Help ID brown slime

[albatross666]

Hi

 

I have this in my tank, on the top most pieces of rock and on the sand. My tank is about 3 months old. I am changing 7 gallons every 2 weeks in a 55 gallon tank. I have about 80 lbs of cured rock.

 

Is this an effect of light, overfeeding, or bad flow?

 

I have a mag 5 for the return and two small aquaclear 203 powerheads.

 

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks

Albatross

 

[discretekarma]

Hey there. Welcome. It's Scott. Not sure about the algae though.

 

Glad to see that you decided to join.

Edited November 11, 2007 by discretekarma

[lanman]

Looks like Diatom algae, from the picture. If so - it should blow around with a powerhead, or light brushing. Very common in newer tanks. Good skimming, flow, and maybe reduce the lights a little if you're running them for a long photoperiod.

 

bob

[wreck]

Welcome Albatross. What are your tank parameters(nitrate, phosphate, temp, salinity, etc)? What's your fish load and how much do you feed? What filtration method are you using? It looks like Diatoms, I think all tanks go through that at early stages, I know mine did.

Wreck

[trble81]

You can get some snails to help with that problem....can't remember which ones will eat them though (easily solved by going on to liveaquaria.com and just reading some descriptions).

 

Welcome aboard!

 

 

 

--Mike

[Origami]

Albatross, what source are you using for your water? If it is diatom algae (and it sure looks like it), silicates in your water may be playing into its prolifieration. I know that my tap water here in Ashburn is pretty high in silicates so I invested in an RO/DI setup from airwaterice.com. This seems to be working as I've never had a diatom bloom since setting the tank up in late August (fingers still crossed!).

[jnguyen4007]

If you notice what looks like something small, stringy, brown, and it has miniscule size bubbles like attached to them, then you probably have cyano as well. Had that problem not too long ago.

 

James

[albatross666]

Welcome Albatross. What are your tank parameters(nitrate, phosphate, temp, salinity, etc)? What's your fish load and how much do you feed? What filtration method are you using? It looks like Diatoms, I think all tanks go through that at early stages, I know mine did.

Wreck

 

Hi,

 

Sorry for the delay in responding.

 

I have been running a phosban 150 to counter phospates, but haven't measured them. I have low nitrates. temperature is about 75 with the lights on, the heater is set to 72 and my salinity is on the higher end of the scale (.23 if i remember right).

 

As for fish, i have a young angel (5 inhes) 1 large clown (1.5 inches) 1 baby clown (.5 inch) a large and fat redish-purple fish (3 inches),and 2 gobies (1 inch). I also have 2 asteria star fish. I feed once a day, and I am feeding pellets. i feed into the mouth of each fish! 3-4 pelletts for the larger fish and 1 for the smaller fish. Its interesting, but one goby has not eaten for about 2 months, but still is alive. I feed the baby nemo several 10-15 smaller bits, so that it has a chance of eating, so some of that is uneaten.

 

I have purple coralline algae starting to grow on the tank walls, in addition to the hard green spot algae.

 

i added an older powerhear aquaclear 402/50 with a rotating defelctor yesterday. Lets see if that works.

 

any other ideas?

 

Thanks!

 

If you notice what looks like something small, stringy, brown, and it has miniscule size bubbles like attached to them, then you probably have cyano as well. Had that problem not too long ago.

 

James

 

 

I guess I have cyano! I have exactly what you described. I just thought that bubbles got trapped in the algae!

 

Also, i have quite a bit of that in my refuge as well. Should I clean the refuge or is it beneficial in the refuge?

 

Thanks!

 

Albatross, what source are you using for your water? If it is diatom algae (and it sure looks like it), silicates in your water may be playing into its prolifieration. I know that my tap water here in Ashburn is pretty high in silicates so I invested in an RO/DI setup from airwaterice.com. This seems to be working as I've never had a diatom bloom since setting the tank up in late August (fingers still crossed!).

 

 

I am using RO water MOSTLY. occassionally, I have to top off and have none available, so i resorted to tap water a couple of times. Now I know of a place that sells RO water, so in emergencies, I am using that.

 

Thanks!

[wreck]

You want to try to get Nitrates and Phosphates to 0, testing for both will give you an idea if your efforts are having an effect. Tests may read lower than actual levels because the algae is using up some to grow. I keep my tank at a constant 79 degrees and salinity at 1.024(measured with a refractometer). 75 sounds low to me but it might be helping to keep the algae growth down. What's your light cycle? Cutting it back slowly will help to slow algae growth. If you have any prefilters, floss, filter socks, etc. clean them out or change them often. You didn't mention any cleanup crew, you'll want some snails and hermit crabs to help clean up any uneaten food. Good luck.

Wreck

 

Hi,

 

Sorry for the delay in responding.

 

I have been running a phosban 150 to counter phospates, but haven't measured them. I have low nitrates. temperature is about 75 with the lights on, the heater is set to 72 and my salinity is on the higher end of the scale (.23 if i remember right).

 

As for fish, i have a young angel (5 inhes) 1 large clown (1.5 inches) 1 baby clown (.5 inch) a large and fat redish-purple fish (3 inches),and 2 gobies (1 inch). I also have 2 asteria star fish. I feed once a day, and I am feeding pellets. i feed into the mouth of each fish! 3-4 pelletts for the larger fish and 1 for the smaller fish. Its interesting, but one goby has not eaten for about 2 months, but still is alive. I feed the baby nemo several 10-15 smaller bits, so that it has a chance of eating, so some of that is uneaten.

 

I have purple coralline algae starting to grow on the tank walls, in addition to the hard green spot algae.

 

i added an older powerhear aquaclear 402/50 with a rotating defelctor yesterday. Lets see if that works.

 

any other ideas?

 

Thanks!

I guess I have cyano! I have exactly what you described. I just thought that bubbles got trapped in the algae!

 

Also, i have quite a bit of that in my refuge as well. Should I clean the refuge or is it beneficial in the refuge?

 

Thanks!

I am using RO water MOSTLY. occassionally, I have to top off and have none available, so i resorted to tap water a couple of times. Now I know of a place that sells RO water, so in emergencies, I am using that.

 

Thanks!

[jnguyen4007]

I guess I have cyano! I have exactly what you described. I just thought that bubbles got trapped in the algae!

 

Also, i have quite a bit of that in my refuge as well. Should I clean the refuge or is it beneficial in the refuge?

 

 

This is what I did and it seemed to do the trick for me. I put a pair of filter socks on the two overflow pipes to my sump. I used a turkey baster and blasted around the rocks, walls, sandy bottom and corals to get the cyano to break loose and float around the tank. With the help of the submersible pump, I got as much as I could to flow through the overflow and down to the socks. I did that for a few days. On the day when I was ready to do my massive water change, I shut down the return pump, the skimmer and the heater. Took them out of the sump and cleaned them. I pulled loose chaeto that had cyano clinged to them and threw them away. Then I scrubbed down the walls of my sump as well as the bottom of it. After that, using the python, I drained out over 2/3 of my 20 gal sump along with all that nasty stuff that was floating around inside the sump. I also threw out the socks and replaced with a new pair. A few days later, I did another water change but only something like 25% of the sump's volume. In between my water changes, several times a day, I used the turkey baster to blast loose the cyano and let the filter socks capture them. After the first massive water change, I saw a dramatic improvement in my tank. For my 30 gal tank's size, it took couple of weeks for the problem to finally went away completely. Since then, I do a small amount of water changes weekly and also added a 25 W UV sterilizer. Not sure if the UV kills or control cyano as well, but I figure it doesn't hurt.

 

Good luck to you.

 

James

[zotzer]

It looks like you may have a couple of things going on at the same time. I recognize the pink fuzzy stuff, and it is a form of red hair algae: Asparagopsis taxiformis. I've had an issue with it in my main tank, and now also in the nano.

 

It can occur in even the most pristine water conditions, and about the only herbivore that really controls it is a pacific turbo snail. You can read up on it in this article: https://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2003_issue3.pdf

 

My fuge is FULL of the stuff, but my DT is now clear. I don't care if it lives in the fuge, but no one will ever want any of my chaeto, as my trimmings almost always contain this pink fuzz.

 

The nano poses a bit more of a problem. It's not really fair to put a turbo snail in there, as it is so small and runs hot. But, I may do it for initial eradication and then move the turbo back to my main tank. Haven't decided yet.

 

Good luck! Just be sure to nip all this in the bud now, before it gets out of control and you have a real mess on your hands.

 

Tracy

[jnguyen4007]

 

My fuge is FULL of the stuff, but my DT is now clear. I don't care if it lives in the fuge, but no one will ever want any of my chaeto, as my trimmings almost always contain this pink fuzz.

 

Tracy

 

Don't you worry that the pink fuzz stuff would eventually find its way to the return pump and back to your DT? That was part of the problem I had with the cyano. They were clinging onto the chaeto but some of it eventually found its way back to the main tank and populate. By cleaning the sump and putting filter socks in place to capture any remaining cyano that flows to it, I reduce the chance of them collecting in my sump and started the cycle over again.

 

James

[zotzer]

James,

 

I did have some filter floss in the return section of the fuge for a while to catch it. I cleaned out the fuge last week and got out all the fuzz I could. At that time, I removed the filter floss, and the pacific turbo seems to be keeping the DT fuzz-free. There is absolutely not a speck of it to be found.

 

Now, the cyano issue I'm having has me totally puzzled. It is not on the rocks at all...just appears on the sand in the *front* of the tank, where I have all the flow directed. I've been siphoning it off religiously, and upgraded my skimmer pump, but I can't for the life of me figure out why it keeps re-appearing....and in the one spot where I wouldn't expect it.

 

I'm just trying to be patient with my siphoning, and I keep repositioning the powerheads looking for the magic placement. If it continues much longer, I will probably upgrade the Koralias to #2s or 3s.

 

Tracy

[jnguyen4007]

James,

 

I did have some filter floss in the return section of the fuge for a while to catch it. I cleaned out the fuge last week and got out all the fuzz I could. At that time, I removed the filter floss, and the pacific turbo seems to be keeping the DT fuzz-free. There is absolutely not a speck of it to be found.

 

Now, the cyano issue I'm having has me totally puzzled. It is not on the rocks at all...just appears on the sand in the *front* of the tank, where I have all the flow directed. I've been siphoning it off religiously, and upgraded my skimmer pump, but I can't for the life of me figure out why it keeps re-appearing....and in the one spot where I wouldn't expect it.

 

I'm just trying to be patient with my siphoning, and I keep repositioning the powerheads looking for the magic placement. If it continues much longer, I will probably upgrade the Koralias to #2s or 3s.

 

Tracy

 

I'm definitely no expert on this and sometime I have to wonder if I just got lucky in controlling my cyano problem. I tried aiming my powerhead toward the front of the tank where I had cyano on the sand and that didn't work for me as well. It was nothing short of using the turkey baster and directly break the sandy clump apart and get them to flow through the overflow and down to the filter socks. One thing you can try is when you do your water change is to put the suction hose over that area of the sand and let it pull it out and down the drain. Another thing is to do a massive water change to see if that helps.

 

I have a Koralia 3 running in my 55 gal fresh water drum right now for my discus tank. I can let you borrow it if you like to see if that will also help before you buy one.

 

James

[zotzer]

 

I have a Koralia 3 running in my 55 gal fresh water drum right now for my discus tank. I can let you borrow it if you like to see if that will also help before you buy one.

 

James

 

That is so nice of you, James! I will let you know what I decide to do.

 

I worry about siphoning it off during a water change, as that siphon is pretty strong. I'd have no aragonite left! LOL Maybe I can find some more narrow tubing and try with that. For now, I just carefully suck it out with a turkey baster every other day.

 

Tracy

[jnguyen4007]

That is so nice of you, James! I will let you know what I decide to do.

 

I worry about siphoning it off during a water change, as that siphon is pretty strong. I'd have no aragonite left! LOL Maybe I can find some more narrow tubing and try with that. For now, I just carefully suck it out with a turkey baster every other day.

 

Tracy

 

I use a python to siphon. That long plastic intake helps steady my hand so that I can guide it down close enough to start pulling the stuff out of the sand. Some sand comes out along with the rest, but not enough to siphon a lot of sands out.

[albatross666]

This is what I did and it seemed to do the trick for me. I put a pair of filter socks on the two overflow pipes to my sump. I used a turkey baster and blasted around the rocks, walls, sandy bottom and corals to get the cyano to break loose and float around the tank. With the help of the submersible pump, I got as much as I could to flow through the overflow and down to the socks. I did that for a few days. On the day when I was ready to do my massive water change, I shut down the return pump, the skimmer and the heater. Took them out of the sump and cleaned them. I pulled loose chaeto that had cyano clinged to them and threw them away. Then I scrubbed down the walls of my sump as well as the bottom of it. After that, using the python, I drained out over 2/3 of my 20 gal sump along with all that nasty stuff that was floating around inside the sump. I also threw out the socks and replaced with a new pair. A few days later, I did another water change but only something like 25% of the sump's volume. In between my water changes, several times a day, I used the turkey baster to blast loose the cyano and let the filter socks capture them. After the first massive water change, I saw a dramatic improvement in my tank. For my 30 gal tank's size, it took couple of weeks for the problem to finally went away completely. Since then, I do a small amount of water changes weekly and also added a 25 W UV sterilizer. Not sure if the UV kills or control cyano as well, but I figure it doesn't hurt.

 

Good luck to you.

 

James

 

This seems to be a nice way to do it. I already have a 100 micron filter sock that I have never used. I will probably do this proccess this weekend.

 

Also, my filter sock says that it is washable and reusable. After this process, should i throw the sock away or can I clean it and save it for re-use later?

 

Thanks!

[jnguyen4007]

This seems to be a nice way to do it. I already have a 100 micron filter sock that I have never used. I will probably do this proccess this weekend.

 

Also, my filter sock says that it is washable and reusable. After this process, should i throw the sock away or can I clean it and save it for re-use later?

 

Thanks!

 

If it reusable, I don't see why not in cleaning it and reusing it later. I have one filter sock that came with something I bought a while back and it was reusable. I washed it and let it soaked in bleached water then rinsed really well. After that I rerinsed again in RO/DI water before I put it back to use. I stopped using it after I got the thicker filter socks from a large quantity that Brian Ward bought. The new one work much better than the reusable one that I had.