are also GAC and GFO reactors in the sump. Water tests all appear to be within normal ranges except for magnesium which is over 1650. Anyone know anything?

 

[VB313]

Hmmm ,
Can cut down on lights
What do you have for CUC?

 

[Neil S.]

1 neris snail, two trochus snails, Tail spot blennie, Sand sifting gobie. Lighting is through a Aquatic Life hybrid 24" with a Kessil A80. Total light time is 9.5 hours with the T5 bulbs being on for the middle 5 hours. I should have mentioned that the DT is only about 40 gallons. Total system is 58 gallons.

 

[REEFer86]

I have a grainy green algae growing on my sand and rocks. I can't find any information about this, nor what can be done to get rid of it. I've heard opinions ranging from it looks like a green diatom (which I can't find any info on), to it is a silicate based algae. The tank is running the Triton method and is about 8 months old. It has a total of 58 gallons of water in the system. A healthy ball of chaeto is growing in the refugium. There are also GAC and GFO reactors in the sump. Water tests all appear to be within normal ranges except for magnesium which is over 1650. Anyone know anything?

The sand looks great how do you keep it that way!

 

[Hemmdog]

You need more trochus snails for sure.

 

[Katrina71]

You need more trochus snails for sure.

+1

 

[VB313]

Yeah up your clean up crew maybe hermits if you want them
shoot reefcleaners.org a email send him your tank info he’ll tell you exactly what you need helped my algae issues a ton can’t argue with his prices either

 

[NeSsyAqua]

Add more snails. Different kinds of snail would be best, like trochus, mexican turbo, margarita is my top three!

 

[Neil S.]

The sand looks great how do you keep it that way!

That is a white sugar sand, quite fine. The sand gobie does a really good job of keeping it turned over.

 

[Neil S.]

Yeah up your clean up crew maybe hermits if you want them
shoot reefcleaners.org a email send him your tank info he’ll tell you exactly what you need helped my algae issues a ton can’t argue with his prices either

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll do that right away.

 

[Neil S.]

I've just heard back from ReefCleaners. Here is his reply copied from my email.

Looks like a cyano species, nerites should take care of it on rocks, ceriths in the sand and on rocks too.

All the Best,
John Maloney
www.reefcleaners.org

So that particular grainy, green, algae is a cyano species. His solution are a CUC composed of nerites and ceriths. So I shall be ordering these right away.

 

[Neil S.]

Yeah up your clean up crew maybe hermits if you want them
shoot reefcleaners.org a email send him your tank info he’ll tell you exactly what you need helped my algae issues a ton can’t argue with his prices either

Just heard back from reefcleaners, see post just above. Thank you for the recommendation.

 

[Neil S.]

Yeah up your clean up crew maybe hermits if you want them
shoot reefcleaners.org a email send him your tank info he’ll tell you exactly what you need helped my algae issues a ton can’t argue with his prices either

Just heard back from reefcleaners, see post just above. Thank you for the recommendation.

 

[Matthijs]

Looks like green cyano to me.
Do you have low phosphates/nitrates?

Grtz,
Matthijs

 

[flchamp89]

Reefcleaners dwarf ceriths are sand bed beasts.

 

[somethinq else]

Hey bud, I had a similar problem in my 75 gallon tank. The very first thing I would check are phosphates and nitrates. I would look for rust. Rust on a hinge, a closer magnet of the door, a powerhead with an exposed screw....maybe a hose clamp....a busted glass thermometer...more than likely you're getting rust in your water from something. The funny thing is....and you probably done this....you can take that rock out and scrub it, clean your substrate, add more sun strate, maybe even just toss that section of substrate.....and its gonna grow right back in the same exact spot. It could be a small screw on a light cover dropping rust in from over the water...but I'll be willing to bet you its rust. Mine was the hinges. At the time I had a 400 gallon, a 300 gallon, that 75 that was getting the rust in it, and a 40 gallon frag piggy backed onto my 300...they all got water changes at the same time. No problems with any of the tanks but the 75 gal. Cuc is not gonna fix that situation. And eventually youll start getting those hard brown bubble algae. Your mushrooms will start to turtle some....and you will do water changes...and add iodine...emerald crabs..snails...that green algae is just too thick. All unneccessary. Find the rust..solve your problem. I dont know much. But one thing you can do is identify a previous problem you've had and that's definantly one of them. Good luck brother. Be prepared to check the weirdest places. Could be the pinwheel or spin rod on the skimmer pump.

 

[dubge]

how long has the tank been running?

 

[VB313]

Just heard back from reefcleaners, see post just above. Thank you for the recommendation.

No problem glad To help

 

[VB313]

Reefcleaners dwarf ceriths are sand bed beasts.

Yeah they are I ordered 20 they sent me 60 lol they don’t stop working glass rocks sand

 

[Matthijs]

For the info, cyano is not an algae.....
Can put 1000 snails, this wont solve the problem as cyano is a bacteria and only creates this colored carpet to protect itself.

Grtz,
Matthijs