Red silky agea on rocks???

[Caige]

I'm beginning to be a regular problem poster.... not good

I am having problems with Cyano which I ended up taking a lot of advise and I haven't really seen it come back badly..

Now I have the following 2 problems:

1) I have this thick red silky like carpet over a piece of my rock. Is it algea or what?? If you look really close it even looks like MAYBE there are bubbles under it??

2) I have this patch of brown on my LS that has little tiny bubbles on top of it.

Can you guys help me? Are these another form of Cyano??

I'm lost.

I am using IO salt and I just ordered some Seachem to swap with -- but won't be here till next week.

Aquarium is a 34gal...with

2 saddle clowns
1 frogspawn
1 small finger leather
1 small neon zoo
1 green open brain
1 bubble coral
some nassarius, hermits, turbos and 2 emeralds

For the last 8 days I have done a water change (20%) every 2-3 days.

Here is the last results (yest)

Temp - 78-80
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
KH (Alkalanity) 161.1ppm
SG/Salanity 1.023/31
Phosphate 0
Calcium 360ppm


Thanks in advance.

 

[melosu58]

Yes that is cyano. Read our article about it in the articles section.

 

[Caige]

Which ones Melosu? Both of them are cyano? Cause it's totally different than the Hairy brown patch I orginally posted about that we identified as Cyano

 

[Caige]

Also, if these are both different forms of Cyano... what do you suppose I am not doing correctly? I have been doing frequent water changes... stopped feeding flakes.. only feeding every other day.... rinse all media and BIO balls in water change water.... Added LR rubble that plan on replacing BIO balls with..... and most of all - all my testing seems to show great results.

I also made sure I tested my RODI top off and SW (instant ocean) to make sure nothing is funny with them

If this keeps happening my wife will never let me upgrade to that 125G LOL
As it is now i'm telling her that the upgrade will actually make the maintenance easier and the problems less..

 

[melosu58]

I have a small problem with it in my eel tank. One thing I would try is try to siphon as much of it as you can out when you do a PWC. Even if it means siphoning up a small amout of sand. This is what I do. The red stuff is definitely cyano. As I recall we were still trying to figure out what the brown stuff was.

 

[Caige]

Yeah, so I will pretty much just keep doing what i'm doing. After reading that article again... I think the only thing left for me to try is adding another Koralia 1... cause these outbreaks are in tight spots that may not get enough water flow.

I guess the one good thing about starting with a small tank is -- You sure do learn fast!!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

All pictures are cyano. It can be red, brown, green, or even blue.

Even if you're doing all the right things now - which it sounds like you are - it'll take a while for your water parameters to turn around. Give it a month and stay on top of it, and I'm thinking you'll see improvement down the road. Additional flow won't hurt either. The gallons/hour rating on those Koralia's are deceiving because the flow is so dispersed. Think the 1's are rated around 400gph or so? I'd equate that to a MaxiJet 600 which is closer to 100gph... so don't let the gph rating of the Koralia scare you off.

 

[Caige]

Well when I woke up today all the Cyano but the silky red one on the rock is gone. I still haven't used the chemiclean I'm going to do another water change tonight.... Hope it's not bad to do a 5% PWC every other day lol

 

[melosu58]

Just remember that your battle with cyano will take a while. It wont take care of itself in just a few days. It will look like you are not making progress but you are.

 

[Caige]

I just read this:

Facts and information about the Red Slime Algae & Green Hair Algae eating Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab (Clibanarius sp.). The Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab (a.k.a. Equal-Handed Hermit Crab) is a great addition to a saltwater aquarium because it eats many kinds of algae, including red slime algae (cyanobacteria), and sifts the sand, as well.

 

[Caige]

Forgive my last msg... what I meant to say is I have been reading A LOT about Cyano... and it seems the best invert that eats it is the Pacific or fighting conch. Do any of you out there have these and do you like them?

In addition it looks like most Hermits will also eat it (although I don't see mine nibbling at all!) -- like Dwarf Red, yellow & Blue... Zebra, electric blue, electric orange, scarlet reef and halloween.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Several things...

Cyano is a light dependent thing. In the morning, you won't see much. As the lighting period progresses, you'll see more show up.

I haven't run into anything that supposedly eats cyano that actually does. Not saying they don't... but I sure haven't seen it. It might be that there's just tastier stuff to eat before resorting to the cyano?? And I've had a couple conch - no deal.

 

[Caige]

bubble buster! LOL -- just kidding. appreciate the input and all the suggestions

 

[roka64]

My conch has nibbled on it, in the past. I doubt it would be able to keep up with it seeing how quickly it spreads.

 

[austinsdad]

It won't make a dent.

Hows the flow in those areas where the cyano is? Still water helps it establish.

 

[Caige]

well, i just got home and purchased two aerator / flow pumps..... Cause I couldn't decide LOL.

1st one is a Koralia 1 -- 400GPH
2nd one is a SEIO prop -- 1000GPH

I'm thinking the SEIO may be too much. I have the Solana aquarium 34gall (which is more like 27gal. I have the built in pump that is in the back right... then I added a Koralia 1 to the front left point towards back right. now just got to decide which other one to put in.

I do think that the place where the Cyano is growing needs more flow

 

[roka64]

Caige, you should have pposted you were looking for phs. I have about 6 SEIOs stiing in a box....

 

[Caige]

Man, I never even thought about that Roka. I'm actually giong to take the SEIO back.. I think 1000 may be too much in addition to the built in and the 400GPH Koralia I have. I'm just going to add an additional Koralia 1...

So then I will have two Koralia 1's and the built in that is 396GPH..

Unless of course you all think differently LOL

This Cyano is still coming back... every time I do a PWC I vaccum it out... but then in about 2 days I see it start to grow again... Def not as bad as it once was though - cause I am doing PWC's so often.