What is it and how do I make it go away??

[Stacy]

I'm hoping it's just a typical new tank thing and will be easy to get rid of. Water params were all 0. Ca was over 500. Dkh was low- 6 range I think. I'll post exact when I get home. It's nasty looking and covering everything! Tanks been up 2 mos or so now...

Thanks in advance for the help!!

~Stacy

[Derek]

Looks like diatom. How is your flow? It could be cyano. How long has your tank been up and going?

[teg]

kind of look like some type of cyano bacteria. If it is, you can do 3 days lights out, and reduce feeding.

[Derekreefer]

If the tank is 3-4 weeks old or less then don't worry about it, should clear up in no time. Unless your not using a skimmer, then it may not go away unless you make very frequent water changes.

[Stacy]

Tank's been up since January 3rd. I had been putting tlc in a couple of times a wk until I ran out last week. Not sure how old the bulbs are. Could that affect any of it? Also, I don't feed frequently, but I've only fed liquid or frozen when I do. Know I need to move to pellets or flake...which works best?

[Derekreefer]

Old bulbs can definitely affect algae/cyano growth. If power compact i would replace at least every 6 months, preferably within 4 months. If T5 they can last a year, I switch mine out at 5-6 months tops.

One quick way to get rid of it is with small flexible tubing (like for an air stone) and a 6-12" piece of rigid tubin (to fit the end of the flex tubing). Create a siphon and suck it out.

I would stop dosing CA if you are, and a 6 for Alkalinity is fine, but I would keep dosing this one every few days.

[Derekreefer]

oh and cool looking blasto or magician paly...whatever that is

[+etannert]

+1 cyano (IMHO).

[Stacy]

I thought cyano was more red? When I've had it before (years ago in a different tank) it was red. This isn't, but it does act the same. Guess it can be brown too?

Derekreefer- thanks! It's a blasto and one of my fave pieces in there. Would like it more if it weren't currently covered in brown slime

[stoneroller]

How many and what kind/size of fish do you have? And why are you feeding a liquid? Who's consuming it? I would also make sure to not overfeed or overstock such a new tank. I'd say a little new tank syndrome just going through it's paces.

[Elizzy]

Check this out -- click here. I am normally against adding anything to a tank, but I did use the chemiclean redslime remover as recommended and OMG, it all went away within days. Nothing suffered, it was all good. (Even the Xenia lived through that)

[Stacy]

Fish that are in it: 6 line wrasse, itty bitty oscellaris, lawnmower blenny, and a red firefish. About to add a one spot foxface tonight per someone's recommendations in a previous thread. I feed Arcti-pods or frozen marine cuisine a few times a week. Every now and then I'll squirt some phyto in for the corals. Everyone eats the other stuff. I hear flakes/pellets are cleaner so what would be the best plan?

I just tested the water again tonight and numbers haven't changed. Nitrates and Phosphates are 0, Kh is 6, sp gr is 1.022.

Advice I got from someone else seems to lead to it being leaching from the "used" LR I have? Maybe lights also and new tank syndrome. Or a combo of all. Justin, if you see this, how old were the bulbs in that light when I bought the set up from you a few months ago?

I also started dosing Marine SAT tonight, so we'll see how that goes...

Thanks again for any advice!!

[stoneroller]

My advice: skip the foxface, SAT and TLC. Patience is in order IMO as I am not aware of any shortcuts in this hobby. A lot of snakeoil but no shortcuts.

It wouldn't hurt to get new bulbs, try them out and if the problem goes away you'll have a clearer picture of the issue. If not, then you atleast have a backup set.

I use prime reef flake and a high quality pellet as well as frozen mysid and cyclopeeze.

"Only bad things happen fast..."

[JamesL]

My advice: skip the foxface, SAT and TLC. Patience is in order IMO as I am not aware of any shortcuts in this hobby.

...

"Only bad things happen fast..."

+1 bazillion

I had cyno and diatoms appear in my 75g a month or so after it was set up. They eventually went away as the tank matured.

[DaJMasta]

Cyano and Diatoms can be dealt with fairly easily - feed less, water change more, more clean up crew if you're understocked, run a skimmer, run a fuge with chaeto, etc... My guess is it's diatoms and it's both part of a new tank cycle and not particularly deterimental to anything in the tank.

Dinoflagelates could be a problem though, I'm not extremely familiar with them, but it looks like there's a chance.... btw this algae guide is fairly comprehensive:

http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=81

[Viet-tin]

Im going to say that looks like a form of dinoflagellates. I had my run in with that stuff...cant treat it like normal algae...you need hair algae cyano or bryopsis to out compete it for nutrients and starve it out. I havent really found anything that will eat the stuff and the stuff gets everywhere. I syphoned it out a little bit everyday or so not taking more than a gallon of water out. Try and keep it contained as much as possible dont let it float around the tank as itll attach somewhere else and grow. I still have a lttle bit here and there but I think its fiannly going away. I find hair algae and bryopsis much easier to deal with so dont mind it growing in the tank right now.

[Jlloyd123]

Hey Stacy. The lights were a month old when u bought tank from me. All of them but one of the actinics due to one of the new actinics that busted when installing the lunar LEDs.

[Stacy]

Thanks Justin! Should rule out old lights then, lol...one possibility down, seems like a million others still left!