moss looking alage on sandbed..help

[dboy999]

well over the last week or two here this mossy looking greenish brownish alage had totally covered my sandbed ..gradually for the last week an a half i bin lessining the light time...now down to 7 hours started at ten still nothing..cycle has bin done for like about 2 weeks now ..today i totally got sick of it an started to siphon off some of it i guess like vacuming it, but it was sucking up too much sand so i stopped....an said screw it an took out the scrapper an totally stirred up the top 1/2 inch of sand but now i have glumps of mossy sand balls everywhere...anyone know what the problem is or what to do to fix this? all my levels are great, bought a silicate an phosphate test kits last week sil. is 0 phosphate is normal..dont know what to do ..iam now going to clean out my canister filter the foam part an replace carbon....what is causing this any opinions are greatly appreciated...75g,4in sandbed,440w vho's,skimmer,3 powerheads,if this helps

 

[dburr]

Is slimy. or is hair algae?
Do you have a clean-up crew? If your tank cycled I would get some snails and stuff.

 

[dboy999]

actually its a mix of slimy gettin hairy looking alage..i have 10 turbo snail ,about 15-20 blueleg hermits,4 red legs ,cleaner shrimp,1 damsel an a coral beauty,also bubble coral,an hammers which are thriving doing incredible look like a they bigger every few days ...feed once a day pretty much one cube of frozen brine,an some flakes that have spirluna for the coral beauty,also does anyone know ....when i clean canister should i replace carbon ?an should i empty it out an literly clean the canister itself? i know not to clean the bio balls...an how often?

 

[lesa]

Post your tank reading and then someone can help you and try and figure out what is wrong. Are you using ro water?

 

[dboy999]

tank reading are as follows:
amm-0
trite-0
trate-10
sil-0
sal.1.023
ph-8.2
calc-375(bin adding kent-liquid reactor steadily bin going up)
alk/havent tested in a few but was a little below norm..last test
also...forgot before to add,my lr is looking a little fuzzy kinda brownish,greyish fuzzy alage, a few snails have died not sure if blue legged mugged them or just died my blue legs love to mess with them.an 2 emerald crabs i had died.fish doing great an corals doing extremly well forgot to add have an open brain also ..an dont know if this is possible but i swear the thing has gottin atleast 2 inches bigger in only like 2 weeks now

 

[dboy999]

forgot to add yes iam using r/o water,original tank fill up was tap water which was 1-1/2 months ago,top offs an my only 10% water change have bin r/o have a whole setup in the second bathroom,bathtub,with a 35 gallon rubbermaid trash can girlfriend is real thirilled about that let me tell ya

 

[dboy999]

anyone?

 

[dboy999]

??buller?buller?

 

[michaeltx]

sounds like a mix of hair algae and cyno bacteria. here is a pic that has several types of algae in it (my old tank unfornately LOL)
is this what you have it can be different colors but mostly these are the colors that people see in the tanks.
Mike

 

[dboy999]

na i bin looking around for awhile now ...its not that slimey so i guess it more fuzzy an thick...when i stirred up the sand it was pretty thick...big clumps or sand balls now ..an the "fuzz"

 

[michaeltx]

ok then you got a haor algae problem check your phosphates and notrate the 2 leading casues of it.
what are you feeding and how much?
what type of lighting andhowlong is your lighting schedule?
and how old are the bulbs.
this type of algae is a real PITA and can spread rapidly and is difficult to get rid of in some cases. I broke my 100 gallon down and started over because of a never ending battle of it. some have good lucj getting rid of it. I didnt.
Mike

 

[dboy999]

i feed frozen brine cube once a day,kent invert food every other day ....lights go on now cause i lessed the amount of time at 1:30 pm an off at 10 pm.bulbs are brand new well 1 1/2 months old 440w vho....now you just got me thinking...hmm...was just reading about glass top an obstruction of light,i use my glass top with about 2 inches in front an back open for gas exchange...could the glass be lessing my light an causing my hair out break?

 

[austinreef]

Dboy,
I just finished with the same hair algae bloom as yourself. This is what I did and it cleared completely in two weeks. I actually have white sand again
Phosphate sponge - you might be testing 0, because the Hair algae is consuming them ( run for 48 hours, change out, and run for another 48 hours and remove)
Feeding - try feeding every other day for two weeks.
Lighting - 4-5 hours for 2 weeks.
Manually take out as much as possible. You will start to see results within a week.
Hope this helps some. I hated this stuff and i wasn't going to let it beat me. Its amazing how fast it can take over.

 

[michaeltx]

could be the glass but more than likely you are getting phosphates from a couple different sources. check your made up SW for them before you add to the tank and also check your food labels. alot of frozen foods have phophates added to it from the binding gel they use in it.
it could also be brought on by the new lights a jump in spectrums can kick start the outbreak.
I hope you can get a holt of it before it gets a death grip on your tank.
I lost several corals because of it so becareful.
Mike

 

[dboy999]

thanks you 2 trying what you said ...an also my lfs said try this other customers have had success..a product called "algone"...said a few people used it for hair alage an worked.....trying anything at this point

 

[austinreef]

I was about ready to try algone as a last resort. Let me know what you think. The hair algae is a

[hr]
. I know exacly where you are coming from. Best of luck! Please post your progress, as it will help others.

 

[jlem]

Is your tank pretty new. When I moved my 90 up to a 125 gallon tank I experienced the same thing. I closed the blinds to keep as much natural light off the tank and basically just left stuff alone untill the tank once again stabilized enough to handle the algae problem itself. It took about a month but now the sand looks beutiful again. It seemed like that when I stirred it up it just would get worse. If you can put a powerhead to blow along the back wall down low it will create more flow around the rocks and sand which may help alot also. If you could post you maint routine it would help alot

 

[dboy999]

what is the proper maintance ...atleast what has worked for you all...as far as water changes,filter cleaning suppliments so on ...how frequent

 

[michaeltx]

dont ask me I tore my tank down to get rid of the algae and started all new. no matter what I did it kept getting worse and worse so I wil leave that to someone that has won that battle LOL
sorry I cant help ya though.
Mike

 

[tlk]

Originally posted by dboy999
actually its a mix of slimy gettin hairy looking alage..i have 10 turbo snail ,about 15-20 blueleg hermits,4 red legs ,cleaner shrimp,1 damsel an a coral beauty,also bubble coral,an hammers which are thriving doing incredible look like a they bigger every few days ...feed once a day pretty much one cube of frozen brine,an some flakes that have spirluna for the coral beauty,also does anyone know ....when i clean canister should i replace carbon ?an should i empty it out an literly clean the canister itself? i know not to clean the bio balls...an how often?
Seems like a large amount of food for the number of inhabitants. I would back off on the feedings a bit and see if that helps.