[edsaz]

Hi all
My tank is going through changes, i have had the brown algae on the sand for about a week and then that has gone, i then got a kind of purple candy floss on the sand which is still there, i now have some green appearing on several of the rocks which is obviously algae. I go to my local shop at least once a week and have a chat with the guy who works there and we discuss what is going on but he wasnt there this week so just bought my RO and missed out on the advice. So can anyone tell me what this purple candy floss stuff is and will it go of its own accord??? if not what do i need to put in the system to rid myself of it???

[Rhiannon*]

I can only guess its Cyanobacteria tho that smore of a sheet and a red wine colour. We realy do need pictures when trying to identify things .

[edsaz]

Rhiannon*, on 08 March 2010 - 02:03 PM, said:

I can only guess its Cyanobacteria tho that smore of a sheet and a red wine colour. We realy do need pictures when trying to identify things .

Yep that would be the stuff, i was told that this stuff would appear but dont know wether i need to do anything with it or just let it do its thing

[Rhiannon*]

You can gently syphon it out ,if it persists often its lack of flow in and around the tank .

[edsaz]

I tried siphoning but some of my substrate was getting siphoned up as well. I have a pair of 2000 litres per hour flow pumps/wavemakers running and the external cannister pump in a 180l tank, i thought this should be enough?? One of my pumps is angled so it agitates the surface, would i be better angling this down so the substrate gets a better flow? I could use the external pump return to agitate the surface, would this help???
Sorry to be a pain but what does this stuff feed on??? will development of green algae take away its food source??

[Rona]

Causes;
low flow
overfeeding
undiscovered death of a tank inhabitant
excess phosphates (using water or topoff that is high in phosphates)
poor water maintenance, poor nutrient export


Change feeding habits, many recommend every other day feeding, to reduce nitrates
Consider increasing water flow or redirecting flow to dead areas
Skim
Find the source of contamination and remove it
Increase the frequency of water changes
Siphon off the cyanobacteria to help reduce the load.
Change to RO/DI water if you are not using it to reduce phosphates
Consider adding a phosphate binding media insert.
You can consider reducing lighting but this is often of little help
Add cyano-eating livestock. Some cyano eaters include Mexican Red Leg Hermit Crabs, Astrea snails and Trochus snails.


I once recommended a product called Prodibio Bio-Digest to John6 who was suffering with this red carpet. After about a month, he said it had pretty much dissapeared from his tank. If it gets bad enough it is worth a try if the above ideas do not help.

[edsaz]

Thank you very much. My problem must be either low flow or overfeeding. I feed about 1/2 a cube of frozen food a day and have just 4 small fish and 3 shrimps, is this about right?
I dont have a high water flow over the substrate, it is all aimed at LR and surface movement, will change the angle of one of my flow pumps to get movement over substrate, hopefully that will help.

[Mr Black]

Do you defrost the food and rinse it before putting it in your tank? As the juice from frozen food can be very high in phosphates and Nitrates - which algaes feed on. I would also cut back to about 1/4 cube per day.

Secondly i think you need to up the flow in your tank, for your size tank i would suggest a minimum turnover of at least 20x per hour (3600lph) if your only planning on keeping soft corals, 20-30x turnover for LPS corals and 30-50x turnover for SPS corals.

More flow will also help get rid of the cyano.

Hope this helps

[edsaz]

Thanks Mr Black, i dont defrost the food before putting in tank so that could be the problem. I do have 4000 lph flow (pair of 2000lph pumps) plus the cannister filter but have today redirected the flow to create better circulation. What would you normally defrost the food in that is effective for removing the water, i thought a tea strainer would be ideal but dont own one, more of a coffee man myself.

[Rona]

Coffee girl here too!

I use a brine shrimp sieve in a tupperware tub that fits a treat.

Half fill the tub with RO or tank water, pop in the piece of food in the sieve, leave for 10 mins, lift, drain and serve!

[JFK]

edsaz, on 09 March 2010 - 06:45 PM, said:

What would you normally defrost the food in that is effective for removing the water, i thought a tea strainer would be ideal but dont own one, more of a coffee man myself.

I use a teas strainer and it works a treat, soak in RO first.

JFK

[edsaz]

Off to asda's in the morning then!!!! Have only put the lighting on for a few hours today and as mentioned redirected flow and it has begun to go already. Would an old halide bulb encourage algae growth??? dont know how old the bulb in my halide is but i do have a spare, i have heard that the light spectrum changes as they get older, is this correct??

[Rhiannon*]

Yes im afraid any old marine bulb/tube as it gets older shifts towarsds the red in the spectrum and algae love that .