Help identify this wierd algae

rpogge · 05/13/2007, 10:22 AM

Im getting this black/very dark grey algae, its stringy, but almost feathery lookign in some places, and it grows in almost a web-like structutre as it gets bigger. It got over 12 inches long in places, and a couple strings of it went almost the whole length of my tank.

Ive looked all over the net, and found all kinds of pictures of hair/beard/string algae, cyanobacteria and the likes but nothign realy looks like it to me, so I took some pictures hoping someone could help me:

It does kind of look liek Cyano on the sand right now, but its only a day old at this point, in a few days it will probably be like a foot long, if I havent gotten an answer by then ill post more pics then!

I had my tank establised for a while as just a marine tank with no LR. THis stuff took over, and I wanted to do a reef tank anyway so I started over, drained all my water, moved all creatures to a different tank, added some LiveRock and all new RO water and started cycling the new tank with just the LR. Its been about 2 weeks, and its going as expected, brown diatoms just starting to break out, which is fine, but yesterday I noticed this black feathery stuff starting to grow back again. Its driving me nuts, I need to know what it is and how to get rid of it.

*by the way the first time it broke out before I redid the whole tank my nitrate/nitrite/phosphate were undetectable levels near zero.

My stats
55 gal, T5 HO 2x54W-Dual Daylight / 2x54W-Dual Actinic
skimmer, mech filter.
RO water + Instant Ocean salt
I have only added a tiny bit of buffer, and calcium so far.
PH is 8.2
SG 1.025
no phosphates
no amonia
nitrite and nitrate are skyhigh but thats expected - and am doing daily water changes around 20%.
temp is 78
DKH is a little high at the moment at 17 or 18, but that shoudl be down soon with a few more water changes, I just added a bit too much buffer when I did a water change one day. calcium is 300+. Im doing lights about 3 hours a day right now.

This stuff is driving me crazy. Help!

Ryan

Sk8r · 05/13/2007, 10:32 AM

That looks like cyanobacteria---note the bacteria part. It's not an algae. It's otherwise called red slime, but I'm suspecting it's the spectrum of your lighting that's changing the color. You may start to see bubbles in it.

It's a symptom of a stagnant area, for one thing: not enough flow: it's pretty well independent of water conditions, but yours, forgive me, are pretty bad. This stuff is prehistoric, and survived the dino meteor strike, so while fixing your water is a great step for starters, you're going to have to change the flow, get a sea swirl or other motion generator, and ram flow through the tank. There are antibacterial solutions to this [chemiclean] but it's lethal to your good bacteria, which are under enough stress with the water conditions as they are.

Just a note: you might check your magnesium levels: your mg should be at 1200-1500 to hold your calcium and alk up---if you're having to add buffer a lot [hence the overaddition] and your calcium won't stay up, it's almost certain that the third member of the triad, magnesium, is not in sufficient supply to let the cal and alk stay at the desired levels. DON"T, however, add it until you get that alk way down---you don't want to stabilize it at 17 or 18: 8.3 is a much better figure! Your cal ought to be at 400-420.

rpogge · 05/13/2007, 10:49 AM

can cyanobacteria grow 2 feet long? because thats how long it got before! yes It did get bubbles in it last time, and smelled REALY bad wen I scooped it out. Very sour smelling.

I do have 2 powerheads moving water, I thought I had pretty good flow. Is that not enough for a 55gal ?

rpogge · 05/15/2007, 04:36 PM

OK
55 gallon
2 AQ30 powerheads, Maxijet1200 on a remora hang on skim, and a penguin 350 biowheel hang on.
Started cycling with live rock, agra-alive sand 2.5 weeks ago.
40 pounds of sand, 60 pounds of rock
just added 10 snails to try and get the brown stuff, they are not realy eatting it though, or else its just growing back too fast.

SG: 1.025
PH: 8.3
KH: 11
CA: 240 (dosing with reefchem ca) was at 150ish 4 days ago.
phosphate: 0
Amonia: 0
Nitrite: almost undetectable, way below 0.1
Nitrate: 0 ? test shows 0, I just did 50% H20 change yesterday so its possible.
Temp : 80 degrees
Lights 0 through most of cycling, started 1 hour a day 4 days ago, up to 4 hours a day now.

Pics:

see how feathery it looks???:

even my snail is suffering from it

Icefire · 05/15/2007, 04:52 PM

Got the same thing, I'll try maracyn

rpogge · 05/15/2007, 05:16 PM

Yeah, peopel keep tellign me on other forums though, NOT to use chemicals. they said increase water flow, make nitrates and phosphate 0. and get hermit crabs. ... then just be patient. I guess I believe them LOL.

Everyone confirms its Cyano also..

Silverfin · 05/15/2007, 05:25 PM

looks like Cyanobacteria....

Wuhssie · 05/15/2007, 06:27 PM

up your flow, do a water change and that should help remove that stuff..

rpogge · 05/15/2007, 07:01 PM

Whats the best way to orient power heads in the tank? I have read several, oposit ends of tank one front one back to create a circular flow, also I have read point them UP to agitate the surface, and i have seen em point straight down at the rock/sand. Whats best?

Thanks,
Ryan

frederickk · 05/15/2007, 07:57 PM

MAybe not straight over your sand bed as you will get a very good storm there. You can either have it sitting on the sand bed to get the lower part of your tank.

John99 · 05/15/2007, 08:12 PM

Get chemiclean Red slime eliminator. Got rid of mine in a day. There havent been any sideeffects what so ever. Id reccomend it

rpogge · 05/16/2007, 05:20 PM

I got some chemiclean today. we will see. unfortunatly I think its actualy dino not cyano ... so I might just start the tank over and toss everything, I dont feel liek spending months fighting dino on an empty tank.

makes me want to cry

rpogge · 05/17/2007, 06:51 PM

Dinoflagellates?

05/13/2007, 10:22 AM	#1
rpogge Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 9	Help identify this wierd algae Im getting this black/very dark grey algae, its stringy, but almost feathery lookign in some places, and it grows in almost a web-like structutre as it gets bigger. It got over 12 inches long in places, and a couple strings of it went almost the whole length of my tank. Ive looked all over the net, and found all kinds of pictures of hair/beard/string algae, cyanobacteria and the likes but nothign realy looks like it to me, so I took some pictures hoping someone could help me: It does kind of look liek Cyano on the sand right now, but its only a day old at this point, in a few days it will probably be like a foot long, if I havent gotten an answer by then ill post more pics then! I had my tank establised for a while as just a marine tank with no LR. THis stuff took over, and I wanted to do a reef tank anyway so I started over, drained all my water, moved all creatures to a different tank, added some LiveRock and all new RO water and started cycling the new tank with just the LR. Its been about 2 weeks, and its going as expected, brown diatoms just starting to break out, which is fine, but yesterday I noticed this black feathery stuff starting to grow back again. Its driving me nuts, I need to know what it is and how to get rid of it. *by the way the first time it broke out before I redid the whole tank my nitrate/nitrite/phosphate were undetectable levels near zero. My stats 55 gal, T5 HO 2x54W-Dual Daylight / 2x54W-Dual Actinic skimmer, mech filter. RO water + Instant Ocean salt I have only added a tiny bit of buffer, and calcium so far. PH is 8.2 SG 1.025 no phosphates no amonia nitrite and nitrate are skyhigh but thats expected - and am doing daily water changes around 20%. temp is 78 DKH is a little high at the moment at 17 or 18, but that shoudl be down soon with a few more water changes, I just added a bit too much buffer when I did a water change one day. calcium is 300+. Im doing lights about 3 hours a day right now. This stuff is driving me crazy. Help! Ryan

05/13/2007, 10:32 AM	#2
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	That looks like cyanobacteria---note the bacteria part. It's not an algae. It's otherwise called red slime, but I'm suspecting it's the spectrum of your lighting that's changing the color. You may start to see bubbles in it. It's a symptom of a stagnant area, for one thing: not enough flow: it's pretty well independent of water conditions, but yours, forgive me, are pretty bad. This stuff is prehistoric, and survived the dino meteor strike, so while fixing your water is a great step for starters, you're going to have to change the flow, get a sea swirl or other motion generator, and ram flow through the tank. There are antibacterial solutions to this [chemiclean] but it's lethal to your good bacteria, which are under enough stress with the water conditions as they are. Just a note: you might check your magnesium levels: your mg should be at 1200-1500 to hold your calcium and alk up---if you're having to add buffer a lot [hence the overaddition] and your calcium won't stay up, it's almost certain that the third member of the triad, magnesium, is not in sufficient supply to let the cal and alk stay at the desired levels. DON"T, however, add it until you get that alk way down---you don't want to stabilize it at 17 or 18: 8.3 is a much better figure! Your cal ought to be at 400-420. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

05/15/2007, 04:52 PM	#5
Icefire Seasoned reefer Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: In Quebec, Canada Posts: 3,653	Got the same thing, I'll try maracyn __________________ Temp 80F, PH 8.5-8.0, Alk 6.8-7.2, Ca 430, Mg 1700, NO3 0-0.25, PO4 0.04, 34.4 PPT Lights @ 100% all others, 35% White Current Tank Info: 60g Cube, 120lbs live rocks, Hydra52 2x120W, 2 MP40+ 1 MP10 @ 70%, Phosban 550 GFO+Carbon, 200W Heater, SWC Skimmer, Kalk ATO, 150 gpd RODI

05/15/2007, 05:25 PM	#7
Silverfin Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Brentwood, California Posts: 224	looks like Cyanobacteria.... __________________ Arrested Person:"I swear to drunk i am not God." Current Tank Info: Family 210gal reef, 30gal frag,

05/13/2007, 10:49 AM	#3
rpogge Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 9	can cyanobacteria grow 2 feet long? because thats how long it got before! yes It did get bubbles in it last time, and smelled REALY bad wen I scooped it out. Very sour smelling. I do have 2 powerheads moving water, I thought I had pretty good flow. Is that not enough for a 55gal ?

05/15/2007, 04:36 PM	#4
rpogge Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 9	OK 55 gallon 2 AQ30 powerheads, Maxijet1200 on a remora hang on skim, and a penguin 350 biowheel hang on. Started cycling with live rock, agra-alive sand 2.5 weeks ago. 40 pounds of sand, 60 pounds of rock just added 10 snails to try and get the brown stuff, they are not realy eatting it though, or else its just growing back too fast. SG: 1.025 PH: 8.3 KH: 11 CA: 240 (dosing with reefchem ca) was at 150ish 4 days ago. phosphate: 0 Amonia: 0 Nitrite: almost undetectable, way below 0.1 Nitrate: 0 ? test shows 0, I just did 50% H20 change yesterday so its possible. Temp : 80 degrees Lights 0 through most of cycling, started 1 hour a day 4 days ago, up to 4 hours a day now. Pics: see how feathery it looks???: even my snail is suffering from it

05/15/2007, 05:16 PM	#6
rpogge Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 9	Yeah, peopel keep tellign me on other forums though, NOT to use chemicals. they said increase water flow, make nitrates and phosphate 0. and get hermit crabs. ... then just be patient. I guess I believe them LOL. Everyone confirms its Cyano also..

05/15/2007, 06:27 PM	#8
Wuhssie Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: in my biocube29 :) Posts: 62	up your flow, do a water change and that should help remove that stuff..

05/15/2007, 07:01 PM	#9
rpogge Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 9	Whats the best way to orient power heads in the tank? I have read several, oposit ends of tank one front one back to create a circular flow, also I have read point them UP to agitate the surface, and i have seen em point straight down at the rock/sand. Whats best? Thanks, Ryan

05/15/2007, 07:57 PM	#10
frederickk Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 2,712	MAybe not straight over your sand bed as you will get a very good storm there. You can either have it sitting on the sand bed to get the lower part of your tank.

05/15/2007, 08:12 PM	#11
John99 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 149	Get chemiclean Red slime eliminator. Got rid of mine in a day. There havent been any sideeffects what so ever. Id reccomend it

05/16/2007, 05:20 PM	#12
rpogge Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 9	I got some chemiclean today. we will see. unfortunatly I think its actualy dino not cyano ... so I might just start the tank over and toss everything, I dont feel liek spending months fighting dino on an empty tank. makes me want to cry

05/17/2007, 06:51 PM	#13
rpogge Registered Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 9	Dinoflagellates?