coraline algae on sandbed

[tricky23]

dont know how to explain and dont know how to attach photo but my sandbed is starting to turn reddish just wondering could it be early stage coraline algae.does that grow on sand tooo?tanks been running 4 about 6 month now and it looks like same color on glass just below sand bed ..that red green color ..water is good..any ideas?

[panther28]

I think it could by cyanobacteria.

[currentking]

get an account with photobucket.com. put your pics there then you can paste them here.

[funman1]

Sounds like cyano to me too,
but I don't see any reason coraline couldn't grow on sand?

[leebo_28]

as everybody said , sounds like cyanobacteria. Increase your flow and cut back on feeding. Do you have a sump?

[fry_school101]

Cyno. Better flow, cut back on feeding a little. There is an article (I think last months issue) on cutting your light for three days and then running blues only for a day. It did wonders for my tank. It won't eliminate the problem, but it will let things recover a little while you correct it.

[teena]

will your corals be ok with out light for that long?

[N8ster]

Just get a big chunk of sand, and try to scrub the red off. If it comes off easy, it is cyano. If it doens't come off, it is probably coralline. I get some of the green coralline on my sand in places where it doesn't get stirred up very often.

[corals b 4 bills]

yes it could be coraline, I was having the same thing happen to me, my reactor was cranked up too high and it started to turn it individual grain of sand pink (not cyno) so once I fixed the problem it stopped, are you running co2?

[tricky23]

i have a 120 mixed tank with a 20 sump/reugium asm g2 skimmer ,uv light,with 2 aqua 70 with that hydro rotating tips.well i'm not running co2 so that cant be it..only thing is recently started giving more brine shrimp cause my ish look a little thin i started giving 2 cubes every other day instead o one..but i dont see why that would be a problem cause nitrate level is about 5 to maybe ten on those quick test strip made by jungle and test nearly zero on api tests..oh ..i'm only runninnig about 350 watts..2 150hqi 14k and 56watts t5 ..but isnt cyano part o beginnig cycle?i dont know but it does really look like that green reddish thing u can see right under sandbed growing on the glass..thank 4 all the help guys and sorry 4 this long post..and u dont know by know one letter on my keyboard doest work so bare with me ...thanks

[corals b 4 bills]

O.K. first off junk the test strips because they aren't accurate, second you are having a cyno problem, you have far too much phosphates in your system, feed just enough food to your fish to keep them alive for awhile, increase the flow in the tank-your powerheads are inadequate, invest $70. in a phosban reactor and add cheato to the system and your problems will be solved. buy decent test kits like salefert. The powerheads you are using are old school hagen 802's they put out 400 gph each on a 120, you need to be banging out at least 7,000 gph to pick up the debris off the ocean floor and help with getting the mucus off the corals, change these out and you will notice a dramatic change in your tank, how about some maxijet 1200's and mod them out?

[tricky23]

well thats sounds like a plan..by the way i do have a phosban and cheato so i guess my problem gotta be circulation,,,i will work on that and thank guys