Ok.. got an algae outbreak in the sand that seems to be spreading. This is the area where the anemone was buried in the sand, so it was very disturbed when I moved him out of this area.
I've had little spots pop up that just go away on their own, but this one won't do it and seems to be growing.
A. Would you syphon this area out and replace with new sand?
B. Cover it with new sand?
C. Stir it up again to hide the algae?
Already tried dropping a couple of conches on it, they would have nothing to do with it.
I don't think I would stir it up or disturb the sandbed. If you can just keep removing the algae occasionally that would probably be best unless you get it in other places in the tank and increase flow in that area. Have you checked PO4 and NO3 (maybe NO2 and Nh4--might be a minicycle from the sandbed)?
I don't own a phosphate test kit. The algae is mostly red, have some green down there also now. It happened after I moved the anemone out.. Had to basically turn the sand over all the way to the bottom.. just scooped it out with my hand to get to his foot.
I changed approx 60 gallons in 1 week after doing this.
I will say I think my RO/DI filters were getting a little old, and have just gotten my new ones in today.
Think I need to check phospates and possibly use a phospate remover or something?
Red Slime algae is really bacteria (cyanobacteria). This is not caused by phosphates. The natural way of ridding the tank of this is to first skim off as much as you can. Then do a 50% water change. Several smaller water changes will not work. You will never get the bacteria down low enough to catch up.. I expect the tank is less that a yr old and I has not matured all the way yet.. After the water change cut lights back to 4hrs a day for 4-5days then start bringing the lights up 1hr a day till back to normal. Also cut back on feeding some. Another suggestion is make sure you have a deep sand bed of at least 3-4in. This will let enough good bacteria grow to help prevent this problem..If you just cannot wait You can use a product called chemi-clean by boyd enterproses, inc... you can do a search on the internet for thier phone # or where to purchase. After using wait 2days then do the water change...Their are no short cuts...good luck...
If your tank has 100gal and 50ppm nitrates, a 10gal water change has the following affect:
This example shows that nitrates are continously it would take over a week to reduce the concentration of pollution in your tank 50% with such small water changes.
This doen't take into account that nitrates are countinuously added to the tank via waste coversion.
You need to do a 50gal. water change to be effective and add a DSB to prevent further nitrate buildup naturally.
The question is why did you get it in the first place..Is the clean up crew large enough? Is there enough current flow in the tank? Have there been overfeeding? It is real hard for red slime to grow with heavy water current. Move heads around to get rid of dead areas.
I have tried everything under the sun to remove cyano, i mean everything.
1) Changed out all RO cartridges, even DI.
2) Major water changes often.
3) Removal with turkey baster (works but gets old quick)
4) Exporting, as everyone knows I have a shitload of macro algea
5) Praying
6) Critters, crabs, snails etc.
What finally removed it in my 26 gallon ???? A filter sock.
"When they was no meat we ate fowl, when there was no fowl we ate crawdad. And when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand."--Cellmate
"You ate what?"--H.I.
"We ate sand."--Cellmate
"You ate sand?"--H.I.
"That's right."--Cellmate
The Large water change will wk along with the lower lights ect...but the cause needs to be corrected...How old is the sand bed? This usually happens in tanks less than yr old. Also cut back on feeding and use a turkey baster or net to remove as much as you can. Increase water flow. If the cause in not found and corrected it will return. The trick to getting it in ck is to make sure you do a large enough water change...as stated above several small ones are not the same as one large one. I have used this process several times on tanks which were about 6mo old and it has corrected the problem. Sometimes I have had to do it twice and by then the sand bed has matured enought to keep up. I have also used a tooth brush to clean off as much as I could before water change. Good luck and I am sure you will beat this...
The tank is 1yr old this month. You can see from the picture the front of the glass the bubbles in the sand bed from denitrification, so I think the sandbed is mature. It only seems to be occuring in the area that was disturbed. I've decreased my feeding to once every 2 days until I can get this cleard up. Could be I guess part of the problem is that I actually decreased flow to this area, because my recordia polyps were flying off.
Brandon wrote: Could be I guess part of the problem is that I actually decreased flow to this area, because my recordia polyps were flying off.
You are absolutely correct that lack of sufficient flow can attribute to a cyano bloom.
I would say you found the culprit. You can siphon out the cyano and increase the flow again , and I bet you have on more problems.
Also, FWOW, blue leg hermits seem to munch on Cyano too!
"Well......maybe I did get alittle carried away! "
