Brown/black stuff taking over... please help

[tdwhite03]

Hello,

I have a 120 gallon tank with fish, live rock and sand, currently I have 12 fish, 2 shrimp, and an emerald crab along with about 110 lbs of live rock. For filtration I have a 55 gallon refugium. My old refugium broke a few weeks ago and I had to replace a few of the panels so it was out of commison for about a week as I repaired it.

A week later I now have this brownish/black stuff growing everywhere. It started on the water jet and has moved onto a rock, the glass and is quickly covering the sand. I have included a few pictures... any advice on what it is and what I should do would greatly help!!!!

I am fairly new to the saltwater world only haveing my setup for a few months now. I bought the entire setup, tank, rock, fish, and refugium already setup and running. I have been doing water changes and I have a protein skimmer running.

Hope you can tell what I have from these photos.

 

[Sadielynn]

Cyano . It is a bacteria
Reduce lighting ,lighten your feedings , if using frozen try to rinse it before giving it . siphon off where you can and increase your H20 changes to a couple largish changes , 50% for a couple weeks , you should start to see it dying off due to the removal of excess nutrients ect

 

[buddha_red]

please post your water readings including phosphates if you have the test kit.
How often and what do you feed your fish?

 

[melosu58]

I agree with Sadie as far as siphoning it off. Get as much out the tank as possible.

 

[tdwhite03]

thanks!!

Thank all of you for your help!

I will do a major water change this week and reduce the amount I feed (I am an admitted over feeder). I will also remove all of the growth from the tank as I can when I do the water change.

It was suggested that I reduce the lighting, do you mean the time the lights are on or the the amount of light?

Thanks again for the help!

Terry

 

[melosu58]

The amount of time.

 

[tdwhite03]

Ok, thanks. I run my lights on average about 14 hours per day on a timer. Then at night I have moonlights that come on when the others go off.

Any suggestions about how long I should have the lights on?

 

[melosu58]

I would change it to 8 hrs a day. 14 is too much.

 

[Tank2379]

Yeah i normally run mine for 7 hours or less... By the way are you using RO/DI water? for your water changes?

 

[tdwhite03]

Thanks, I will change my light timers.

I use RO water.

 

[Justin_Toronto]

I think it may be better to reduce the light to around 5 hours per day, when the cyano is gone then increase back to 8 hours as your regular lighting schedule.

 

[roka64]

Here is a simple article that will help:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/7/1/Reverse-Osmosis-System-Basics/Page1.html
The DI will take out the nitrAtes. RO takes out the trace minerals and elements.

 

[Sadielynn]

one last thought tho how old are your bulbs that is also a contributer to it .. so it may be time to change
as to adjusting the lights take them down to 6 hours and see if that helps (about 2 weeks to see IME ) if it does once it is gone you can add an hour every couple weeks up to 10 hours per day anything over is over exposure and will help your algeas bloom . If you start to see it return bump the lights back and do another largish change of water . You can also run chemi pure as well it is a "super charged" media this should be replace every 2-3 months tho

 

[tdwhite03]

Thank you all for your help, I am already seeing a difference after cutting back on the lighting.