Algae on Sand

[colby.kirwan]

I have a carpet of algae on the sand of my biocube. Is there any sand sifting crabs or fish that will eat that stuff? Or what am I doing to cause that and how can I fix it? Sorry I am posting a lot of questions but I'm pretty new at this.

 

[jrgilles]

Can we see a picture? It is maybe not algae, but diatoms or cyanobacteria. A pic would be helpful and then we can give you better advice.

 

[colby.kirwan]

I can't get a picture at this time but its is a slime of about every color. Some red, some green, some brown, some purple.

 

[colby.kirwan]

 

[mercenary-grunt]

My guess without seeing the pic is cyno, and that you want to check how old your lights are, or do you have enough light. And water flow is big. But pull out what you can by hand, and they like the same stuff as all other alge. Check prams and if all else fails there is a algeside just for cyno.

 

[colby.kirwan]

thanks

 

[colby.kirwan]

I replaced a light that was out and I was also running my light probably longer than I should. I put them on a timer. How many hours should I be running my lights?

 

[colby.kirwan]

I also didn't realize that my powerhead was clogged

 

[Krish]

The picture you posted is rather small so hard to tell, but by the description it sounds like a combination of diatoms and cyno. Here is an article I did on diatoms you can maybe take a peek at. With most algae's though, excess nutrients like phosphates, nitrates etc will fuel it to grow. You limit these nutrients and they pretty much starve. Take a peek at the link though and see if that is similar to what you have.

Reef Frontiers - Diatoms

 

[jrgilles]

I have 2 sets of lights, one is on maybe 7-8 AM to 9 pm, the bright halides are on from maybe 11 AM until 6 PM.

Things you could do:
Check your chemistry, nitrates and phosphates as suggested above.

More flow (ie maybe some more powerheads) can also go a long way in helping

Also, you can wait and see what happens. Most people go through a diatom and a cyanobacteria outbreak at some point, it lives for a bit, then goes away. Your salt water tank will have many cycles such as this.

In my experience, I first had some diatoms, maybe a month or 2 into it (brownish slime, you can google images it.). That seemed to clear up on its own. Next I had a cyano outbreak in all the lower flow spots in my tank, on the rocks, etc. I fought this for months and months, doing some manual removal (toothbruck on the rocks while I vacuumed, also vacuumed the sand.) I got it a bit more under control, but what really made it totally disappear was when I put significantly more flow in my tank (went from 2-3 standard powerheads to 2 large tunze powerheads and 2 tunze nanos)

During my outbreaks, I did not detect any nitrates or phosphates. They were mostly being consumed by algae in my refugium, but I'm sure the diatoms and cyano were eating some also. Eventually, it all disappeared (very possibly due to depletion of some trace element they needed, that is unknown to me) and I haven't seen since.

So, in short, there are some things you can do. You can also just keep an eye on it and wait it out. From looking at your tank picture, I would think that adding a bit more flow to the system wouldn't be a bad idea.

What are you going to do with your tank? Is it fish only or are you adding corals? If you are just doing fish, you don't necessarily need a lot of flow to keep them happy, but if you are adding any corals, you will probably eventually want to get more flow in there

 

[jrgilles]

Maybe for the short run, you could vacuum it off, and put a small nano type powerhead on the right side putting some current over the sand to stop it all from regrowing. You will have to mess with the positioning a bit so you have some flow over the sand, but you don't want a sand storm. The smaller powerheads are fairly inexpensive, and one of them aiming towards the 'trouble spot' may go a long way in clearing this up

 

[colby.kirwan]

First thanks to all. Second - Krish, now looking at your pic Diatoms are definitely part of it but there are some other things like the thick purple mat that i dont know what it is. I know I also probably have some red algae. The sand looks a bit like a rainbow.

 

[jrgilles]

The thick purple mat is cyanobacteria. Search google for 'cyanobacteria reef tank' and some pics will show up (with some mislabeled pics of diatom blooms mixed in, but they are brown)

 

[colby.kirwan]

jrgilles, I have a koralia nano at the top right corner 240gph and then just my pump in the back top corner of my biocube. Is it best to move my powerhead so i get more even flow or add another to the lower part of the tank. My tank USED to be full of corals and a clown with anemone and it was beautiful but little time with work and stupid laziness destroyed it. Now I'm getting it all back together for a reef and fish. I am also looking into RO/DI systems (any suggestions on these) to help with my laziness and lack of water changes which I'm sure are a huge part of my problem.

 

[colby.kirwan]

Do I need RO/DI or just RO or what. Oh, Its a 29 Biocube by the way

 

[jrgilles]

I know flow can go a long way in clearing this stuff up, but I have no experience with nanos. One nano powerhead in there seems like not near enough flow to me, but I have only had big tanks. If you are interested in tweaking the flow, maybe browse through the nano forums or put a post there to see how others are running flow in their nanos.

At least for larger tanks, people seem to do 30-40X display volume flow per hour (ie for a 100 gallon tank, 3000 to 4000 gph). In my 75, I am doing around 60X I would guess. Made all the cyano, etc disappear.

Also kind of depends on your rockwork. You want to eliminate dead spots. I have two big powerheads doing most of my flow, then some smaller nanos hidden behind the rocks adding current where the big ones don't reach

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk

 

[jrgilles]

Yea, water could be another issue. I use RO/DI. You could get away with an inexpensive setup since you don't need a huge amount of water. If you are using tap water, that is very possibly at the root of your problems. Not a lot to the filters, so any that are made by a reputable company should do the trick. There are a few sponsors on this page (Water, Fire and Ice is one I think.) Maybe more.

I got mine through thefilterguys.biz, and they have been a pleasure to work with and very helpful (even with filters that weren't purchased from them.) The standard aquarium RO/DI filter produces water and also waste water that has to be put into a drain (or something, not used. I pump it out into the street...) BUT, since you don't need much water, you could probably jsut put one under your kitchen sink, tap it into the sink drain, and it would be very easy to setup. Jim at the filter guys is very helpful, and probably has some info about the water in your area to direct you to the right setup. He won't sell you anything you don't need. You can email him at '[email protected]'