Algae on my sand

[Leetch]

There's a spot on my sand that has some purplish algae growing on it. At first I thought it was coralline as it was the exact same color but thought it was weird because it was in the sand. Today I noticed it's become a little hairy. Is this Cyanobacteria? I haven't had a chance to test the water, specifically for phosphates but thought I'd ask around. If it is cyano, other than sucking it out what else do I need to do. I'll test the water tomorrow night for all parameters and post them.

[Leetch]

Did a few quick tests.

Nitrates 5
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Ph 8.4
Gravity 1.024 I don't have a refractometer
Temp 78

No phosphate kit so I can't tell until I get one tomorrow.

[Parrothead]

suck it out and add or rearrange existing powerheads to increase flow to that area of the tank

[twisted]

suck it out and add or rearrange existing powerheads to increase flow to that area of the tank

or do both

[Leetch]

Woke up this morning and the hair portion was gone. One of my crabs was upside down on the rock next to it holding his stomach so I think he ate it all . I'll have to get the powerheads to move some more flow that direction.

I'm not too familiar with cyano so I didn't know if it was just a flow thing or if there was some other water parameter or something that is the actual cause.

[Ninong]

Regarding cyanobacteria, I just clicked on the forum Reef Aquariums and then clicked on Search Forum, advanced search, to see how many times I have posted on cyanobacteria in this forum and it turns out I have exactly 111 posts on the topic. It will be 112 after I post this reply.

Some of those posts are very extensive and I hate having to repeat them but I think you would find them informative. Suffice it to say that there are several potential sources that can contribute to the formation of noticeable cyanobacteria: degraded lighting, inadequate water flow over the problem area, excessive nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) and other unknown water deficiencies. The recommended methods of dealing with cyanobacteria include replacing lamps (bulbs), if appropriate, increasing water flow aimed directly at the problem area in order to disrupt the strands, manually removing most of it if possible and practical, and taking steps to reduce nitrate and phosphate. One method to reduce phosphate is to run an iron oxide phosphate adsorbing/absorbing media in a mesh bag in your sump (or canister filter).

None of the commercial magic potions sold to eliminate cyanobacteria do anything to correct the cause of the problem. All they do is temporarily eliminate the symptoms. At least you hope that's all they do because sometimes they do a lot more and it's not pretty. That applies to almost all of the magic potion remedies. Misuse of them can be very, very unfortunate.

Cyanobacteria is perfectly normal and not a bad thing at all. It's just when it takes over and becomes noticeable that steps have to be taken to get it back under control.

[Leetch]

Regarding cyanobacteria, I just clicked on the forum Reef Aquariums and then clicked on Search Forum, advanced search, to see how many times I have posted on cyanobacteria in this forum and it turns out I have exactly 111 posts on the topic. It will be 112 after I post this reply.

Some of those posts are very extensive and I hate having to repeat them but I think you would find them informative. Suffice it to say that there are several potential sources that can contribute to the formation of noticeable cyanobacteria: degraded lighting, inadequate water flow over the problem area, excessive nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) and other unknown water deficiencies. The recommended methods of dealing with cyanobacteria include replacing lamps (bulbs), if appropriate, increasing water flow aimed directly at the problem area in order to disrupt the strands, manually removing most of it if possible and practical, and taking steps to reduce nitrate and phosphate. One method to reduce phosphate is to run an iron oxide phosphate adsorbing/absorbing media in a mesh bag in your sump (or canister filter).

None of the commercial magic potions sold to eliminate cyanobacteria do anything to correct the cause of the problem. All they do is temporarily eliminate the symptoms. At least you hope that's all they do because sometimes they do a lot more and it's not pretty. That applies to almost all of the magic potion remedies. Misuse of them can be very, very unfortunate.

Cyanobacteria is perfectly normal and not a bad thing at all. It's just when it takes over and becomes noticeable that steps have to be taken to get it back under control.

Thanks Nin - I actually did a search before I posted and I came up with 17 pages of posts, none of which had Cyano in the title nor seemed related. Maybe I mispelled it when I typed it in.

I appreciate the response, it's hard being new to the hobby because everything you see is new and you can't tell if it's a problem or not. I feel fortunate to have a community like this built to help answer those questions and appreciate the fast responses from everyone.

BTW, anyone want a 6 inch long bristleworm? It scared the crap outta me when I first saw it then realized what it was. My wife thought the Loch Ness monster relocated to our tank

[Ninong]

Thanks Nin - I actually did a search before I posted and I came up with 17 pages of posts, none of which had Cyano in the title nor seemed related. Maybe I mispelled it when I typed it in.

I didn't search for threads that had the word cyanobacteria in the title. I searched for individual posts that I personally wrote that had the word cyanobacteria in them in this particular forum, Reef Aquariums.

I went here first: Forum: Reef Aquariums.

Then I moved over to the right side of the page and clicked on Search Forums, advanced search. I then typed in the keyword cyanobacteria and the user name Ninong. That's because I just wanted to see what I had written. Then I clicked down to the bottom of the page where I can choose either threads or posts. If I choose threads and then click search, I get 74 different threads in which I wrote something about cyanobacteria. When I chose posts, I got 111 different posts in which I had mentioned cyanobacteria.

Try again. If you leave the user name blank, you will get even more results. I was just looking for what I had written, not what everyone on the board had written.



P.S. -- I have no idea how many results you will get if you look for the word cyanobacteria in the title of the thread. I never look for anything to be included in the title of a thread because so many people bring up issues that are not mentioned in the thread title. Also, a lot of people who are asking for help with cyanobacteria call it "red slime algae," or something similar.

P.P.S. -- I just ran a search using the word cyanobacteria and leaving the user name blank and came up with 339 posts that mention cyanobacteria (17 pages worth). So that's what you got. I can tell you that every time I mentioned cyanobacteria (111 posts) it was in response to someone asking about it.

[Ninong]

Here's a post that I put up on cyanobacteria back in July 2002.

The only thing I would add to that is that even though nitrogen is the limiting nutrient, phosphate can be used as a way to control cyanobacteria because without adequate phosphate, cyanobacteria is unable to complete a vital step in the photosynthesis process that is a necessary part of its survival. Therefore, controlling phosphate with iron oxide adsorbing media is an important part in the battle against cyanobacteria.

Oh, and I no longer subscribe to the position that it can be classified as either blue-green algae or cyanobacteria. Only hardcore botanists still cling to the idea that cyanobacteria is blue-green algae.


That's the new three-domain system from 1990. Even if you go back to the old five-domain system, cyanobacteria was always in Monera (bacteria), it was never in Plantae (plants). It has been bacteria for at least the last four or five decades but some botanists must be using texts from the 19th century.