Purple Everywhere!

[iAddiction]

So I have had my tank set up since mid March. You can look for my previous post about just getting everything set up, as this is a new topic I thought I would post a new thread and not highjack my old one.

My sand was turning brown a lot in the beginning and I had a lot of green hair algee. Now I have purple sand, and purple live rock. I dunno how to get rid of it. I do water changes every two weeks. I'm not sure if there's something I am not doing right? Any thoughts. I posted some photos to show you guys.

 

[Irishmike7979]

It looks like Cyanobacteria.

 

[carey]

That is some serious cyano you got there. You have two options to get rid of it. You can continue to do water changes, like every week for a few weeks and suck up the cyano the best you can. Or you can get a chemical like red slime remover which should wipe it out within a day or so. I've used the red slime remover for some not as serious cyano and it has cleared it up within a day. Since it is a chemical though I would recommend doing a large water change a few days after you dose with it.

good luck!

 

[crister13]

Chemicals won't solve the problem though. It is caused from excessive nitrates/phosphates. If your lots are reading 0, it's because they are all bound up in the cyano.

 

[AquaRick]

What's your feeding amount and schedule like. Light schedule? There are too many nutrients in that water.

 

[iAddiction]

blue lights are on for 8 hours. white lights are on for 6 in the middle of the eight.

I feed them every other day. With a mix between frozen food, and pellets.

 

[AquaRick]

How much are you feeding each time? What fish do you have?

 

[iAddiction]

two clown fish.

i feed them usally 1 cube of the frozen stuff when i do feed them that. and when its the pellets i feed them a couple pinches. most of it falls the the ground so i get nervous they don't eat enough so that's why i usually give them 2nd pinch.

how much should i be feeding?

i also have 1 frogspawn coral.

 

[AquaRick]

That is a lot of food for two clowns. I would do maybe 1/4 cube everyday, or 1/2 a cube every other day. If they are already plump (which I'm assuming they are) just monitor how they do. I feed my 125g 1 cube of frozen brine or the equivalent of PE mysis once every other day and all my fish are plump and happy as can be.

If they're hungry, they'll eat the food on the ground. No need to feed them again. If you're worried, you can try to target feed with a long syringe. The stuff on the ground is just decomposing and adding to your cyano problems.

 

[BelleMorte]

I agree with Rick that is a lot of food for two fish. I have three and I dont even feed them that much. I learned after my battle with cyno.

 

[bettaowner]

That is a bad case of cyanobacteria. Almost as bad as my green water pond when I don't do a water change for a week. Almost, not as bad.

 

[Pk86]

Prob best to check your phosphates, if they are quite high, cut back on feeding and use phosban or rophos, you can siphon them out on your water change or with a turkey baster, I have heard good things about sea hares eating them, but they do spray it in defence if startled though from what I heard

 

[Starchar]

two clown fish.

i feed them usally 1 cube of the frozen stuff when i do feed them that. and when its the pellets i feed them a couple pinches. most of it falls the the ground so i get nervous they don't eat enough so that's why i usually give them 2nd pinch.

how much should i be feeding?

i also have 1 frogspawn coral.

For flakes I would do a small pinch shortly after the lights come on and a small pinch shortly before the lights go off.

For frozen cubes: Place the cube in your net and rinse it, fully defrosting the cube. Then place the food in the tank. The frozen liquid is like rocket fuel for cyano in your tank. I fed mysis twice a day to my seahorses and I learned the hard way.