Brown slime algae

[bucky1168]

Ok. I am having a problem with this brown slime looking algae. I have had it for about 3 weeks and can't seem to get rid of it. It will start to get better then come back again. I have cut back on food, added a power head for water movement. My skimmer seems to be skimming fine. My filter seems to be working good. I only have 5 small fish in a 46 gal tank. Ammonia 0, Phosphates 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, PH 8.2, SG 1.024. Algae seems to be mainly on the rock and not the sand. Water movement seems to be fine. I also have 15 hermit crabs and about 20 snails. (scratch) Any suggestions???

[vanz]

Maybe increase more flow? MJ900 isn't much for the size of your tank.

[bucky1168]

Does it help if the output nozzle of the filter is on the other side? The Maxi Jet is on the left side pointed about 45 degrees into the tank, about 3 inches down. The output nozzle is on the right side pointed 45 dgrees into the tank, about 3 inches down also. Sorry, I should have mentioned this in the first thread.DOH! By the way, does anyone know what kind of algae this is??

[DChemist]

Can you please post photos of the algae?

[bucky1168]

I will but I will have to take them tomorrow when the lights are back on. Thanks for the help.

[pledosophy]

How long has the tank been setup? New tanks often suffer from diatom algae outbreaks. It has to run it's course to pass.

A pic would be helpful

[bucky1168]

Here are some pics. For some reason, it is kind of hard to see the slimey algae next to the purple coraline algae.. The tank has been up for about 3 months. It went through a cycle where the diatom algae was thick and it lasted about 2-3 weeks. Then it cleared up where the sand, rock, and tank was clear and looked great. Then just this last month, this slimey stuff came in and hasn't left. It looks different than the algae it had when I first set it up. Also, since this stuff has shown up, there are a bunch of particles floating around the tank. Oh, almost forgot, I switched to using RO water 3 weeks ago. Any suggestions would help. Thanks

[pledosophy]

Looks like cyano bacteria from here.

48 hours or so with no light hitting the tank will kill it. There are also products like chem clean that kill it in a given period of time.

It comes from excessive nutrients and poor nutrient export. It also tends to do best inb lower flows IME.

Switching to the RODI will help but you need to improve your overall husbandry to get it to go away completely.

If I were in your shoes I'd keep the lights off for a few days then do a large water change. If the cyanobacteria returns after that then you will need to look further into your husbandry practices to see what areas are not being met properly.

If I had to guess what the issues were I'd look at how often your pulling apart and cleaning your cannister filter, and look to improve the overall flow of the tank so detritus is not getting trapped in the rock work. Could very well be something else but looking at those two will get you started. After that look at your feeding regiment.

HTH

[Lowman]

Sounds like phosphates leaching out of the rock and sand. It could take a while for them to totally leach out, so be patient. You are probably going to get some hair algae too. Try some phosphate remover. Do your regular water changes and you will come out on top.

[bucky1168]

Thanks. I will shut the lights off for 48 hrs and clean the filter. Then I will do a water change. In response to phosphates, should that show up in a test? I checked it with a API phosphate test kit and it came up 0, unless it is not enough to show up but enough to cause problems. Thanks for the help. I will check back this weekend and let you know how it turns out.

[impur]

Does it come off in sheets? Kind of goes away overnight then comes back in the day? If so cyano it is!!! I had a bad case of it a year or so ago, hit it with chemiclean overnight and it was all gone the next day. Never came back till i switched tanks, and even then it only stuck around for a week.

[bucky1168]

It seems to be cayno bacteria. I shut off the lights for 48 hrs and it has totally dissappeared! My live rock hasen't looked so good. Thanks Pledosophy for the tips. I am also cutting back a bit on the food. I thinks I was overfeeding. Water is looking clearer. Thanks for all the help. It is nice having a resource like this especially for being new to the hobby.

[defigart]

OK I have developed cyanobacteria as well. Should I cover my tank and not allow abient light in, or will just having the lights off for a couple days be enough?

[dsoz]

Most people that do this find just keeping the tank lights off does the trick. The ambient light is enough for fish to maintain their daytime activities.

That is, of course, if there is no direct sunlight that hits the tank anytime during the day. If there is direct sunlight, cover the tank.

dsoz :)

[impur]

I still don't think that will fix your problem. Cyano feeds off PO4 and excess nutrients. Eliminating light will not eliminate its food source. As soon as you turn the lights back on i think you will see it again.

[defigart]

Thanx for the info. It dissapeared after 48hrs of complete blackout. I will keep an eye out for it raising its head again.

I have added a few photosynthesizing corals and some phosphate absorbing material.

[bucky1168]

Since this thread, I have not got the algae back. After I shut the lights off for 48 hrs, it went away. Also, the best investment I have ever made was but a RO/DI filter system. Man, what a difference.