Hairy purple algae spreading fast

[Bill Sprake]

How can you get rid of this stuff? It is all over; on and in the sand and on the walls and LR too. How do you make it go away please? Thanks, Bill

[Big_Pun]

is it purple or dark red, sounds like red slim. need info on your tank to help, how old is tank whats in it, also what are you using as a filter and for flow

[Bill Sprake]

9404
This is a pic of the stuff. Hard to tell what color - looks purple to me. The stuff in the water flow is long and stringy. I have 1 Flame Ang, 3 clowns, some hermits, 6 or so nassarius snails, 2 clearner shrimps, two clams and a chocolate star in the 45 g. I have a 200 Penguim bio-wheele and a Regent power heads for flow. I'll get my tank measurements soon...

[txav8r]

Thats cyano.

[Bill Sprake]

Thats cyano.

Jack et al, how do you eradicate?

[txav8r]

It's caused by high nitrates. Feed less, do water changes(RODI) and cut down on lighting for a bit.

[Europhyllia]

cyano will grow in conditions where even most real algae can't make it. I couldn't keep my macro alive because my nutrients were too low but I still can sustain cyano...

[Big_Pun]

It's caused by high nitrates. Feed less, do water changes(RODI) and cut down on lighting for a bit.

yup what TXav8r said,maybe add some kind of filter media like bag of chemipure elite to help with nutrients or phosban

[Bill Sprake]

Should I simply scoop it out, stir the substrate and get a bag of chemipure elite and let the filtration process? I guess the power head could be adjusted differently for better or different flow...

[Big_Pun]

yea you can suck it out also, but as long as you have a nutrient problem it will come back, did you upgrade lights or anything recently, my pico went thru this when i went to LEDs, and it had been setup for 4-5 months before upgrade

[Europhyllia]

siphon it off (or lift it if it's a solid mat) if you can. If you can't siphon it you can blast it off with a turkey baster.
People used to think that blasting it would spread it but it's right in between bacteria and algae and can get anywhere anyway. Blasting it apart does two things:
* it takes energy for it to restructure
and
* lets biological filtration takes place again where the cyano previously prevented that by covering it. (I just read in a Goermann book that once established it actually takes very little nutrients in the surrounding water to sustain it because it covers existing bio filtration)

After your blasting work you can siphon it easier. Do your water changes after your blast work and you are good to go.
If you do it in the evening the air bubbles from the day's photosynthesis might even help it float up while you blast.

Soon enough people will suggest some quick fixes and I just wanted to share what I learned about the different options:
- old style slime removers with antibiotics can negatively affect your biological filtration
- newer style oxidizers (like Chemiclean) work fast, but oxidizers can also harm fish gills. Follow instructions carefully
- Zeo system style enzymes work slowly but appear to be safer. Zeo stuff is also expensive

I am not brave enough for options 1 and 2 but I am trying option 3 right now.
It still requires water changes but it definitely helps.

My blue leg hermit crabs (C. tricolor) also do a great job eating the rocks clean off the cyano so I have less blasting to do.

[Bill Sprake]

yea you can suck it out also, but as long as you have a nutrient problem it will come back, did you upgrade lights or anything recently, my pico went thru this when i went to LEDs, and it had been setup for 4-5 months before upgrade

Yes, I upgraded to the AquaticLife 36 Inch T5 High Output Lamps with 2 Lunar LED`s fixture a couple of months ago, but this condition has only beed going on for a few weeks.

Thank you Karin and everyone else!

[txav8r]

Syphon it out like Chris and Karin said and cut back on your lights a bit.

[Kristy]

Bill, read up on cyanobacteria. I agree with Karin, that I am leary of the quick fixes that are out there. A reef is a very delicate bacterial system. I have seen a total tank crash as a result of using a common Red Slime Remover.

We have dealt with cyanobacteria a couple of times (since the original onset in our brand new tank) and managed to send it packing using a combination that consisted of:
1. Every couple of days do targeted suctioning to remove the mats of it as best you can, replacing with clean water so it's like a mini water change. Two to three days seemed to work best for us because the patches of cyano got thick enough that you could lift them right off. Blast with a turkey baster whatever cannot be lifted / suctioned.
2. Increased water change volume on increased frequency (we were at 25% weekly for a while).
3. Modified feeding (eliminated the small particle stuff that feeds our corals).
4. Increased flow. ***This one seemed to yield the most dramatic and immediate results.

[hobogato]

bill, how deep is that sand bed?

[Bill Sprake]

bill, how deep is that sand bed?

It is about 2 1/2 to 3 inches Ace.

[hobogato]

ok. you need to decide if you want a functional deep sand bed or a shallow sand bed. for a functional dsb, you need 4 to 6 inches, but for a shallow sand bed you need 1 inch or less. between 1 and 4 inches, the sand bed becomes a detritus trap that is difficult to keep clean and does not process that nitrogenous waste well enough. i had the exact same issue in my 240 a few years ago. i did everything from siphoning it out with water changes, decreased feeding, added a macro algae and mangrove fuge and increased flow - all to no avail. then i siphoned out all but 1 inch of my three inch sand bed and the cyano problem went away. i siphoned sand every time i did a water change (twice a week) a little at a time over a month or so.

[Bill Sprake]

ok. you need to decide if you want a functional deep sand bed or a shallow sand bed.
Going with the DSB and adding more sand and cleaning the tank now. Thanks to everyone for the advice, Bill

[tonyydeee]

suck some out then use this http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diatomandslimemicroalgae/tp/tpredslimeremovers.htm

works GREAT and its coral safe! :D