Does one lead to the other?

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kdogg85

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Nov 26, 2009
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Just had the diatoms start to decline after about a week. After doing an inspection around the tank, I seen that pink dust stuff starting to grow(a few small patches on the sand and 1 spot in the sand touching the glass.) The tank is a 180g with a 75g sump and 2 24x14x20 wet/dry filters used as fuges. I have 230lbs of live rock, about 40 of that is rubble in the sump. The fuges both have chaetomorpha in them. I had this happen when I had the sump as my main tank, took it down and dried it out as well as the rock I had in there. Is there some sort of connection between diatoms and this pink dust stuff(cyanobacteria is what I'm thinkin it is.)

I kept the lights off during the cycle, done a 100g water change when the cycle finished and have had the chaeto in place for about a week.

The params are ammo 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, phos 0, calc 450, dkh 9

I would take a pic but I haven't gotten another camera yet.
 
It sounds like Cyanobacteria. Just because your Nitrate and Phosphate is zero doesn't mean it can't grow, because it can be using those making the readings zero. :)
 
I`m thinking your PEC will help alot. Excessive nutrients are a big cause and you wiped alot of them out with that. We have a good article on cyano in our SW articles section.
 
If i'm not mistaken, i think he means PWC. Not sure though.. but the W key is pretty close to E key. :D
 
I done the 100g change after the cycle. Right now I'm doing 40g a week. I kinda hoped that the large amount of chaeto would kinda keep the phosphate and nitrate under control. The main header drains into the fuges first and then overflows to the sump. I check the sock every day and feed every other day. I have a firefish, McCosker's wrasse, a blue and powder brown tang,2 ocellaris clowns, 3 skunk shrimp, and about 80 snails and 1 hermit(the fish store threw him in by accident). That's all the fish I plan on having and I wouldn't think they would overload the filtration setup I have.

What's weird is this pink stuff only shows up after the diatoms die off. If I only cut the lights on 2 hrs every other day to feed it disappears. Then after about a month of that, it started reappearing but never got any worse, I mean the patches never got any bigger than 3 or 4 inches and never took sheet form. That's what happened in the 75 I am using for the sump now.
 
I use ro/di for both. I want to ask, the lady at the pet store said it sounded to her like red diatoms since it is like dust. She said cyano starts out as a slimy mass, not big or anything but that it does not start out like dust. This has me baffled to say the least.
 
before you go on a cyno destruction path can we see pictures? pink dust eh? you would know if its cyno. Are you sure its not the first stages of coraline algae forming? Do you have sand or crush coral substrate? can we get a picture?
 
I would get a pic but my camera got destroyed. The more I think about it, I'm starting to think it is some kind of diatom. I have some purple and orange algae on my rocks that doesn't scrape off and is very hard feeling. That I hope is coraline. I'm not going to use any chems, I have too much time and now money invested to kill everything off. No one seems to have ever heard of coraline growing on sand. I've read till the cows come home on cyano and cannot find a answer on what it looks like during it's early stages. I have seen it when it is in sheet form but never what it looks like when it first appears. BTW, I have pool filter sand as substrate.
 
Cyano seems to just show up overnight in small patches. It does seem to look like a really thick diatom clump at first and then becomes obvious cyano.

I havent had it in some time. It just kinda went away once I reduced my feedings quite a bit and cut back on lighting.

If you have already done these, you might try some macro algea like Chaetomorpha to out compete the cyano.

Id also stay away from chemicals except for those that simply absorb nutrients. I have read about people really screwing things up with the magic cure products.

Matt
 
Well, it isn't spreading really and I've done a look around the bottom rim of the tank and can see it down the face of the glass through the sandbed. I used some airline to poke around and get out what I could. Put it under the microscope I have and compared it to the diatoms and the shape is dead on the same. I have 2 huge wet/drys full of chaeto that the water is running through and they seem to be doing ok. These are not thick clumps, even my diatoms are lightly packed areas. I don't have anything as bad as what everyone says you go through. And when I blow through the tube it scatters just like dust, guess it's just another mystery of the world.
 
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