(video up pg2)resolved - brown hair slimey tank take over.

quick background :

have to fish, white cheek tang and pink face wrasse, no coral yet, i use instant ocean reef crystals, with 0 TDS ro/di water, 50 LBS liverock, 80 LBS sand bed, reef octopus SSS 1000 skimmer, all lit by a single Radion. tank is three months old. i feed lightly, but frequently to prevent any agression.

BUT i have a pretty nasty algae issue, i adjusted my lighting cycle, and increased my water change frequency and volume, and orderd a BRS duel media reactor with their HC GFO, and ROX 0.8 carbon. thatll be here friday-ish.

i did a 15G waterchange on sunday, and im currently making a nother 15g to do one tomorrow, and ill change out a nother 15g on sunday again.

PH 8.1
SG 1.024
temp 80.2
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate was 5-10ish, 0 now after WC

so anyways im making this thread as sorta a trial and error thing, ill show you what i did/am doing to combat and prevent future outbreaks, and looking for advice from anyone whos delt with this before, thanks for checking it out

-billie

 

looks like cyanobacteria to me... have you tried blacking out the tank?

 

+1 SnooknRedz a few days of total blackout and you should see improvement however you may need to change your feeding habits..


E

 

If i was in your shoes, black out the tank tomorrow, and when your reactors come in, and you got em plumbed, turn em back on.

Siphon off as much as the matted growth as you possibly can, and like E said. less feeding.

If you feed frozen cubes of anything. Rinse it off to get the binder and filler they freeze to away. I use a net folded over itsefl for my shrimp, and let water trickle over it. Take a paper towel and dab it. The shrimp will stick to the towel and im left with just the shrimp, no nasty frozen shrimp water.

 

+3 for cyano.

 

cyano is red is it not? this stuff is brown in person, but ill shut the lights off for a few days. the only reason im feeding like i do is becuase wehn i was deciding on what types of fish to have i read Evolved thread about wrasse and how you have to feed them 3-5 times a day. ill reduce my feedings to the seaweed sheet in the morning, and then the flakes or frozen food, or shrinp at night. rotating nights. thanks for the help, ill keep you updated

 

It can be red, purplish, or even a dark rust color like what youve got. just depends. Its def cyano i battled it in my 20 for a while. i know the stuff.

You dont have to skip feedings just get your self a turkey baster and target feed. Ive heard of ppl doing this and their fish just come up to the nipple, ready for a feast! It gives you more direct feeding to each fish.

 

heres a dumb question.

i turned my lights for the tank off, is that enuff or should i keep the rooms light off too?

 

Youve got cyano, bro. I hate that crap with passion! Ive had the same problem as others before and I kicked it!

Ok cyanos need phosphates and/or nitrates to survive and doesnt need much. Phosphates or nitrates were never detectable with API kit in my case. Cutting off the light didnt really work for me either, because youd have to find and cut the source of the nutrients that is feeding them. Just need to help the beneficial bacteria to catch up to beat cyanobacteria.

Here is what I did/used:
-Microbactor7 (or similar product) dose every few days
-siphon it out with aggressive water change. 5%~ everyday until cyano starts to dissipate.
-limit feeding big time. Like half a cube every other day (what fish eat has to come down and every food has phosphate. Majority still comes out as poop. They dont just disappear.)
-Biopellets

You might wanna PM dowtish as well. He's very knowledgeable on cyano. Here's the thank you dowtish thread by other member

 

ok ill feed once every other day. i just got my GFO/Carbon reactor today, and the media for it will show up on Friday. From what Ive read GFO removes phosphates, and i got BRS's premium GFO, so hopefully that helps. im doing 15 gallon water changes every Sunday and Wednesday. i just siphoned out everything that was on the sand bed, looks a gazillion times better already.

im not getting super bummed out over this stuff, not yet at least. new tanks go through algae blooms, it happens, nothing i can do about it now except learn from it and prevent it from happening again.

now when $60 worth of salt for WCs, and $200 bucks for reactors and media doesn't fix it, in addition to reduced feedings and not using my $750 light doesn't fix it, then ill be really upset, but til then, no worry.

keep my tank in your thoughts and prayers, and we'll get through this, together.