another question

[freightrain]

Hi........again,
I have noticed in a few spots on the live sandbed of our newly aquired biocube some burgandy spots of what looks to be algea, it looks kind of fuzzy, and in the morning when I turn on the lights, either someone has eaten it or it has disappeared. Now I have just gotten home from work, and my husband must have turned on the tank lights at lunch, but it is there again....good or bad and do you need a pic to ID this stuff???? I know I am probably just freakin out right now and second guessing but I thought I better just ask.
Thanks,
Mrs.Freightrain

 

[sigmachris]

If you have a new tank it is probably diatoms, which is normal for young tanks. To avoid algae in the future here are a few pieces of advice.
1) Regulate your lights on a timer, with a 8 to 12 hour light cycle. One hour antitics light, then full light for 7 hours, then one hour of antitic. This will give your live stock a sunrise, full day, sunset affect. If algae begins, cut back on lighting...more light equals more time for photosynthesis to occur.
2) Increase your water flow...if you have a biocube you probably have a stock pump. Upgrade it for $25 and get your water turnover to 15x to 20x per hour.
3) Cut back on feeding...extra food equals extra waste which leads to algae.
Also what type of cleanup crew do you have?

 

[gwh57]

Because this is a new tank I am sure you will have many "spots" to deal with. Try to post a photo, but be sure to read as much as you can on cycling and all the problems you may or will encounter over the next several months.

 

[adairable]

i had the same stuff for awhile when I first got my tank....in was cyano and it eventually went away after I stopped using tap water

 

[freightrain]

Thanks guys, well....only R/O water here, and this was an established tank that we purchased from a guy, carefully tore down and brought to our home and rebuilt, using 3/4 of the original water brought home in sealed buckets......our clean up crew consists of 5 turbo snails, 20 blue legs, 2 olive snails, other in the tank that do clean all the bloody time are the emerald crab, 2 skunk shrimp and 1 blood shrimp....should we have anybody else????
we will have to refigure our lighting schedule.....didn't really put too much thought to the sunrise sunset thing but makes perfect sense.
Thanks everyone.....if you have any suggestions on other clean up crew we would appreciate it fully.
Mrs.Freightrain

 

[gwh57]

FWIW i only run my 10k lights from 2pm - 8pm. I think if you use your bright t5s or Mh too long you are just asking for trouble. Most run them shorter than from dawn to dusk. I do start a lighting cycle about 10am that runs till 9pm then the moonlights gome on, but my tank is much healther with less 10k time.

 

[sigmachris]

Freight I forgot to mention you don't have to regulate the sunrise / sunset of the lights to Mother Nature. You can do it to your schedule so you get the optimum viewing experience with the lights on after work.
For example sunrise in my tank is 2.00 PM and Sunset is 10.00 PM.

 

[sigmachris]

You have a healthy amount of janitors, but I would get 2 certh and 2 nass snails, they will stir up your sand a little bit more than what you currently have.
Also, keep feeding to a minimum... newbies (like me a few months ago) tend to overfeed the tanks which leads to algae.

 

[freightrain]

thanks for all the comments....will go and check at the LFS for the others to aid in the clean up...........things seem to be going great other than these couple of spots.
Thanks,
Mrs.Freightrain