[oceanreef]

I have a 75 gal reef and fish salt tank.Lighting is perfect,420 watts.All water traces are perfect except nitrates...Working on that doing frequent water changes, and water flow is perfect.One power head maxi-jet 1200, andother 800 and a 600....A very good prizim skimmer deluxe,But I am seeing traces of red algea,what is this caused from and how do I get rid of this..Thanks board for all the info I can get. Oceanreef.

[zhenya]

What exactly does it look like? Is it a slime type or macro? Where is it mostly appearing-rocks or sand? The slime type is actually a cyanobacteria and not an algae,if it's a macro type,then the pic would be very helpful.

[oceanreef]

Zhenya ,the red junk is on the rock and slightly on the sand.It started when I added live sand to my regular sand bed.

[zhenya]

From your description it sounds like cyanobacteria,wich could have started when you put some live sand on top of your old sand bed. Changing to a more efficient skimmer and maybe adding a refugium to control your nitrates, will help reduce amount of disolved nutrients in a water column that feed cyano bacteria.
It might just go away on its own after the bloom,but I wouldn't chance it and try to do larger water exchanges couple of times.I know that fighting conchs(Strombus alatus)eat that stuff and if you can get one or two,it might help as well. I had something similar when I added more live sand and my strombus snails did help alot(together with good skimming and water changes).During water changes(assuming we talking about cyano) I syphon all I could get before adding new water.
One more question, does it form sort of like a mat on rocks and sand?If yes,I think it is a cyano.
Good luck!

[oceanreef]

Zhenya,Thanks for the info,yes the red algea does form a mat on the rock and sand.I just bought a prizim delux protien skimmer so hopefully it will do the job .Thanks again Oceanreef.

[DTR]

I had Red Algea growing on my rocks and Coral bed! I Lowered my Nitrates, With Water Changes, Changed my light Bulbs and added some more hermet crabs and some turbo snells, and put E.M. Tablets. Product No. 55A. ERYTHROMYCIN 200mg. and the Red Algea was Gone in 1 Week.

You will need to turn your Protien Skimmer off and Remove Activated Carbon from Filter Dearing Treatment. Turn your Protien Skimmer back on after Treatment!

I think the Red Algea started because my light Bulbs was over a year old. Because I have not added any New things in my tank for over a Year, And my Tank is 10 years old, One thing I have learned Is, Stay on Top of your tank (We All Get A Little Bit Lazy Sometimes) and Keep a LOG Book on Every Thing. And Really make sure your TEST KIT is Good. I compare my Tests with My Local Pet Shop 1 Time a Month.

Hope this will HELP.

[RossandMandyProject]

I was just reding this post and was wondering if that is what I have in my aquarium. I have a crushed coral bed and it is getting a brown coat of "Stuff" on it. I have had m tank running for 2 weeks and no fish just a few big snails in it. It is 150 gallon fish only tank with about 150 lbs. of live rock and 2 magnum 350 undertank filters. i was thinking about a few hermit crabs and some turbo snailes hoping that would take care of it. anybody else have any advice????

[Samper]

Ross, if I'm reading this correctly and your tank has only been setup about 2 weeks you are right on schedule to start seeing some algae form. This is normal and should go away as your aquarium establishes itself. The algae these guys are talking about is thick like carpet and covers everything.

[Samper]

Thought I'd go a little deeper and explain as well as I can what's happening.

The "brown stuff" you mentioned is called a diatom bloom. It's perfectly natural when starting out a new aquarium. Sometimes people don't get it but most do within a few weeks of being setup. Mine went away after about a week but I've read it can stick around for a few months. Change your water and carbon on schedule and it should sort itself out. You could also try using shorter light cycle for a little bit and that might help.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by RossandMandyProject

I was just reding this post and was wondering if that is what I have in my aquarium.

If your tank has been set up for only a couple of weeks, what you are seeing is diatoms. They should be gone within two weeks, more or less. That's the good news. The bad news is that you might get cyanobacteria just as your diatom bloom subsides. And following the cyanobacteria, you might get hair algae.

I have a crushed coral bed and it is getting a brown coat of "Stuff" on it.

I am not a big fan of crushed coral substrates for reef tanks. IMO they are nothing more than nutrient sinks and detritus traps. Very shallow (1cm) crushed coral substrates are often used in German tanks but IMO they add nothing to the overall ecosystem and require constant maintenance.

Do a search on any of the boards for "crushed coral" and you will get tons of information or at least opinions.

I have had m tank running for 2 weeks and no fish just a few big snails in it. It is 150 gallon fish only tank with about 150 lbs. of live rock and 2 magnum 350 undertank filters. i was thinking about a few hermit crabs and some turbo snailes hoping that would take care of it. anybody else have any advice????

A lot depends on whether you intend to keep this as a fish-only tank or eventually add corals and turn it into a reef tank. If it is to remain a fish-only tank, you will have to know in advance which species of fish you expect to keep because that will affect (limit) your options when it comes to hermit crabs and molluscs.

My advice -- FWIW -- would be to remove the crushed coral substrate entirely and replace it with a sand bed composed primarily of fine grain aragonite sand to a depth of at least 3". This will not only benefit your maintenance of the water quality of your system but it will greatly expand the options available to you in the selection of both fish and invertebrates.

I hesitate to offer you any specific advice on what to add in the way of a cleanup crew at this point because most of the animals that I am fond of require a sand bed.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by DTR

I think the Red Algea started because my light Bulbs was over a year old. Because I have not added any New things in my tank for over a Year, And my Tank is 10 years old,...

Hi DTR, welcome to Reefland!

I agree with your assumption about the probable cause of your cyanobacteria. You may be interested in this January 2002 thread on Reef Central in which we discussed cyanobacteria: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hlight=billion

[Samper]

I too agree with Ninong about the crushed coral. I was running a crushed coral bed on top of an UGF. When I removed the UGF there was about an inch of nasty black/brown smelly junk under it, most likely the cause of my cyano that I was developing. I just changed that junk out with a bare bottom setup and 2 more maxi jet 1200's. I'm not sure what my turnover is but today I'm gonna sit down and figure that out. Anyway I built stilts for my liverock out of pvc. Now with the barebottom all my waste collects in the front right square of the stilts and I can simply vacuum it out once a week. The cyano is still in my system but can't take over anymore with the flow I've got.

[RossandMandyProject]

thank you for the advice. I will have to check into getting some sand. I checked with the LFS and they have never heard of a sand only bed, that is the calibur of people that I have to deal with here. I am going on-line today and checking out a places that I can order sand. If you have any advice for crabs, invert's, etc. that would work for cleaning up that stuff when it spores and I have the sand bed in place let me know. I really appreciate all the avice that you guys are giving me and I hope that someday I can return the favor. Ross

[Samper]

Your best bet is to go to Lowes or Home depot and get play sand. Much cheaper than ordering a ton of sand online. All you have to do then is find a few websites to order your live sand. A few sites even offer the bacteria packages as well as some critters to go in it so you can make your own live sand. I've been told in the past to get about a pound of live sand from as many different people as possible to add to your sandbed diversity. Ninong advised me to check out their sandbed before getting any sand from them. You'll know a healthy sandbed when you see one.

Start here to learn all you can about it before you make your decision.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/livesandjaubertsetups/

[Ninong]

Ross,

Unfortunately you won't be able to find any "Tropical" Play Sand (aragonite) at any home improvement stores in your area. It is possible to use regular play sand (quartz sand) for a marine aquarium but it is not something I would be interested in doing.

Most LFS carry the various Carib-Sea aragonite products or you could order oolitic sand online from ESV in Brooklyn http://www.esvco.com/prod5.html or you could order sugar sized aragonite from Pure Aragonite http://www.purearagonite.com/

Interesting reading on sand beds: http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog...ek_090698.html
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-0...ture/index.htm
http://www.dtplankton.com/sandbeds.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/200208060.../1/default.asp
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/rs/index.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-03/rs/index.htm
http://www.seabay.org/art_plenums_part1.htm
http://www.seabay.org/art_plenums_part2.htm