What is this?

Discussion in 'Algae' started by Grant, Jan 26, 2010.

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  1. Grant

    Grant Feather Duster

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    St Louis, MO
    I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what is covering my sand. I've read extensively about dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria, diatoms, ect. and still can't diagnose what it is that I have. The problem doesn't look aweful in the pics because I recently manually removed alot of this stuff. But, now it's coming back. A little help would be greatly appreciated.

    The details of the "stuff":
    it looks a brownish color to me. In some spots i see little air bubbles, but not in most of it. It doesn't seem to be reaching up, as i've seen in most pics of dino. it is only present on my sand. when i try to manually remove it, it seems to stick together a little bit. I have noticed no ill effects from my fish, corals, hermits, emerald crab, snails, or my clam. none of my cuc seems to touch it. Cutting back feeding doesn't seem to help. About a month ago I started using carbon and phosguard in a media bag and that seems to slow, but not stop this stuff.

    My tank:
    5+ years old, 90 gallon, 20 sump, AquaC EV180 skimmer, 2-250w 14K, 2-96w pc actinics, 3 koralia 3's, mag 9.5 return, carbon in media bag (started 1 month ago), phosguard in media bag (started 1 month ago), pc's on 11 hours, halides on 8 hours

    My chemistry:
    Alk 9.15, Cal 430, Mg 1350, Nit 5, Phos 0 (but I'm looking for a higher end test kit here), Temp 77-78, Sg 1.022 (bringing that up now)

    Any thoughts?
     

    Attached Files:

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  3. NeighborTomita

    NeighborTomita Banned

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    Looks like cyanobacteria..
     
  4. kcbrad

    kcbrad Giant Squid

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    what makes you think it's not cyano?
     
  5. NeighborTomita

    NeighborTomita Banned

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    :confused: Kacy, was that a serious question?
     
  6. kcbrad

    kcbrad Giant Squid

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    LOL he said he doesn't think it's cyano, so I was asking why!!
     
  7. NeighborTomita

    NeighborTomita Banned

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    Ohh, you said "what makes you think it's NOT cyano" so I was a little bit confused ;D.


    This is why I think it's cyano, looks exactly like what is on his sandbed, but not as bad -

    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Grant

    Grant Feather Duster

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    I've seen no ill effects from my livestock. I've read that cyano often causes the death of livestock? is this not true? It also doesn't grow on my rock or glass at all. The bubbles make me think dinos.
     
  10. Grant

    Grant Feather Duster

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    I've seen that pic before and i agree that is very similar to what i've been manually removing. I'm confused by the bubbles.
     
  11. NeighborTomita

    NeighborTomita Banned

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    Dino will be literally everywhere, cyano usually stays near the bottom/sand area....Usually, not all the time.
     
  12. kcbrad

    kcbrad Giant Squid

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    Also if it kind of comes off in sheets, that usually indicated cyano.