black algae

i have black slime like algae growing on my sand and a few rocks. when i poke it bubbles come out and it comes off when i blow water on it. is it just cyno or somthing else and how do i kill it?

 

no matter what it is it can't be good, vaccum the area and but some flow on it, check all water paramiters with test kits and see if you can find the problem run a little avt carbon don't use chemicals until you have it under control, no water changes back off on the lights a little, hope this helps

 

i WOULD do water changes. Its probably Cyano which feeds off nitrates and phosphates. water changes will help keep these down. Also run some GFO in a reactor to bring the phosphate down to 0. i agree on putting morre flow in that area also.
you can siphon it out with water changes until it dies off.

 

i dont run gfo and cant. i dont have any powerheads. my phosphate is .25 and my nitrate is 20.

 

you technically dont have to run GFO in a reactor but it does make it more efficient.
you dont have any powerheads?

 

i have a marineland 350 hob filter on the side of the tank. i get good flow since its a 40 breeder.

 

you might need to add a powerhead to the tank if there is dead spots where the cyano is.
you can put the GFO in a bag in the HOB, its better than not running it at all.

 

:/ i have 3 powerheads in my 29g, i kept adding more until i didnt see any "dead" spots in the sides front or back of the tank, with a 40g salt i would definitely have at least one monster of a powerhead or two or three smaller ones....

if i were you i would just do a 10-15gallon water change, siphon that gunk out, and purchase a fighting conch and a few extra cerith snails to keep your sand bed turned over

 

i have around 25 nas snails for my sand bed. where the algae is growing isnt a dead spot.